This Tangerine Three Milks Cake is moist, sweet with a delicious citrus flavor. Perfect for any occasion.
I am a huge Tres Leches Cake fan. In addition to my traditional Tres Leches, my Coconut Tres Leches , Dulce de Leche Three Milks Cake, Coffee Three Milks Cake and my Chocolate Tres Leches cake recipes, I now present, Tangerine Tres Leches Cake!
After looking at a large bag of beautiful tangerines in my fridge for a week, I decided to try a different variation of this cake using a citrus flavor and this recipe was incredible. You could probably guess that anything called a Three Milks Cake would be pretty delicious, but this tangerine variation was even better than I expected.
What You'll Need to Make it
Flour: All-purpose flour.
Butter: Unsalted butter for the best results.
Eggs: I like to use cage free large eggs.
Vanilla Extract: Always use the best quality extract possible.
Whole Milk: To make the cake batter.
Baking Powder: Be sure this ingredient is not expired.
Salt: I like to add a little salt to my cake mixture.
Sweetened Condensed Milk: Another ingredient to make the sauce and it's a must.
Evaporated Milk: This is part of the three milks sauce. You will find it in cans at you supermarket.
Heavy Cream: If you can not get it, substitute for whole milk. This is the third ingredient for the sauce.
Tangerine: You will use the zest in the cake and juice in the sauce.
I like to top my cake with meringue frosting made with egg whites, water, cream of tartar, vanilla extract and sugar. Feel free to use your favorite frosting if you prefer.
Tangerine Three Milks Cake Recipe
Ingredients
Cake:
- 1 ½ cups all purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon of salt
- 4 tablespoons butter
- ¾ cup whole milk
- 4 large eggs at room temperature
- 1 cup sugar
- 2 teaspoons tangerine zest
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
Tres Leches
- 1 can evaporated milk
- 1 can sweet condensed milk
- ¾ cup tangerine juice
- 1 cup heavy cream
Frosting:
- 2 egg whites
- ½ teaspoon cream of tartar
- ½ cup sugar
- ¼ cup water
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350° F. Grease and lightly flour a baking dish.
- To make the cake: In a bowl whisk together the flour, salt and baking powder.
- In a small pot heat the milk and butter, remove from the heat and set aside.
- In a large bowl beat the eggs with an electric mixer on high speed for 2 minutes. Add the sugar and continue mixing for 5 minutes. Reduce the speed to low. Add the flour mixture, butter mixture, tangerine zest, vanilla extract and mix for 1 more minute.
- Pour the batter into the baking dish and bake for 40 to 45 minutes or until a toothpick stuck in the middle comes out clean. Remove cake from the oven and with a fork make holes all over the top of the cake. Set aside to cool for 10 to 15 minutes.
- When the cake is cooling, make the milk sauce, whisk together sweetened condensed milk, evaporated milk, heavy cream, tangerine juice and vanilla extract in a mixing bowl.
- Pour the 3 milks sauce over the cake until it is all absorbed. Refrigerate for a least 3 hours or overnight before frosting.
- For the frosting, in a small pot mix the water and sugar, over medium high heat, stirring constantly for 5 minutes. Set aside.
- Beat the egg whites with cream of tartar until stiff peaks are formed. While beating the egg whites, add sugar syrup and continue beating for 5 more minutes. Add vanilla extract and beat 1 more minute. Spread the frosting over the cake and refrigerate until ready to serve.
This Tres Leches de Mandarina Cake is not only decadent, but you can prepare it ahead as well, even the night before your dinner party. After appetizers, cocktails and a full dinner, who wants to put effort into making dessert? This is going to become a very regular birthday cake in my home!
Tips to Make this Recipe
*You can storage this cake in the fridge covered up to 4 days.
*This cake is perfect for parties, because it can be make ahead of time. Frost the cake before serving.
*Pour the tres leches mixture over the cake slowly so the cake has time to absorb it.
More Cake Recipe to Try
Torta Maria Luisa (Jam Layered Cake)
Pionono de Arequipe (Dulce de Leche and Coconut Roll Cake)
Torta de Café (Coffee Flavored Cake)
Velva
I have made a tres leche cake twice in my life and I devoured it each time-It is one my favorite cakes. The tangerine flavor would send me over the edge it would be so good.
Velva
Angie@Angie's Recipes
Who doesn't love tres leche!! The cake looks sensational, Erica.
Evelyne@cheapethniceatz
Really beautiful cake. I too like Tres Leches cakes and I really like citrus flavored cakes. it's a match made in heaven!
Belinda @zomppa
The perfect sweetness!!
Norma-Platanos, Mangoes & Me!
Tres leches and mandarinas...you got me!
grace
tres leches cake is always a hit with me--i love the texture! great version, erica!
Heather
Your pictures looked amazing! I am not a baker, but I tried my hand at this. Part of the cake refused to come out , and it looked a little lopsided (lol). HEB also did not have tangerines so I used oranges. It tasted wonderful! I plan on making this again. Thank you so much sharing!
Martha
In the recipe where I supposed add the tangerine juice? in the # 7 you only mix the three milk.
Thank for your excellent recipe
Erica Dinho
5. When the cake is cooling, make the milk sauce, whisk together sweetened condensed milk, evaporated milk, heavy cream, tangerine juice and vanilla extract in a mixing bowl.
Sandra
Hi!
Could someone give me a hand about how to make: "tangerine zest "? I´m new in cooking and google is giving me a lot of different options.
Thanks 🙂
Jean
On amazon- Microplane 38004- about 12.00$ Also available at BedBath&Beyond
Cheap and truly versatile tool for grating fine citrus rind as well as ginger and garlic etc. I use this a whole lot!
mary
Beautiful cake and looks delicious I love tres leches! cant wait to make it
Christi Nielsen
I don't see how much heavy cream we are supposed to add in the recipe.
Heather Bress
There is no heavy cream listed in the ingredients, but step 5 calls for it. Is the juice instead of the heavy cream? Or is it all three milks plus the juice? If the latter, how much heavy cream?
Thanks - I want to make this for my Colombiano’s birthday in a few days!
Erica Dinho
1 cup heavy cream
Ryan Nelson
Finding this recipe means so much to me!!
I have had it at birthdays and did some work for American missionaries that did service in Mexico.
She served me this cake for my birthday.
Now i can make it for my Columbian bride and son!
Thank you !
Mindy
I made this cake for a party and it was a big hit. It is really delicious! Based on the photos of the cake in the blog post I baked the cake in an 8" round cake pan and turned the cake out onto a plate for serving. This meant that the cake had much less of the milk sauce than I have usually seen with Tres Leches cake, and most of the people who ate the cake preferred it for that reason. They liked the Tres Leches flavor without the sometimes soggy texture. I am actually a fan of the soggier variety so I think next time I will try to save some of the milk sauce to serve on the side.
The recipe directions are pretty good- clarification about the kind of pan and size of pan would be helpful. Directions at the end for exactly how it is mean to be assembled would be good. I placed the 8"round cake pan on a baking sheet before pouring the milk sauce over the cake as there was much more sauce than could fit in the pan but I wanted to make sure to cover the cake as fully as possible. I assumed I should turn the cake out of the pan to frost it and serve it but that was based on photos, there is nothing in the recipe about that. I found that making the cake took much longer that the stated 10 min of prep time, but reading through the recipe I knew it would. Step 4 by itself is 8 minutes. I would put the active prep time, including making the frosting at closer to 25 minutes (for a person comfortable with baking. Probably longer if you're less familiar with following a recipe). 40-45 minutes for baking was just perfect for my oven.