About This Coffee Tres Leches Cake
Coffee tres leches cake takes everything you love about the classic dessert and gives it a bold, flavorful upgrade. Inspired by café con leche and the viral Dalgona coffee trend, this recipe adds depth, richness, and just the right amount of bitterness to balance the sweetness of traditional tres leches cake. It’s a fun and unexpected twist that’s guaranteed to impress at any gathering!
For more unique, homemade sheet cake recipes on Hummingbird High, check my Cake Recipe collection! Popular recipes include this Texas Sheet Cake Recipe for 9 x 13 Inch Pan and this Guava Chiffon Cake with Guava Cream Cheese Frosting.
What does coffee tres leches cake taste like?
If you’re a fan of coffee-flavored ice cream and milky coffee drinks like cappuccinos and lattes, you’re going to LOVE this coffee tres leches cake.
I was a little worried that the coffee wouldn’t stand out against the milky flavor of the tres leches cake. But note that this recipe uses two different types of coffee: cold brew coffee to soak the cake, and instant coffee for the whipped coffee topping. All that coffee holds its own against the three milks.
All in all, it tastes like a lightly sweetened, milky iced coffee drink… but with the texture of a sponge cake! Yum.
Ingredients and Substitutions
Now that I’ve convinced you to make this coffee tres leches cake, let’s talk about some of the key ingredients in the recipe:
- All-Purpose Flour: You can use a 1-1 gluten free all purpose flour replacer to make the recipe gluten free. I like Bob’s Red Mill Gluten Free 1 to 1 Baking Flour or King Arthur Flour Gluten Free All Purpose Flour.
- Kosher Salt: Kosher salt is the best salt for baking recipes. But you can replace the kosher salt in the recipe with table salt. Just use half the amount listed in the recipe when you do!
- Whole Milk. Tres leches cake recipes vary regionally; one of the biggest regional differences is whether whole milk or heavy cream is used in the recipe. My recipe uses whole milk, but many Central American recipes call for heavy cream. If that’s what you prefer, feel free to use it instead of whole milk!
- Instant Coffee Granules. You NEED instant coffee to make the dalgona cream for this recipe. If you try and use ground coffee from coffee beans, it won’t whip into the cream. You can learn more in my post about dalgona coffee.
But the TL/DR is that instant coffee is processed in a way that makes it whip up into that fluffy cloud; you won’t get the same effect with ground coffee.
Recipe Troubleshooting and FAQ
Help! My egg whites wouldn’t whip to peaks. They stayed liquid even despite me whipping for ages! What did I do wrong?
Did you start with a clean and dry mixer bowl? Egg whites won’t whip if your mixer bowl has any kind of liquid, fat, or soap residue leftover from an earlier step in the recipe or from storage. That’s why in the recipe, I instruct you to whip the egg whites first—this ensures that the bowl is clean and dry!
Help! The cake shrank. What did I do wrong?
Absolutely nothing. This is totally normal! The sides of my sponge cake pulled away from the pan once cooled and left about ¼-inch of space between the cake and the pan. Don’t worry about it!
Help! My cake wouldn’t absorb the coffee tres leches soak. What did I do wrong?
First things first: did you overwhip the egg whites? The recipe instructs you to whip the egg whites to stiff peaks—check out the baker’s notes below on how to test if you’ve whipped them to the right consistency.
However, if you go too far, the egg whites will eventually come out VERY stiff and almost clumpy. You can see what that looks like in this Martha Stewart YouTube video. Food52 also has a great article on how to diagnose overwhipped egg whites, and what to do if you’ve gone overboard.
But for this recipe, you can tell you’ve overwhipped them if it takes you a long time to fold them into the rest of the ingredients (and despite all your work, you still have some stubborn lumps that won’t go away).
Second of all: did you wait until the cake was completely cooled before soaking? I mentioned above that you’ll need to cool the cake completely before soaking it in the coffee tres leches soak. Doing so gives the cake a sponge-like quality that allows it to soak all the liquids completely. If you soaked the cake while it was still warm, there’s a chance that the structure hadn’t set fully and will never be able to because of the soak! Also, your cake might be too soggy and I’m sorry.
