Tres Leches Cake is a decadent yet simple cake that tastes like sweet magic when topped with whipped cream and berries. It’s the perfect dessert to kick off strawberry season or to serve for Mother’s Day.
My family loved this pretty cake that comes together beautifully in a 9×13 pan just like some of our other favorites, Magnolia Bakery Blueberry Jamboree and No-Bake Cherry Cheesecake. We love Casserole size desserts cause in a big family anything smaller is gone way too fast!
Back in February, my friend surprised me with a Tres Leches Cake for my birthday. It was such a kind gesture and one of the most delicious cakes I had ever had. She said she kind of combined a few different recipes, but the one for Our Best Bites was where she started. I couldn’t wait to try making one myself and am super pleased with how it came out.
Simple ingredients and very little effort are needed to make this beautiful and delicious cake. You will savor every bite. This dessert is perfect for serving to guests because it can be prepped a day ahead of time. It is also incredibly quick and easy to throw together. One of the reasons this recipe is so simple to make is because it uses a cake mix that you doctor up with a few other ingredients for the base cake. Easy peasy!
Other Simple and Beautiful Dessert Recipes
- Cherry Cheesecake
- Amazing Strawberry Cheesecake Pastry Bites
- Brown Butter Raspberry Pie
- Raspberry Shortcake Dessert
- Easy Strawberry Shortcake Recipe
- Strawberry Lemonade Pie
How to Make Tres LEches Cake
The first step for making this cake is to mix up and cook the cake. When the cake comes out of the oven, you let it cool a bit (doesn’t need to be completely cool). Then you poke holes all over in it and pour over the sweet milk mixture. Refrigerate the cake overnight or for at least 6 hours. Before serving, whip up some fresh whipping cream and prepare some berries to put on top. That’s it. You’re ready to serve the delicious and pretty dessert.
Frequently Asked Questions about Tres Leches Cake
What is tres Leches Cake?
Tres Leches is a popular authentic Mexican cake. The syrup is made of tres leches (three kinds of milk). You poke holes into the cake before pouring over the milk mixture. Every bite is decadently moist. The cake is rich but has a light feel to it and is perfectly balanced by the lightly sweetened whipped cream and tart berries.
Can Tres Leches Cake be Frozen?
It can’t be frozen after you add the milk mixture, but you can make the base of the cake and freeze it until you need it. This cake can be made a day or two ahead of serving though. In fact, I recommend making it the night before you plan to serve it.
Is Tres Leches Cake supposed to be soggy?
Well, it depends on what you consider soggy…it definitely is moist. Part of what makes this cake unique and special is that it has that unique texture that soaking in the sweetened milk mixture gives the cake.
How Long does Tres Leches Cake last in the fridge?
Tres Leches Cake can last in the fridge for 3-4 days. Keep it covered with plastic wrap or with a tight-fitting lid.
It's Berry Time
- For the Cake:
- 1 yellow cake mix
- 1 small (3.4 oz) box of instant vanilla pudding
- 1 cup sour cream
- ⅔ cup oil, canola or vegetable
- 3 eggs
- 1 tsp vanilla
- For the Milk Mixture:
- 12 ounces evaporated milk
- 9 ounces of sweet and condensed milk (about ⅔ of a 14 ounce can)
- ¼ cup whipping cream
- For the Whipped Cream topping:
- 1¾ cups whipping cream
- ½ cup powdered sugar, scant
- 1 tsp vanilla
- and berries of your choice for topping
- Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and lightly spray a 9x13 glass baking dish with cooking spray.
- Prepare cake by combining the yellow cake mix, pudding, sour cream, oil, eggs, and vanilla. Mix on medium speed with your hand mixer or in your stand mixer for two minutes or until well combined and smooth. The cake batter will be quite thick. (If you do not have a mixer, you can do this by hand with a whisk.)
- Spread the thick cake batter evenly into the prepared glass baking dish. Bake at 350 degrees for 30-40 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted in the center of the cake.
- Let cake cool for at least 30 minutes.
- While cake is cooling combine the milk mixture by whisking together the evaporated milk, sweet and condensed milk, and ¼ cup of whipping cream.
- When cake has cooled for at least 30 minutes use a bamboo skewer, chopstick, or anything of a similar size to poke holes all over the cake as pictured above. Once you have the holes poked, pour the milk mixture evenly over the cake. Cover tightly and place in the fridge for at least 6 hours but preferably overnight.
- When you are ready to serve the cake, mix up the whipping cream topping by combining the 1¾ cup whipping cream, the powdered sugar, and vanilla. Mix on high with a hand mixer until it turns to cream and holds a peak when you stop mixing.
- Spread the whipping cream topping over the cake and top with your favorite berries.
- Enjoy!
Recipes Readers are Raving About
This is so delicious! Just the right thing for a “PARTY”! Seriously though. Who wouldn’t want it for their birthday?
So amazingly good. I have made it multiple times for family events and it is a huge hit! Always the first dessert to be consumed! Love it so much!
Thanks Matt. 🙂 So glad you love it. So flattered that you use Real Life Dinner. 🙂