how to make an eggless tres leches cake recipe?

This Mexican dessert is one of my favorites and today I am sharing an eggless version with you - the eggless tres leches cake recipe. Everyone just loves this airy, moist, melt-in-your-mouth cake. So, I do this quite often, at least once a month, and guess what? It is not too sweet either.

Usually, the sponge is prepared by whipping egg whites separately and then adding them to the rest of the cake batter but today I am going to share an eggless version of it. If you prefer to make it with eggs, simply substitute the sponge and follow the rest of the recipe as instructed. 

What is tres leches cake?

Tres leches cake, also known as three milks cake, originates from Latin American countries and is commonly found in Mexican restaurants. This is made by soaking 3 different types of milk - condensed milk, evaporated milk, and whole milk in the light sponge cake. Some recipes call for heavy cream instead of whole milk.

Why you will love this eggless tres leches cake?

1. It can be prepared ahead of time and it really tastes better the next day.
2. Easy to make with simple pantry ingredients.
3. Excellent for any kind of celebration.
4. Soft, moist, and rich with 3 types of milk.
5. Customizable - you can tweak the topping and make rose tres leches, saffron tres leches, or rasmalai tres leches cake.

How to make eggless tres leches cake recipe - overview?

Let us look at how to create a melt-in-mouth three milk cake - which is a sponge cake soaked in 3 different types of milk.

Sr. No.	Steps
1.	Make eggless sponge cake.
2.	Mix all milk.
3.	Soak the sponge with milk.
4.	Decorate, serve, and enjoy.

The ingredients for this rich and luscious cake are listed below, along with a step-by-step recipe.

Eggless tres leches cake ingredients

Here is a list of all the ingredients we need to make this delicious Latin American dessert. Have a look at the recipe card for the exact measurements.

Sponge cake ingredients 

• Yogurt - Acts as a binding agent, binds all of the ingredients together.

• Baking soda - Reacts with yogurt and helps the cake to rise. 

• All-purpose flour - Adds structure to the cake. Use your favorite brand of all-purpose flour, nothing specific. 

• Corn starch- This is the secret behind our light sponge. Do not skip unless using cake flour.

• Baking powder - Acts as a leavening agent. Make sure it is fresh.

• Salt - Do not skip. Salt always enhances the dessert flavor. Trust me!

• Oil - This recipe needs oil to create a moist cake. The use of butter will harden the cake after refrigerating so I have used oil here.

• Sugar -  Use caster sugar or granulated sugar, both work fine. This adds sweetness and moisture to our sponge.

• Vanilla extract - Use either pure or imitation, depending on your choice or what you have in the pantry.

Tres leches mixture ingredients

• Whole milk - One of the milk, adds rich dairy flavor. You can replace it with 2% milk if that is what you have in the pantry.

• Condensed milk - Adds creaminess and sweetness, another important milk in our three kinds of milk.

• Whipping cream - The last part of our tres leches mixture. Do not worry, it is not too much milk :)

Topping ingredients

• Whipping cream -  Use either heavy whipping cream, or whipping cream, or double cream, all are the same. Just make sure its fat percentage is 35%. I do not recommend using half n half as it will not whip it nicely the way we want to.

• Icing sugar - Either use homemade icing sugar or store-bought, depending on your choice.

• Vanilla extract - Just a half teaspoon will improve the whipped cream topping flavor.

• Raspberries - I am using raspberries because they are in season and available in my pantry today :). I recommend using fresh berries over frozen ones as frozen ones might release water, making the cake soggy. Feel free to use your favorite fruit as a topping or any other from my topping suggestions.

Any substitute?

• Cake flour - You can replace all-purpose flour with cake flour if you have that handy. It is the best. Just skip corn flour in that case. The reason I have mentioned all-purpose flour is it's easily available flour across the world and adding corn flour will make the mixture as DIY cake flour. 

• Cool whip - If you are in a hurry or do not get heavy cream, it is ok to use store-bought cool whip topping.

• Dairy-free - Replace butter and milk with the vegan option to make a dairy-free or vegan tres leches. You can use oat milk, or soy milk, or almond milk, or coconut milk as a replacement.

• Sugar-free - Use a sugar-free alternative, either allulose or monk fruit sweetener to make a sugar-free version.

Tools needed

1. Mixing bowls
2. Measuring cups
3. Measuring spoons
4. Weighing scale
5. Whisk
6. Hand beater
7. Rubber spatula
8. Piping bag and tip
9. Square cake pan (8 x 8)

Eggless tres leches cake (step-by-step) recipe

Eggless sponge cake recipe (step-by-step)

1. Preheat your oven to 350F (180 C) and line up your 8 x 8-inch square pan with parchment paper.

2. Combine yogurt and baking soda in a medium bowl. Mix well with a spoon and keep it aside.

3. In a mixing bowl, sift all the dry ingredients (all-purpose flour, corn starch, baking powder and salt).

4. In a large bowl, combine oil and sugar. Beat using a hand beater on medium speed until light and fluffy. This will take around 4 to 5 minutes.

5. Add in yogurt mixture, vanilla extract, and beat again smooth.

6. Now add the 1/3rd portion of sifted all-purpose flour and corn flour mixture and fold using a rubber spatula until you do not see any strikes of flour. Repeat until the flour is finished.

7. Beat with a hand beater for 2 minutes. Do not overmix at this stage.

8. Transfer the batter to a prepared pan.

9. Bake at 350F (180 C) for 28 to 30 minutes or until the toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Keep a watch on the cake for about 25 minutes, checking it after every 2 minutes. 

10. Perform the toothpick test. If it comes out clean, your eggless sponge is done. Keep it on the kitchen counter or a wire rack. In the meantime, let's prepare the milk mixture to soak the cake.