And third: how much leftover soak are we talking about here? If the cake absorbed 80% of the liquid and you’re only left with a thin layer of milk in the pan, don’t panic. That’s totally normal and is actually desirable in some tres leches cake recipes!
Help! My dalgona coffee cream wouldn’t whip. What did I do wrong?
First, check your coffee. This recipe does NOT work with ground coffee. It only works with instant.
Now, let’s talk water. Remember: hot water helps dissolve both the instant coffee and the sugar more quickly, helping it whip up into its foamy state. The hotter the water, the better. You want the water to be freshly boiled.
Finally, how long and how much did you whisk for? If you didn’t whisk for long enough, keep going—the mixture will eventually thicken. If it has thickened but doesn’t look as fluffy as mine, it’s likely that you either haven’t done it for long enough or haven’t been doing it vigorously enough. The more you whip and the faster you do it from the get go, the fluffier the coffee will be.
Help! Is coffee tres leches cake supposed to be soggy?
Er, not really. But what do you mean by soggy? Although this cake is pretty moist, it should still have a soft, cakey mouthfeel. It shouldn’t feel or taste like sludge in your mouth. If you find that it’s too thick or gluey, something went wrong.
The most likely culprit is that you soaked the cake while the cake was still warm. The cake needs to be cooled completely to allow it to develop a sponge-like texture. See my answer above about the cake absorbing the soak to learn more.
Alternatively, did you use coffee for the soak that was freshly boiled and/or still very hot? Coffee that is too hot can potentially damage the sponge cake’s structure, leading to a soggy, mushy cake. Per the recipe below, use coffee that has been cooled to room temperature.
Best Recipe Tips
- When making the cake, you’ll need to prep your eggs by separating them into whites and yolks. The most efficient way is to crack each egg one at a time into a bowl, separate the yolk from the egg white, and pour the egg white into the bowl of the stand mixer. Why? You’ll be whipping those egg whites in the recipe—might as well save yourself a bowl!
- You’ll notice that the recipe instructs you to whip the egg whites to “stiff peaks.” The best way to determine the egg whites’ texture is to do a test with the whisk attachment. Dip the tip of the whisk into the egg whites, remove it, and quickly turn it upside down. If the egg whites are too soft, they will slide off the whisk, and you’ll need to keep whisking. If the egg whites have a cloud-like structure but with peaks that lose their shape, you’re at the “soft peaks” stage. Continue whisking, then test again. If, the next time you turn the whisk upside down, the peaks hold, you’re at the “stiff peaks” stage. This is what you need for the cake! You can also apply this same test when making the dalgona coffee whip.
Get the Recipe: Coffee Tres Leches Cake Recipe
Ingredients
For the Cake:
- 1 ½ cups (6.75 ounces or 191 grams) all-purpose flour
- 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- ½ cup (4 ounces or 113 grams) whole milk
- 1 ½ teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 6 large eggs, separated into whites and yolks
- 1 cup (7 ounces or 198 grams) granulated sugar
For the Coffee Tres Leches Soak:
- 1 (14-ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
- 1 (12-ounce) can evaporated milk
- ¼ cup (2 ounces or 57 grams) strongly brewed coffee, at room temperature
- ¼ cup (2 ounces or 57 grams) whole milk
For the Dalgona Whipped Coffee Cream:
- ⅓ cup (2.35 ounces or 67 grams) granulated sugar
- ⅓ cup (0.85 ounces or 25 grams) instant coffee granules
- ⅓ cup (2.65 ounces or 75 grams) very hot or freshly boiled water
- cocoa powder, for garnish
Instructions
For the Coffee Tres Leches Cake:
- First, make the cake. Position a rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 350°F. Generously spray a 9 x 13-inch cake pan with cooking spray.
- In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt. In a small liquid measuring cup or pitcher, whisk together the milk and vanilla.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, whisk the egg whites. Whisk on low speed for 1 minute, then turn the mixer up to medium-high. Whisk until stiff peaks form, 3 to 4 minutes. Use a wooden spoon or ladle to carefully scoop the egg whites into a medium bowl—be careful not to deflate them!
