Fail Safe Coconut Tres Leche Cake

My good friend Kelly made this cake for us once and shared her secret: Chow. It's soooo good. I love this website. It's full of recipes, advice, forums, it's a foodie's delight! This cake is easy (make it the day before) and ridiculously delicious. All credit goes to the incredible Chowhound because I could never come up with something so awesome! I find this one is always a crowd pleaser and is my go-to for having a crowd over for dinner (makes a 9x13 pan of cake, so not for your dinner for four). I always forget to put in the rum and no one has ever complained. Enjoy!

Coconut Tres Leches Cake Recipe

TIME/SERVINGS

Total: 1 hr 15 mins, plus 8 hours for soaking

Active: 25 mins

Makes: 12 servings

Coconut Tres Leches Cake

By Regan Burns

This supereasy cake, soaked with a milky mixture laced with dark rum and coconut milk, is one of our most popular recipes. We’ve tested it at several parties and have yet to take home anything but an empty baking dish and a whole bunch of recipe requests. So here it is! Be sure to make it well before you want to serve it—the longer it sits, the better it gets. And don’t skip the toasted coconut!

This recipe was featured in our Build Your Own Burrito Bar story.

INGREDIENTS

• 6 large eggs
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 (14-ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
• 2/3 cup evaporated milk (not nonfat)
• 1/2 cup unsweetened canned coconut milk
• 1 tablespoon dark rum, such as Myers’s
• 1 cup sweetened flaked coconut
• 1 1/2 cups heavy cream
• 1 tablespoon powdered sugar

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Heat oven to 325°F. Butter a 13-by-9-inch glass baking dish. Separate eggs, and place yolks in a large mixing bowl. Reserve whites in a separate mixing bowl.
2. Add sugar to yolks, and beat on high speed with an electric mixer until pale yellow and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Clean beaters, and whip egg whites to medium peaks, about 1 1/2 minutes.
3. Using a rubber spatula, stir about 1/3 of the egg whites into the yolk mixture to lighten it. Then gently fold in remaining whites.
4. Whisk flour with a dry whisk to aerate and break up any lumps, then sprinkle it over egg mixture. Use a rubber spatula to gently fold flour into egg mixture, just until there are no more white flour streaks. Don’t overmix.
5. Pour batter into the buttered baking dish, and bake until cake is puffed and golden and the edges pull away from the sides of the pan, about 20 to 25 minutes.
6. Remove cake from the oven and place on a wire cooling rack. With a toothpick, poke holes all over the cake. Allow to cool for 15 minutes.
7. In a medium bowl, whisk together three milks and rum, and pour mixture evenly over cake. Continue cooling cake, about 45 minutes more, then cover tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 4 hours or overnight.
8. For toasted coconut, heat a large frying pan over medium heat. Add coconut and spread it in an even layer. Cook, stirring often, until coconut is lightly toasted and browned. If coconut begins to burn, reduce heat. Remove from the pan immediately.
9. To serve the cake, whip heavy cream and powdered sugar to medium peaks. (If you like, flavor it with a teaspoon of dark rum.) Top each cake slice with a mound of whipped cream, and garnish with toasted coconut.