Chocolate Tres Leches Cake
This chocolate tres leches cake is glorious. The thick, decadent chocolate syrup melds this cake into a dense, rich pudding-like consistency!
This cake. Oh, this cake. It was born out of an obsession that has lasted years, really.
After the magic that was (and is) this coconut tres leches cake, I have been trying to decide if it was worth going down the road I wanted to travel: a chocolate version.
I knew it could end badly (read: soggy, washed out cake and dull chocolate flavor) so I tested and tested and tested.
And this is it, baby. The most glorious confection to pass my lips. This week. But still! It’s awesome.
Instead of being soggy, the thick, decadent chocolate syrup melds this cake into a dense, rich pudding-like consistency.
Lightened with the sweetened whipped cream, and I’m not kidding you, I was sneaking into the fridge all hours of the night to get just.one.last.taste.
Just to help you gain perspective on that statement – not eating after dinner is one of my hard fast rules that I hardly ever break (my only way to justify all the calorie intake during the day!) and this chocolate tres leches cake proved to be my undoing.
I know it has to be out of this world when I’m willing to sacrifice after-dinner calories (and guilt) to have another bite.
Seriously. Just make it. Please. Like, run to your kitchen now and start. I don’t care if you have a life and a job and responsibilities and for real important things to do. Find a way. You won’t regret it.
One Year Ago: Chocolate Nutella {2-Minute} Mug Cake
Two Years Ago: Split Pea Soup with Barley and Ham {Slow Cooker}
Three Years Ago: Hawaiian Haystacks: Chicken Sauce Reinvented
Chocolate Tres Leches Cake
Ingredients
Cake:
- 3 cups (426 g) all-purpose flour
- 1 ½ cups (318 g) granulated sugar
- ½ cup (43 g) natural cocoa powder
- 1 ½ teaspoons baking soda
- ¾ teaspoon salt
- ⅔ cup vegetable or canola oil
- 2 tablespoons distilled white vinegar
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2 cups water
Chocolate Milk Mixture:
- 1 (14-ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
- 6 ounces (170 g) semisweet or bittersweet chocolate, chopped (about 1 cup)
- 1 (12-ounce) can evaporated milk
- ⅓ cup whipping cream or half-and-half
- Sweetened whipped cream
- Cocoa powder for dusting
Instructions
- For the cake, adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 350 degrees. Coat a 9X13-inch baking pan with nonstick cooking spray. Whisk flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, and salt together in the baking pan.
- Make 1 large and 2 small craters in dry ingredients. Add oil to large crater and vinegar and vanilla separately to remaining small craters. Pour water into pan and mix until just a few streaks of flour remain. Use a rubber spatula to spread the batter evenly in the pan if it isn’t level after mixing. Immediately put pan in oven.
- Bake until toothpick inserted in center of cake comes out with a few moist crumbs attached, about 23-25 minutes. Remove the cake from the oven and let it cool in the pan on a wire rack until cooled completely.
- Using a bamboo skewer or tines of a fork, poke holes all over the top of the cake. In a glass liquid measure or a microwave-safe bowl, combine the sweetened condensed milk and the chocolate. Microwave for one minute and stir. If not completely melted and smooth, microwave for an additional 30 seconds until melted and smooth. Whisk in the evaporated milk and heavy cream (or half-and-half). The mixture will start out very, very thick. Don’t worry! It will thin out as you whisk in the other milks.
- Slowly pour or ladle spoonfuls of the chocolate mixture over the top of the cake. Let the liquid absorb before adding more. Ladle the liquid onto the cake until all the chocolate mixture has been used. It’s ok if there is excess liquid pooled on top of the cake, it should absorb into the cake while it is refrigerated.
- Cover the cake with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 2 hours and up to 24 hours.
- Serve pieces of the cake with sweetened whipped cream and a dusting of cocoa powder.
Notes
Recommended Products
Recipe Source: Mel’s Kitchen Cafe (cake adapted from this wacky cake recipe)
Just wondering if the chocolate tres leches cake recipe can be made into cupcakes?Similar to your tres leches cupcakes. If so is there any difference in the recipe or could I follow the recipe for the regular tres leches cupcakes. Having a Mexican themed birthday party in less than 2 weeks would love to make these for the birthday cake in both regular and chocolate cupcakes.
That’s a great question, Bonnie. I haven’t tried a chocolate version of cupcakes but I *think* it should work just fine!
Hi! Did you try the chocolate tres leches cupcake version? If so did it work?
Would 2 times batch of this recipe make a sheet cake pan size?
A lot depends on how tall the sides of your cake pan are…I think a doubled batch might overflow a sheet pan with 1-inch sides.
I made a trifle using this recipe and it was a huge hit! I poked large holes in the cake to make sure it absorbed all the liquid then left it overnight in the fridge. The next day I layered it in the trifle dish with butterscotch pudding and whipped cream. Everyone loved it! I hope you don’t mind if I share your recipe with my family, they’re all asking for it!
A disaster. I am a great baker but this cake failed. It didn’t rise properly and the liquid didn’t soak in overnight, even though I didn’t add all of it. My husband loves chocolate, so he’ll probably eat it anyway. I baked “wacky” cake almost every week when I was a kid and it always turned out. I think there’s too much flour in this recipe as the batter was almost doughy.
This has been online for several years so I don’t expect a response. I made this on Christmas Eve for dessert on Christmas Day. I’m not a novice baker. When I took the cake out of the oven, it passed the toothpick test and was nicely puffed all over, dry and shrinking away from on the sides on the edges. But after cooling, like another commenter, it shrunk drastically in the middle and, after 24 hours, still hadn’t absorbed at least 1/3 of the liquid. I tasted a bit from the edge and, frankly, it just tasted like soggy cake. I followed the recipe exactly and used top-shelf ingredients. I looked at other Tres Leches recipes online to see where I went wrong and most reliable sources (including Cook’s Illustrated) make the cake using quite a bit less flour and some eggs or beaten egg whites. Luckily I had a spare cheesecake in my freezer for dessert yesterday.
Sorry this didn’t work out for you!
If I was given one piece of this cake, and the piece fell onto the floor, I would probably eat it off the floor.
It also reacts with the baking soda for lift.
Hello,
I don’t bake from scratch too often, so I’m puzzled by the vinegar in your recipe. Could you explain what it does?
It helps tenderize the cake crumb.
Thanks Mel! On another note ive been viewing your website for over a year now and it is my favorite. All of your other recipes are family favs. Don’t get me talking about the cinnamon roll coffee cake!! Take care.