Mely Martínez’s Tres Leches Cake

Mely Martínez’s Tres Leches Cake is adapted from her 2020 cookbook, The Mexican Home Kitchen: Traditional Home-Style Recipes that Capture the Flavors and Memories of Mexico. We reviewed the book in September 2020.

When we interviewed Martínez in September 2020 on the occasion of the book’s publication, she told us that this cake is one of her favorite recipes in the book. It’s a denser version than most tres leches cakes (it’s not a sponge cake), and requires an overnight rest for the tres leches — condensed milk, evaporated milk and heavy cream or media crema — to soak in properly. The result, topped with vanilla whipped cream, is super luscious. “It’s worth the wait,” she said. “My son and I ate it in two days.”

Makes 12 servings.

Ingredients

For the cake

1 stick unsalted butter, melted and cooled, plus more for preparing the pan

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour, sifted, plus more for preparing the pan

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

5 large eggs

1 cup sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Milk Mixture

1 can (14 ounces) condensed milk

1 can (12 ounces) evaporated milk

1 cup heavy whipping cream

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

For the Whipped Cream Topping

1 1/2 cups heavy whipping cream

1/4 cup superfine sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

For garnishing and to serve

Slices of fresh fruit, like peaches, mangos, strawberries, etc.

Instructions

1. With the rack in the middle position, heat the oven to 325 degrees F. Butter and flour a 13-inch X 9-inch baking pan and set aside.

2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt; set aside.

3. In a large mixing bowl, use a hand mixer on medium speed to beat the eggs, one by one, beating for 45 to 60 seconds before adding the next egg. Once you’ve beaten the last egg 45 to 60 seconds, gradually add the sugar, beating until it is fully incorporated. The mixture will be fluffy and pale yellow.

4. Reducing the speed of the mixer to low, slowly add the melted butter, little by little, followed by the vanilla extract. Remove the mixer.

5. Add the flour mixture to the egg mixture a spoonful at a time, folding each addition in gently with a rubber spatula. Mix until well combined, but don’t overmix the batter. Pour the batter into the prepared pan, and use the spatula to spread it evenly.

6. Bake for 30 to 40 minutes, or until the cake looks light golden and a toothpick inserted into its center comes out clean. Remove from the oven and transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Poke holes all over the top of the cake using a toothpick, skewer or fork; these will help the cake absorb the moisture better.

7. To make the milk mixture, in a medium saucepan, whisk together the condensed and evaporated milks and the heavy cream. Stir in the vanilla extract, then warm the ingredients over low heat till the mixture is warm. Remove from the heat and set aside.

8. Once the cake has cooled, slowly pour the milk mixture evenly over the cake. Cover the pan with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight, so the cake has time to thoroughly absorb the mixture.

9. To make the whipped cream topping, place the heavy cream, superfine sugar and vanilla in a cold large bowl. Using a hand mixer on medium speed, mix the ingredients until soft peaks form, about 2 minutes.

10. Spread the whipped-cream topping evening over the cake with a spatula. Keep refrigerated until ready to eat. Decorate with the sliced fruit just before slicing and serving.

Recipe notes

• For the milk mixture, the original recipe called for either heavy whipping cream or media crema canned table cream. We used heavy whipping cream.

• The original recipe suggested refrigerating 6 to 8 hours, or overnight, “for best results” to let the milk mixture soak in. We were hoping to add the whipped cream topping and serve it after 6 hours, but the milk mixture had only absorbed about 75% at that point. By the morning, it was completely absorbed, so we changed the directions to require overnight soaking. If you poured it on at midnight, though, hoping to finish constructing the cake at 8 a.m., it would likely need a bit more time.

• The original recipe called for 1 1/4 cups whipping cream to make the topping. We wished we had a wee bit more, so upped it 1/4 cup. We did not up the sugar proportionally, as the cake itself is very sweet. In fact, we loved eating a slice of the cake topped with completely unsweetened cream when we tried that.