Anna's Tres Leches Cake

"I orignally found this on verybestbaking.com (posted by M.Mauch). My grandmother was looking for an easy recipe for tres leches. This has become one of her most requested cakes. It's very rich, very moist, and very delicious. Serve it cold from the fridge or bring to room temperature before serving. Prep and Cooking times include waiting for the syrup to soak in and chilling the finished cake."
 
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photo by a food.com user photo by a food.com user
Ready In:
3hrs 30mins
Ingredients:
11
Serves:
18-24
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ingredients

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directions

  • Heat oven to 350. Spray 9x13 pan generously with vegetable oil spray.
  • Blend cake mix, pudding mix, whole milk, oil and eggs in a large bowl with an electric mixer on low for 1 minute.
  • Stop mixer and scrape down the sides of the bowl.
  • Increase mixer speed to medium and beat 2 minutes more, scraping the sides of the bowl as needed.
  • Pour batter into prepared pan.
  • Bake for 32 to 34 minutes until golden brown.
  • Remove from oven and cool for 2 hours on wire rack in the pan.
  • After the cake is cooled, poke holes all over the top of the cake with a fork. The more holes the better.
  • Whisk together evaporated and condensed milks, heavy cream, vanilla and rum.
  • Spoon milk syrup mixture over the top of the cake, stopping to allow syrup to soak in each time. Continue until all syrup has been used. It seems like too much, but it's not.
  • Cover cake with plastic wrap and chill for at least 2 hours.
  • Top with whipped topping before serving.

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Reviews

  1. This is my favorite tres leches cake I have tried! I love the shortcut of using the cake mix, and no one can ever tell! I used french vanilla cake mix as was suggested by another user and preferred that to white or yellow cake (I've made it all 3 ways). I used a teaspoon of rum extract in the filling and it is much better with it than without. Used a large tub of cool whip on top on which I put caramel sauce in lines across the cake and pulled a knife through to create a feathered pattern. I make this cake to celebrate a coworkers birthday, All of the men (even ones that don't like sweets) LOVE this cake, it seems to be a guy thing lol!
     
  2. I decided to make two of theses cakes for Thanksgiving dessert, just to have another option besides all of the pies. I used a french vanilla cake mix in place of the yellow. I used 2% milk instead of whole milk. I also made one of the cakes with banana creme pudding flavor and the other with vanilla. Everybody loved both, but the banana was gone much faster. Everybody thought it tasted like nilla wafer banana tres leches cake... My sister has also made this recipe the way that it is shown, and with yellow cake mix it had a thicker (almost egg like) taste. The french vanilla cake mix was lighter in color and also i thought i could taste more of the milks (which was creamier, not heavier) I also used coconut extract in place of the vanilla! wonderful...I would definetly make this again and i think it would be fun to try with different types of pudding just for something different. I did agree with the previous comment about the time. I cooked the cakes individually and cooked them for 45 min before they were done all the way through. All liquid absorbed into the cake just fine. I used only cool whip for topping...
     
  3. This was really tasty! However, I did have some problems. I followed the cake recipe to a T. At 34 minutes, the cake was an inch taller than my pan and still liquid in the middle. I cooked it an additional 15 minutes before the center was done. As the cake cooled, it shrunk to the height of my 9x13 pan, but the edges were slightly overdone. I'm wondering if this is due to all the cake mixes alreading having pudding in them...maybe it's too much pudding with the addition of the mix. I followed recipezaar's substitution of 3/4 cup milk mixed with 1/3 cup of butter for the heavy cream. I don't think I'll ever do that again. It left tiny dots of butter everywhere, spend the money and get the heavy cream. I also couldn't get all the liquid absorbed...it solidified, but didn't all absorb in to the cake. That said, it did taste excellent and I will definitely make it again.
     
  4. This was wonderful. It seems like you have to much liquid when pouring it over the cake, but suprisingly, it all does get absorbed. I toped the cake with berries and a spoonful of whip cream.
     
  5. Lovely cake; I used a smaller can of evaporated milk (all I had) and it was plenty. For the topping I mixed 8oz of whipped topping with 1 box of vanilla pudding mixed with 3/4 cup milk. Will certainly make this regularly. Thank you for posting.
     
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Tweaks

  1. I decided to make two of theses cakes for Thanksgiving dessert, just to have another option besides all of the pies. I used a french vanilla cake mix in place of the yellow. I used 2% milk instead of whole milk. I also made one of the cakes with banana creme pudding flavor and the other with vanilla. Everybody loved both, but the banana was gone much faster. Everybody thought it tasted like nilla wafer banana tres leches cake... My sister has also made this recipe the way that it is shown, and with yellow cake mix it had a thicker (almost egg like) taste. The french vanilla cake mix was lighter in color and also i thought i could taste more of the milks (which was creamier, not heavier) I also used coconut extract in place of the vanilla! wonderful...I would definetly make this again and i think it would be fun to try with different types of pudding just for something different. I did agree with the previous comment about the time. I cooked the cakes individually and cooked them for 45 min before they were done all the way through. All liquid absorbed into the cake just fine. I used only cool whip for topping...
     
  2. This was really tasty! However, I did have some problems. I followed the cake recipe to a T. At 34 minutes, the cake was an inch taller than my pan and still liquid in the middle. I cooked it an additional 15 minutes before the center was done. As the cake cooled, it shrunk to the height of my 9x13 pan, but the edges were slightly overdone. I'm wondering if this is due to all the cake mixes alreading having pudding in them...maybe it's too much pudding with the addition of the mix. I followed recipezaar's substitution of 3/4 cup milk mixed with 1/3 cup of butter for the heavy cream. I don't think I'll ever do that again. It left tiny dots of butter everywhere, spend the money and get the heavy cream. I also couldn't get all the liquid absorbed...it solidified, but didn't all absorb in to the cake. That said, it did taste excellent and I will definitely make it again.
     

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I love to cook, but hate to clean up.
 
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