Decorating a Tres Leches Cake
Hola, friends! I'm in the kitchen this week with a cake that was a bit of a challenge for this Blondie, but it's my husband's favorite cake of all time, so I knew I needed to nail this cake in my cake repertoire asap! With tender cake layers soaked in not one, but THREE (ehem, tres) different milks in one, I knew after I tried the first milked-soaked bite we had a winner!
*post originally posted in 2019, but updated and reposted in May 2020.
Let me preface this whole cake adventure by saying that I am not a professional Tres Leches Cake master like so many of my readers are (you guys come from all corners of the world, and I LOVE that). My way may not be "the official way", or "your way" or "the way it's always been done"… I set out to make a tasty tres leches cake in my kitchen that could be and would be our new go-to tres leches cake recipe, and I believe we really do have a winner! As always, make any adjustments to your liking. 🙂
Before I began, I asked for advice on the best tres leches cake on my Instagram page, and there was an overwhelming response with all kinds of advice. Some swore by one method, and others swore by another. Readers recommended certain brands, different milk combinations, textures to avoid, flavors to aim for, and it was well, super overwhelming! I had never heard of a tres leches cake until within the past few years, and to be honest… it sounded super gross to me. SOAKED CAKE?! It sounds like something my husband does to my leftover cake slices (he soaks them in a bowl of milk and devours every last soppy we bite… aw man, still love the guy). 😉 Anyway, people had a lot of opinions, my husband set the standard pretty high for Tres Leches Cake he had been fed on his mission in Texas, and I knew I had my work cut out for me.
But instead of turning away from Tres Leches Cake entirely, I decided to give it a chance. I'd order it at my favorite Mexican restaurants, I wouldn't resist a slice at family parties, and we even had some at my latino neighbor's birthday party. I grew to not only like Tres Leches Cake, but LOVE it. The way the three milks soak into the cake and create an entirely new animal was magic. Simply magic. Now… to create one of my own without screwing it up too badly… haha
The first round was a no-go. It sunk, and needed to be lighter (but still dense, if that makes sense). I adjusted the recipe and the next go was PERFECT! It had a touch of cinnamon, enough fluffiness to stay strong during it's milk soaking, and had just enough little air pockets to soak in all that tres leches. I baked up those rounds, let them cool (but not cool all the way! I learned that soaking the milk in an almost-room temperature cake helps it soak better), poked holes in the top of the cake, poured on the tres leches, and let it sit overnight. Here's the photo steps below, if that helps (I'm a visual learner, too, guys!).
First Step: Bake, let them cool on a wire rack, but not cool completely. 
Next, wrap your pans in plastic wrap so you can easily move your cake rounds in and out of the pans without the milk soak getting everywhere.
Next, place your baked cake rounds inside the prepped cake rounds – the same way they were baked (so don't flip them over in the pan, if that makes sense). 
Next, poke holes in the top with a toothpick, knife, or skewer. 
Mix together the Tres Leches (three milks from the recipe) and pour it over the "holy" cake. It will not soak in quickly, so be patient for it to soak deep into the cake. 
Wrap up the soaked cake layers with the plastic wrap overhang and place into the fridge overnight. This in non-negotiable. Overnight in the fridge. Not freezer. Fridge. I know I'm a freezer-lover, but this time the fridge needs to do it's thing. 
Now comes the CRAZY part. I scoured the internet, asked my latino friends, and bored myself on YouTube trying to see if it was even possible to even stack a tres leches cake. I've always seen it as a 9×13, with maybe a two layer rectangle cake, but never as a stacked three layer 6″ cake. I thought, hey, I could do it!
Haaaaaaaah. There's a reason, Mandy, why people don't typically stack SOPPING WET CAKE LAYERS WITH WHIPPED CREAM. It's insane. It's well, a fool's errand. Ill advised. All the above.
Until I bit the bullet and froze my cake layers for 3 hours. Yep. Then stacked, doweled, and crumb coated this little beauty in under 5 minutes. I let it sit in the freezer after that, wrapped overnight. Then let it sit in the fridge for a day. I was worried I may have destroyed the cake. I mean, the main point of a tres leches is the soft wet moist (this is sounding a little… yeah… sorry) cake, and if I'm freezing it, that killed it, right?
Nah, not really. After it sat in the fridge, it was strong enough to hold it's shape, with a few extra strawberries on top and the sides, while still being soft enough to have it's true "tres leches" form. And that was my WIN moment.
