Rasmalai Tres Leches Cake (Vegan)

This Vegan Ras Malai Tres Leches Cake is the ultimate make-ahead dessert! A light sponge soaked in cardamom and saffron-scented nut milk. It only gets better with time, so perfect for holidays, and any occasion that calls for cake. Gluten-free option + soy-free.

This Vegan Ras Malai Tres Leches Cake combines two of my all-time favorite desserts, Rasmalai and Three Milk Cake!  A new Latin twist on one of the most delicious Indian sweets out there –  traditional Bengali Ras Malai / Rasmalai.

Ras Malai meets Tres Leches

Tres Leches is a light and airy sponge cake soaked in three kinds of milk: usually evaporated milk, condensed milk, and heavy cream. Bengali Ras Malai traditionally consists of small soft cheese curd balls or mini cakes immersed in saffron and cardamom-scented sweetened thickened milk. Can you already guess what we did here to combine the two? Yes, we bake a moist vegan sponge cake and soak it in a rich, homemade 3 milk mix seasoned with cardamom and saffron. The result is simply divine!

After the vegan tres leches cake has chilled, a simple coconut whipped cream and some chopped pistachios are added as finishing touches. If you want, add some vanilla or cinnamon to the coconut whip as you prepare it. It’s the cozy season after all. You can serve it topped with the whipped coconut cream or serve with a custard made of the 3 milk mixture!

Tres Leches Cake is always best served chilled and while the flavors make this perfect for Diwali, fall, and winter, I am thinking that this cake would also be the perfect summer cake.

This dreamy indulgent vegan tres leches is the ultimate make-ahead dessert because it only gets better with time, perfect for holidays, and any occasion that calls for cake.

More Diwali and holiday recipes:

• Vegan Ras Malai  
• Almond Halwa, 2ways and Almond Ladoo GF
• Malai Burfi  GF
• Basundi
• 7 Cup Burfi – GF, Nutfree
• Malai Ladoo
• Brown Rice Kheer
• Gajar Halwa, skillet, Instant pot
• Gulab Jamuns
• Easy Kaju Katli 

Ingredients:

• For the dry ingredients, I use All purpose flour mixed with some almond flour for moisture and richness (you can also use a mix of almond flour and raw pistachio flour) To make the raw pistachio flour, just blend pistachios in a blender until powder and use
• the cake is sweetened with cane sugar as we want to have a light color.
• our wet cake batter ingredients are non-dairy milk (almond, oat, or soy), oil, and some non-dairy yogurt or apple sauce
• baking powder and soda as well as vinegar helps the cake rise in the oven
• I add both vanilla extract and almond extract to lend more flavor to the cake
• the tres leches soaking syrup is made by blending raw pistachios and cashew
  with coconut milk, oat milk, water, and sugar
• saffron and cardamom add that authentic ras malai flavor to the soaking syrup
• coconut whip and chopped pistachios are my toppings of choice

Tips & Variations:

• For a budget version, skip the saffron
• If you want to make this refined sugar-free you can use coconut sugar or powdered jaggery, but it will result in a darker cake.
• Want to make this look even prettier? Sprinkle some dried culinary rose petals on top along with pistachios.
• You could also add a small amount of rose water to the soaking liquid if you’re a fan of rose-scented desserts.
• You definitely want to poke all the way through the cake before pouring over the milk; this allows for the milk to soak the whole cake.
• Alternate topping idea: If you don’t like the whipped coconut cream, you can take half of the milk mixture to make it into a custard. Heat half of the milk mixture over medium heat in a small saucepan until it starts to simmer and thickens a little bit then take off heat. Let it cool completely and serve that as the custard topping on top of the soaked cake.
• After the milk is poured, you can cover the cake pan and refrigerate for 4-6 hours, preferably overnight.

How to make Vegan Ras Malai Tres Leches Cake:

Make the cake: In a bowl, add all the wet ingredients and mix well.

In another bowl, mix the dry ingredients.

Combine the two until you get a cake batter.

You don’t want the cake batter to be too liquid but also don’t want it to be too muffin-like. If it’s too thick, add in 1 tablespoon or so more of non-dairy milk. If it’s too thin, then add in 1 or 2 tablespoons more flour.

Grease an 8×8 inch or 9×9 inch pan and then transfer the batter to the pan. I used a glass pan for this cake so that it doesn’t brown too much.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit (180 degrees Celsius) and then bake the cake for 30 minutes.

Check the 25-minute mark if the cake is done and continue to bake for another 5 if needed.

Blend the milk mixture until smooth. I blend it for a minute then rest for 5 minutes then blend again. So this 2-3 times.
Once the cake is done, remove from the oven, let it rest for 5 minutes, then poke holes in the warm cake. pour some of the milk mixture all over then let it sit for 15 mins to soak. Then drizzle some more of the milk mixture.

Once whipped, spread this coconut cream over the cake which is by now soaked with milk.

Then top it with crushed or chopped raw pistachios and serve.

Make it gluten-free:

For the flour, use 3/4 cup of oat flour, 3/4 cup of almond flour, and 1/3 cup of potato starch and for the liquid in the recipe, use half a cup of milk and half a cup of club soda instead of 1 cup milk.

How to store Tres Leches Cake:

Tres Leches Cake should be refrigerated – both because of the soaking liquid and the whipped topping. You can keep this cake chilled in the fridge for up to 5 days. It actually gets better and better.