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Tres Leches Cake

Cake· Cinco de Mayo· Dessert

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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.

Tres Leches Cake | Kita Roberts PassTheSushi.com

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 | Kita Roberts PassTheSushi.com

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. 😉

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Tres Leches Cake | Kita Roberts PassTheSushi.com

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.

Tres Leches Cake | Kita Roberts PassTheSushi.com

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

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.

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Tres Leches Cake | Kita Roberts PassTheSushi.com

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.

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

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Recommended Products

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

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.

© Kita Roberts
Cuisine: American / Category: Dessert

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Comments

  1. The Mom Chef ~ Taking on Magazines One Recipe at a Time says

    Oh my friend, we love tres leches cake over here. That looks amazing. I’m sorry that your Cinco de Mayo celebration is over so you don’t have an excuse to flood your kitchen with Mexican food anymore. I’m sure we can come up with another holiday soon though. 🙂

    The hand blender sounds wonderful. Since I don’t have a stand mixer, I rely on my hand-held one for everything. I’m jealous of your new one. That being said, I looked at what The Kitchen has to offer and got overwhelmed pretty quickly. I think I settled on the 16″ All-Clad paella pan as my favorite thing. I want one of those pretty badly. Well, that or the KitchenAid stand mixer. 🙂

    Reply

  4. Ai says

    I’ve never had tres leches cake but in my head it tastes devine 🙂
    Wish I lived in the US to join the giveaway!

    Reply

  7. Danielle says

    I’m right there with you! We could eat Mexican together every day and race each other in our Hoverounds because we wouldn’t be able to walk! I’m a big fan of Tres Leche cake too. How could it be bad with 3 milks?!

    Reply

  8. Erin @ The Spiffy Cookie says

    I think I’ve only have tres leches cake once – and it was at a wedding! Very good but never think to make it for some unknown reason. As for Big Kitchen, I’m dreaming of the entire set of AllClad pans.

    Reply

  20. Tanya C says

    I would love to be eating this cake for breakfast, it looks incredible. I follow you on twitter.

    Reply

  32. LeNay says

    The Big Kitchen has soooooo much to offer. I liked the Chat Pack Conversation Icebreaker Cards for KidsConversation. It sounds like a great idea for a crowd of kids who don’t know each other at a party. I already follow you on facebook. I have never had Tres Leche Cake but I will definitely have to try it. It sounds wonderful.

    Reply

  37. Vicki @ WITK says

    I think we may have had the same hand mixer. Mine has two settings also. Off and all of your flour is now on your pants. Very convenient. And I have a BF who doesn’t like Mexican food either. We can get together and send the men off to watch baseball or something and we can eat tacos and chili. Then this cake. Yum.

    Reply

  39. Tracey says

    Happy Cinco de Mayo, Kita! I’m wishing I had everything on hand to make this cake this afternoon – just one last treat before the day is over!

    Dreamiest product? I’m going with the meat grinder attachment – I’m still yearning for one after your post 🙂

    Reply

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