Coca Cola Tres Leches Cake

Published March 30, 2012. Updated February 16, 2024

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Coca-Cola Tres Leches Cake is a moist and incredible remix of the beloved Tres Leches Cake—but with America’s favorite drink! The smooth and bold flavor of Coca-Cola shines with a fluffy chocolate cake and sweet milk filling. Top this cake with whipped frosting and the iconic red sprinkles or crushed lollipops for a new party hit! 

Cake Caffeinated…  yes, I like the sound of that. This cake is incredible to say the least! Tres Leches meets chocolate meets Coca-Cola soda.  In other words, pure bliss. I love the simplicity of this cake, it starts from a cake mix but no one would know. There are two variations on this cake, if you want to do the Cherry Coca-Cola version I would say the crushed cherry lollipops for garnish are a must =).

Coca-Cola Tres Leches Cake

Coca-Cola Tres Leches Cake

In addition to the iconic texture and sweet flavor of a traditional Tres Leches Cake, this cake has similar flavors that remind me of one of my favorite cakes, which I’m sure nearly all of you have tried (and loved) at least once, “Better Than Sex Cake.” I never thought it could meet its match but here it is.

 

This Coca-Cola Tres Leches cake is an exciting, decadent must-try that you will likely be adding to your favorite cake recipe collection and sharing with others. It pairs really well with a Mexican dinner, or for Cinco de Mayo—just make sure you get Mexican Coke (it uses pure cane sugar and is SO much better!). It’s also great for any Americana-themed party, because what’s more American than Coca-Cola?! Serve at a Fourth of July party, with burgers at a BBQ, or to celebrate a Coke-loving friend! Enjoy!

Also, check out MyCokeRewards where you can create your own recipe book and find many other exciting recipes using Coca-Cola.

Compensation was provided by Coca-Cola, but Coca-Cola is not a sponsor, administrator, or involved in any other way with this pin/post. All opinions expressed are my own and not those of Coca-Cola.

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Coca Cola Tres Leches Cake

Delicious chocolate cake soaked with milks and coca cola and finished with a whipped topping.
Servings: 20
Prep30 minutes
Cook30 minutes
Ready in: 1 hour

Ingredients

Instructions

  • Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large mixing bowl combine cake mix, 1 1/4 cups Coca Cola, vegetable oil and eggs. Blend ingredients together using an electric mixer, on low speed for 30 seconds, then increase speed to medium and blend mixture for 2 minutes. Pour mixture and evenly spread into a greased 13x9 baking dish. Bake 30-35 minutes or until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean. Remove from oven and allow cake to cool for 5 minutes.
  • Meanwhile, in medium mixing bowl, whisk together sweetened condensed milk, evaporated milk and 2/3 cup heavy cream. Add in 1 cup Coca Cola and mix until combined. Poke cake every 1/2"-1" with a long tinned fork. Slowly pour Coca Cola milk mixture evenly over entire cake. Allow cake to rest, uncovered for 30 minutes at room temperature. Cover cake with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour (or overnight) until cake has cooled completely and the majority of the milk mixture has been absorbed.
  • In a mixing bowl, using an electric mixer, whip heavy cream until soft peaks form. Stir in granulated sugar and whip until stiff peaks form. Spread sweetened whipped cream evenly over cooled cake. Sprinkle frosted cake with optional sprinkles or crushed lollipops. Serve immediately (note: when cutting and plating I'd recommend using a spatula to lift cake from pan, this isn't one of those cakes you can plate using a fork). Store cake in refrigerator (note that the sweetened whip cream will begin to separate after about 3 hours).
  • Recipe Source: Cooking Classy

Notes

If you like cool whip you could use that instead, I just prefer the real thing

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22 Comments

  • Meghan

    Made these babies last night to take to work today. DELICIOUS! I only used about half of the tres leches mixture, and the cake was very moist. Thanks so much for this recipe! Coke cake to the next level. :) I’d definitely make this again. My coworkers are raving about it as well.

  • maleen

    made it today for a get-together, it was the talk of the night everyone loved it, someone even said and I quote ” I don’t even like chocolate but this was great!” some people thought it had liquor and were surpise to know it was coca cola! great recipe thank you for sharing

    • Jaclyn

      Jaclyn Bell

      I’m so glad this recipe was enjoyed Maleen! Thanks so much for your comment!

    • Jaclyn

      Jaclyn Bell

      I’d recommend using a chocolate cake recipe that is fairly light and fluffy – I would also reduce the amount of oil probably so its slightly dry and will absorb moisture. Sorry I wish I had an exact recipe to give you but that would take some testing.

  • Ivory

    Made this today. The taste was great, but after a few bites it became overwhelmingly sweet for my tastes. Maybe reduce the amount of tres leches poured over the cake to have it less saturated? I noticed that the bottom was quite soggy and indeed that was the overwhelming portion I think. The top portion of the cake was fine.

    • Jaclyn

      Jaclyn Bell

      Yeah next time I would just reduce the amount of liquid you add to the top and that should reduce the amount of sweetness slightly as well as the soggy problem.

  • BF

    I tried making this cake and compared to some of your other recipes I must admit I was a little disappointed. It wasn’t bad by any means but I didn’t think it was amazing, like the other two recipes I tried (red velvet pancakes and brownie cupcakes). The cake was nice and moist but it still had that cake box flavor (the disappointing part).
    Maybe I’ll try it again with a home made cake recipe (I liked the idea of carbonation in a cake) but with the box cake I’m not sure it was worth it.
    I will note that I accidentally added 1/4 cup extra Coke and used a different type of pan, but I can’t imagine those would affect the taste to any significant extent, if at all.
    Still, out of the three recipes I’ve tried this is the only one I wasn’t amazed by, which is nothing to rub your nose at. :) I’ll undoubtedly be making another one of your recipes again very soon. Cheers.

    • Jaclyn

      Jaclyn Bell

      It’s true isn’t it that made from scratch is always better =). I’m sure this cake would be even better if you did do the cake portion from scratch. For some reason I just decided to do the shortcut method on this recipe, not exactly sure why. I’m glad you’ve enjoyed the recipes though, thanks for your comment!

      • BF

        Everyone besides me seemed to really like it anyways, so maybe it’s just a cake preference perhaps. I wonder how it would taste if you used yellow cake and sprite.

        • Jaclyn

          Jaclyn Bell

          I was actually think about that when I made it, I think a lemon lime tres leches would be awesome! You should definitely try it =).

  • mel

    What do you do with the liquid that has’nt been absorbed by the cake??? I made the cake using Duncan Hines “Chocolate Decadence” and Coke Zero!!

    • Jaclyn

      Jaclyn Bell

      mel – sorry I didn’t really have that problem but as long as you let it rest for the amount of time stated then you should be fine to serve it, just leave the liquid that isn’t absorbed in the baking dish or spoon it onto the serving plate. Next time I’d recommend trying a the betty crocker cake mix and using regular coca cola and hopefully that makes the difference.