- Pour the egg yolks into the stand mixer bowl (there's no need to clean the bowl!) and add the sugar. Whisk on medium until pale yellow and doubled in volume, 2 to 3 minutes. Reduce the mixer to low and slowly pour in the milk mixture, whisking until just combined.
- Sprinkle the dry ingredients over the egg yolk mixture, then use a rubber spatula to fold in the ingredients until just combined. Scoop half of the egg whites over the mixture and fold them in with the spatula. Repeat with the remaining egg whites and fold them in until no major lumps of egg white remain and the mixture is just combined. At this point, it will be a very light and fluffy cake batter.
- Pour the batter into the prepared pan and use an offset spatula to smooth the top.
- Bake the cake. Bake for 18 to 20 minutes, or until the top of the cake bounces back when gently pressed and a skewer inserted into the center of the cake comes out with a few crumbs attached. Cool the cake in the pan on a wire rack completely before soaking. The cake will shrink as it cools—this is normal!
- Once the cake is cool, make the soak and assemble the cake. Use a fork to poke holes all over the top of the cake.
- In a large liquid measuring cup or pitcher, whisk together the sweetened condensed milk, evaporated milk, coffee, and whole milk. Slowly pour the milks over the cake, a quarter cup at a time, to allow the milks to soak fully between each pour. It's likely that the cake will stop absorbing liquid about two-thirds of the way through the mixture. This is normal! It will seem like too much liquid, but trust the recipe! Loosely cover the cake with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 3 to 4 hours, preferably overnight, to allow the cake to absorb the milks.
- Before serving, make the dalgona whipped coffee cream. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, combine the coffee and sugar. Add the hot water and immediately whisk on medium-high speed until light, airy, and doubled in volume, 2 to 4 minutes.
- Use a rubber spatula to scrape the dalgona whipped coffee cream over the cake. Use an offset spatula to make large, sweeping motions across the coffee cream to spread it over the cake. Garnish with cocoa powder.
- Serve and store. Serve immediately after garnishing with dalgona whipped coffee cream. The coffee tres leches cake will keep, covered loosely in plastic wrap, in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.
Notes
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What kind of pan to bake it? Can I use a glass pan?
You can use a glass pan, but in general, I prefer using metal cake pans when baking. Glass takes a long time to heat up in the oven, and tends to retain its heat long after it’s pulled out of the oven. This leads to potentially overbaked goods! My rule of thumb is that I use glass for casseroles, and then stick to metal pans for baked goods.
This makes an awesome breakfast!
can i use a round metal pan?
It depends on the size of the round pan. I’d refer to this chart: https://www.allrecipes.com/article/cake-pan-size-conversions/
I made this cake last week, it was so good I am making it again today as it was requested by my partner! We absolutely love coffee, and I bought dark roast instant coffee for the dalgona whipped cream. I would absolutely recommend you try it if you are a fan of stronger coffee! 🙂
Hi, love the recipe! Was wondering if I could replicate the recipe with an eggless cake?
Hey there! I’d like to make this in individual portions that I can pack for friends. Would u recommend baking it as mini loaves, or squares and then soaking each?
Hm, if you were to go the squares route, what kind of pan would you be using?
Hi, I’m planning on making this for a birthday dinner.. I made your banana tres leches cake (for my own birthday actually!) with great success. I was wondering if it’d at all be possible to use that same cake recipe for the banana tres leches and instead use it for this coffee version? If so, what sort of adjustments would you suggest? Thanks!
Hi! I actually think you can just follow the banana tres leches cake recipe, but swap out the whipped cream topping with the dalgona whipped coffee topping instead. The dalgona cream will still give you lots of coffee flavor without overwhelming the bananas in the banana tres leches cake recipe.
Do you think it would be okay to divide all the ingredients in half to make a smaller cake?
I think so! You might need to check the cake for doneness earlier. What kind of cake pan were you thinking of using?
I have an 8×8 glass dish, but I think I saw in another comment you suggested sticking with metal? I have metal square pans but I would have to check the dimensions because they seems smaller than 8×8 in my mind
In general, I always recommend using metal pans when baking cakes. Glass tends to hold on to heat long after pulling it out of the oven, continuing to cook your cake and making it dry! Also, if you’re baking something from frozen (like pie) and put it in the warm oven, the glass could potentially shatter due to extreme temp changes. You don’t have any of these issues with metal pans.
