Tres Leches / 3 Milk Cake
This dreamy indulgent dessert is the ultimate make ahead dessert because it only gets better the next day.
Tres Leches Cake – aka known as 3 Milk Cake. This is a simple and delightful cake. It’s a popular Mexican dessert of sponge cake soaked in milk bath, unique, one of its kind, very delicious. It has completely no oil in the recipe, and well balanced with the 3 milks that it soaked, it brings the cake a different way to another level. Hope you’re inspired.
It has a long history and is a bit different from some of the other cake recipes that I’ve shared.The cake is similar to an angel food cake.
Because we’ll be soaking it with milk, the base of this cake is critical . This cake layer is what will make or break your entire Tres Leches dessert experience. We need a cake that’s light and airy (we’ll be poking holes through it, too, but want it to easily saturate with our three milks) but sturdy enough to hold onto that liquid and be completely moist and saturated without becoming a soggy, soupy mess.
The cake is BEST when allowed to sit overnight as the milks soaks into every nook and cranny. The combination of milks creates a rich, layered flavor and ridiculously moist, perfectly sweet, melt-in-your-mouth cake.The Tres Leches Cake is finished off with an airy sweet whipped cream topping and either a dusting of cinnamon or fresh fruit. It is served cold so it’s refreshing yet rich at the same time.
Authentic Tres Leches Cake is a simple to make yet always impressive.
Ingredients:
I am using 7x7x3 square glass pan— oven proof
Sponge Cake
4 yolks
30g (2 tbsp) fine sugar
140g (1 cup + 1 tbsp) milk
¼ tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
120g (1 cup + 1 tbsp) all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
4 egg whites
50g (1/4 cup) fine sugar
½ tsp cream of tartar (or lemon juice)
3 Milk Bath
160g (2/3 cup) evaporated milk
160g (2/3 cup) whole milk
150g (1/2 cup) sweetened condensed milk
Frosting
240g (1 cup) whipping cream
(if you like more sweetness, you can add 1 tbsp of powdered sugar. I don’t like too sweet, I skipped)
Garnish
Strawberries-cinnamon-jam
Instructions:
Sponge Cake
Preheat oven at 160°C / 320°F. Grease and line the pan with parchment paper on the bottom.
In 2 large bowls, separate the egg yolks and whites.
In the bowl of yolks, add sugar. Whisk well until cream and pale. Then add the milk and whisk to incorporate. Add salt and vanilla extract, and whisk to combine.
Sift in the dry ingredients in a few batches. Mix only until the flour disappear. Do not over mix. Continue sifting the flour and mix.
In the other bowl of egg whites, add the cream of tartar. You can also substitute with same amount of lemon juice. Use a hand mixer to mix until bubbly before adding in the sugar. Add in the sugar little by little. Continue mixing until stiff peaks form.
Fold in the white mixture into the yellow batter in a few batches. Just fold until the white disappear. Again, do not over mix. However, make sure there is no lumps.
Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Tap the pan to release any trapped air bubbles.
Bake in preheated oven at 160°C / 320°F for about 20-25 min. Make sure the inserted skewer comes out clean.
Let it cool while doing the next step.
3 Milk Bath
In a cup, add all the 3 milks and give it a quick whisk.
On the cake, use a fork to poke holes all over the surface. This is so that the milk will sip into the cake.
Pour half the milk onto the cake.
Let it rest for atleast 2-3 hours so the milks are sipped into the cake. Best would be to let it sit in the refrigerator overnight.
Frosting
In another bowl, whip the whipping cream until stiff peaks form.
Add the cream onto the surface of the cake. Use an offset spatula to level and smoothened the surface.
Chill the cake again for about 1 hour before cutting.
Cake is ready to serve. Pipe some simple deco and garnish with any fruits you desire. In this case, I like strawberries to bring out the colors of the cake. Pour the remaining milk bath on the sides for extra moisture and esthetics.
