Strawberry Tres Leches Cake with Whipped Cream

What do you get when you combine three types of milk, a carton of fresh strawberries, and a more than generous amount of sugar? This Strawberry Tres Leches Cake!

I’ve been mulling over the idea for strawberry flavored tres leches cake for a few months now. I made a regular tres leches cake once last year, and was obsessed with how perfectly moist and tender it was. I’ve always loved strawberry cake, so I decided to combine the two and thus, Strawberry Tres Leches Cake was born!

To make this cake, first puree about a pound of fresh strawberries, and strain out the seeds to get 1 cup strawberry puree. You’ll use 3/4 of the puree in the cake batter, and the remaining 1/4 cup goes into the whipped cream to give it light strawberry flavor and a pretty pale pink color.

I don’t like using artificial food coloring, so the cake isn’t the vibrant pink you might expect to see in a strawberry cake. If you’d like, feel free to add red food coloring to get the cake to your desired shade of pink.

Soaking the Cake

Once the cake is baked, you’ll poke many small holes into the surface of the cake. I recommend placing the cake on a baking sheet over a baking pan when drizzling the milk mixture over it to absorb. This way you can avoid a big mess as the excess milk drips off the cake.

Making the Whipped Cream

To top the cake, I used the remaining 1/4 cup strawberry puree to make strawberry whipped cream. If you don’t want to make whipped cream from scratch, feel free to mix the leftover puree into your store bought whipped cream of choice.

This cake makes a beautiful and delicious Valentine’s (or Galentine’s!) Day treat. It’s so tender, light, and delicious, and you can get as creative as you’d like decorating with fresh strawberries.

Looking for more strawberry treats? Check out these Mixed Berry Scones, or these Berries and Cream Tarts!

Print Pin

Strawberry Tres Leches Cake

This cake is delicate yet decadent, its subtle strawberry flavor is sure to impress!

Course Dessert

Keyword strawberry, tres leches

Prep Time 15 minutes minutes

Cook Time 55 minutes minutes

Servings 9

Ingredients

• 16 ounces fresh strawberries plus more for topping
• 1 cup + 2 tablespoon granulated white sugar divided
• 4 eggs
• 1 cup all purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 14 oz can sweetened condensed milk
• 1 5 oz can evaporated milk
• 1 1/4 cup heavy cream divided

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 350F. Spray an 8 square inch baking pan or 9 inch round spring form pan with baking spray.
• Separate the egg whites and yolks. Set egg whites aside.
• Put 16 ounces of the strawberries in a blender, and blend until smooth. Use a strainer to strain out the seeds, and reserve the juice. You should have about 1 cup of strawberry puree.
• Cream together egg yolks and 3/4 cup sugar until pale yellow in color. Stir in 3/4 cup strawberry puree, flour, vanilla extract, and baking powder.
• In a separate bowl, beat egg whites until soft peaks form. Add 1/4 cup sugar, and continue beating until egg whites have stiffened slightly.
• Add 1/3 of the egg whites to the cake batter and gently fold them in. Add in remaining egg whites, and fold them into the batter.
• Pour the batter into the prepared cake dish. Bake for 45-55 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean.
• Let cool, and if using a springform pan, remove from pan and let cool on a cooling rack.
• Once cool, use a fork or skewer to poke holes into the cake. Mix together sweetened condensed milk, 1/4 cup whipping cream, and evaporated milk. Pour milk mixture evenly over the cake. Let cake absorb the mixture.
• To make the whipped topping, combine heavy cream and 2 tablespoons granulated white sugar in a large bowl and use a mixer with the whisk attachment to whisk until cream reaches stiff peaks. Add remaining 1/4 cup strawberry puree and whisk until combined.
• Spread whipped topping evenly over cake. Slice remaining strawberries and use them to top the cake.

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