Tres Leches Cake - Three Milks Cake

A mega rich, tender and indulgent "Tres Leches" cake: an airy sponge that soaks up a sour cream and condensed milk soak like a sponge, quite literally. You'll need a week's dairy budget, patience and a good mood - so, off to the kitchen!

Tres Leches Cake

A tender milk cake: an airy sponge that soaks up a sour cream and condensed milk soak like a sponge. Mega rich and incredibly delicious.

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 30 minutes mins

Cook Time 40 minutes mins

Soaking 4 hours hrs

Total Time 5 hours hrs 10 minutes mins

Servings: 8 servings

Ingredients Method Notes

Ingredients

  

Sponge and soak

• 200 g flour
• 200 g sugar
• 50 g butter
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 pinch salt
• 150 ml milk
• 3 eggs
• 1 can (380 ml) condensed milk
• 350 g sour cream 21%

Decoration

• whipping cream 26% for decorating
• cocoa powder for dusting

Method

 

Sponge

1. Put the milk in a saucepan on the stove, add the butter and heat until the butter dissolves. Remove from heat.
2. In a separate bowl, mix the flour with the baking powder and salt.
3. In a deep bowl, whisk the eggs with the sugar until fluffy and the sugar has fully dissolved.
4. Add the flour mixture and the milk mixture to the egg mixture in three additions, whisking each time. The batter is ready.
5. Pour the batter into the pan and bake in an oven preheated to 180 °C for 40 minutes. Let the sponge cool - it can stay right in the pan.

Soak and decoration

1. For the soak, whisk the sour cream with the condensed milk using a mixer.
2. Poke the sponge in several places with a skewer and pour the soak over it. Leave on the counter for a couple of hours, then refrigerate - ideally overnight, or at least a couple more hours. The soak should be fully absorbed, like a sponge.
   
3. Transfer the cake to a plate and decorate as you like - I used whipped cream and cocoa through a stencil. Bon appetit!
   

Notes

Use a smaller pan, 16-18 cm in diameter: in a 26 cm pan the sponge turns out too thin.

Tips

• Pan size: go smaller, 16-18 cm in diameter. In my 26 cm pan the sponge turned out too thin.
• Soaking: don't rush it - ideally leave the cake in the fridge overnight so the soak absorbs completely.
• Decoration: I topped mine with whipped cream and dusted cocoa through a cow-pattern stencil - it turned out really fun.