Tres Leches Cake
This post contains affiliate links.
If you’ve been following my blog you’ll likely know there are quite a few normal/staple ingredients in America that you can’t find here in Finland. Evaporated milk is one of them which is needed for this cake. There have been quite a few things I’ve had to learn to make that I can’t find here and evaporated milk is one of them. A lot of the things I’ve learned how to make are things I’ll likely never buy again once we move home because they’re more delicious/cheaper/healthier than the store bought version. However, evaporated milk is NOT one of them. It takes about 3 hours and is painstakingly hands-on. I do not recommend it unless you HAVE to make it. This is probably one of my husband’s favorite desserts. I love him enough to (occasionally) make evaporated milk so I can make this cake for him. Without having to make evaporated milk, this cake really doesn’t take too much hands-on time. It’s delicious and you should make it for yourself or someone you love.
PrintTres Leches Cake
The BEST Tres Leches Cake. A super light cake soaked in a delicious milk mixture and topped with fresh cinnamon whipped cream. This is my husband’s favorite dessert!
- Prep Time: 20 minutes plus 2 hours inactive
- Cook Time: 22 minutes
- Total Time: 2 hours, 42 minutes
- Yield: Serves about 12 1x
Ingredients
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
¼ cup whole milk
Cinnamon Whipped Cream-
1 1/2 cups heaving whipping cream
2 tablespoons powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
½ teaspoon cinnamon
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, and the whole milk.
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.
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.
I’ve made this cake twice now and it gets eaten so fast because it tastes amazing!