Coconut Tres Leches Cake

Coconut Tres Leches Cake! Vanilla sponge cake is soaked with evaporated milk, half & half and a rich cream of coconut syrup then topped with billowy meringue frosting in this classic dessert.

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On Saturday, we had the great pleasure of celebrating a very special birthday: My grandma’s 88th! She is something else, that lady.

Looking sassy… circa 1940-something.

Abuela has always been a great cook and baker, and she definitely instilled that same love for feeding others in me. Her Arroz con Pollo {Chicken & Rice} has reached semi-famous status around these parts, and pretty much anything that comes out of her kitchen is amazingly delicious. Grandmas just know how it’s done.

For Abuela’s birthday, I wanted to make her a special cake. Instead of baking a run-of-the-mill layer cake, I decided that a Tres Leches {Three Milks} cake would be perfect for the occasion. To give it a little extra flair, I turned it up a notch by making it a Coconut Tres Leches.

Tres Leches is basically a spongy vanilla cake that is doused with a sweet, creamy milk syrup made with… well… three milks, hence the name. The cake is perforated with little holes that drink up all that delicious richness and make for a moist, decadent dessert. To top it all off, a billowy meringue frosting is dolloped or piped over the cake. It’s a milky spoonful of Heaven. Mmmm….

Traditionally, the three milks included in the mix are evaporated milk, condensed milk, and heavy cream. For my recipe, I swapped out the condensed milk for coconut cream and used half and half instead of heavy cream just to lighten it up a tiny bit.

Surprisingly, the cake does not become soggy despite the addition of enough milk syrup to drown a small animal. {You will think that the cake is not going to absorb all the liquid when it is not visible under the sweet dairy pond, but it will. Have patience, grasshopper.} So, even though you may think “Ew, soaked cake?” I suggest you don’t knock it before you’ve tried it. You’ll definitely be missing out!

The birthday girl loved her cake, and while it certainly was sweet, nothing could be sweeter than my Abuelita. Happy Birthday! May God bless you today and always, as He has blessed us with your presence in our lives.