This Keto and Gluten Free take on a Tres Leches Cake is a real show stopper! A simple sponge cake soaked in sweetened milk and topped with homemade whipped cream is sure to please everyone. Serve it topped with fresh berries, a dusting of cinnamon – or my favorite, fresh cherries!
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Tres Leches is one of my favorite cakes ever. It is so simple but the texture is to die for. Once the cake soaks up all the deliciously sweet milk, it almost becomes custard-like.
You can enjoy this cake as it, or eat it dusted with cinnamon, cocoa or my favorite – fresh pitted cherries!
Ingredient substitutions:
- Protein Powder – Adding protein powder to this cake improves the texture. If you don’t have any or don’t want to use it you can substitute it with a tablespoon of coconut flour.
- Erythritol – Pretty much any bulk sweetener will work here, including regular sugar, so use whatever suits your fancy. Just be sure to check the conversion ratios or sweeten to taste.
- Heavy Whipping Cream – Make this cake Dairy-Free by swapping the heavy whipping cream for canned coconut milk! For the whipped cream topping follow the instructions on THIS recipe. (To keep it keto friendly be sure to use a keto friendly sweetener)
- Coconut Milk – Conversely, you can also swap the coconut milk with heavy cream.
- Almond Milk – Any milk variety or milk alternative will work fine in place of the almond milk. We like to use Califia Farms toasted coconut and almond milk for something super special!
- Liquid Stevia – Any sweetener will work, but I find that the liquid stevia integrates into the liquid the best. To sub the stevia in the whipped cream, it is best to use a powdered sweetener.
- Xanthan Gum – Xanthan gum is my trick for keeping whipped cream stable and perfect for frosting cakes. The whipped cream will stay perfect on the top of this cake for about 5 days when you use Xanthan Gum! If you don’t have it or don’t want to use it, it’s fine to skip – but I recommend waiting to make the whipped cream until just before serving the cake.
Helpful Tips:
- Do yourself a favor and line the bottom of your baking pan with parchment paper. This ensures that the cake will pop right out of the pan without cracking. You can get pre-cut parchment rounds on Amazon for a decent price.
- For this particular cake, it is better to slightly overcook it vs. undercook. You actually want to cake to be slightly on the dry side so that it will absorb the milk. If you are in doubt over whether it is finished baking, keep it in the oven for a few extra minutes (as long as it’s not burning)
- As mentioned above, if you are skipping the Xanthan Gum then I recommend waiting to make the topping until just before serving. I also wouldn’t frost the entire cake unless it’s all going to be eaten within a day or two. Fresh whipped cream has a tendency to fall and get weepy after sitting for a bit but the xanthan gum stabilizes it and prevents this from happening.
- Feel free to play around with different flavors of stevia or extracts. My personal favorite is coconut!
Be sure to check out these other great recipes:
- Keto Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting
- Pineapple Upside Down Cake | Keto, Gluten Free
- Mexican Street Corn Salad | Keto
Tres Leches Cake | Keto, Gluten Free
This low carb take on a traditional Tres Leches Cake is a real show stopper! A simple spongecake soaked in sweetened milk and topped with homemade whipped cream is sure to please everyone. Serve it topped with fresh berries, a dusting of cinnamon – or my favorite, frozen cherries!
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Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: 40 minutes
Total Time: 1 hour
Servings: 12 slices
Calories: 235kcal
Ingredients
For the cake:
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter softened
- 1/2 cup erythritol (I use swerve)
- 1 1/4 cup Almond Flour
- 1/4 cup low carb vanilla whey protein powder (see recommendations above)
- 1/4 tsp Salt
- 2 tsp Baking Powder
- 3 large eggs
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/4 cup heavy whipping cream
- 1/2 cup canned coconut milk, full fat and unsweetened
- 1/2 cup Unsweetened Almond Milk
- 10-15 drops liquid stevia, or to taste
For whipped cream topping:
- 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 15-20 drops liquid stevia, or to taste
- 1/2 tsp Xanthan Gum
Instructions
For the cake:
- Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F and prepare a 9 inch round cake pan with non-stick spray.
- In a medium bowl, combine the almond flour, whey protein, salt and baking powder, stirring to combine. Set the mixture aside.
- In a separate medium bowl, combine the butter, vanilla, and erythritol. Beat with a hand mixer until light and fluffy.
- Add the eggs and whipping cream and beat again until well integrated.
- Working in batches, add the dry ingredients in with the wet, mixing after each addition until you have a smooth, creamy batter.
- Bake in preheated oven for 30-40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
- Allow them to cool for at least 15, then carefully, turn it out onto your serving plate.
- In a small bowl, or large measuring cup – mix together the coconut milk, almond milk, and stevia.
- Slowly and evenly, pour the milk mixture over the cake.
