This Tres Leches Cake is perfect. It’s a ruin your weight watchers plan binge eat half the cake with a fork for breakfast and hide the rest for later kind of good.

Cinco de Mayo!!

Cinco de Mayo is almost here and I am really really sad. But we’re finishing out the celebration on PtS and GirlCarnivore with a bang! This Tres Leches Cake is the perfect end to a spicy Mexican binge.

I’m pretty sure I could eat Mexican for an entire month long celebration of Cinco de Mayo if we wanted to make this party last… But I’m also sure I would be painfully single and looking for a place to rent on the cheap too as Handsome patiently puts up with a few Mexican recipes by eating a bag of Chex mix for dinner but wouldn’t have it for a month straight.

Tres Leches Cake!

Tres Leches means three milks, which can make for an awfully heavy and dense cake when you think about it. But the magic elves in the Cook’s kitchen made this work in big ways without falling to a soggy mess.

I have to say, this Tres Leches Cake is amazing. Bees Knees. Boom shizzle and so forth. It’s simple, but the few ingredients really hold their flavors. That 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon is just enough. The cake is perfect. It’s ruin your weight watchers plan, binge eat half the cake with a fork for breakfast and hide the rest for later good. I mean, I would never do that… But it could be that good… If you had a fork and no one was looking. 😉

For this recipe I tried out a handy dandy BEAST of a machine. The guys and gals over at BigKitchen sent me an awesome Cuisinart Hand Mixer to test out. Like a big tool I sat on it for a while. I had a hand mixer once, and it ruined hand mixing relations for me for a long time. It had two speeds, off, and oh god the kitchens on fire. There was nothing that could be effectively mixed with it. So, even though I hated washing the bowl and mixer every time I needed to whip something up, I ended up relying on Betsy, the KitchenAid stand mixer, for every little thing.

That was until yesterday morning, when I needed to whip this topping up in no time, snap pics and get to work.

This amazing dodad comes with a whisk attachment! And it has 9 speeds, and an engine like a tank, so it gracefully powered up to speed and whipped the frosting into soft peaks in no time. I was genuinely shocked it did such an amazing job. Even though I do love Betsy, its going to be great making pancakes, brownies, and quick breads without having to haul out so many big supplies.

So this Tres Leches will have dessert covered. Looking for some inspiration for the rest of your Cinco de Mayo celebration? Try these out!

• Slow Cooker Chipotle Beef Burritos
• Simple Strawberry Margaritas for One
• Colorado Red Chile Enchiladas Sauce

If you’ve tried this Tres Leches recipe or any other recipe on passthesushi.com please don’t forget to rate the recipe and let me know where you found it in the comments below. I love hearing from you! You can also follow along for more good eats and travel tips on Instagram @passthesushi & @girlcarnivore, Twitter & Facebook.

Continue to Content

Tres Leches Cake

Yield: 12

Prep Time: 35 minutes

Cook Time: 35 minutes

Additional Time: 3 hours

Total Time: 4 hours 10 minutes

Tres Leches means three milks, which can make for an awfully heavy and dense cake when you think about it. But the magic elves in the Cook's kitchen made this work in big ways without falling to a soggy mess.

Selected for you :   Sweet Potato Pie with Gingersnap Crust and Meringue

Print

Ingredients

For the Milk Mixture:

• 14 oz can sweetened condensed milk
• 12 oz can evaporated milk
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

For the Cake:

• 2 cups flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 8 tbsp butter
• 1 cup whole milk
• 4 large eggs, at room temp
• 2 cups sugar
• 2 tsp vanilla

For the Topping:

• 1 cup heavy cream
• 3 tbsp corn syrup
• 1 tsp vanilla

Instructions

Prepare the milk mixture:

1. Put the condensed milk into a microwave safe bowl (use a big one). Cover tightly (no joke) with plastic wrap and microwave on low power for 9-15 minutes, stirring and replacing the plastic wrap every 3 minutes. Seriously, replace the plastic wrap every 3 minutes. Watch the microwave like a hawk. This goes from awesome to sticky hot mess all over your microwave in seconds. Not that I would know.
2. When slightly darkened and thickened, remove plastic wrap and slowly whisk in the evaporated milk, cream, and vanilla. Cover and set aside.

For the cake:

1. preheat the oven to 325 degrees and grease a 9x13 baking dish.
2. Whisk the flour, baking powder, salt and cinnamon in a bowl and set aside.
3. Melt the butter with milk in a small saucepan over low heat. Remove from heat to cool.
4. Using a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, whip the eggs on medium speed until foamy, about 30 seconds. 
5. Slowly add the sugar, and continue to whip until incorporated, 5 to 10 seconds. Increase the speed on that bad boy to medium-high and whip those eggs until they are thick and glossy, 5 to 7 minutes longer. 
6. Reduce the speed and pour in the milk and butter mixture and vanilla. 
7. Add the flour mixture, in three additions, scraping down the sides as needed with a rubber spatula. 
8. Spread cake batter into prepared baking dish and bake for 30-35 minutes until toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. 
9. Cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes.
10. Using a wooden skewer (bigger than a toothpick), pole holes all over the top of the cake at 1/2" intervals. 
11. Slowly pour the milk mixture over the cake until incorporated I poured a little at a time in different areas and let it be absorbed before continuing on. 
12. Let sit at room temperature for 15 minutes before placing in the fridge for 3 to 24 hours, uncovered.

Make the whipped topping:

1. Remove the cake from the fridge 30 minutes right before serving. 
2. Using a stand mixer (or a hand held mixer with the whisk attachment) whip the cream, corn syrup, and vanilla on medium low speed until foamy, about 1 minute. 
3. Increase the speed gradually to avoid splatter and whip until soft peaks for about 2-3 minutes. Spread over cake, slice and serve.

Notes

from Cook's Illustrated Mexican Favorites

Selected for you :   Cranberry Lemonade Margarita

Recommended Products

As an Amazon Associate and member of other affiliate programs, I earn from qualifying purchases.

• 
  Cuisinart HM-90BCS Power Advantage Plus 9-Speed Handheld Mixer with Storage Case, Brushed Chrome
• 
  Pyrex Glass Mixing Bowl Set (3-Piece)
• 
  KitchenAid KSM150PSER Artisan Tilt-Head Stand Mixer with Pouring Shield, 5-Quart, Empire Red

Nutrition Information:

Yield: 12 Serving Size: 1
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 649Total Fat: 31gSaturated Fat: 19gTrans Fat: 1gUnsaturated Fat: 10gCholesterol: 153mgSodium: 473mgCarbohydrates: 84gFiber: 1gSugar: 67gProtein: 12g

Nutrition information provided is an estimate from nutritionix.com. For specific health concerns, please put the recipe into your Dr recommended nutrition calculator.