You may substitute heavy cream for milk if desired.

Tres leches cake has three layers: a moist yellow cake soaked in a mixture of three different types of milk, which keeps the cake moist and creates a delicious, creamy texture.

Traditional tres leches is not gluten free. The yellow cake layers are made with flour, whole milk, butter or margarine, sugar, baking powder or baking soda, and eggs. If you want to make a gluten free version of tres leches, we recommend using a gluten-free yellow cake mix and substituting canned coconut milk for the whole milk and heavy cream.

No worries! If you don’t have whole milk on hand, use whatever type of milk you do have. You can substitute 2% or skim milk in the cake batter, and coconut milk for the soaking mixture (just make sure to adjust the amount depending on whether you want a more subtle or stronger coconut flavor).

Yes! You can use a yellow or white box mix, but we recommend adding the amount of milk called for on the side of the box and omitting any additional liquid (such as vegetable oil). Knead this into your prepared batter, and bake according to the instructions on the box.

You may substitute evaporated milk for heavy cream or whole milk if desired.

Do you mean make it “sweat” with condensation while cooling? This is a sign that the sugar in the cake has not been fully dissolved during baking, which will result in moisture accumulating on the surface of the finished cake. You can fix this by continuing to bake or broil your cake until it’s significantly darker and caramelized around the sides.

The most important part of a good tres leches cake is the sogginess factor. You want to have a very wet cake so that when you cut into it, all the pieces cling together with thick sweet milk syrup. The cake itself should not be soggy, but rather saturated with three kinds of milk . It’s more of a “dry” sogginess than a “wet” sogginess. If you prefer your cake to be more on the dry side, reduce the soaking time by 10 minutes and experiment with less milk in the soaking mixture.

It is safe to leave tres leches cake out for up to 24 hours. Try to keep it away from direct heat and sunlight, since that may dry it out. You can also store it in the fridge or freezer– just make sure you wrap it tightly with plastic wrap first!

You can do almost anything with tres leches cake! Try topping it with whipped cream and berries, or fresh mango and passionfruit. You can also just dust it with powdered sugar.