Tres Leches Cake is a light, airy vanilla sponge cake soaked with a mixture of three milks: evaporated milk, sweetened condensed milk and whole milk or heavy cream. It is so soft and rich that I bet you cannot just have one piece of it.

Tres Leches in Spanish literally means 3 milks which in this recipe are condensed milk, evaporated milk and whole milk.

Some say the Tres Leches Cake comes from Nicaragua; others, Mexico. But no matter which Latin America nation invented it, it’s absolutely to die for.

My first introduction to Tres Leches Cake was in California and it has been one of my favorite cakes since then. This cake is made in 3 parts which involves making the vanilla sponge cake, making the milk mixture and then assembly of the cake with milk mixture.

Vanilla Sponge Cake

Ingredients

Vegetable Oil / Melted Butter (0.5 cup / 125 ml + 2 tbsp)

Salt (1/4 tsp)

Eggs (4)

Baking Powder (1 tsp)

Vanilla Extract (1/2 tsp)

Caster Sugar (1 cup / 250 g)

All-Purpose-Flour/Maida (1 cup / 250 g)

Whipped cream

Method

Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C)

Grease the baking tray and keep it ready

Sieve all purpose flour, salt and baking powder in a bowl. Keep it aside

Whisk the eggs until foamy. Add sugar to it and whisk again.

Now add all the sieved dry ingredients to the egg and sugar mixture and mix well

Add oil/butter to it and mix again.

Finally add vanilla extract and give it another stir

Pour it in a the baking tray and bake

Bake for 35 to 40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean. Remove from the oven and set aside.

Milk Mixture

Ingredients

1/2 cup whole milk or heavy cream

2 cup condensed milk

1.5 cup evaporated milk

Method

Combine the evaporated milk, sweetened condensed milk, and whole milk in a jug.

I made condensed milk at home. You can view the recipe below

https://youtu.be/FgiRqdz_4S8

Also evaporated milk can be made by reducing whole milk to half by boiling continuously.

Assembly of the cake

Once the cake has cooled slightly use a toothpick to poke holes all over the top of the cake.

Slowly pour the milk mixture over the top of the cake, making sure to pour near the edges and all around. I do this in two stages until it’s all soaked up.

Refrigerate the cake for at least 1 hour but preferably overnight to allow it to soak up the milk.

When ready to serve, whip the heavy cream to stiff peaks. Smooth the whipped cream over the top of the cake.

Special thanks to Cooking with Asifa and Big Bolder Baking for recipe inspiration