Tres Leches Cake
This light and fluffy Tres Leches Cake recipe is perfect for Cinco de Mayo dessert, uses three types of milk and is topped with whipped cream icing, making it so moist and delicious.
With it being tax week and all, I figured everyone could use a little sugar and dessert in their life. Cinco de Mayo is a few weeks ago yet but I just couldn’t wait to share this one. It’s a fun day where we can all stuff ourselves full of chips, salsa, guacamole, margaritas and other delicious Mexican food. I love ALL Mexican food, but Mexican desserts seem to sometimes get overlooked so I am here to fix that with this Tres Leches Cake.
I brought this to a party and everyone said it was to die for (and it was)! I’m pretty sure every woman there asked me for the recipe. Tres Leches Cake gets it’s name from the mixture of milks that are used in it. This is a moist/somewhat wet cake and it’s supposed to be that way as a result of the liquids added to the batter. It does not result in a typical cake texture that you’re probably used to. Personally, I love a moist cake and this cake was simply divine even without the whipped cream frosting!
I am a new fan of Tres Leches Cake. Now…off to the treadmill.
- 1 cup All-purpose Flour
- 1-1/2 teaspoon Baking Powder
- ¼ teaspoon Salt
- 5 whole Eggs
- 1 cup Sugar, Divided
- 1 teaspoon Vanilla
- ⅓ cup Milk
- 1 can Evaporated Milk
- 1 can Sweetened, Condensed Milk
- ¼ cup Heavy Cream
- Maraschino cherries, optional, for topping
- FOR THE ICING:
- 1 pint Heavy Cream, For Whipping
- 4 Tablespoons Sugar
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 9 x 13 inch pan liberally until coated.
- Combine flour, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl. Separate eggs.
- Beat egg yolks with ¾ cup sugar on high speed until yolks are pale yellow. Stir in milk and vanilla. Pour egg yolk mixture over the flour mixture and stir very gently until combined.
- Beat egg whites on high speed until soft peaks form. With the mixer on, pour in remaining ¼ cup sugar and beat until egg whites are stiff but not dry.
- Fold egg white mixture into the batter very gently until just combined. Pour into prepared pan and spread to even out the surface.
- Bake for 35 to 45 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Turn cake out onto a rimmed platter and allow to cool.
- Combine condensed milk, evaporated milk, and heavy cream in a small pitcher. When cake is cool, pierce the surface with a fork several times. Slowly drizzle all the milk mixture over the cake**—try to get as much around the edges of the cake as you can. (**Just discard about ¾ to 1 cup of of liquid if it seems to be too much. It usually proves to be a little much if you aren't patient and give it time to all soak into the cake. It's a matter of preference, but you do want the cake very moist.)
- Allow the cake to absorb the milk mixture for 30 minutes. To ice the cake, whip 1 pint heavy cream with 4 tablespoons of sugar (use a little less sugar if you would like it less sweet) until thick and spreadable.
- Spread over the surface of the cake. Decorate cake with whole or chopped maraschino cherries. Cut into squares and serve.
Recipe source: adapted from thepioneerwoman.com
Hi! I´ve tasted quite a few Tres Leche cakes but I have never made one.. can you believe that! Thanks for the recipe.. I think I´m going to give it a go 🙂 xoxo
Desserts is stressed spelled backwards after all – and after tax day – I sure do need some desserts – specially when it looks like this! Whenever I’ve had a hankering for tres leches, I have always picked up a slice from Publix – never attempted to make my own – so thanks so much for this recipe!
You just reminded me that I didn’t do anything to celebrate tax day! Maybe I should make this cake to make up for it!
I’ve been just thinking about making this cake recently! I’ve never had it and everyone who has pretty much swoons and says it’s their favorite cake…yet I never see it on menus to give it a try. Sounds deliciously dangerous. ; )
One of my all-time favorites – love everything and everything tre leches! This looks so good….I think I’d eat that entire cake all by myself!
I’ve never had a tres leches cake – but anything with sweetened condensed milk has got to be good!
Tres leches cake is not an original mexican dessert. Tres leches is original from Nicaragua and several countries adopted this delicious cake.
Mi nombre es el jefe de la torta. Mi pastel de tres leches es el mejor del mundo. Si quieres saber cómo ser impresionante, que me haga saber.
Translation: I am the cake boss. My three milks cakes are the best in the world. If you want to know how to be awesome, let me know.
This is my sister-in-laws favorite cake! She has it for her birthday every year. I’m going to have to pass this to my brother now!
I’ve always wanted to make tres leches cake! This looks fantastic!
I have this obsession with Maraschino cherries… So I’m all about this cake!
Oh girl, now you know I love me some Tres Leches Cake. It is one of the best things ever. I remember the very first time I had it, I knew that it would always be a favorite, and it is! Pinned.
Thank you so much, Kristi!
I’ve read so many recipes for tres leches cakes but I’ve never made one myself. I must fix that right now! I just have one question. The recipe says to drizzle all but about 1 cup of the milk mixture. What do you do with the remaining mixture? Thanks!
I had an extra sentence I met to add in and don’t know what happened to it (or I forgot) 🙁 I edited the recipe!! Thank you so much for asking or I would have never noticed!
I love tres leches cake and would love a piece right about now!
I love that you made this for tax week! It looks seriously amazing. And I also love that comment from El Jefe de la Torta. Awesome. 😀
Yes it was a true gem LoL
This is almost exactly the tres leches recipe I use and love beyond compare! Aaaaaand, now I want cake – yum!
I can’t believe cinco de mayo is coming up so soon already! I’ve never tried tres leeches cake but it looks delicious – I might have to make one this year.
I have always wanted to make tres leches cake! And now I need it asap. Your cake looks amazing and the perfect way to cope with taxes.
I love tres leches cake! This one looks so good and I love the cherries!
You know I realize reading the recipe that I haven’t made a cake like this. I better fix that.
It’s gotta be light, but rich at the same time. Spongy—I am struggling here with curiosity.
Ball is my court to carry it to the next step. Ha.
I don’t normally talk about ME, but please make note of the slight name change from Wild Goose Tea. New web design — whoopee and am adding some new features along the way.
Tres Leches is my ultimate favorite dessert. I love to try new recipes and this version sounds yummy!
I’m going to bring this cake to church tomorrow. If I make it this evening, are there any steps I should hold off on until tomorrow? Thank you!
I don’t think there is anything I would do differently! Enjoy!!!
I made this cake for our blocks pot luck dinner. And they loved it so much they were using there forks to scrape the pan to eat what had stuck to the pan.?