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    Home » Cakes And Cheesecakes

    March 27, 2023

    Easy No Bake Tres Leches Cake

    Jump to Recipe·Print Recipe

    This wonderfully easy, no bake Tres Leches cake is THE dessert you need on your Ramadan and Eid tables! It tastes like Rus Malai, allows you to enjoy everything the original Tres Leches cake has to offer, but with only 10% of the effort AND only five ingredients! And we all know we don't have the energy for complicated bakes in Ramadan. You won't believe the secret ingredient used to make this cake - keep on reading!

    a baking dish with tres leches cake inside. cake has whipped cream spread on it, and light pink ribbons piped on top. it is decorated with freeze dried strawberries and chopped pistachios
    slice of tres leches cake on a small plate. you can see the moist soaked sponge, and piped pink whipped cream on the top
    Jump to:
    • THE STORY BEHIND THIS RECIPE
    • WHAT YOU WILL NEED
    • HOW TO MAKE THIS NO BAKE TRES LECHES CAKE
    • VARIATIONS
    • FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
    • RELATED
    • EASY NO BAKE TRES LECHES CAKE

    THE STORY BEHIND THIS RECIPE

    We all know Tres Leches cake is one of the most superior cakes - you simply cannot resist the moist, soaked cake covered with light whipped cream. But making Tres Ceches is no easy feat, especially since the sponge cake can be quite technical. I, for one, never enjoy having to whip egg whites separately and then fold them in and be gentle and bla, bla.

    Well, good thing I am solution oriented! When I was doing research for my upcoming cake baking course, I realized that the cake in Tres Leches is made using the same "biscuit" sponge that is used to make ladyfingers. Yes, the same ladyfingers we use in Tiramisu. Mind = blown!

    I could not believe no one had thought of this before (at least not that I could find), it made perfect sense! So I put it to the test and was blown away. This tastes like the real deal! It's so good!

    Oh, and, since I am a sucker for Rus Malai, I added cardamom powder instead of cinnamon powder, and that pretty much does the trick.

    WHAT YOU WILL NEED

    Ingredients

    This easy tres leches cake requires only FIVE ingredients (including an optional one)! Yes - you heard me right. You will find the exact quantities in the recipe card below, but let's do a quick overview here:

    overhead picture of all ingredients required to make tres leches cake: bowl, pan, whisk, ladyfingers, cream, sweetened condensed milk, evaporated milk, and cardamom
    • Evaporated milk: I use Nestle Carnation, which is available everywhere. You will need one 12oz can
    • Sweetened condensed milk: Again, I use Nestle! This makes the three milk mix a bit thicker and sweet, so you don't need sugar. I wish I could use an entire 14oz can to avoid waste, but it is just a bit too sweet for my liking, especially as ladyfingers are already on the sweeter side. So I use about ¾th of the can. Great thing is, you can taste the milk mixture and adjust however you please!
    • Heavy cream: Use any heavy cream you can get your hands on. If you want, you can also just use milk. I always prefer cream as it is a bit thicker and richer. You will also whip up this same heavy cream to decorate the cake at the end!
    • Cardamom powder: I love using Cardamom instead of cinnamon, as it imparts the beautiful Rus Malai flavor to the Tres Leches. But I know cardamom is not everyone's jam. If you definitely don't like it, just use cinnamon, or skip the spice altogether and add a little dash of vanilla. If you are cautiously optimistic about cardamom, add a very small amount and taste first, so you know how much more you want to add
    • Ladyfingers: Use any packaged ladyfingers you can find easily. I use the ones from Savoiardi, which are made in Italy and therefore considered authentic. You will need 2 packs (24 each), though you won't use up all of them.

    The exact quantity of ladyfingers you use will depend on the size of your dish and how soaked you want them to be! If you want the cake to be extra moist, go for about ~36 ladyfingers. It you want it to be just moist but not soggy, you can use up to 40.

    To decorate, I used freeze dried strawberries (freeze dried fruit is so great for decoration! It's dry but tastes great, can be crushed, and adds a wonderful pop of color), and chopped pistachios. But use whatever you want (or don't)!

    Equipment

    In order to make this cake, you will need:

    • A large mixing bowl
    • A hand whisk (or spoon - we don't need to mix much)
    • A serving dish in which you will prepare the cake. I used a 7x11" ceramic serving dish. You can use any shape and size, but just make sure it can fit 36-40 ladyfingers in 2 layers
    • Stand mixer or electric beater to whip cream
    • Spatula to spread cream
    • Piping bag, if piping!

