White Tres Leches Cake

  4.6 – 19 reviews  • Mexican

This is my father’s recipe for scones. It’s made of a dough that resembles cinnamon roll dough and is cooked in hot oil. a wonderful Sunday treat. served drizzling with powdered sugar, jam, or honey.

Prep Time: 30 mins
Cook Time: 40 mins
Additional Time: 4 hrs
Total Time: 5 hrs 10 mins
Servings: 16
Yield: 1 9-inch filled layer cake

Ingredients

  1. cooking spray with flour
  2. 1 (18.25 ounce) package white cake mix
  3. 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
  4. 5 large eggs
  5. 1 cup white sugar
  6. ⅔ cup canola oil
  7. 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  8. 1 teaspoon baking powder
  9. 1 cup milk
  10. 2 (5 ounce) cans evaporated milk
  11. 1 (10 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
  12. 6 tablespoons heavy whipping cream
  13. ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
  14. ⅛ teaspoon coconut extract
  15. 2 cups heavy whipping cream
  16. 1 (3.5 ounce) package instant vanilla pudding mix

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C).
  2. Spray 2 9-inch round cake pans with cooking spray.
  3. Mix white cake mix, flour, eggs, sugar, canola oil, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, baking powder, and milk in a large bowl until thoroughly combined. Pour batter into prepared cake pans.
  4. Bake in preheated oven until the cakes are lightly browned and a toothpick inserted into the center of the cakes comes out clean, 40 to 50 minutes. Let cakes cool about 10 minutes in pans before removing to finish cooling on racks.
  5. Whisk evaporated milk, sweetened condensed milk, 6 tablespoons cream, 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract, and coconut extract in a bowl until smooth. Refrigerate the tres leches mixture.
  6. Beat 2 cups cream with instant vanilla pudding mix in a separate mixing bowl with an electric mixer until soft peaks form, 3 to 5 minutes. Refrigerate mousse filling.
  7. With a long serrated knife, lightly cut off a thin layer of each cake top to level the cake. Place cakes, leveled sides up, on pieces of waxed paper. Poke holes all over the cakes with a skewer. Slowly pour the tres leches mixture over the cakes, about 1/2 cup at a time, waiting until the mixture has soaked in before continuing to pour on more milk mixture. Wrap cake layers in plastic wrap; refrigerate until chilled, at least 4 hours.
  8. Unwrap a cake layer and place onto a serving platter with leveled side up. Top the cake with mousse filling; gently place second cake layer over the filling with leveled side down. Refrigerate leftovers.
  9. Partially freezing the cake layers makes it easier to assemble a layered tres leches cake.
  10. Aluminum foil helps keep food moist, ensures it cooks evenly, keeps leftovers fresh, and makes clean-up easy.

Nutrition Facts

Calories 565 kcal
Carbohydrate 65 g
Cholesterol 119 mg
Dietary Fiber 1 g
Protein 8 g
Saturated Fat 12 g
Sodium 413 mg
Sugars 47 g
Fat 31 g
Unsaturated Fat 0 g

