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This soft and moist cake combines the traditional tres leches cake with the flavors of paan and gulkand to make an Indian fusion paan tres leches cake. An eggless sponge is soaked in a milk concentrate flavored with paan leaves, fennel and gulkand (rose petal preserve). The cake is decorated with a rose scented whipped cream and garnished with candied fennel making it an ideal Indian fusion dessert to serve at your festive parties.
If you love tres leches cake and the flavor of meetha paan, then this dessert is for you. I love combining the flavors of paan into Indian desserts and have shared so many of these recipes over the years on my blog including the hugely popular paan ladoo. This paan tres leches has an eggless sponge cake that is soaked with a paan flavored liquid. The classic milk mixture that we use in a tres leches is plain but here we flavored it with fresh paan leaves, gulkand and fennel seeds.
There are two main parts to making this recipe- the sponge cake and the paan flavored milk for soaking the cake.
Take A Shortcut: Use Boxed Mix
Here’s my tip to make this dessert even more simpler for you. I have given you a recipe for an eggless sponge here which is then soaked in a paan flavored milk. To make it easier, use a boxed mix and bake yourself a sponge. Follow rest of the recipe as it it. This easy hack will save you time.
Make sure to bake the cake in a 8-inch square pan for this recipe. Or you can bake it in a larger pan if you are planning to make individual cups of this dessert (see notes below).
Let’s Make An Indian Inspired Tres Leches
- Start making the sponge cake by mixing wet ingredients
Mix the oil and sugar first using a wire whisk or a stand mixer until the mixture looks smooth. If using a hand whisk, you would need to whisk vigorously for a few minutes for the sugar to dissolve better. Then activate the baking soda with yogurt and then mix that with the oil and sugar mixture as well.
- Sift in the dry ingredients and bake
Use a sifter to sift the flour, baking powder and salt and mix gently. Do not overmix else the cake can turn out hard. Mix until just combined and then bake at 350 F for 25-30 minutes. I used a 8-inch square pan but you can also bake this in a 9-inch or a larger pan. The baking time would decrease in that case, since the batter will be spread out thinner in a larger pan and would bake quicker.
- Make the paan flavored milk mixture
While the cake is in the oven, make the paan milk mixture. Tres leches traditionally has a mix of evaporated milk, heavy cream and condensed milk. I have used the same 3 milks but flavored it with fresh paan leaves, fennel seeds and gulkand to bring out the paan flavor.
- Strain to get a smooth mix
Straining the paan milk mixture is important so that it’s very smooth before we pour it over the cake. Once the paan and evaporated milk mixture is well combined and strained, then add the heavy cream and condensed milk and mix well.
- Pour the milk mixture over the cake & refrigerate overnight
Once the cake has cooled down, poke holes all over the cake using a chopstick or you can also use a fork or a toothpick. Make sure that you go more than half the way across the cake when you are poking the holes. Do not go all the way through but more than half is important else the cake will not soak the milk. Then reserve around 300 ml of the liquid (adding all of it makes the cake soggy!) and pour the rest over the cake in parts. I poured 1/2 cup of the liquid, then waited for the cake to absorb it and then added more until I was finished with everything.
Once all the liquid has been absorbed, cover and place the cake in the refrigerator overnight.
- Whip the heavy cream
Next day, whip the heavy cream using the wire whisk attachment of your stand mixer until you have stiff peaks. I used a little bit of pink food color and some powder sugar and rose water to flavor it.
- Top the cake with whipped cream
Take the cake out of the fridge the next day and decorate it with the whipped cream. You can apply the cream as a layer or pipe it anyway you like it. Decorate with candied fennel. Serve the cake slices with the reserved paan milk mix.
Serving It In Individual Cups
If you want to serve this in individual cups, I would recommend baking this in a larger pan- probably in a 9 x 13 inch pan. The baking time will reduce in that case (thinner batter = will bake quicker) so check around the 18 to 20 minutes mark. Once done. let the cake cool completely and then cut into rounds (or squares depending on the container you are going to use) using a cookie cutter.
Then arrange the cut cake rounds in a pan and prick them gently with a fork. Cover them with the prepared paan milk mix and refrigerate overnight (or for a minimum of 4 hours). Make individual cups/jars with the cake and whipped cream. You can even put 2 layers of cake and cream in a jar starting with cake –> whipped cream –> cake –> whipped cream and finish with candied fennel. You can also use a small pipette like I used in my butterscotch kheer to serve some extra paan milk on the side of your jars.
Manali’s Tips
- Let the cake cool down before soaking it in the milk mixture. You can make the milk mixture in advance but bring it to room temperature before pouring it over the cake. Room temperature milk will absorb better. You can even warm it up a little in the microwave for 15 to 30 seconds.
- I didn’t want the cake to become soggy so I reserved 300 ml of the liquid before pouring it on the cake. Tres leches is supposed to be a soft and moist cake but it shouldn’t be soggy wet. A cake should hold its structure and so reserving some of the liquid helps with that.
