Bizcocho Tres Leches (Three Milks Cake)

Several years ago, while visiting Miami Beach, Florida, I was invited to lunch at a friend's grandmother's house.  Lunch was wonderful, consisting of a delicious Cuban sandwich, espresso and this dessert, bizcocho tres leches.  Basically this is a pound cake that is infused with "three milks":  condensed milk, evaporated milk and heavy cream.  It's then finished off with a wonderful whipped topping.

The three types of milk, when combined, give this cake a wonderful rich sweetness.  You'd think after soaking up all this milk that the cake would become soggy or mushy, but instead the cake has a nice bite and moistness to it.

Here's the recipe as it was given to me.  I hope you enjoy it!

Bizcocho Tres Leches (Three Milks Cake)

Cake

2 cups all purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
6 eggs, separated
1 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup whole milk
1 teaspoon vanilla

- Preheat oven to 375° F.
- Grease and flour a 13" x 9" baking pan.
- Combine flour and baking powder and set aside.
- Using an electric mixer, whip egg whites until frothy. 
- Add in granulated sugar and continue mixing until stiff peaks are formed (about 5 - 7 minutes on medium speed).
- Continue mixing and add in one egg yolk at a time until incorporated.
- Add in flour/baking powder mixture and milk.  Alternate by starting and ending with flour/baking powder mixture.
- Add vanilla.
- Pour into a greased and floured 13" x 9" baking pan.  Bake at 375° F for 30 - 35 minutes or until toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
- Remove cake from oven, and cool for 10 minutes.  DO NOT REMOVE FROM PAN.
- Poke holes all over the cake using a fork.  Set aside.

Tres Leches (Three Milks)

1 can (14 ounces) sweetened condensed milk
1 can (12 ounces) evaporated milk
3 cups heavy cream

- Add tres leches to a bowl and stir to combine.
- Place half the milk mixutre in a heavy-bottomed sauce pan and bring to a boil.  Be careful not to scorch, you don't want the sugar in the condensed milk to carmelize or burn.
- Add in the rest of the milk mixture and remove from heat.
- Pour slowly over cake until all absorbed.
- Chill in the refrigerator for at least an hour.

Whipped Topping

1 cup heavy cream
1 cup granulated sugar
juice of 2 small limes, strained

- Combine heavy cream, sugar and lime juice in a bowl and whip until stiff peaks are formed. 
- Spread over top of cake and chill in refrigerator until ready to serve.

*NOTE*

Since I used an 8" round baking pan, I reduced the recipe by one third.  I also baked this at 350° F for 30 minutes.

Serve with strong espresso and enjoy!

Comments

[santos]

hey reid

your version looks great. i have a friend who makes this all the time, but she manages to get it all soggy and ooky. i'll have to slip her this recipe :-)

[Reid]

Hi Santos,

Thanks! =) It took a while for me to get this just right. The cake itself is on the dry side which I guess helps it to soak up the tres leches. Be sure that the tres leches is warm when you pour it over the cake (this makes for easier absorption).

For this picture, the cake was taken out of the refrigerator and cut (after sitting there for a couple of hours). If I had let the cake warm up to room temperature, you would have seen a little pool of tres leches forming at the base of the cake, which is how I normally serve it (you can see just a tiny bit in the picture).

[karen]

what a find! i've been on the constant search for a good tres leches cake recipe. bandera restaurant (locations here and there throughout the mainland) used to serve a fabulous one for dessert. tks for posting this. i'll give it a try.

[Reid]

Hi Karen,

Thanks for stopping by the blog. This recipe is from my friend's 73 year old Cuban grandmother, so I was very pleased to get this from her. It was a find for me as well (especially since it was a tried and tested recipe!). After you've made it, I'd like to know how it turned out for you.

[sarah]

omg.

reid, that cake looks sooooo good - with that little bit of milk syrup weeping out of the bottom. i posted about tres leches i just recently had at a restaurant, and the stef posted a comment with a link to hers, and here i am looking at your cake.

i CANNOT wait until my sister's wedding is over and i can bake and eat again like a normal (crazy) person.

[Reid]

Hi Sarah,

Thank you! =)

If you let it sit for a while longer than I did, a nice pool of milk forms at the bottom of the cake. That's really why I like this recipe. The cake ends up so moist, so dense and so sweet! I guess that's why there's lime juice in the topping too, to balance it out a little.

[Sonia]

I too make a great pastel de tres leches. You can see the one I made as a dessert for our Christmas Eve dinner
http://www.soniatasteshawaii.com/2006/12/our_christmas_e.html

[Marie]

A fellow cheer parent of ours made this for our tailgates at the football games and it was a Super Hit!!! I was wondersing, can I make it a couple of days in advance of the time I need it for and it still taste excellent?

[kristen]

have you ever made this with coconut milk as one of the milks? I want to make one for a cinco de mayo birthday, (even though that's not cuban...), and the idea of coconut milk/cream interests me...