Coconut Tres Leches Cake
TIME/SERVINGS
Total: 1 hr 15 mins, plus 8 hours for soaking
Active: 25 mins
Makes: 12 servings
By Regan Burns
This supereasy cake, soaked with a milky mixture laced with dark rum and coconut milk, is one of our most popular recipes. We’ve tested it at several parties and have yet to take home anything but an empty baking dish and a whole bunch of recipe requests. So here it is! Be sure to make it well before you want to serve it—the longer it sits, the better it gets. And don’t skip the toasted coconut!
This recipe was featured in our Build Your Own Burrito Bar story.
- 6 large eggs
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 (14-ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
- 2/3 cup evaporated milk (not nonfat)
- 1/2 cup unsweetened canned coconut milk
- 1 tablespoon dark rum, such as Myers’s
- 1 cup sweetened flaked coconut
- 1 1/2 cups heavy cream
- 1 tablespoon powdered sugar
- Heat oven to 325°F. Butter a 13-by-9-inch glass baking dish. Separate eggs, and place yolks in a large mixing bowl. Reserve whites in a separate mixing bowl.
- Add sugar to yolks, and beat on high speed with an electric mixer until pale yellow and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Clean beaters, and whip egg whites to medium peaks, about 1 1/2 minutes.
- Using a rubber spatula, stir about 1/3 of the egg whites into the yolk mixture to lighten it. Then gently fold in remaining whites.
- Whisk flour with a dry whisk to aerate and break up any lumps, then sprinkle it over egg mixture. Use a rubber spatula to gently fold flour into egg mixture, just until there are no more white flour streaks. Don’t overmix.
- Pour batter into the buttered baking dish, and bake until cake is puffed and golden and the edges pull away from the sides of the pan, about 20 to 25 minutes.
- Remove cake from the oven and place on a wire cooling rack. With a toothpick, poke holes all over the cake. Allow to cool for 15 minutes.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together three milks and rum, and pour mixture evenly over cake. Continue cooling cake, about 45 minutes more, then cover tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 4 hours or overnight.
- For toasted coconut, heat a large frying pan over medium heat. Add coconut and spread it in an even layer. Cook, stirring often, until coconut is lightly toasted and browned. If coconut begins to burn, reduce heat. Remove from the pan immediately.
- To serve the cake, whip heavy cream and powdered sugar to medium peaks. (If you like, flavor it with a teaspoon of dark rum.) Top each cake slice with a mound of whipped cream, and garnish with toasted coconut.
COMMENTS | ADD YOUR OWN
No you didn't...
You added coconut to our most treasured cake. How dare you!!!
yum. I made it tonight but ommited the coconut. The cake body came out perfect. The tres leches addition was good, but a tad bit too much. The second time around I'd cut down milk mix in half but keep the original rum (I used flor de cana 12 anos--delicious). Suerte todos!
You take this cake to a party, and everybody starts murmuring, "who made this cake?" I'm kidding you - this cake is AMAZING.
I reduced the sugar in the cake to 1/2 cup. When I tasted the milk mixture, I added a tad more rum. Perfecto! This is a great cake for guests as it looks so innocent.
Any reason why step #2 has us beat the yolks before beating the whites? By doing it in the opposite order, I saved a step (washing the beaters).
Beating the yolks and sugar together adds more volume to the cake. It's a classic step of sponge cake-making.
Oh, I see that I misunderstood your question, eefoodgeek. The only reason why the order might matter is that since there's no sugar stabilizing the egg whites, they might lose a little volume while they sit; I'm glad to hear you had no problems.
This recipe is amazing! Even the guys who generally don't like dessert were raving about it. From reading the recipe, I was afraid it would be too sweet, but it wasn't.
Made this cake and everyone loved it. It didn't really come out like a cake though - it was more of a pudding. Didn't stop anyone from gobbling it up, but I think next time I'll cut down on the milk mixture as well.
I only have light rum (the transparent kind). Is that OK to use?
sjb: light rum should work just fine. It doesn't have that caramel-y flavor that the dark rum has, but I still think it will be good! Let us know how it turns out.
Could I substitute the rum with something else?
Looks great (like a Mexican tiramasu?)
Question: can I sweeten dried coconut myself? How would I do that?
thanks.
