Classic Tres Leches Cake Recipe

The BEST authentic homemade Tres Leches Cake. An ultra light cake soaked in a sweet milk mixture and topped with fresh whipped cream and cinnamon. This simple Mexican dessert is one of our favorites!

Every person in my family would rank Tres Leches Cake in our top favorites of all time! I love that it’s not overly sweet, it’s super easy to make, I can make it in advance, and its absolutely delicious! We make it really often, especially when we’re having a bunch of other Mexican food favorites to serve with it.

Tres leches literally means, “three milks” and Tres Leches Cake is an ultra light sponge cake soaked in a sweet milk mixture. It’s popular in Mexico and Latin America and throughout the United States as it’s often available at Mexican restaurants.

Tres Leches Cake With Dulce De Leche Glaze

The cake is similar to an angel food cake. Thewhipped egg whites in the battermake it extra light and spongy. After baking the cakeyou poke holes in it with a fork and pour three types of milk over the top–evaporated milk, sweetened condensed milk, and whole milk–hence the name “tres leches”.

You can make Tres leches cake 1-2 days in advance. In fact, I love to make this cake the night before so that the cake has a lot of time to soak up the milk mixture.

That’s right, this Tres Leches Cake is NOT made with butter or oil. The egg whites are the main leavening agent that give it a sponge cake texture, and the three milks poured on top get absorbed by the cake, making it moist without the need of oil or butter.

Tres Leches Cake ⋆ Real Housemoms

The BEST authentic Tres Leches Cake. An ultra light cake soaked in a sweet milk mixture and topped with fresh whipped cream and cinnamon. This simple Mexican dessert is one of our favorites!

Make Ahead Instructions: You can make Tres leches cake 1-2 days in advance. In fact, I love to make this cake the night before so that the cake has a lot of time to soak up the milk mixture. 

Freezing Instructions: The baked and cooled cake can be frozen for up to 3 months, covered well. Thaw overnight in the fridge before pouring the three milks on top.

Tres Leches Cake Recipe (video)

Calories: 433 kcal Carbohydrates: 50 g Protein: 9 g Fat: 22 g Saturated Fat: 13 g Cholesterol: 152 mg Sodium: 171 mg Potassium: 344 mg Sugar: 41 g Vitamin A: 865 IU Vitamin C: 1.7 mg Calcium: 242 mg Iron: 1 mg

Welcome! I’m Lauren, a mom of four and lover of good food. Here you’ll find easy recipes and weeknight meal ideas made with real ingredients, with step-by-step photos and videos.My Tres Leches Cake is designed to be soft, perfectly moist, and NOT soggy! It’s made with a homemade vanilla cake soaked in three milks and topped with whipped cream. You’ll be amazed at how incredible this tastes!

Tres leches cake or “Three Milks” cake should be soft, moist, and super flavorful. My recipe checks every box, with a fluffy vanilla sponge cake soaked

Eggless Tres Leches Cake

In three different types of milk and topped with whipped cream. With all that liquid, it’s easy to assume this cake would be soggy–but don’t worry, my recipe has been tested and perfected to be perfectly balanced and NOT soggy!

This is a cake that took me a long time to get just right. Because we’ll be drenching it with a mixture of milks, the base of this cake is critical (and is what took me the longest to perfect).

It needs to be light and airy, but sturdy enough that it doesn’t become a soupy mess. Pound cake is too dense, and classic vanilla cake disintegrates. Ultimately, a variation of my grandmother’s hot milk cake did the trick, and while the cake ingredients are almost identical, you’ll notice the technique is

Traditional Tres Leches Cake Recipe

SAM’S TIP: I like to top off my cake with a sprinkle of cinnamon (freshly ground, if you have it!), but this is optional.

SAM’S TIP: If you’ve never whipped egg whites to stiff peaks before, it simply means that the egg whites don’t fold over or fall back into themselves when you pull your whisk straight out of the mixture. If you’ve made my meringues or white cake you’ve done this before! For a visual, check out my video below.

With most of my cakes I encourage you to play around with different frostings on top, but not so with today’s recipe. You need something light that pairs well with the milks-drenched cake and the whipped cream frosting is a classic for a reason!

Classic Tres Leches Cake Recipe

The true origins of this cake are actually widely disputed. Many Latin American countries have been named as possible points of origin, and some sources even cite Nestle as perpetuating this milk-heavy recipe as a way to sell more of their condensed and evaporated milk (a delicious marketing ploy, if you ask me).

Here’s an article that discusses the origins of tres leches cake if you’re a fellow food nerd like me and would like to take a deep dive!

I don’t recommend freezing the cake after you’ve soaked it in the milk mixture. However, if you’d like to make this cake in advance you can bake the cake, cool it completely, and then tightly wrap it and freeze as you would any other cake.

Mely Martinez's Tres Leches Cake — Cooks Without Borders

Several hours to 1 day before you are ready to serve, thaw the cake and then follow the instructions in the recipe for drenching with milk and topping with whipped cream.

Traditionally this cake is made with evaporated milk, sweetened condensed milk, and whole milk. However, I found that using whole milk tends to make the cake a bit more soggy than is desirable, so for my tres leches cake recipe I use heavy cream instead.

Let’s bake together!I’ll be walking you through all the steps in my written recipe andvideobelow! If you try this recipe, be sure to tag me onInstagram , and you can also find me onYouTube andFacebook

Tres Leches Cake Recipe

This is the best Tres Leches Cake recipe! Made with a vanilla sponge cake, a rich milk topping, and simple whipped cream on top! Be sure to check out my how-to video below the recipe!

¹Stiff Peaks Stiff peaks simply means that if you lift the beater straight out of the batter, the peak that forms will not recede back or melt back into itself. It should hold a tall, stiff peak, and if you turn the beater upside down the peak that has formed on the end of it should hold its shape as well. See photo in post or video for visual!

Serving: 1 slice | Calories: 420 kcal | Carbohydrates: 54 g | Protein: 7 g | Fat: 20 g | Saturated Fat: 12 g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 1 g | Monounsaturated Fat: 6 g | Cholesterol: 116 mg | Sodium: 269 mg | Potassium: 205 mg | Sugar: 44 g | Vitamin A: 55 IU | Vitamin C: 4 mg | Calcium: 47 mg | Iron: 2 mg

Layered Tres Leches Cake

Nutritional information is based on third-party calculations and should be considered an estimate only. Actual nutritional content will vary based upon brands used, measuring methods, cooking method, portion sizes, and more.