Tres leches is already a dessert built on excess - in the best way. A soft sponge that’s meant to drink itself into something richer, heavier, and impossible to eat politely. This version takes that classic soak-and-swoon idea and turns it floral; rose infused, lightly fragnant, and creamy without tasting like perfume. It’s delicate on the surface but still does what tres leches does best: melts into a custardy, cloud soft bite that somehow gets better the longer it sits. If you want a cake that feels romantic without being overly sweet, this is the one.

What is the history of tres leches cake?

The canned milk era is what created modern tres leches. A very common origin story is that Nestle/La Lechera printed a tres leches style recipe on their labels as marketing - and it worked. People could suddenly make a rich, dramatic cake using shelf stable ingredients they already had at home. The iconic combo (evaporated milk, sweetened condensed milk, and cream/whole milk) lines up perfectly with the exact products being sold and promoted at the time, which is why the base recipe is so consistent across regions. The birth place is still debated (Mexico and Nicaragua are the loudest contenders) but historians note the recipe didn’t doesn’t shop up clearly in older cookbooks the way you would expect for something ‘ancient’. The strongest evidence points to tres leches becoming widely recognizable around the 1940-70s, fueled by commercial dairy and home baking culture. Basically tres leches is a traditional dessert that became traditional because canned milk made it easy, repeatable, and impossible to mess up.

How to make rose tres leches cake?

This recipe begins with preheating the oven to 350f and buttering a 10” spring form pan. In a medium size bowl whisk together flour, salt, and baking powder. In a large bowl, whisk egg yolks with 3/4 cup sugar until light, then whisk in milk and vanilla bean seeds. TO scrape a vanilla bean cut the ends off and cut vertically across. Then twist open one end and scrape the bean by sliding the knife sideways across the bean. In a separate bowl whisk egg whites on high speed until soft peaks form, then slowly pour in 1/4 sugar while whisking on high speed until stiff peaks form. Combine the flour and yolk mixes, then fold in the egg whites until just combines. Do not over mix, mixing too much will knock down the air bubbles and make your cake flat. Pour the batter on the prepared pan and bake for 30-35 minutes. Cool the cake completely on a wire rack. Meanwhile whisk together 1/3 cup cream, sweetened condensed milk, and evaporated milk. Once the cake is cool poke holes all over it with a fork and pour the milk syrup over it. Let the cake soak for 30 minutes to overnight. Once ready to serve open the spring form and transfer the cake on a cake platter. Make whipped cream by whisking 2 cups of cream with 2 tbsp of sugar on high speed until firm peaks form. Frost the cake with the whipped cream. Crumble about 2 tbsp of rose buds and sprinkle them on top of the tres leches cake.

Tips

If you don’t have whole vanilla beans on hand use vanilla bean paste or vanilla extract instead.
Make sure the cake is completely cool before pouring the milk syrup over it. Let the cake sit until all the syrup is soaked up, otherwise it will spill when opening the spring form cake pan.
Make sure the rose pedals are mostly crumbled - while whole buds look beautiful the texture isn’t pleasant to eat!
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