This easy tres leches cake is a cloud-like sponge cake soaked in three kinds of milk, giving it a rich, creamy texture that melts in your mouth with every bite! Made with a box of cake mix and a hearty dose of cinnamon, it’s the perfect make-ahead dessert that is surprisingly simple to whip up.
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Why I Love This Easy Tres Leches Cake Recipe
This tres leches cake is one of those recipes that feels like a little piece of home. My love for this cake started back in Texas, where every family gathering seemed to end with a slice of this rich, creamy dessert. Then I met Jorge and he told me all about his Abuela’s homemade tres leches cake. We make both versions often, but I maybe just a little more partial to this version as it’s just so dang easy to whip together! Here’s why I think you will love this easy tres leches cake recipe:
- Creamy and moist: The texture is out of this world—light and airy yet wonderfully creamy. It’s the perfect balance that makes each slice feel indulgent, but not too rich at the same time.
- Simple to make: I love that it’s made in just one bowl with a whisk and a box of cake mix, minimizing the mess in the kitchen.
- Make ahead: The cake holds up well in the fridge, making it a great make-ahead dessert for a party. In fact, it tastes even better the next day after the flavors have had time to meld together.
- Customizable: It’s a versatile dessert that can be dressed up with fresh fruit, a dusting of cinnamon, or even a splash of rum for an extra kick.
What Is Tres Leches Cake?
Tres leches is Spanish for “three kinds of milk,” or “three milks.” This is a reference to the trio of evaporated milk, sweetened condensed milk, and heavy cream that the cake is drenched in. This takes the cake from a simple sheet cake to an ultra-creamy, ultra-moist chilled dessert like no other!
Key Ingredients
Below you will find helpful notes for key ingredients used to make this recipe for tres leches cake. Scroll down to the recipe card below for the full ingredient list and exact amounts!
- Yellow Cake Mix: A box of yellow cake mix forms the base of the cake batter. Vanilla cake mix or plain white cake mix will also work.
- Instant Pudding Mix: Vanilla pudding mix is a classic mix-in for boxed cake mix, adding moisture and richness without making the cake heavy. You can leave this out if you prefer.
- Sour Cream: This keeps the cake soft and moist, plain or vanilla yogurt will also work.
- Sweetened Condensed Milk: Do not skip or swap this ingredient, it is a must use for the proper sweetness and texture!
- Evaporated Milk: While you can use whole milk instead, this canned milk is a little thicker and works perfectly in a tres leches cake.
- Heavy Cream: You can use half and half instead, but your cake will not be as rich and creamy.
- Cool Whip: Refrigerated whipped topping will last longer than homemade whip cream without breaking down. See my notes in the tips section below on how to use homemade whipped cream instead!
How to Make Tres Leches Cake
One of the best things about making this easy tres leches cake recipe is that it takes very little time to pull together! Most of the time is hands-off, while the cake bakes or chills. Traditional recipes with an egg-based sponge cake take a lot longer, making this a true shortcut recipe. Below is a quick recipe overview, but please scroll to the recipe card at the bottom of this post for full instructions and to watch the step-by-step video.
- Dry Ingredients: Place the cake mix, vanilla pudding mix and cinnamon into a large mixing bowl, and give it a quick whisk to combine.
- Add the wet ingredients: Add in the eggs, water, milk, oil, sour cream, and vanilla to the mixing bowl along with the dry ingredients. Whisk it all together just until it is smoothly combined. Do not overmix, or the cake texture will suffer.
- Bake the cake: Pour the cake batter into the prepared baking pan, and smooth out the top with a spatula. Bake the cake for 25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean, or with a couple of moist crumbs clinging to it.
- Poke holes in cake: Use a skewer or toothpick and poke holes all over the top of the warm cake.
- Top with milks: Pour the sweetened condensed milk over the entire surface of the cake, spreading it to the edges, and allowing it to fully soak in. Repeat this process with the evaporated milk, and then the heavy cream.