Soak the vanilla sponge cake

11. Mix evaporated whole milk, and condensed milk in a bowl. Mix it using a whisk and microwave for 40 seconds.

12. Now add heavy cream and mix it again.

13. Transfer the cake in serving dish and using a fork, poke the warm cake halfway through from the top.

14. Set aside 300 ml of the milk mixture and slowly pour the rest over the top of the cake. Our fluffy sponge cake will absorb the milk in a couple of minutes.

15. Cover the pan with cling wrap and refrigerate the soaked cake overnight. If you are in a hurry, store it in the fridge for at least 2 hours. Covering it with cling wrap will save the cake from outside odors. 

Prepare topping and serve

16. In a separate bowl, add whipping cream, icing sugar, and vanilla. Beat using a hand beater until stiff peaks form.

17. Fill in the piping bag fitted with 1M piping tip. Feel free to use any of your favorite piping tips.

Serve

18. After refrigerating, remove the cling wrap.

19. Decorate the top of the cake with whipped cream. Cut into square slices and place on a serving dish.

20. Add some more milk (reserved in step 14) from the sides. Garnish it with raspberries, or strawberries and serve chilled.

How to serve?

Tres leches cake needs to be served chilled. Here I am topping it up with whipped cream and some berries. Below are some of the alternatives I have tried in the past.

1. Fruits - Instead of berries, you can use mangoes or peaches.
2. Chocolate - Drizzle some melted chocolate on top and elevate the cake flavor.
3. Sprinkles - Add a few sprinkles on top and make your tres leches a colorful treat.
4. Nuts - Add finely chopped nuts to whipped cream and give your moist, velvety cake a crunchy bite.
5. Nutella - Drizzle some Nutella just like chocolate and add finely chopped hazelnuts on top.
6. Caramel - One of my favorites :). Drizzle some on top and enjoy.

Watch us making (video)

https://youtu.be/9mYrSaGa7hI

Variations

This base version of eggless tres leches cake tastes better on its own but is very customizable by tweaking just few ingredients.

1. Rose tres leches cake - Reduce the vanilla extract quantity by 1.2 teaspoon and Add rose extract instead. Add a few drops of pink food color to the milk and garnish it with chopped nuts and dried rose petals.
2. Saffron tres leches cake - Just add a few strands of saffron to the milk before heating it to make saffron milk. Garnish the cake with a few more strands on top of whipping cream.
3. Chocolate tres leches cake - Replace 120 gms of all-purpose flour with 30 gms of cocoa powder and 90 gms of all-purpose flour.  Garnish it with cocoa powder on top of whipping cream.

Storing and freezing instructions for eggless tres leches cake recipe

This is the perfect make-ahead dessert that can be prepared a day before and stored in the refrigerator. 

Storing instructions

This needs to be stored in the refrigerator as it tastes best when served chilled or I would say, that is how it is served. You can store just the soaked cake or decorated cake. Ensure that you store it in an airtight container or a baked tin wrapped with cling wrap. It can last up to 5 days.

Freezing instructions

If you want to freeze the cake, I highly recommend freezing the plain sponge cake over the soaked or frosted one. To freeze the plain cake, allow the cake to cool down completely, and then tightly cover it with plastic wrap and aluminum foil. It stays ok for up to 2 months.

Thawing instructions

When you want to make the cake, thaw the sponge overnight in the refrigerator first., then, soak it with three milks and garnish with your favorite topping right before serving.

Secret tips to make eggless tres leches cake recipe

• Prepare the tin - Either use the parchment paper or grease the baking pan with butter and flour to prevent the cake from sticking. 

• Choose the correct flour - I do not recommend replacing all-purpose flour with whole wheat flour as whole wheat flour contains more gluten than all-purpose flour. More gluten means dense cake and dense cake means difficult to soak. Also, do not forget to use corn flour.

• Room temperature ingredients - Always use room temperature ingredients while making any cake and this is no different. They emulsify with each other nicely, creating a smooth batter.

• Do not overmix - While mixing the flour, please use a rubber spatula and fold the flour with your hands. Overmixing will form more gluten, making the tough cake, difficult to soak the milk.

• Do not poke till the end - Make sure you are just poking the cake halfway. If you poke it all the way to the bottom, the milk mixture will collect there, producing a soggy bottom.

• Chill the cake - Once it is soaked with milk, do not forget to refrigerate for at least 4 to 5 hours. So, Prepare the recipe ahead of time, taking into account the time constraints.

• Use all milk - Do not skip or reduce the quantity of milk. The sponge will absorb it all without becoming soggy.

FAQ's

Can I use a different type of flour? All-purpose flour can only be replaced with cake flour. It will help to create a lighter-textured cake that will absorb the milk.

Do I need to use three types of milk? Yes. Tres leches is nothing but three milk so use them all. You might want to try replacing whole milk with heavy cream or fresh cream for a deeper flavor.  

Can I freeze this cake? I do not recommend freezing the soaked or frosted cake. Instead, freeze a plain eggless sponge.

How to store leftover cake? In case of any leftovers, store the remaining cake in the refrigerator and an airtight container. It stays ok up to 5 days. I do not recommend freezing it afterward as it will become too mushy after defrosting.

Want to try some other desserts?

You might want to try some of my other favorite desserts.

1. The best Marble loaf cake
2. Orange loaf cake
3. Moist vanilla cake
4. Lemon pound cake

Did you make it?

Is there any special occasion coming up? Then bake this moist and yummy eggless tres leche cake and let me know how this turns out for you in the comments! I really love hearing from you, and your feedback is very much important to me.

If you post the eggless tres leches cake recipe to Instagram, make sure to tag me. Tag @DessertKatta or use the Hashtag #DessertKatta

Recipe card