Coconut Tres Leches Cake

February 1, 2021Brianna

I don’t think I’ve met a tres leches cake I didn’t like, but this coconut tres leches cake is really high up there! Apparently I’m really into trying to make every flavor of tres leches cake now or something. Anyone have any other idea for a flavor of tres leches cake I should create next? I finally found a store (an African market) that sells evaporated milk so now tres leches cake are far easier to make for me.

If you love coconut and tres leches cake, you’re going to love this!

If you’re looking for my other 2 tres leches cakes here is my original tres leches cake and here is my chocolate tres leches cake!

Coconut Tres Leches Cake

Print Recipe

Totally soft and moist cake soaked full of coconut flavor and milks. Coconut is the perfect flavor combination in a tres leches cake.

Prep Time: 20 minutes + 2 hours inactive
Cook Time: 22 minutes
Total Time: 42 minutes + 2 hours inactive time
Yield: 1 9x13 cake 1x

Ingredients

Scale

Cake base-

1 cup flour

1 ½ teaspoons baking powder

¼ teaspoon salt

5 large egg yolks

¾ cup sugar

1/3 cup whole milk

1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract

5 large egg whites

¼ cup sugar

3 milks-

1, 12 oz can evaporated milk

1, 14 oz can sweetened condensed milk

1 cup coconut milk

½–1 teaspoon coconut extract, depending on how strong you want your coconut to come through

Whipped Cream-

1 1/2 cups heaving whipping cream

2 tablespoons powdered sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup sweetened shredded coconut, toasted. (for sprinkling on top)

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 F.

In a large mixing bowl combine the flour, baking powder, and salt. Separate the eggs into separate bowls- egg whites in a stand mixer bowl (or large mixing bowl), and egg yolks in a small mixing bowl. (You can’t have any yolk at all in the egg whites or they won’t make stiff peaks!)

Add ¾ cup sugar to the egg yolks and whisk by hand, pretty fast, till the yolks are a pale yellow. Add 1/3 cup whole milk and vanilla and mix. Pour the egg yolk mixture over the flour and mix till almost combined.

Attach a whisk attachment to the stand mixer or use an electric hand mixer and mix on high speed. Gradually add the ¼ cup of sugar and beat till stiff peaks. Gently fold the egg whites into the batter, trying not to deflate the air in the egg whites.

Pour the batter into a 9×13 cake pan and spread evenly.

Cook the cake till it’s golden brown on top and a toothpick comes out clean, about 22-30 minutes. *see note

Remove from oven and let cool completely.

In a medium mixing bowl combine the evaporated milk, sweetened condensed milk, coconut milk, and coconut extract.

Poke holes with a chop stick or a fork all over the cake, as many as you can do without the cake starting to fall apart.

Pour the milks over the cake, as evenly as possible. Refrigerate the cakes for at least 2 hours, or as much as 2 days before serving. *see note

For the whipped cream, add all the ingredients to a large bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment. Whip till stiff peaks and spread evenly over the cake before serving.

To toast the coconut either put the coconut in a pan on the stove over medium heat and cook till lightly toasted. Or spread evenly on a baking sheet and heat in the oven under the broiler and stir every minute till golden. Let cool completely before sprinkling on cake.

Notes

This is the only cake I can think of that I’m okay to bake till toothpick comes out clean. Usually if you bake a cake till a toothpick comes out clean it means you’ve over cooked it and it will be dry. But, because you’re going to be pouring milk over this, it’s better to have it be a bit dry so it can soak up even more milk.
I’d recommend making and adding the whipped cream over the cake just before serving instead of right after pouring the milk over the cake.