- Chill the cake: Cover the soaked cake with plastic wrap or foil, and let it chill in the fridge to for at least 4 hours, or up to 24 hours.
- Frost and enjoy: When you are ready to serve your cake, spread the whipped topping over the top of the cake, and sprinkle with a thin layer of cinnamon. Slice and serve!
Chef’s Tips and Variations
- Mixing Instructions: Be sure to not over-mix the cake. Mix the ingredients well until you get a smooth mixture, but don’t continue to mix after that. This way, it won’t turn crumbly or rubbery.
- Soften the Cool Whip: Make sure to pull the cool whip out of the freezer about 30 minutes before using it, so that it will be soft enough to spread. If the cool whip isn’t softened, it will be difficult to top the cake properly.
- Use Homemade Whipped Cream: Not a cool whip fan? You can frost this cake right before serving it with homemade whipped cream. Or stabilize your homemade whipped cream by melting 2 teaspoons of powdered gelatin into 2 tablespoons of water in the microwave for 30 seconds. Let it cool for a minute, then beat it into your whipped cream to stabilize it. This will keep it from breaking down and becoming water-y over time.
- Serve Cold: Be sure to serve this cake chilled. When the cake is cold, it will hold as much of the milk as possible, rather than turning soggy or leaking the milk out.
- Add Fruit: If you want to add a fruity twist, garnish the cake with fresh berries or slices of tropical fruit like mango or pineapple. Sliced strawberries are a personal favorite in my family!
Easy Tres Leches Cake
Ingredients
For the Cake
- 1 (14.25 oz) box yellow cake mix
- 1 (3.4 oz) package instant vanilla pudding mix
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 3 large eggs
- ½ cup whole milk
- ½ cup vegetable oil
- ⅓ cup water
- ¼ cup sour cream
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
For the Topping
- 1 (14 oz) can sweetened condensed milk
- 1 (12 oz) can evaporated milk
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 16 oz tub cool whip, or homemade whipped cream (see notes)
- Cinnamon, for dusting
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Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. Spray a 9×13 baking pan with non-stick baking spray, set aside.
- Place the cake mix, vanilla pudding mix and cinnamon into a large mixing bowl. Whisk together to combine.
- Add in the remaining ingredients (eggs, water, whole milk, vegetable oil, sour cream and vanilla extract) and whisk together just until combined. Do not overmix.
- Pour the cake batter into the prepared baking pan and smooth out the top with a spatula. Bake for 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean or with moist crumbs. The edges of the cake will be golden brown.
- Once baked, remove the cake from the oven and place onto a cooling rack and cool for 10 minutes. Then, use a skewer, toothpick, or a large fork, to poke a lot of holes into the top of the cake.
- In layers, pour the sweetened condensed milk, evaporated milk and heavy cream over the entire surface of the cake. Be sure to spread the milks to the edges of the cake and let them soak in before adding the next layer.
- Cover cake with saran wrap or foil and place the cake in the fridge to continue soaking in the milk and chill for at least 4 hours, or up to 24 hours.
- When ready to serve, spread the cool whip over the top of the cake and sprinkle with a thin layer of cinnamon. Slice and serve.
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Notes
Nutrition
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An easy to make cake. Absolutely delicious!
How many servings is this recipe for?
Hi Michelle! The yield for every recipe is listed in the recipe card right above the name. For this cake, it makes a 9×13 cake, which serves on average 12 good size slices. You could of course serve more with smaller sizes if desired!
I need to remove from pan and decorate as a birthday cake. Would this cake be too soggy to bake as a 2-layer cake and stack to decorate? Thank you!
Hi Jan, I do not recommend trying that with this cake, it will not hold up well at all to becoming a layer cake!
Not sure if I did something wrong. The cake came out very running. Like dripping. Flavor is still good but my family doesn’t like soggy bread/cake 🙁 Any suggestions on what I might have done wrong?
Hi Jennifer! Do you mean the cake batter or baked cake? Or do you mean it was very runny after adding the milks? Tres leches cake is a wet, soaked cake, so it will be wet!
