A genuine Dutch recipe for the well-known dessert that is available in restaurants. You can prepare the same dish at home using this recipe.
| Prep Time: | 25 mins |
| Cook Time: | 45 mins |
| Additional Time: | 1 hr 20 mins |
| Total Time: | 2 hrs 30 mins |
| Servings: | 8 |
| Yield: | 1 9-inch cake |
Ingredients
- cooking spray with flour
- 1 cup white sugar, divided
- 5 large eggs, separated, divided
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- ⅓ cup milk
- 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
- 1 (12 fluid ounce) can evaporated milk
- 1 pint heavy whipping cream, divided
- 10 maraschino cherries
Instructions
- Make the cake: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Spray a 9-inch springform pan with floured cooking spray.
- Beat 3/4 cup sugar and egg yolks in a mixing bowl with an electric mixer until light in color and doubled in volume. Stir in flour, milk, baking powder, and vanilla.
- Beat egg whites in a glass or metal bowl until soft peaks form. Gradually add remaining 1/4 cup sugar, continuing to beat until medium peaks form. Fold 1/3 of the egg white mixture into the egg yolk mixture to lighten it. Fold in remaining egg whites, then pour batter into the prepared pan.
- Bake in the preheated oven until a cake tester inserted into the middle comes out clean, 45 to 50 minutes. Cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes. Loosen the edges with a knife, then remove the sides. Let cake cool completely on the wire rack, about 20 more minutes.
- Invert cake onto a deep serving plate and remove the pan bottom. Pierce the cake all over with a two-pronged meat fork or a cake tester.
- Make the filling and topping: Mix condensed milk, evaporated milk, and 1/4 cup whipping cream together in a bowl. Measure 1 cup milk mixture and refrigerate for another use. Slowly pour remaining milk mixture over the cake until absorbed.
- Pour remaining whipping cream into a chilled glass or metal bowl. Beat with an electric mixer until it thickens and reaches spreading consistency. Spread whipped cream over cake and garnish with cherries.
- If not serving immediately, refrigerate until ready to serve.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 642 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 75 g |
| Cholesterol | 241 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 0 g |
| Protein | 14 g |
| Saturated Fat | 20 g |
| Sodium | 271 mg |
| Sugars | 61 g |
| Fat | 33 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
Very easy to make. Delicious. Only thing i would change is adding a bit of sugar to the whipped cream to make it a bit sweeter, if it has no sugar its a little sour. I put dulce de leche on mine as a topping to make it a cuatro leches.
I divided the batter and made 2 nine inch round cakes, soaked them separately and put a layer of whipped cream in between.
Perfect recipe. I added strawberries on top instead of cherries.
Delicious. Making another one right away because the family begged.
I loved this recipe! It’s so easy and delicious!
Its absolutely delish..best i ever had..but the recipe I have been using is from food Network..the pioneer woman..it’s the exact same recipe!
I think everything came out decent, but the only concerning part was the eggs. way to eggy and it basically ruined the cake
This has become my favorite cake. I don’t make it often because I can’t stop eating. I cheat a little on it I use cool whip for the topping.
This cake is fantastic! Made it pretty much as is except that I replaced the whole milk for heavy whipping cream. I also add a pinch of freshly grated nutmeg to the milk mixture. I decided to pour half of the batter it in in a fluted pan and the rest in a mini bundt that bakes 12 mini cakes! It was PERFECT!!!! If you are portion conscious, please do not hesitate to make this recipe in a cupcake pan or an individual mini bundt pan. They look extremely cute!!! I am always intimidated by cakes that rely on the beaten egg whites regardless of my years of experience. I must say that this was easy to make. My only suggestion is to add the sugar to the egg whites by Tbsp. Let it dissolve and keep a close eye on them. I also used some 1/4c butter to the batter and 1/4 tsp of baking soda. The result was fluffy and moist sponge cake!!! The cake absorbed the milk mixture very nicely. My recommendation is to pour the milk mixture little by little with a ladle spoon and wait until it soaks fully before pouring some more. Do not toss any “leftover” milk ever! Use it to serve it with your cake. It makes for a fantastic presentation! And also let it soak overnight. This cake is meant to be prepared the day before!
I did as suggested by others and poured the liquid over the cake in the pan while warm. After refrigerating overnight I flip it onto a dish with a lip. The milk will redistributed toward what is now the bottom. Then I poured just a little bit more of the reserved liquid just to help it have a uniform level of moistness. Nothing worse than receiving a piece of tres leches at a restaurant and the top portion is dry by flipping it you prevent that from occurring. This recipe is spectacular the cake baked to perfect texture. I have been told by multiple Hispanics of varying countries how this cake reminds them of back home.
I’ve always wanted to make this cake. I have been looking for a Tres Leches cake recipe for a long time. Well I made the cake today and, wow, it was a home run! I followed the recipe exactly, made no changes and it came out perfectly (like any of the pictures of it here on the site.) I will definitely make this cake again for any occasion and don’t plan on making any changes. Thank you for posting this one. Happy Baking!
The only thing I had a problem with was the frosting, I was a little confused about the heavy whipping cream. That aside the cake itself came out perfect!
best recipe, my family loves it.
This cake is soo good! You need a large crowd to eat the entire cake because it’s super sweet.
Great recipe! Tastes delicious
Yum! Made this for my daughter’s Spanish Fiesta at the end of the year. I read reviews, and poured milk mix on hot cake, worked beautifully. I have never made homemade whip cream before, but based on web search chilled beaters and bowl in freezer 20 min before whipping. Worked like a charm. Also used unflavored gelatin to stabilize the whip cream. Was good looking for next day, plus left overs on day 2. I made recipe as is, in 9 X 13 inch pan to send to school, my oven is fussy but I baked 20-25 minutes (seemed to be about right time for size of pan). It was just enough batter for cake to be good size at serving time. May have helped with soaking up milk too. I will verify this can all be made the night before, with excellent results. I have never had this but liked it, my daughter’s friends liked it as well. Thanks!!
This recipe also works if you bake two layers instead of one and use the same milk proportions. I recommend starting with the bottom layer first, then place the top layer and put the rest in it.
delicious and I used gluten free flour mix
Great recipe, and easy to make!
Made this for sons birthday… it was delicious… now it’s every ones favorite.. I added regular milk to make is less sweeter instead of whipping cream
Yes