    HOW TO MAKE THIS NO BAKE TRES LECHES CAKE

    Super duper easy - this cake requires <30 minutes of active time and some waiting (cooling) time in between. Check out this video for a tutorial:

    Here is what you will need to do:

    1. Make the three milk (Tres Leches) mix

    Just mix the evaporated milk, sweetened condensed milk, heavy cream, and cardamom powder (optional) in a bowl. If you are adding cardamom, make sure you first add a teeny tiny amount, taste, and then add more if you want. You can use as little as a pinch!

    tres leches milk mixture in a glass bowl with a whisk mixing it

    2. Arrange and soak the first layer of ladyfingers

    Instead of placing all your ladyfingers at once, I suggest doing this in two layers so we can make sure every ladyfinger gets properly soaked. Arrange one layer of ladyfingers in your dish, and make sure to pack them tightly. If you need, cut or trim some ladyfingers to fill any gaps.

    hand is stacking ladyfingers in a rectangle ceramic dish side by side
    one layer of tightly packed ladyfingers covering the base of a ceramic serving dish

    Now, soak them with the milk mixture, ¼th cup at a time. You want to use almost half of the soak on this layer. It may look like a lot, but you will notice the ladyfingers will absorb most of the milk within minutes.

    a hand is pouring tres leches milk mixture onto the ladyfingers in a dish
    ladyfingers soaked in tres leches milk mixture in a dish

    Tip: I recommend turning carefully flipping over the ladyfingers midway through the soaking process, to ensure both sides get equally soaked!

    3. Arrange and soak the second layer of ladyfingers

    Wait for 10-20 minutes to make sure the ladyfingers have absorbed most of the liquid. Then repeat the same exact process with the second layer of ladyfingers!

    hand is placing second layer of ladyfingers into the ceramic dish
    cup is pouring tres leches milk mixture onto the second layer of ladyfingers in the ceramic dish
    two layers of soaked ladyfingers in a dish

    Tip: One thing I like to do is alternate the pattern of the second layer: so if the first layer has ladyfingers placed horizontally on the right, I will place them vertically in the second layer. This helps ensure there aren't any gaps or cracks in the cake slices eventually!

    4. Refrigerate

    Now you just whack the dish into the fridge and forget about it for 2-3 hours. Because everyone wants chilled tres leches!

    If you would rather get the decoration over with and then chill, I recommend waiting ~20 minutes so most of the liquid has been absorbed before adding whipped cream and decoration.

    5. Decorate & serve!

    Once your tres leches is properly chilled, the ladyfingers will have absorbed all the liquid and be nicely soaked - yay! Now you can decorate.

    The most basic decoration would be just spreading or piping on whipped cream. The whipped cream helps balance the sweetness and richness of the cake.

    If you want to be a bit fancier, add food color to half of the cream and pipe it on! I made ribbon swirls for every slice. And then sprinkle over crushed freeze dried strawberries and chopped pistachios. It looks so pretty with minimal effort!

    offset spatula being used to spread whipped cream onto tres leches cake
    piping bag with pink whipped cream is piping a swirl onto tres leches cake
    overhead picture showing a dish with tres leches cake next to a cutting board with chopped freeze dried strawberries and pistachios
    a hand is decorating tres leches cake by placing freeze dried strawberries onto the whipped cream swirls

    VARIATIONS

    You can really get creative with this recipe and make different flavors! For example:

    • For a classic tres leches flavor, swap the cardamom powder with cinnamon powder (or omit altogether)
    • Make a coffee flavored three milk mixture for a coffee flavored tres leches
    • Introduce other flavors in the three milk mixture, for example different fruit concentrates can be great!

    FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

    How to store Tres Leches cake?

    You definitely want to keep Tres Leches cake in the fridge! Cover your dish with cling wrap. It should keep in the fridge for 3-4 days, although it may start to feel a bit more soggy with time.

    How can I substitute ladyfingers in this cake?

    If you don't have ladyfingers, you will need to just make the original Tres Leches cake. Google will give you many recipes!

    Is Tres Leches supposed to be soggy?

    Yes! This cake, by design, is supposed to be well soaked, almost soggy. That's the beauty of it. It is more like dessert than cake.

    What does "Tres Leches" mean?