Sure, you can always do the full 1 cup of each of the tres leches (evaporated, condensed, and heavy cream or whole milk), and it will definitely have more of that "soaked" milk you see often with it all pooling at the bottom, and that's totally your call. I only did half a cup of each because I knew I was stacking the thing and didn't wait it to be SO soaked that it fell into a milkly soggly puddle of failure. Delicious failure, sure, but I don't think I wanted to add a photograph of delicious failure to my website just yet. 😉
So, long story short, if you're going to stack a tres leches cake THREE LAYERS TALL, you will probably need to freeze it at one point. Or perhaps find some way to create a less fluffy, more dense cake, is my guess.
I was worried that after all the steps, my husband wouldn't exactly put his best-two-years-of-having-authentic-tres-leches-cake stamp of approval on this one, but after leaving him out a slice to devour once he came home from work, I could hear him eating it happily in the kitchen. He was pretty excited and said it was PERFECT. I was pretty excited, because I thought maybe I hadn't soaked it enough, or added enough cinnamon, etc. He not only ate his slice, but asked if there was more in the fridge to have another, and then another slice (good thing the man runs more miles than anyone I know right now preparing for his second marathon).
So, there it is – the story behind this little lover. I drizzled on some La Lechera caramel over the top for good measure, as suggested by a reader, and loved it. Can't wait for you guys to try this one!
As always, these can be made into cupcakes by lowering the baking time to 12ish minutes, or a 9×13 baking pan, too, if that's easier. Enjoy!
As always, make sure to tag your @bakingwithblondie creations on Instagram so I can see all the fun. 🙂
xo, Mandy
Tres Leches Cake
Decadent milk-soaked cake layers with cinnamon and whipped cream.
Tres Leches Cake
- 3 egg whites room temperature
- 1/3 cup vegetable oil
- 2/3 cup sour cream room temperature
- 1 Tablespoon pure vanilla
- 1 cup buttermilk room temperature
- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 box white cake mix I used Duncan Hines
Milk-Soak (Tres Leches Soak)
- 1/2 cup heavy cream
- 1/2 cup evaporated milk
- 1/2 cup sweetened condensed milk
Cinnamon Spiced Whipped Cream
- 1 Tablespoon Knox Gelatin (1.8g packet)
- 1/2 cup water
- 3 cups heavy whipping cream
- 3 oz cream cheese softened
- 2 cups powdered sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
Garnishes
- sliced fresh strawberries
- drizzle of tres leches caramel
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For the Tres Leches Cake & Milk Soak
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Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Prep 3 6" cake rounds with a swipe of shortening and dust of flour to prevent sticking. Set aside.
In a medium bowl, whisk together the eggs, egg white, oil, sour cream, vanilla, and buttermilk.
Sift in the cinnamon, flour, and cake mix. Stir until just combined, don't overmix.
Split batter between three prepared cake rounds, bake for 25-27 minutes, or until center has baked completely. Remove from the oven and let cool in pans for 2 minutes. Flip cakes out onto a wire rack to cool [i]almost[/i] completely.
Prepare the Tres Leches soak by stirring the three milks together in a bowl. Set aside.
Place plastic wrap in your three 6" cake PANS and place the baked cakes inside (carefully). Poke holes all over the top for a place for the milk to soak in.
Pour the three milks (tres leches) over all three cake rounds. Wrap in plastic wrap over the sides (see photos above), and let sit in the fridge overnight.
For the Cinnamon Spiced Whipped Cream
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Place metal mixer bowl and metal mixer whisk in the freezer. You want them chilled!
Place gelatin in a microwave safe bowl with water and let sit for 5 minutes. Microwave for 10 seconds, then let cool slightly.
Whip up whipped cream in chilled mixer bowl on low speed for 1 minute, then gradually increase the speed to high and whip until stiff peaks form. Add in soft cream cheese, gelatin, and vanilla and whip up again until stiff peaks form.
Add in powdered sugar and whip up again until it's thickened and ready!
Assembly
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If stacking tres leches cake layers, you will need to freeze the layers for at least 3 hours before assembly. This helps the cake layers from falling. Yep. Sopping wet milky layers weren't made to be stacked, so if you give them a little freeze, they behave themselves during assembling.
Pipe a small layer of whipped cream on a cardboard cake round (I tape a 6" to a 8" one for easier decorating), then place down the first cake layer. Pipe on a layer of whipped cream, then repeat with remaining layers. Add a dowel to the center for better stabilization. Add on a crumb coat for the "naked cake" look. Serve with sliced strawberries and more whipped cream on the side.
Source: https://bakingwithblondie.com/tres-leches-cake/