Tres Leches Cake
By America's Test KitchenPublished on September 17, 2013
Time
2 hours, plus 3 hours chilling and 30 minutes tempering
Yield
Serves 12
Ingredients
Milk Mixture
1 (14-ounce) can sweetened condensed milk 1 (12-ounce) can evaporated milk 1 cup heavy cream 1 teaspoon vanilla extractCake
2 cups (10 ounces/283 grams) all-purpose flour 2 teaspoons baking powder 1 teaspoon salt ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon 8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter 1 cup whole milk 4 large eggs, room temperature2 cups (14 ounces/397 grams) sugar 2 teaspoons vanilla extractFrosting
1 cup heavy cream, chilled3 tablespoons light corn syrup 1 teaspoon vanilla extractBefore You Begin
For a light and fluffy cake we used room-temperature eggs. If you can't wait an hour for eggs to come to room temperature on their own—just put whole eggs in a small bowl of warm water (about 110 degrees) for about 5 minutes. If you don’t have a microwave, simply pour the sweetened condensed milk into a 9-inch pie plate, cover the plate with foil, and set it in a roasting pan. Carefully add enough boiling water to the roasting pan to reach halfway up the side of the pie plate and bake in a 425-degree oven. In just 35 to 40 minutes, the milk mixture will be the right texture for our Tres Leches Cake (and after about 1 hour and 20 minutes, you'll have a dark, thick dulce de leche that's perfect for pouring over ice cream). The cake becomes more moist and dense as it sits.
Instructions
- For the milk mixture: Pour condensed milk into large bowl. Microwave, covered, at 10 percent power, stirring every 3 to 5 minutes until milk is slightly darkened and thickened, 9 to 15 minutes. Slowly whisk in evaporated milk, cream, and vanilla until incorporated. Let mixture cool completely.
- For the cake: Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 325 degrees. Grease and flour 13 by 9-inch baking pan. Whisk flour, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon together in bowl. Heat butter and milk in small saucepan over low heat until butter is melted; remove from heat and set aside.
- Using stand mixer fitted with whisk attachment, whip eggs on medium speed until foamy, about 30 seconds. Slowly add sugar and continue to whip until fully incorporated, 5 to 10 seconds. Increase speed to medium-high and whip until mixture is thick and glossy, 5 to 7 minutes. Reduce speed to low, slowly add butter-milk mixture and vanilla, and mix until combined, about 15 seconds. Add flour mixture in 3 additions, mixing on medium speed after each addition and scraping down bowl as needed, until flour is fully incorporated, about 30 seconds. Transfer batter to prepared pan. Bake until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, 35 to 45 minutes, rotating pan halfway through baking. Let cake cool in pan on wire rack for 10 minutes.
- Using skewer, poke holes at 1/2-inch intervals in top of cake. Slowly pour milk mixture over cake until completely absorbed. Let sit at room temperature 15 minutes, then refrigerate uncovered for at least 3 hours or up to 24 hours.
- For the topping: Thirty minutes before serving, remove cake from refrigerator. Using stand mixer fitted with whisk attachment, whip cream, corn syrup, and vanilla on medium-low speed until foamy, about 1 minute. Increase speed to high and whip until soft peaks form, 1 to 3 minutes. Spread topping evenly over top of cake. Serve. (The assembled cake can be refrigerated for up to 3 days.)
Time
2 hours, plus 3 hours chilling and 30 minutes temperingYield
Serves 12Ingredients
Milk Mixture
Cake
Frosting
Ingredients
Milk Mixture
Cake
Frosting
Ingredients
Milk Mixture
Cake
Frosting
Why This Recipe Works
UPDATE: This recipe has been slightly reformulated to be more failproof since its initial publication. The revision you see here was published in July of 2021. For this recipe we use a metal baking pan, not a glass baking dish as shown in the video. Tres leches cake is a light, sweet sponge cake soaked with a mixture of “three milks” (heavy cream, evaporated milk, and sweetened condensed milk). And making a great one requires a careful balancing act: The cake should be moist, but not mushy, and the clean dairy flavor of the milks should be clear and sweet, but not sickeningly so. For the ideal tres leches cake that hit all the right notes, we first needed a sponge cake that would be sturdy enough to hold up to the milk mixture. This was easily solved by using whipped whole room-temperature eggs instead of the usual egg whites. Although some recipes use equal amounts of evaporated milk, sweetened condensed milk, and cream for the soak, we found that cutting back on the cream produced a thicker mixture that didn't oversaturate the cake. For a more complex sweetness, we cooked down the condensed milk in the microwave until it was thickened and straw-colored before mixing it with the other milks. This one simple step gave each dairy-soaked bite a hint of caramel flavor. The cake is best frosted with its fluffy whipped topping just before serving.
Before You Begin
For a light and fluffy cake we used room-temperature eggs. If you can't wait an hour for eggs to come to room temperature on their own—just put whole eggs in a small bowl of warm water (about 110 degrees) for about 5 minutes. If you don’t have a microwave, simply pour the sweetened condensed milk into a 9-inch pie plate, cover the plate with foil, and set it in a roasting pan. Carefully add enough boiling water to the roasting pan to reach halfway up the side of the pie plate and bake in a 425-degree oven. In just 35 to 40 minutes, the milk mixture will be the right texture for our Tres Leches Cake (and after about 1 hour and 20 minutes, you'll have a dark, thick dulce de leche that's perfect for pouring over ice cream). The cake becomes more moist and dense as it sits.
Instructions
- For the milk mixture: Pour condensed milk into large bowl. Microwave, covered, at 10 percent power, stirring every 3 to 5 minutes until milk is slightly darkened and thickened, 9 to 15 minutes. Slowly whisk in evaporated milk, cream, and vanilla until incorporated. Let mixture cool completely.
- For the cake: Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 325 degrees. Grease and flour 13 by 9-inch baking pan. Whisk flour, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon together in bowl. Heat butter and milk in small saucepan over low heat until butter is melted; remove from heat and set aside.
- Using stand mixer fitted with whisk attachment, whip eggs on medium speed until foamy, about 30 seconds. Slowly add sugar and continue to whip until fully incorporated, 5 to 10 seconds. Increase speed to medium-high and whip until mixture is thick and glossy, 5 to 7 minutes. Reduce speed to low, slowly add butter-milk mixture and vanilla, and mix until combined, about 15 seconds. Add flour mixture in 3 additions, mixing on medium speed after each addition and scraping down bowl as needed, until flour is fully incorporated, about 30 seconds. Transfer batter to prepared pan. Bake until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, 35 to 45 minutes, rotating pan halfway through baking. Let cake cool in pan on wire rack for 10 minutes.
- Using skewer, poke holes at 1/2-inch intervals in top of cake. Slowly pour milk mixture over cake until completely absorbed. Let sit at room temperature 15 minutes, then refrigerate uncovered for at least 3 hours or up to 24 hours.
- For the topping: Thirty minutes before serving, remove cake from refrigerator. Using stand mixer fitted with whisk attachment, whip cream, corn syrup, and vanilla on medium-low speed until foamy, about 1 minute. Increase speed to high and whip until soft peaks form, 1 to 3 minutes. Spread topping evenly over top of cake. Serve. (The assembled cake can be refrigerated for up to 3 days.)
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