You can just use the unsweetened stuff instead. I prefer it that way myself. If desired, make up for the lost sweetness by adding more sugar to the whipped cream, but again, not necessary.
To serve: Slice the cake into pieces about 1-inch thick. Melt better in a frying pan. Saute cake on both sides (as per French Toast). Serve warm with whipped cream and toasted coconut. Delicious!
Sounds good... its surprisingly difficult to come across a 3 Leches recipe that actually works... so this is getting flagged.
Has anyone ever tried this with store bought cake?
I just made this last night at it was a complete hit. Everyone was saying mmmmmm while eating it. Little Cupcake you are right, the guys, especially my husband who generally does not like sweets was so into it. I thought the milk mixture was perfect. And sjb7501 I used light rum and it turned out just fine. Mayamoo, I would like trying this on a store bought cake or even a homemade yellow or vanilla cake. Personally I wasn't so into the spongyness and eggy-ness of the cake. But luckily my guests were. Lastly, I skipped out on the toasted coconut. I didn't think it really needed it. All around a winner and a repeat.
This recipe with the omission of the powdered sugar is the Puerto Rican version of Tres Leches. It’s a wonderful recipe a big hit with all coconut lovers. Thanks for sharing great job.
I'm thinking of making this for a 1-year-old's birthday party without the rum, of course. Will omitting the booze make this cake significantly less tasty?
yumyumyogi, just use a teaspoon of vanilla extract instead of the tablespoon of rum, and you'll be fine.
This is my most favorite cake. Ever. My SO doesn't like coconut so I have to eat the whole thing myself. Tragic, I know.
Gosh, I must be crazy....seems like everyone likes this cake except me... I found it to be way to "wet"... my guests didn't enjoy it either. I bake quite a bit, so I know I followed the directions correctly. Sorry!
We loved this cake, reduced the liquid by about 25% and increased the rum to 2T. based on the reviews. The toasted coconut on top is what elevates it from bland to great.
This cake was amazing!
Brought it to Easter and had to fight my family to bring the leftovers home.
I seriously wanted to lick the pan when it was gone.
I made the cake for Easter and it was a hit. The whipped cream cut the sweetness of the cake a bit, which was a good thing, and the coconut added another layer of flavor and texture. Everybody loved it.
I made this with unsweetened coconut this past weekend, and it was a hit! Super-moist and not too sweet. A tasty low-key dessert.
I was looking for a LAO dessert and this one came up. Is this dessert from Laos?
I loooove tres leches cake. I dont like things too sweet in general, so I only add about 1/4 cup of sugar (the sw/cond milk makes up for it!!!) and use unsweetened coconut (when I use it). Also, I cant have egg yolks, so I add a bit of butter (so its still moist) and just use the whites. Muy delicioso!
I'm comparing tres leches recipes for upcoming work event and wonder what the benefit is of making the cake part without baking powder or liquid besides eggs - some other recipes also have cream of tartar (for the stiff egg whites?). I love the thought of coconut milk in this one, which makes me lean towards it...
science/theory lesson, anyone?
kristenmarthabrown, whenever you've got a cake that's going to take a <i>serious</i> soaking, whether with boozy/fruity syrup or the milks of <i>tres leches</i>, you want to use a genoise/sponge/chiffon (different names for the same general idea) base rather than the classic "American" butter cake (which gets its leavening from baking powder as well as egg). Any tres leches cake that starts out with a butter cake base is going to end up leaden and icky rather than delightfully moist.
You're dead-on with the cream of tartar-- it's there to help the egg whites keep their structure.
Essentially, any recipe that calls for either whipping the egg whites separately OR beating (many) whole eggs ON HIGH SPEED with the sugar for 8-10 minutes until the mixture is greatly increased in volume, then folding in the dry ingredients (genoise technique), will do you proud.
Does that help, or did I just confuse you further?
it totally helps, and i suspected as much! thanks.
I will make this heeding suggestions of less sugar and
i'm considering serving it with rummy carmelized bananas - any chow opinions on that?
I made this cake this weekend for a "tres de mayo" party. It was very simple and the results were spectacular. For the cake I did everything exactly as the recipe stated. I did have to bake it for a few extra minutes. I toasted the coconut- ( I find sweetened coconut to be too sticky sweet but toasting eliminated that problem-). I doubled the whipped cream with only half of the sugar- I was thinking maybe of adding more rum to the cream next time but I personally think that would take away from the other flavors- I plated slices individually w/ a generous amount of cream and coconut on top- BIG HIT!! I would highly recommend this cake! Thank you for the recipe!
