Tres leches cake gets a decadent makeover with this easy chocolate tres leches cake recipe! Chocolate cake is soaked with chocolate milk and topped with whipped cream for an impossibly moist dessert!

Chocolate Tres Leches Cake

This is a chocolate twist on the classic tres leches cake (pastel de tres leches) for all you chocolate fans out there. I love it better than the original version!

Tres leches cake is a popular dessert in many Latin American countries and the Caribbean as well.

A lot of people associate it with Mexico, but the best 3 leches cake where I used to live was from a Cuban restaurant.

You could serve this after a meal of Queso Fresco Enchiladas, Mexican Pork Stew or Puerto Rican Pernil (roast pork).

Why is it called tres leches?

Chocolate cake is soaked in three kinds of milk – sweetened condensed milk, evaporated milk and regular milk (or heavy cream if you like it extra rich). And then it’s topped with freshly whipped cream!

To increase the chocolate flavor, I add pure cocoa powder to the milk mixture to make chocolate milk.

If you like poke cakes (like Boston Cream Poke Cake), you must try this Latin version!

If you’re feeling extra spiffy, try adding a couple dashes of cinnamon to the mix as well. Delicioso!

After the cake has soaked up the tres leches, it gets soft and wet like chocolate pudding cake or lava cake.

My mouth waters just thinking about how yummy it is!

How to make tres leches cake

Begin with chocolate cake. This is an easy tres leches cake with cake mix.

Use a box of devil’s food cake and prepare it according to the instructions for a 13×9 pan.

After baking, poke holes throughout the cake with a fork. This will help it soak up the milk faster.

Whisk together the 3 milks with the cocoa powder and pour over the cake.

I do this very slowly so the cake has time to absorb the liquid without getting flooded. Don’t forget the edges of the cake!

For the frosting, make homemade whipped cream by beating heavy cream and sugar together until light and fluffy.

You could use Cool Whip for an even faster shortcut, but since one component is already not from scratch (cake mix) I like the rest of my ingredients to be fresh.

The homemade whipped cream really makes the cake in my opinion!

Refrigerate the cake before serving. This ensures that every piece of chocolate tres leches cake is soaked, and allows the flavors to blend and enhance.

Before serving, garnish with chocolate shavings or dust with cocoa powder and/or cinnamon. Buen provecho!

PIN FOR LATER!