Tres leches cake

It’s my 30th birthday today! So I made a tres leches cake. A tres leches cake is a sponge cake soaked in three milks: evaporated milk, regular milk, and condensed milk. It’s always trending on social media so that’s why I had to make it for my birthday. This December is also the blog’s 6th year anniversary. This tres leches cake is as delicious as the hype implies so I can’t recommend this cake enough.

It’s best to leave the cake overnight to soak up the milk mixture. If you’re really in a rush, you can take it out after 4 hours in the fridge. I used a 13×9 inch pan for this recipe.

To get a sponge texture, beat the eggs for 1 minute until it turns a light yellow color with lots of bubbles. Then add in the remaining ingredients being careful not to over-mix it. When the cake is baked it may look flat. But don’t worry, once the cake is soaked in the milk mixture, it doubles in size. This cake has a whipped cream topping so it adds extra height to it as well. I garnished this cake with fresh mango. Two large red mangoes were used. Strawberries are also a very popular choice for topping tres leches cake.

I don’t recommend freezing this cake after it has soaked up the milk mixture. If you want to freeze it, do it before you pour the milk over it aka freeze it as a plain, undecorated cake.

Tres leches cake

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Servings: 8 Prep Time: 4 Hours Cooking Time: 20 Minutes 20 Minutes

Rating: 5.0/5

( 1 voted )

Ingredients

Vanilla cake

5 large eggs, at room temperature

1 cup granulated sugar

1 cup almond/dairy milk

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature

1/2 teaspoon table salt

2 cups all-purpose flour, sifted

2 teaspoons baking powder, sifted  

 

Milk mixture

1 can condensed milk

1 large can evaporated milk

1 cup full-fat milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract  

 

Topping

2 cups whipping cream

1/4 cup icing sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 large mangoes, peeled and chopped

Instructions

1. Using a hand or stand mixer, whisk the eggs for 1 minute.
2. Then add in the sugar, melted butter, milk and vanilla extract one by one into the same bowl.
3. Whisk the salt, flour, baking powder into the same bowl without over-mixing it.
4. Pour into a heavily greased 13x9 inch pan.
5. Bake for 20 minutes.
6. Let the cake rest for 10 minutes, then take it out of the pan and continue cooling it on a wire rack.
7. Whisk the milk mixture ingredients together and transfer to a large measuring cup.
8. Poke holes all over the cooled cake with a fork or skewer.
9. Pour the milk mixture all over the cake.
10. Cover with cling wrap and refrigerate for 4 hours or overnight (overnight is better).
11. Whisk the whipping cream, icing sugar and vanilla extract (follow the topping ingredients list) using a hand or stand mixer until stiff peaks form.
12. Spread this whipped cream over the cake and garnish with the chopped mango.
13. Store any leftovers up to 3 days in the fridge.