    Tres Leches is a Spanish term that translates to "three milks". This dessert originates in Mexico, and gets its name because three types of milks are used to make the soak for the cake.

    a wooden spatula pulling off a slice of tres leches from a dish. you can see the moist cake texture
    2 plates with tres leches slices with the dish seen in the background. Cake has very moist texture

    RELATED

    Want more easy recipe ideas? Try any of these recipes - they all takes less than 30 minutes of active work!

    • Simple chocolate cake
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    • Best chocolate chip cookies
    Print
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    overhead picture of a dish of tres leches cake covered in whipped cream and piped pink swirls. it is sprinkled with freeze dried strawberries

    EASY NO BAKE TRES LECHES CAKE


    ★★★★★

    5 from 11 reviews

    • Author: Zoha
    • Total Time: 2 hours with cooling
    • Yield: 8-10 servings
    Print Recipe
    Pin Recipe

    Description

    Make the yummiest Rus Malai flavored Tres Leches cake without any baking, using only 5 ingredients, with less than 30 minutes of active work!


    Ingredients

    • 300g sweetened condensed milk (roughly ¾th of a 14 oz can)
    • 400g evaporated milk (1 14 oz can)
    • 60g heavy cream (¼ cup) - use milk if you want the cake to be lighter
    • ¼ tsp cardamom powder (start with just ⅛ tsp, taste and adjust from there)*
    • 35-40 ladyfingers (about 1.5 packs with 24 ladyfingers each)
    • 1.5 cup heavy cream for decoration
    • Optional: freeze dried strawberries and pistachios for decoration

    Instructions

    • Prepare three milk mixture by whisking evaporated milk, sweetened condensed milk and heavy cream in a bowl. Add a very small amount of cardamom powder (if using), and taste. Adjust the flavor per your liking from there
    • In a clean dish (I used a 7x11" dish), stack ladyfingers tightly to create one layer. Fill any gaps by trimming ladyfingers. 
    • Using a ¼ cup measure, start drenching the ladyfingers. Make sure you get every one of them. You will use half of the milk mixture here. Don't worry if it looks like a lot, the ladyfingers will soak up the milk
    • Wait 10-20 minutes for the ladyfingers to soak up most of the milk mixture
    • Repeat with the second layer of ladyfingers
    • Place the dish in the fridge for ~2 hours
    • In the meanwhile, whip up heavy cream to stiff peaks
    • Spread half of the heavy cream on top of the ladyfingers, using an offset spatula to even it out
    • In the other half, add any food color of your liking (or don't). Transfer to a piping bag, and pipe to decorate. You can use any style of piping you like!
    • Decorate with crushed freeze dried strawberries and chopped pistachios
    • Serve and enjoy!

    Notes

    • The cardamom adds a Rus Malai flavor to the Tres Leches. If you are not a fan of the flavor, you can use cinnamon instead, or just use vanilla essence. Make sure to taste the mix and adjust it to your preference
    • The exact number of ladyfingers you end up using will depend on the size of your pan - just make sure you use between 35-40, otherwise the ratio will be off from the milk mix!
    • Prep Time: 20 min
    • Category: Desserts
    • Cuisine: Mexican

    Keywords: Easy No Bake Tres Leches Cake

    Did you make this recipe?

    Tag @bakewithzoha on Instagram!

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    Reader Interactions

    Comments

    1. Zee says

      March 27, 2023 at 4:32 am

      My favorite cake!!

      ★★★★★

      Reply
      • gauri says

        June 13, 2023 at 4:03 pm

        How could I add rose water?

        Reply
        • Zoha says

          June 21, 2023 at 12:17 pm

          You could add some rose extract to the three milk mixture if you like, but I haven't tried that myself

          Reply
    2. Husna Abdullahi says

      March 27, 2023 at 10:54 am

      Am already giving it a 5star. It looks super yummy. It's most taste great. Soo easy to make. Can't wait to make mine and tag you. Thanks for the recipe

      ★★★★★

      Reply
      • Zoha says

        March 28, 2023 at 4:25 am

        Aww! You are so sweet - thank you. 🙂

        Reply
    3. Zainab Hamza says

      March 31, 2023 at 1:22 pm

      The lady fingers I found are almost biscuit like and have some sugar on top? Should I go for those ? Or there is an option of cake like lady fingers too

      Reply
      • Zoha says

        March 31, 2023 at 4:29 pm

        That's what ladyfingers are like 🙂 They're cake but dried out. When soaked, they will be great!

