Tres Leches Cake

Tender and so moist you’ll think it is part custard, tres leches cake is a Latin American classic found at celebrations across the globe. The dessert’s signature texture comes from the act of soaking sponge cake with three types of milk (the “tres leches” in the dessert’s name) after it’s baked. The dairy involved usually includes some combination of heavy cream, evaporated milk, sweetened condensed milk, coconut milk, or whole milk, and the dessert is often gilded with a whipped topping of meringue or more cream, or slathered in dulce de leche or cajeta. If you don’t have a stand mixer (or even a hand mixer), don’t fret: while they’d certainly help, it’s entirely possible to make this cake with a whisk and a couple of mixing bowls.

In My Sweet Mexico, Mexican American chef Fany Gerson writes that she often finds milk cake “too heavy, overly sweet, and not moist enough.” Her iteration turns out a chiffon-like sponge that soaks up “a lot of milk,” plus a good glug of dark rum, for what she calls a “melt-in-your-mouth texture.” Want a holiday-worthy swap? Gerson suggests nixing the prescribed soak for an equal amount of milk punch like rompope, coquito, or ponche a crème.

While you’ll frequently find the party-friendly dessert baked in a 13-by-9-inch pan, Gerson’s recipe for tres leches cake offers a different take. She bakes the cake in a single round layer, then splits it in half, soaks it, and sandwiches the two halves with whipped cream and fruit. To make the cake easier to assemble, freeze the layers after they’ve absorbed the liquid. Alternatively, you could divide the cake batter between two round pans (reduce the cook time by about half and really pay attention to the visual cues), then poke holes across the tops of both layers, divide the milk mixture between them, and chill until ready to assemble.

This recipe was excerpted from ‘My Sweet Mexico’ by Fany Gerson. Buy the full book on Amazon.