Pastel de Tres Leches for Mother’s Day

Click here to go to printable recipe: Three-Milk Cake – Pastel de tres leches 

Mother’s Day is a very important holiday in Mexico, when many people gather together to celebrate their mothers, grandmothers and any other motherly figures in their extended families.  Traditionally celebrated on May 10 in Mexico, Mother’s Day is observed in Canada and The US on the second Sunday of May (May 12 in 2024).   In Mexico, there are always festive parties with lots of relatives and friends, often at restaurants, especially if May 10 is on a weekday. 

I published a post in 2020, during the COVID 19 pandemic, called A Mother’s Day Treat – Pastel de Tres Leches (May 9, 2020), to bake and safely celebrate Mother’s Day at home. Since then, my recipe for Pastel de tres leches (three-milk cake) has received lots of good reviews and has been reported very successful by a couple of readers who have tried making it, so I thought it would be nice to share the recipe again this year.

Pastel de tres leches – Three-milk Cake, is a traditional dessert originally from the Mexican state of Guerrero (according to Susanna Palazuelos et al in “Mexico, The Beautiful Cookbook”, 1991).  It was often served at tea/coffee afternoon gatherings in Mexico, and became a trendy choice for wedding cakes in the late 1980s, as well.  Nowadays, it is a popular item in Mexican bakeries and dessert menus at many Mexican restaurants around the World.  The name comes from the mix poured over the cake after baking, a runny and sweet sauce made with evaporated milk, condensed milk and cow’s milk (or cream). In the original recipe, the cake was decorated with a meringue-type royal icing, but to avoid the use of raw eggs, the perfunctory choice is now whipped cream.

Many recipes call for separating egg yolks and whites, beating the latter to add air to the batter, or pricking of the cake after baking, to improve absorption of the sauce; there are also often extra flavourings or toppings. Here, I am sharing a classic recipe, with the tres leches sauce as defined by its name, with no extras, and a cake batter that requires no separation of egg yolks and whites, while still baking into a spongy and porous cake, and allowing the sweet sauce to be soaked in and impart all its flavour, with no pricking involved.

Three-Milk Cake – Pastel de tres leches

Printable recipe: Three-Milk Cake

Ingredients

Cake
7 eggs
1 cup sugar
1 ½ cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/3 cup milk
2 tsp vanilla

Sweet Sauce
1 can (354 ml, 12 fl. oz) evaporated milk
1 can (396 g, 14 oz) condensed milk
½ cup whipping cream (35% M.F.)

Icing
2 cups whipping cream (chilled)
½ cup  powdered (icing) sugar
1 tsp vanilla

Gather ingredients for the cake, allowing the eggs and milk to reach room temperature:

Meanwhile, prepare a 9-inch round springform cake mould by greasing with oil and lining the bottom with parchment paper; set aside.

Once the eggs have reached room temperature, pre-heat oven to 350°F (180°C).  Crack the eggs into a large mixing bowl, and beat with the sugar using an electric mixer, at medium speed, until the sugar dissolves.  Increase the speed to high and mix for ten to twelve minutes, until very firm and fluffy (the batter should stay on the beaters when lifted.)  Place flour in a fine-meshed colander; sprinkle baking powder on top, then sift onto the egg mix in three batches, alternating with half the milk and vanilla for the first two, mixing at low speed.  Finish folding the last batch of sifted flour mix with a spatula (photo below, left).  Once uniformly mixed onto an airy batter, pour into prepared mould (photo below, right):

Bake in the oven for 35 to 45 minutes, until a toothpick comes clean after inserting in the middle of the cake.  Remove from the oven  and set on a cooling rack for a few minutes.  Meanwhile, prepare sweet sauce by mixing all ingredients together; set aside.  Loosen up edge from the cake mould carefully with a spatula (photo below, left).  Open springform mould and remove ring; peel parchment paper off the bottom, and transfer cake from mould base to a rimmed serving plate.  Allow cake to cool down to room temperature, then slice a very thin layer off the top, just enough to expose the spongy texture, and pour reserved sauce over the whole top surface (photo below, right):

Cover cake with plastic wrap or foil, and allow to rest in the fridge, soaking in and absorbing the sauce, for at least three hours, or overnight.

Before decorating, if there is any liquid around the cake, pour back over the top. To finish the cake, beat whipping cream until it forms peaks; add vanilla and sugar, and continue beating until a nice firm icing is achieved.  Spread on sides and top of the chilled cake, to coat:

When this cake is sliced, the porous, deliciously spongy texture of the cake is revealed, oozing tres leches sauce sweetness:

This is a classic tres leches cake.  The neutral colour scheme of course leaves a lot of room for variations; as I mentioned before, many recipes call for extra flavourings or toppings, such as slices of seasonal fruit, chocolate shavings, or a drizzle of caramel or fudge. 

This cake will be a delightful treat for Mother’s Day, on May 10 in Mexico, or the second Sunday of May in other countries (May 12, 2024). Do you celebrate Mother’s Day? When is it celebrated where you live? My daughters are working in different Canadian cities this year, so we will not get together for Mother’s Day, but my husband and I are in Chicago, IL, in the US, this week; this city has a very important Mexican influence, so we will try to find a good pastel de tres leches on Friday or Sunday, and I am sure I will have many stories and recipes to share in the coming weeks.

Happy Mother’s Day!  ¡Feliz Día de las Madres!

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