Could I cook the cake the day before and put the milks on the next day? Or would you do it at the same time?
Hi Brittany! You want to add the milks while the cake is warm so they can soak in. Also, a tres leches cake is best after it’s soaked for a little while, so it’s better to do it the day before. Hope this helps!
When you say pour the milks in layers what do you mean? I thought I was to mix all 3 of the milks together
Hi Cathy! The milks won’t really mix together all that easily as they are different textures. What I mean is to pour on the first milk, the sweetened condensed milk, let it absorb for a little (like a minute). Then pour on the second milk, evaporated milk, then pour on the third milk, the heavy cream. The order does not matter, but just know the sweetened condensed milk will take the longest to soak into the top as it’s thicker! Hope this helps!
Can I use lactose free milk instead of whole milk?
Yes!
I wonder if this recipe will work in a bundt pan?
You can try it, it will bake up in the bundt cake pan, but it will be difficult soaking it in all the milks and then serving.
How would you just the recipe to do cupcakes for a large crowd? Its a taco bar menu and this would be a great dessert!
Tres leches cake sadly doesn’t work well as cupcakes. It’s way too messy with the milks. Instead, you could make them in small mini aluminum cake pans and do them that way… Or what I have done in the past for single grab servings is to bake the cake in a 9×13 as directed. I add the milks, but I do not add the whipped cream on top. Instead, I slice the cake into pieces and move it to small plastic clear cups. Then top it with the whipped cream. Hope this helps!
Can I cook the cake in the fridge as soon as it comes out of the oven to help it cool quicker?
Hi Crystal, yes you can, just be careful doing that as it can rise the heat in your fridge making it an unsafe temperature for your other foods. I recommend waiting at least 20 minutes before putting the hot cake into your fridge.
Absolutely delicious
Can you tell me how much milk you put in the cake mix? And do you add water and milk in the cake mix? A lot of the things you didn’t put how much… just like not know how much sour cream? My daughter said that the reason she doesn’t use Pinterest because nobody gives you the amount of ingredients you add to your recipe.. and it shouldn’t be a guessing game.. very unprofessional and disappointing.. I’m making it tomorrow.. so, I hope you answer my question ASAP… thank you, Sheila Anderson
Hi Sheila, the full recipe ingredients and directions are in the recipe card at the bottom of the post. (In the post I do discuss the ingredients with possibly substitutions to be helpful and hopefully answer any questions to save us all time.) You will see the full ingredients listed there and you can print the recipe by hitting the printer icon button.
You can scroll through the recipe post to get to the recipe card or you can hit the ‘JUMP TO THE RECIPE’ button at the top of the post to be taken directly to the area right above the recipe card. Hope this helps!
This is my second time making it and it’s so delicious and I liked it cause it wasn’t dripping wet! Perfect! And I did cinnamon/sugar mixed sprinkled it over the whipped cream and added the strawberries
Do I use instant vanilla pudding or regular?
Instant!
Sour cream in cake mix? Can you taste the sour cream?
Sour cream is awesome in recipes. It’s also great on chicken and pork chops. Locks in so much moisture.
Nope! Sour cream is actually great in cakes, it adds moisture, but never tastes like sour cream. No one will know sour cream is even in it. 😉
I use coconut milk instead of heavy cream, it’s just gives a different taste but it’s oh so good.
So mine wasn’t near ready in 25 minutes. I would increase time if you have a gas stove
I just had this same problem. I had to let it bake around 15 more minutes. I have an electric stove.
This cake is delightful. I have made it three times. We don’t care for cool whip, however, so I substituted 1 cup of whipping cream with 1/4 cup of powdered sugar, whipped them together and spread on the cake, then sprinkled on the cinnamon.
FANTASTIC recipe!!! So creamy and light! Thank u! Michelle
Wonderful recipe! I didn’t have vanilla pudding so I used coconut pudding. Fantastic! My husband had two pieces! My son wanted some to take home. Definitely will make again.
A Deiter