        Reply
    4. Uzma Khalid says

      April 01, 2023 at 2:26 pm

      Aoa can I add some condensed milk in heavy whipping cream on tress Lethe dessert
      Thanks

      Reply
      • Zoha says

        April 03, 2023 at 10:35 pm

        You mean for decoration on the top? I don't recommend that as the cake itself is quite sweet, so i like to keep the topping to just cream.

        Reply
    5. Salwa says

      April 03, 2023 at 9:10 pm

      How to make the whipped cream if I am using thickened cream. I don’t get halal whipped cream here.

      Reply
      • Zoha says

        April 03, 2023 at 10:31 pm

        Any cream can be whipped as long as it has sufficient fat % (30%+) and is chilled!

        Reply
    6. Shaz says

      April 04, 2023 at 4:37 am

      Made this today was so good - I kept just a little of the milk mixture aside to serve too xxx love the combo of flavours on this

      ★★★★★

      Reply
      • Zoha says

        April 04, 2023 at 2:52 pm

        Thank you so much, Shaz! <3

        Reply
    7. Pragathi Rai says

      April 15, 2023 at 9:45 am

      Just wanted to post a general appreciation note for all your recipes - as my little one has multiple allergies, made a gluten free, dairy free version of your chocolate cake and it was aces. Trying the Tres leches for a party today…. Thanks so much for these amazing gems and please keep them coming! Great work, Zoya!

      Reply
      • Zoha says

        April 15, 2023 at 5:06 pm

        Thank you so much, Pragathi! I am so happy to hear you're enjoying my recipes and your little one can, too <3

        Reply
    8. Sabika says

      April 15, 2023 at 4:56 pm

      Can't even explain how EASY this is and how much everyone loved it!! Took it to an iftar and everyone went back for seconds. The cardamom is a great addition!

      ★★★★★

      Reply
      • Zoha says

        April 15, 2023 at 5:05 pm

        Yay!! SO happy to hear this & glad this made its way to your Iftar! <3

        Reply
    9. Madiha says

      April 16, 2023 at 1:06 am

      I tried and it turned out great. Already planning to make it again for an upcoming dinner.

      ★★★★★

      Reply
      • Zoha says

        April 17, 2023 at 9:46 pm

        YAYY!!!!

        Reply
      • Malika says

        April 24, 2023 at 8:30 pm

        Best dessert recipe I have tried!!!! Made it for Eid instead of kheer and everyone loved it!!! Will make it again very soon!

        Reply
        • Zoha says

          April 25, 2023 at 12:57 am

          Wow, that means so much to me!!! And in place of Kheer! 🙂 Thank you so much

          Reply
    10. Fatima says

      April 24, 2023 at 9:07 pm

      This was a total hit, can’t wait to make it again! One of my all time faves moving forward.

      Reply
      • Zoha says

        April 25, 2023 at 12:56 am

        Yay!!! So happy you liked this recipe 🙂

        Reply
    11. Iram says

      June 12, 2023 at 2:08 am

      This was absolutely delicious. Fastest dish to disappear at the dinner table.😋

      ★★★★★

      Reply
      • Zoha says

        June 21, 2023 at 12:22 pm

        Hahaha, love to hear that! <3

        Reply
    12. anukriti says

      November 11, 2023 at 2:09 pm

      Made it using the recipe above for Diwali party.
      Replaced pink color with kesar infused milk.
      Also added grated pistachio and kesar to milk mixture.

      Was a big hit! Everyone loved it. Will definitely make it again.

      Thanks for the recipe

      ★★★★★

      Reply
      • Zoha says

        November 12, 2023 at 11:05 pm

        Wuhuuu!! Thank you & happy Diwali

        Reply
    13. Theresa says

      November 17, 2023 at 4:25 pm

      You should take part in a contest for one of the greatest sites on the web.
      I will highly recommend this site!

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      ★★★★★

      Reply
    14. laura says

      November 24, 2023 at 7:08 am

      Fantastic and so easy! Love the hint of cardamom. Thank you!

      ★★★★★

      Reply
    15. Sairah G says

      November 29, 2023 at 4:16 am

      An absolute game changer! Using ladyfingers made the tres leches cake a lot more easier to whip up. Thank you for gracing us with this effortless yet equally delicious twist on a classic! 🍰✨

      ★★★★★

      Reply
    16. Jerold says

      November 30, 2023 at 6:07 pm

      I loved as much as you will receive carried out right here.

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      ★★★★★

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    Hi, I'm Zoha! Self taught home-baker, massive sweet tooth, lover of all things baked and content creator behind Bake With Zoha.

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