# Questions about Tres Leches cake **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 2, 2010, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-tres-leches-cake/531016 "2010-03-02T18:24:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![dre2xl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/34f0e0/32.png) [@dre2xl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dre2xl)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2010, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-tres-leches-cake/531016/1 "2010-03-02T18:24:24Z")
To be exact, this is the recipe I’m using, only I’m substituting fresh strawberries instead of the maraschino cherries: [Tres Leches recipe](http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Tres-Leches-Cake/Detail.aspx) This is my first time making a Tres Leches cake… The question I have is simple. The cake’s due on Friday, I get the Wednesday off but not Thursday. Ideally, I’d like to make all of the cake on Wednesday, but I’m guessing that it’ll be yucky by Friday if I did. So, as far as I can see, the cake is made out of 3 components: the cake, the milk mixture, and the whipped cream/strawberries. Can I make the cake component on Wednesday, and add the milk component on Thursday evening? If the answer is “yes” – can I make the milk mixture in advance, but add it to the cake on Thursday evening, and let it store overnight? Furthermore, should I keep the whipped cream and strawberries separate from the cake until ready to serve? Seems like that would have a high potential to soak in / get nasty otherwise. ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2010, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-tres-leches-cake/531016/2 "2010-03-02T18:26:56Z")
I would add the milk mixture as late as possible – maybe an hour or two ahead of serving. I had some last year that had sat overnight, and I thought it was pretty gross. ---
**Author:** ![dre2xl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/34f0e0/32.png) [@dre2xl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dre2xl)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2010, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-tres-leches-cake/531016/3 "2010-03-02T18:53:57Z")
But this seems to be the “authentic” way of making tres leches – many recipes/comments call for soaking it overnight, including [Alton Brown](http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/tres-leche-cake-recipe/index.html). Of course, I am not a Mexican… ---
**Author:** ![GilaB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8e7dd6/32.png) [@GilaB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GilaB)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2010, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-tres-leches-cake/531016/4 "2010-03-02T19:17:19Z")
The one time I made tres leches cake, I had a similar time frame to yours. I made the cake and the syrup about two days before I was planning on serving it, but only combined them the night before; we had it for dessert at lunch, so it was soaking for about 13-15 hours. I made [this recipe](http://www.chow.com/recipes/10649), which is apparently more Puerto Rican than Mexican (it uses coconut milk as one of the milks), but I don’t see why that should affect the soaking time. ETA - it came out great, by the way, and was very well received. ---
**Author:** ![Nightingale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecae2f/32.png) [@Nightingale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nightingale)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2010, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-tres-leches-cake/531016/5 "2010-03-03T01:13:12Z")
I made The Pioneer Woman’s recipe at Christmas, and thought that the cake was MUCH better after soaking overnight. It was a bit too wet at first, but was divine the next day. ---
**Author:** ![dre2xl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/34f0e0/32.png) [@dre2xl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dre2xl)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2010, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-tres-leches-cake/531016/6 "2010-03-03T15:39:30Z")
Got it! Sounds like it’s definitely A-OK to make the cake part 2 days in advance – there are some websites claiming that it’s even better after 2 days of soaking, but I’m not going to test that. Thanks, I’ll be making the cake part today and adding the milk tomorrow.