Reviews

Catherine Madden
add cat pringles
Vanessa Wilson
I made this cake for a family reunion and my dad’s birthday and it was a huge hit! I followed the recipe exactly and and topped with a light buttercream frosting.
Amanda Hodges
Just made the cake as a test cake to see if it would hold up as a wedding cake and I and in LOVE with this recipe. Did not make the pudding frosting. But this cake is absolutely delicious and sturdy. Huge hit with the bride.
Matthew Thompson
Some people don’t like “soggy” cake, but it was a hit at my daughter’s birthday party. I made this with the white chocolate mousse frosting and used it as a filling as well. It is a little messy to make, but the key to success is to freeze the cakes in order to prevent the cake from “leaking”.
Henry Williams
It was ok. I didn’t care too much for the taste of the cake. I think the texture of this cake recipe is really good for cake of filling. Also I didn’t care for the vanilla pudding in the topping.
Benjamin Harris
i made this cake for my secretary’s birthday and it was a big hit at work! Adding extra ingredients to the cake mix does produce more batter and my layers baked over and dripped into the oven. I should have known better but went ahead with the directions as they were written. I used two 9 inch cake pans and would only fill them half full next time. I cut around the edges with a bread knife to remove the “muffin top” appearance and all was fine! I frosted mine with buttercream icing and that kept the mousse filling from oozing out. It was very helpful to freeze the layers a little for easier assembly. Bottom line is that this was a delicious cake!
Clifford Pena
I made this cake for my son’s second birthday party this past weekend. Everyone raved about it and one guest told me it was the best cake he’s ever had. My husband said it was the only time he’s ever seen an entire cake eaten at a party. I made the cake exactly as written except I substituted almond extract for the coconut extract. I took the suggestion of other reviewers and iced it with a whipped cream icing by adding the box of vanilla pudding mix to 4 1/2 cups heavy whipping cream along with about 3-4 tablespoons of powdered sugar. 4 cups of whipping cream would be plenty to fill and ice a two layer cake. The extra half cup gave me extra for piping. Delicious with fresh berries. Thanks so much for sharing this recipe!
Robert Brown
I brought this to a work potluck and everyone is asking me to make it again. Delicious!
Elizabeth Palmer
A hit with the family and friends loved it too. Simple to make! Definitely a keeper!
Jason Mcdaniel
Made this cake for my Bunco group that I hosted on Cinco De Mayo. I made it in a 13 x 9 cake pan and used all the tres leche mixture except for 1 cup. Next time I will add less sweetened condensed milk because that flavor stood out and over powered the cake. I also used one of the reviewer’s ideas and frosted it with 4 cups heavy whipping cream with 1 box French vanilla pudding. The cake is so sweet that this frosting complimented it well. Here is what I did: I sprayed my cake pan with oil/flour spray. After the cake was done baking, I let it cool for 10 minutes on a wire rack before turning out on a prepared cake board. I put strips of wax paper underneath the edges to catch the milk. I then poked holes all over it and gradually poured the mixture, 1/2 cup at a time, until most the mixture was used. I refrigerated it for 4 hours and frosted it with the whip cream mixture that was also in the refrigerator for 4 hours. I followed the directions except changed my ratio for the frosting. Leftovers tasted the same the next day! All the other cakes have to be thrown away because they are too soggy.
Ronnie Bryant
Wow. I don’t think I will make anything but this recipe for vanilla cake again. Didn’t care for the pudding mixed with cream for filling It tasted to packaged/chemical for me. Will use a basic whipped cream for filling/frosting next time.
Michael Matthews
Excellent cake! I followed to the “T” except for the filling/frosting. I made in a 9×13 pan. Did not need filling, so used mousse for frosting. I found 2 cups whipping cream with 1 pkg instant pudding to be way too thick and did not provide an ample amount to frost 9×13, so used total of 4 cups whipping cream to 1 pkg instant French vanilla pudding. Got many compliments on the frosting, not too sweet since cake is sweet enough as is. Also the ratio of whipping cream made for a more “milk” flavor frosting that complimented the cake beautifully! Everyone thought frosting with buttercream would be way too sweet for this cake.
Lisa Valdez
This was a huge hit at the baby shower I just threw. It solves the ultimate problem with tres leches cakes being too soggy to decorate. I used a little bit of almond extract in my buttercream frosting and it gave the cake a nice almond flavor twist.
Jennifer Davenport
I’m making this cake again for the 10th time today. It is by far the best tres leches recipe that I have come across. I first made it when I was looking for a cake for my daughter’s birthday. Having grown up on these I went in search for one. Needless to say the bakeries are charging an arm and a leg so I decided to try one myself. This recipe produces a cake that is perfect to decorate unlike traditional tres leches that are soggy and cant support layers or decorations. The filling is super simple to whip up and delicious. I’ve been covering it with a stabilized whipped cream frosting and then decorating. It has been a hit everytime.
Kenneth Barron
My maid of honor and I spent a week baking up and freezing thirteen of these cakes. It turned out DELICIOUS and saved me over eight hundred dollars on wedding funds. All of the wedding cakes we sampled were somewhat dry and not nearly as tasty as they were pretty… This on the other hand, still gets me compliments when I run into friends. Thank you for the great recipe!!!
Danny Moon
Live overseas and needed to make a 12x18x1 sheet cake but could only find one box mix. I used steps 1-4 to make a bigger cake and it turned out perfectly delicious. Frosted and made a perfect birthday cake even without the tres leches! Will try the rest of the recipie next time I’m in the states and can get all the ingredients!
Danielle Porter
Huge hit at work! Will definitely do this one again!
Tony Perez
delicious reciepe……I made this for a MOTHERS DAY celebration……Everyone loved it!!
Mary Leblanc
If you can’t find 18.25 ounce boxed cake mix add 1/3 cup additional cake mix to the recipe.

 

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