For the whipped cream topping:
- Combine all the ingredients for the topping in a medium bowl. Using a hand mixer beat until stiff peaks form and the mixture has at least doubled in size. Once cake has completely cooled, spread the whipped cream on top and serve
Notes
Be sure to check out the post for recipe tips and ingredient substitutions!
Calories: 235kcal | Carbohydrates: 4g | Protein: 6g | Fat: 22g | Saturated Fat: 11g | Cholesterol: 81mg | Sodium: 86mg | Potassium: 136mg | Fiber: 1g | Vitamin A: 515IU | Vitamin C: 0.2mg | Calcium: 93mg | Iron: 0.9mg
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Oh, holy goodness! THANK YOU for this recipe!! It’s amazing!
It’s one of my favorites! Glad you enjoyed it 🙂
How much is one serving? 1/8 of the cake?
This cake serves 12, so one serving is 1/12th of the cake 🙂
IM IN!! We laughed and laughed at this one. 🤣
Delicious! My hubby made it, omg!
Talk about a win win! So glad you enjoyed it!
Can you bake this kind of cake the night before?
Yep 🙂 It will keep in the fridge for about a week. I do try to wait until the last minute to put the whipped cream on top though
I don’t want the protien powder. Can I omitt thay completely and if i do will I need more almond flour?
You should be able to omit it without adding anything else. It just gives it the texture of a more traditional cake.
Can we use any coconut flour to half the calories? Have you tried?
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I made this recipe yesterday, and it was so good I felt compelled to come back and leave this comment! Probably the best keto recipe I’ve made in terms of tasting more like the real thing and not so obviously keto.
I used xylitol instead of erythritol and put less drops of stevia, but everything turned out great. I ended up baking it for about 36 min, and after letting it cool , I poked a bunch of holes and then poured the milk mixture over it to allow for more soaking. Highly recommend doing that if your cake didn’t turn out moist enough. Didn’t come out soggy at all!
Made this last night poke the holes and poured in the milks placed it in refrigerator to soak in mixture over night and 1/2 day Omg, DELISH Thank you for the great recipes 👋🏻
Are you able to use coconut cream instead of milk? Bought the wrong cAn
Hi Valerie! It should work fine, but you may need to add a bit more almond milk so that it has a thinner consistency. Let me know how it turns out for you!
How many grams of sugar and carbs per slice?
Hi Laura! The nutrition info is under the recipe card 🙂
You say a 9 inch cake pan but it’s pictured as if it’s a springform pan. Maybe correct your recipe to say use a springform pan? People appreciate a well written recipe with appropriate instructions and directions.
I have no idea why you think a springform pan was used. I can assure you that this was in fact baked in a 9″ cake pan. With that said, a 9″ springform pan would work fine with no changes to the baking time or technique.
How much xanthum do I use?
Hi Ceci! I use 1/2 tsp and it works perfectly.
I just want to know if I can replace the vanilla whey protein powder with? That’s the only ingredient I don’t have. Thank you.
Hi Mary Anne! You can swap the protein powder with 1 tbsp of coconut flour or an additional 1/4 cup of almond flour, plus 1 tsp of vanilla. Hope that helps!
What can I use instead of almond milk? Heavy cream?
Hi Melissa! Yes, heavy cream, half and half, or coconut milk would all work fine 🙂
Hi Sindy, I think that pea and/or hemp protein would work fine. Hope that helps!
I made this cake two days ago and it was sooo good my husband asked me to made another one BEFORE the cake was finished. So the two of us have finished TWO cakes in 3 days. No shame or guilt so admit it!! We did not even used whipped cream!! Yum!!!
Hi Milena! So glad to hear that it was a hit with you and your husband! Thanks for the great review 🙂
I tried the recipe! To swee!. I would decrease sugar to 1/4 cup and no sugar to milk mix.
Cake itself had a great texture.
This is soooooo good.
I used 1/3c coconut flour instead of almond flour (I can’t eat almond flour)
I used coconut milk instead of whipping cream, in the batter (I had no whipping cream)
My icing was made with mascarpone cheese,, cream cheese and a little coconut milk.
I did not add sweetener to my milk that was poured over as I felt it would be sweet enough without it.
I also reduced the sweetener in the batter from 1/2 cup to a 3rd.
This is dense and moist and absolutely delicious.
This has become my very favorite ❤️. I took at trip away and requested that my husband make it upon my return…love that man so much ❤️
Rachel
So glad you like it Rachel, and it sounds like that husband of yours is a keeper for sure!
Thanks for the review 🙂
This is delicious! Thank you so much for sharing. I just wonder if putting a circle or parchment paper in the bottom of the dish would hurt anything. It did stick to the bottom of mine really bad. Its nothing that can’t be covered up with the whipped cream in the end. Just wondering for future reference if it would hurt anything!
Thanks again for sharing.
So glad that you enjoyed this cake. It is my personal favorite 🙂 A parchment round at the bottom of the pan is a great idea and shouldn’t alter the end result at all. Thanks for the great review 🙂