Tres Leches Cake

I heard about Tres Leches around 3 years ago and I have been intrigued ever since. A simple vanilla cake soaked in a mixture of 3 milks? Sign me up!

I eventually got around to baking this cake two weeks ago and decided to use my easy-as-pie vanilla sponge cake recipe. This is really the easiest cake you could possibly bake as all the ingredients are just combined in a bowl and mixed until a creamy batter is formed. To soak the sponge, I used a combination of condensed, evaporated and coconut milk. You might (and probably will) think that this milk mixture is way too much to soak the sponges but trust in the process. You want the cake to be completely drenched so that when you serve it, it’s moist and luscious.

For the filling and topping, I decided to continue the ‘milk’ theme and made a simple Chantilly cream to fill the cake and a mixture of Dulce de Leche and fresh cream to top the cake as a glaze, instead of a firm topping. All of this just adds to the absolute moreish-ness of this cake. Believe me, this is a showstopper!

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Tres Leches Cake

Course: Baking, Cake, Dessert

Servings: 8 - 10

Author: Alida Ryder

Ingredients

For the cake

• 400 g cake flour
• 250 g caster sugar
• 250 g butter room temperature and cubed
• 1 cup milk
• 4 eggs
• 1 tablespoon baking powder

For the 3 milk mixture

• 150 ml sweetened condensed milk
• 150 ml evaporated milk
• 150 ml coconut milk

For the Chantilly cream

• 150 ml whipping cream
• 1 tablespoon caster sugar
• 1 vanilla pod scraped

For the Dulce de leche topping

• 200 g Dulce de leche alternatively used tinned caramel
• 100 ml cream

Instructions

1. Pre-heat the oven to 180° and grease and line two 25cm cake tins. Set aside.
2. Place the cake ingredients in a large mixing bowl and beat until the batter is smooth and creamy and all the ingredients are well incorporated.
3. Divide the batter between the prepared pans and place in the oven.
4. Bake for 20-25 minutes until the cakes are golden brown and a skewer inserted comes out clean.
5. Remove the cakes from the oven and allow to cool completely.
6. When the cakes are cool, place them on a tray and with a skewer, poke holes all over the surface of the cake.
7. In a jug, combine the condensed, evaporated and coconut milk and slowly pour over the cakes. The cake will slowly absorb the liquid. Make sure you use around 225ml on each cake. It will seem like it's too much but the cakes need to be completely soaked.
8. Place the cakes in the fridge to firm up slightly before continuing (approximately an hour).
9. To make the filling, whip the cream until soft peaks form then whisk in the sugar and the vanilla seeds.
10. Spoon the cream onto one of the cakes then sandwich with the other.
11. Place the cake on a cake stand.
12. Mix together the Dulce de leche and the cream and pour over the cake.
13. Refrigerate for 20 minutes then serve.