That being said, the shattering issue isn’t really a problem for this recipe. If that’s all you have on hand, go for it!
Delicious Blog! I’m a coffee lover and like to try various new experiments with coffee. I love your coffee tres leches cake recipe. I definitely gonna try this recipe.
Hi Michelle ,
1) Should we pour the milks onto the cake while still little warm or once it’s completely cool
2) Also when should we remove the cake from the tin–before we pour the milk on the cake or after it has soaked in all the milk.
Thank you ,
Mayanka
Hi Mayanka:
1) Cool the cake in the pan on a wire rack completely before soaking. The cake will shrink as it cools—this is normal! Once the cake is cool, make the soak and assemble the cake.
2) Tres leches cake is typically served in the tin its baked in! Otherwise it tends to fall apart. If you insist on removing the cake, you can do it before you soak it, but make sure you put the cake on a plate/platter that can accomodate extra liquid. You can also remove the cake after soaking it, but it’s going to be pretty messy. I highly encourage you to serve the cake in the pan that it’s baked in.
Hi Michelle,
In the soak it mentions 57 grams of strong brewed coffee at room temperature.
How much coffee should be added ?
Should it be mixed with water to make a strong brewed coffee or add the coffee directly in the milk otherwise the mixture will become too watery?
Please let me know.
Thanks,
Mayankan
Hi there,
Oh! So the strongly brewed coffee = coffee that’s already been made with water and brewed so that it tastes VERY strongly of coffee. You should be able to drink it as is. Once you’ve brewed the coffee, use 57 grams of it in the soak. Let me know if that makes sense!
If I wanted to bring this to school, would there be a way to store and transport the Dalgona topping without it deflating? Thanks.
Hi! I would just make the dalgona topping right before you need to take it to school—it should hold its shape if it’s only 1-2 hours beforehand!
Do you think a boxed cake would work, instead of making one from scratch ?
It depends on the boxed cake mix. Tres leches cakes are usually made with little to no fat in order to allow the cake to absorb the milk mixture without it getting too soggy. If you were to soak a cake made with oil and milk (like most box mixes), you might end up with a really soggy cake with an unpleasant texture.
In the part of the recipe for the coffee cream to put on top, you don’t list a measurement for the cream. You just list coffee, sugar and hot water. How much cream would I add to those ingredients?
The coffee cream doesn’t contain any cream; instead you whip the coffee, sugar, and hot water to make the cream!
Hi
I have made this recipe earlier in a glass baking dish . It was super super good .
Now I want to send a friend on her bday . Can I make it and store in the metallic square tin and pack and send it to my friend who lives close in same city ??
Will storing this cake in metallic tin container be ok .
Yes, metallic should be fine! I made mine in a metallic baking dish.
Will be taking out of town and eating about 4 hours after arrival. You say Frosting will last 1-2 hours . My hand mixer has whisk attachment. I can travel with that. Will that work instead of stand mixer as you instruct?
Yup, that works!
Is this basically another version of a standard tiramisu?
Not really—tiramisu is made with ladyfingers and mascarpone. Not to be dramatic, but I’d probably be murdered on the internet for calling this a tiramisu (given how many people get upset with me for making different tiramisu flavors like Earl Grey and matcha).
Hello! I’ve made the cake and soaked it in the milks, and I’ve put it in the fridge first until tomorrow, when I’ll make the coffee cream. However, we’ll only be eating it for one day before we’ll be traveling for about 6 days. Is it okay to freeze this cake so it keeps?
I *think* so—I’ve had frozen tres leches before. My only concern is that the coffee cream will probably deflate a LOT and change texture.
Hmm. Suppose it can’t be helped. We’ll just have to eat as much as possible before freezing 🙂 The dalgona coffee cream was perfect- I love its strong flavor. Wonderful recipe!
So excited for this recipe! Curious if you think I could make the cake portion 2 nights ahead (leaving it without the soak one night)? Then leave it overnight to soak the night before as instructed?
That works! You could even soak it 2 nights ahead too—that way the sponge will stay moist!