Tres Leches Cake Recipe
Whether you’re celebrating Cinco de Mayo, a birthday or just crawling out of bed, Tres Leches Cake (3 milk cake) is the cake to do it with. If you’ve never eaten or made a Tres Leches Cake it may sound a little strange; especially if you look at the recipe and see the cake only uses 3 ingredients. I promise you this cake is amazingly delicious and probably the moistest you’ve ever tasted.
I adapted this recipe from the one found on Chow. I omitted the rum and coconut since my 10 year old detests coconut and I’m not too savvy on giving him rum that hasn’t been cooked down.
This cake is a major hit and people will be begging for more. I made a mess here just for your viewing pleasure – imagine all of this milk soaked up into the cake – de-lish-us!
Tres Leches Cake Recipe
Ingredients
- Cake
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 6 large eggs separated
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- Tres Leches
- 1 14-ounce can sweetened condensed milk
- 1 cup evaporated milk
- 1 cup half & half
- Frosting
- 1 1/2 cups heavy whippingcream
- 1 tablespoon powdered sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
- Heat the oven to 325°F. Coat two 8 inch cake pans with butter. Set aside.
- Place the flour in a small bowl and whisk to aerate and break up any lumps; set aside.
- Put the 6 yolks in the bowl of a stand mixer. Add the sugar to the yolks and beat on high speed (use the paddle attachment) for 3 minutes. Transfer the mixture to a large bowl; set aside.
- Wash the bowl and put the egg whites in. With the whisk attachment, whip the egg whites until medium peaks form, about 1 1/2 minutes.
- Use a rubber spatula to stir a third of the egg whites into the yolk mixture. Gently fold in the remaining whites. Sprinkle the flour over the egg mixture and gently fold it in, until you no longer see the flour. (Do not overmix.)
- Pour the batter into the cake pans and bake for 25 - 35 minutes, until the cake is springy and cooked through.
- Whisk together the 3 milks and place in the refrigerator, covered, until ready to use.
- Remove the cake from the oven and allow to cool for 20 minutes.
- Turn the cakes out onto large plates. Use a wooden skewer or straw to poke several holes on top of the cakes. Slowly pour the milk mixture over the cakes.
- Refrigerate the cakes overnight for maximum absorption/moistness.
- Place the heavy whipping cream, powdered sugar and vanilla in large bowl and whisk until medium peaks form. Be careful not to overmix or you'll have butter.
- Coat the top of 1 cake with the whipped topping. You can top with sliced berries if you like. Carefully slide the 2nd cake on top of the frosted cake and finish frosting.