Tres Leches Cake Mexican Recipe

Tres Leches Cake

This is a traditional Mexican style cake used for almost any occasion, even WalMart in Mexico makes them. The cake must be kept in the refrigerator after being prepared and the three ‘milk’ that are used can be mixed, substituted for other milk products or you can even just use one (like half and half) for a cake that is less sweet. Here is the fast and easy recipe with an optional home made butter cream frosting. If you don’t make the frosting, your cake should be ready from start to finish inless than an hour and a half. If you choose to go with the frosting, it might take an additional 15 minutes.For the cake:

• 1 box of cake mix (any flavor)
• 3 eggs
• ½ cup of oil
• 1 ¼ cup of water
• 1 tub of frosting (if not making the attached recipe)

****optional sliced fruit for the filling

For the Tres Leches: sweetened condensed milk and choose any 2 of the following:

• >Milk
• >Half and half
• >Heavy whipping cream
• >Evaporated milk

For the frosting:

• >2 sticks of butter softened at room temperature
• >3 cups of powdered sugar
• >½ cup of Hershey’s baking cocoa
• >1 tsp of vanilla extract

** optional ¼ cup of heavy cream to make the frosting smoother

Bake the cake according to the package,  but in two separate but equal sized pans. While the cake is baking you can make the following frosting (or just hang out and use the tub of frosting) and make the 3 leches mixture.

Using a spoon, smash up the butter until smooth. Add half a cup of powdered sugar at a time until completely mixed in with the butter, alternating with a little bit of the cocoa powder as well. Once the butter, sugar and cocoa have been completely mixed through, add the teaspoon of vanilla and the heavy cream (if desired). Add the heavy cream as a little drizzle at a time or you may end up with a syrupy finished instead of butter cream.

Normally, 3 equal parts of the 3 milks are used in the mixture but I prefer to use more heavy cream, then sweetened condensed milk and a small amount of evaporated milk to keep the mixture thicker and in the end, the cake less mushy.

Once the cake has cooled and removed from the pan, place the bottom layer upside down and pour the milk mixture by the spoonful over the surface of the cake. You can also spoon extra milk around the bottom edge of the cake as well.

If you are going to place fruit in the center, do that now, or skipping that step, place the second cake layer on top and frost with your frosting. Most Mexican households put canned peaches and nuts on top, but if the cake has too much ‘flare’ it become a soggy mess if it isn’t all eaten soon after being made.