Tres Leches Cake

This tres leches cake recipe is easy to make and is perfect for a warm summer day. Served chilled, soaked in a sweet creamy milk, it is perfect for those of us that normally love to dunk our cookie or donut into a glass of milk or coffee. The name of the cake, “tres leches,” means “three milks” in Spanish and is named for the milky sauce that soaks the heavy sponge cake. Scroll through our step-by-step photos below, or simple hit the “jump to recipe” button if you’re ready to get started.

I think tres leches cake could also be called “three bowls” cake since it takes mixing ingredients individually to get a nice dense sponge cake that holds up well with the chilled milk.While it does create some extra dirty dishes with the three bowls, it doesn’t take a lot of time to make tres leches cake and the recipe is so easy to follow. Plus, I think you’ll agree that the effort is worth it once you sink your fork into this popular Caribbean comfort food. This recipe below reminds me of the tres leches cake we had while spending a day in old San Juan.

Where is tres leches orginally from? There’s some lively debate about that online, with some saying tres leches cake is originally from Nicaragua, and some saying Mexico. But you’ll find this milky cake all over Central America, the Caribbean, and even in of Florida. 

Ingredients For Tres Leches Cake Recipe

Here’s a list of what you’ll need to gather from your pantry or pick up at the store to make this tres leches cake recipe:

• coconut milk
• sweetened condensed milk
• evaporated milk
• heavy whipping cream
• all purpose flour
• baking powder
• unsalted butter 
• white sugar
• vanilla extract
• cinnamon

How To Make Tres Leches Cake

When I know I’m going to bake in the afternoon, I’ll pull the butter out of the fridge in the morning so it can be room temperature and ready to use for baking. But if I forget, I’ll microwave the butter in 10 second intervals until it is soft.

Once you have your ingredients gathered, preheat oven to 350 degrees. And grease a 9×9 inch cake pan (or brownie pan) with butter, making sure to really get the corners well.

Add the stick of softened butter to a mixing bowl and mix until creamy using an electric mixer. Once it’s creamy, add the 1 cup of sugar and mix until it’s the fluffy consistency of a frosting (about one to two minutes).

Sift flour and baking powder together in a separate bowl and set aside.

In a separate bowl, beat the eggs until they’re a creamy color and have a bit more volume (about 3 to 5 minutes). Add a 1/2 teaspoon vanilla to the eggs and beat for another minute.

Pour the egg mixture into the butter mixture and blend together. Then, while still mixing, add the flour mixture in a couple of spoonfuls at a time until well blended.

Pour batter into prepared pan and bake at 350 for 35 to 40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Leave the cake in the pan, but set it aside to cool.

While it’s cooling, combine the whole milk, sweetened condensed milk, and evaporated milk to make your milk sauce and set aside.

Next, pour the heaving whipping cream in a mixing bowl along with the other 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla and beat until it turns into a fluffy spreadable cream.

Refrigerate until ready to serve. (Note: You can also add a 1/4 cup of confectioners sugar to sweeten the whipped cream. Personally, I prefer it unsweetened since the cake itself is so sweet)

Once the cake has cooled, poke holes throughout the cake using a fork or toothpick. Then, pour the mixture of three milks (tres leches) over the cake and into the holes, spooning as much of the milk sauce that you can into the holes.

Cover and refrigerate for at least an hour, or even better, let it chill overnight to give it time to absorb all the milk. The milk might look like it’s flooding the cake, but chilling it in the refrigerator gives it time to soak in.

Once the cake has chilled and had time to absorb the milk mixture, it’s ready to serve! Spread the whipped cream over top like frosting and sprinkle with cinnamon. You can also top each slice with fresh berries. It’s common to top tres leches cake with strawberries. But when strawberries are not in season, we’ve even used blackberries or raspberries too. Enjoy!

 

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This post was originally created for Away We Go with Carnial in 2016. It was updated in 2023.