- When poking the holes with the chopstick, don’t go all the way through the cake, however make sure to go deep enough, (around 3/4the of the entire depth of the cake) so that the milk can seep through the cake. I have had this issue during my recipe testing where the holes were too superficial and only the upper half of the cake soaked the liquid.
- I highly recommend chilling the cake overnight for best results. 6 hours is minimum but preferably chill overnight before adding the whipped cream on top and serving.
- Serve this cake from the same pan in which you bake this cake. This works best for tres leches. Do not use parchment paper, I tried it once and it was a mess.
- For a tres leches to absorb the liquid, the cake has to be airy so do not overbake your cake and make it stodgy. Bake for around 25 minutes until it’s just done.
Paan Tres Leches Cake (Eggless)
Ingredients
Cake
- ½ cup oil 120 ml I used avocado oil but any flavorless oil works
- ½ cup granulated white sugar 100 grams
- 1 cup whole milk plain yogurt 240 grams
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract 2.5 ml
- 1 & ½ cups all purpose flour 190 grams
- 1 & ¼ teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon salt
Milk Mixture
- 1 & ¼ cups evaporated milk 300 ml
- 4 large paan leaves 15 grams
- 1 teaspoon fennel seeds
- ¼ cup gulkand
- ½ cup sweetened condensed milk 120 ml
- ½ cup heavy cream 120 ml
- 2 drops green food color optional
Whipped Topping
- 1 & ½ cups heavy whipping cream 360 ml
- 2 tablespoons powdered sugar 18 grams
- 1 teaspoon rose water
- 1 drop pink food color optional
Instructions
Make The Cake
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease a 8-inch square pan with oil. To a large bowl, add ½ cup oil (120 ml) and ½ cup sugar (100 grams). Mix using a wire whisk until sugar and oil are well combined and sugar is dissolved.
- In another small bowl, add 1 cup plain whole milk yogurt (240 grams) and add ½ teaspoon baking soda to it. Gently stir and let it sit for 2 minutes. You will notice that the mixture starts to bubble up which means the baking soda is activated.
- Now, add the yogurt-baking soda mixture to the oil and sugar mixture and mix with a whisk until combined. Also add ½ teaspoon vanilla extract and mix.
- Place a large strainer on top of the bowl and add 1 & ½ cups flour (190 grams), 1 & ¼ teaspoon baking powder and ¼ teaspoon salt to it. Sift the dry ingredients into the bowl and gently fold them using a spatula. Do not overmix the batter.
- Transfer the cake into the prepared baking pan and bake at 350 degrees F for 25 to 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. I bake mine for 25 minutes. Remove from the oven and let the cake cool in the pan itself.
Prepare The Milk Mixture
- To a blender add 1 & ¼ cup evaporated milk along with 4 large paan peaves (15 grams). Blend until combined. You can also add a couple of drops of green food color to it. Then add 1 teaspoon fennel seeds and ¼ cup gulkand and blend again until combined.
- Take a large glass jar or bowl and strain this mixture using a strainer to get rid of any bits and pieces. To this strained mixture now, add ½ cup condensed milk and ½ cup heavy cream. Stir well to combine everything.
Pour The Milk Over The Cake
- Once the cake has cooled, poke holes all over it using chopsticks (or use a fork). Reserve 300 ml of the prepared paan milk for serving and then pour over the rest all over the cake in parts.
- Pour ½ cup first on top of the cake and also on the edges and around. Let the cake absorb the liquid and then pour more. Pour slowly, waiting for the cake to absorb liquid and then pour more. Once all the liquid is finished, cover the cake with a cling sheet and refrigerate overnight or for a minimum of 6 hours for the cake to soak up the milk.
Make The Whipped Topping
- Add 1 & ½ cup heavy cream to the steel bowl of your stand mixer (or use a hand mixer). To that, now add 2 tablespoons powdered sugar (18 grams) and 1 teaspoon rose water. You can also add a drop of gel pink food color (optional).
- Whisk using the wire whisk attachment on high speed for around 2 to 3 minutes until you get stiff peaks. Be careful not to overbeat else the cream will separate. This time may vary depending on the type of mixer you are using.
- Top the cake with the whipped topping. You can just apply it as a layer or pipe it in anyway you like. Decorate with candied fennel, tutti frutti.
- Slice the cake into 9 big squares. Place one piece onto your serving plate and pour some of the reserved paan milk around the cake slice and serve. Enjoy!
Notes
- The cake can be baked 2 days in advance, keep it refrigerated. When ready to serve, top it with whipped cream and serve it with some of that paan flavored milk on the side.
- The total time includes the resting time of 8 hours. I highly recommend letting the cake chill in the fridge overnight.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Hello,
The paan tres leches cake recipe looks very interesting! I just had 1 follow-up question. Can I use store bought pound cake or the vanilla cake mix that’s available at the store, instead of baking it from the scratch? I don’t mind if the cake has eggs in it.
Hi Namratha, of course! I have a paragraph on it in my blog post. Just scroll up and you will see ” Take A Shortcut: Use Boxed Mix”.
Perfect! Do you have any brand recommendations?
I haven’t used them much but Betty Crocker or Duncan Hines will both do the job