Tres Leches Cake

5 from 2 votes

Recipe video above. This is the famous Latin American "3 milk" soaked cake that the world is obsessed with! The cake is light and springy, and built to absorb the sweet vanilla milk mixture without turning into mush. It's a brilliant cake for taking places as it needs to be made ahead, and it stays perfect for days.

Recipe credit: This is barely adapted from Ina Garten's recipe. I've tried a fair few recipes over the years but never found The One, until I made hers quite recently. I was so excited, I deemed I had to share it asap! See FAQ above for why I think her recipe is so good, and problems I've encountered in the past.

Course: Cake

Cuisine: South American

Keyword: 3 milk cake, tres leches cake

Servings: - 20

Calories: 283cal

Author: Nagi

Ingredients

Cake:

1 1/2 cups plain flour / all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder (make sure yours is not dead)
3/4 tsp cooking salt / kosher salt
3 large eggs , at room temperature (~50 - 55g/2oz each)
1 cup white sugar (any type - caster sugar/superfine, or regular/granulated)
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup full-fat milk , at room temperature

3-Milk Soaking Mixture:

1 x 340g/12oz can evaporated milk (Note 1)
1 x 395g/14oz can sweetened condensed milk (Note 1)
1 cup thickened cream / heavy cream , or regular full-fat cream (Note 2)
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp almond extract , optional (Note 3)

Cream topping:

1 1/2 cups thickened cream / heavy cream , or other whipping cream
3 tbsp white sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp+ cinnamon powder , for sprinkling (Note 2)

Cups - Metric

Instructions

Cake:

Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F (160°C fan-forced). Grease a 23 x 33cm / 9 x 13" pan with butter (do not line with paper).
Dry ingredients - Whisk the flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl. Set aside.
Beat eggs 10 minutes - Put the eggs, sugar and vanilla in the bowl of a standmixer fitted with the whisk attachment. Beat on medium high for 10 minutes - it will become pale yellow and fluffy. (Or use an electric beater on high for 10 minutes - just alternate arms if they get tired!)
Add flour mixture and milk - Reduce the speed to low. With the mixer going, slowly add half the flour mixture, then all the milk, then remaining flour mixture. Stop beating as soon as most of the flour is incorporated. Then use a rubber spatula to mix the batter, scraping the base well, just to ensure everything is properly combined. Don't mix unecessarily long, you will deflate the batter!
Bake - Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Bake for 25 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Cool 30 minutes before poking and soaking.

Poke and soak!

Whisk the 3-Milk ingredients in a large bowl or very large jug (1.5L/quarts) until the condensed milk is mixed through.
Poke - Use a thin chopstick, poke lots of holes all the way down to the base of the pan. I do around 130 - 13 rows of 10!
Soak - Slowly pour the milk mixture all across the top in about 3 additions, giving it a minute or two between pours so it has time to soak in rather than pooling. Pour with even soaking coverage in mind - eg if it is pooling on the sides because the cake is sloped, concentrate more on the centre and pour slowly.
Refrigerate at least 4 hours, or even overnight, to allow the milk mixture to disperse throughout the cake.

Assemble to serve - day of:

Whip cream - Beat the cream, sugar and vanilla using the stand mixer (whisk attachment) or electric beater until it is firmly whipped.
Cream and cinnamon - Spread the cream all over the top of the cake. (If you stabilise the whipped cream, you can top with cream the day before. I use McKenzie's Cream Stabiliser for this). Sprinkle with cinnamon - do this from a height using a fine sieve, for the most even coverage.
Cut into 12 very generous or 20 sensible pieces. Serve out of the pan.

Notes

1. Sweetened condensed milk and evaporated milk - find both these in the long life milk aisle.

2. Cream rather than milk - Some recipes use milk for the soaking mixture, but I much prefer cream as it adds a bit of richness into a cake that's made without fat. If you prefer to use milk, reduce to 1/2 cup (because it's thinner)

3. Almond extract is not traditionally used but it's a common variation, especially in US recipes. I tried it and it's so lovely, adds the tiniest background hint of amaretto flavour. I really, really like it. So it's optional, but recommended. :)

Storage - Keep in the fridge for the shorter of the shelf life of the cream, or 4 days. It is at its best on the first 2 days after the fridge chill step. If you stabilise the whipped cream, it will stay perfectly fluffy for up to 3 days. Great for making ahead!

Nutrition per slice, assuming 20 servings.

Nutrition