OHHH YEAH BABY! I was looking for a dessert to serve for my book club friends, and wanteda mexican theme to compliment the book and meal.This cake is really, really easy and muy delicio-so! Made it exactlly as the recipe specified, except mine required a longer bake time. (Chalk that up to a oven differences.) The cake is not too sweet, which is usually my complaint about tres leches. The addition of coconut milk is sheer genius. Used Cruzan Black Strap rum which added a beautiful depth of flavor. The toasted coconut adds a nice texture with the creamy goodness of the cake and whipped creme. My only caveat... my 10 year old didn't like it. Okay, more for me!
i'm curious - what was the book?
I'm planning a Mexican dinner on December 27. I made a tres leches cake years ago in a Mexican cooking class, but I've lost my recipe. I think this is the one I'll use - it looks great!
This turned out great - there were 10 of us at dinner and every bit of it was eaten. I followed the recipe more or less exactly. I made it late the night before, so it was refrigerated almost 24 hours. I will definitely make this again.
Tres Leche is always a winner. It is not only a Mexican dish, but also almost all Spanish countries serve this dish. Most people, when they think of Spanish, Mexico comes to mind.. Just remember that there are Spanish countries in all Central and almost all South America. This dish is servied in Mexico and also in almost every Spanish country, including the Carribean islands, such as Cuba, Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico. It isn't just a Mexican, it's a... latin dish. And it's always a favorite by all. Enjoy!
This is my boyfriend's fav. Too sweet 4 me, but curious if anyone has used fresh coconut & milk? Without the sticky bagged coconut, it might be a bit less sweet but coconuttier?
VERY excited to try this. Made a coconutcake for Easter supper... and it was too dry for my taste. (though everyone else seemed to find it ok) THIS looks yummy!
My mouth is drooling right now....
My mouth is drooling right now....
Peru has thier own version of this cake that is flavored with lime zest (2 limes) and a little cinnamon (1 - 2 tsps) then the soaking syrup is made with whole milk in the place of the coconut milk. Also very tasty if you dont like coconut or just want a bit of flavor variation. I've also found that if you beat the whole eggs with the sugar to ribbon stage it produces the same results without seperating the eggs.
This has me floored! It sounds perfect, and i'm going to make it this weekend! Thanks for this gem!
Made this for a pot luck yesterday - no modifications to the recipe and it was a huge hit. I took no chances and when I cut it to serve, I snagged small pieces for DH and myself - good thing too, because the dish was empty pretty quickly. Well, one small modification: rather than slicing it up and then adding the whipped cream and toasted coconut, I just spread the cream on and added the coconut, then cut and away it went.
There was a very large crowd at this potluck and there were many desserts so I was quite pleased that this was a hit. Plus, I'm not much of a baker and it was not at all difficult... Not too sweet IMHO and it will definitely have a permanent spot in my recipe file...
For May Day, this was served in individual plastic cups - and I didn't have to bring home the empty 9x13" baking dish... just as easy and good as everyone has testified.
With leftover evaporated milk and coconut milk in the refrigerator after making the Coconut Tres Leches cake for the May Day Celebration - I made this today for Mother's Day tomorrow - because it was EASY and COCONUT. It's the crazy coconut pie: In the blender, mix 4 large eggs, 2 cups of milk (I substituted the remainder evaporated milk and the coconut milk to make 2 cups-adding just a small amount of water to make the 2 cups), 1-1/2 tsp. vanilla, 1/2 cup all-purpose flour, 1-1/2 cups sugar, 6 Tablespoons of softened butter - Pour this mixture into a well-buttered deep dish glass or ceramic pie plate - Sprinkle with one cup of toasted coconut - Bake at 350°F for 45 to 55 minutes or until firm. Let cool. It's like a coconut custard pie without the crust. Personally - I'd reduce the sugar to one cup - but my DH has a Sweet Tooth and likes the 1-1/2 cups of sugar here.
Good suggestion Cynsa! I will try this next time rather than freezing the left-over coconut milk, etc.
I had tres leches at a restauraunt, and wanted to try and make the original, but saw this recipe and gave it a shot, i'm sure glad i did, it turned out so well!