Pastel de Tres Leches (Three-Milk Cake)

Name: Pastel de Tres Leches (Three-Milk Cake)
Total time: 4 h
Yield: 10
Cuisine: Mexican / Latin American
Ingredients: 5 Eggs; 180 g Caster sugar; 180 g Plain flour; 6 g Baking powder; 60 ml Milk; 5 ml Vanilla extract; 1 Evaporated milk; 1 Sweetened condensed milk; 300 ml Double cream; 30 g Icing sugar; 1 g Ground cinnamon

A light sponge riddled with holes and soaked in a mixture of three milks — evaporated, condensed and cream — until it is soft, wet and cool right through, then blanketed in lightly whipped cream. Somehow drenched yet never soggy.

Fonte

Ricetta di Latin American home kitchens · 🏺 Tradizionale

Latin American / Mexican — Tres leches cake is a sponge cake soaked in three kinds of milk — evaporated milk, condensed milk and cream. Popular throughout Latin America and especially associated with Mexico and Central America, it is served cold, topped with whipped cream.

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Watch it being made

Natashas Kitchen

⏱ 240 min🍽 10 porzioni🔥 380 kcal🇲🇽 Messico

Vegetariano

Passaggi

Whisk the egg whites to soft peaks, then beat in the sugar a spoon at a time until glossy and stiff. Beat the yolks with the milk and vanilla and fold them in gently.
Sift the flour and baking powder over the batter and fold it in with a light hand, just until no streaks remain. Pour into a greased 23 x 33 cm tin.
💡 Fold, don't beat, once the flour is in. This sponge has no butter and relies on the air in the whipped whites; overmixing knocks it out and you get a flat, dense cake that soaks unevenly.
Bake at 175°C for about 25–30 minutes, until golden and springy and a skewer comes out clean. Let it cool completely in the tin.
Whisk together the evaporated milk, condensed milk and 120 ml of the cream. Poke the cooled cake all over with a fork or skewer, then slowly pour the three-milk mixture over the whole surface.
💡 Pour slowly, in stages, letting each addition sink in before the next. Rushing it makes the milk pool and run off the sides; patient soaking is how the cake drinks nearly all of it.
Cover and chill for at least 3 hours so the cake absorbs the milk and sets cold. Whip the remaining cream with the icing sugar to soft peaks, spread it over the top, and dust with cinnamon before serving.

💡 Consigli

Make it the day before. Tres leches is better after a full night in the fridge — the soak distributes evenly and the whole cake turns cold, dense and spoonable, which a few hours can't quite achieve.
Fresh berries or sliced strawberries over the cream cut the sweetness nicely. Some cooks add a splash of cinnamon or a little coffee to the milk mixture — both are common and welcome.