The 3 milk cake is a very famous dessert around Latin America. Given its exquisite flavor, it is trendy in several regions of the world, revealing the importance of how to store the three milk cakes?
Ideally, it would help if you assembled the 3 milk cake in a container or refractory with an airtight lid, since that way it would be easier to store it in the fridge, where it can be for 3 to 5 days.
The proper way to store the three-milk cake is in the following chapters.
Store a 3 milk cake in the fridge
The pastel tres leches is a wet and fluffy cake because of the mixture of condensed milk, evaporated milk, and milk cream, which gives it a surprising texture and flavor.
In addition, it is usually decorated with whipped cream or chantilly and cinnamon powder, although some versions use dulce de leche or chocolate. And because of this large amount of dairy products, the tres leches cake is a dessert you should consume soon.
However, the experts recommend that the 3 milk cake should rest at least one day before eating to combine the flavors nicely.
The ideal would be to assemble the three-milk cake in a container or refractory with an airtight lid so that this way is much easier to store. However, you can always pass the remaining portions to these containers.
The cake must be well covered so that it does not absorb the smell of other foods or modify its flavor. In addition, it prevents something from falling and contaminating the cake in the fridge.
Also, you should store the 3 milk cake in the coldest part of your fridge for 3 to 5 days.
Can the 3 milk cake be frozen?
Unfortunately, you cannot freeze the 3 milk cake, mainly because when the cake thaws, it loses consistency and flavor, in addition to the whipped cream or chantilly that it carries on, it does not freeze well either.
However, if you want to advance some steps in preparing this cake, you could freeze the “biscuit.”
- Step 1. Let the cake cool.
Before saving only the base or cake, you must wait for it to cool completely. So, it is better to put it on a rack after removing it from the oven and unmolding it.
- Step 2. Wrap.
Wrap with plastic film first, then aluminum foil, although you could also put two layers of plastic film. The double wrap will prevent the cake from suffering frostbite burns.
- Step 3. Bag and label.
Put the cake inside a freezer bag and write down the storage date on it.
- Step 4. Save the cake in the freezer.
In this way, you can freeze the cake for 2 to 3 months. [1]
How do you know if the 3 milk cake spoiled?
Your tres leches cake is in poor condition if it has the following signs:
- Smell: this is usually the first thing to be noticed. If it has a sour or rotten smell, it is best not to eat it.
- Mold: it likely develops mold if it is not well stored, so if you see some green, black or white stains or lint, throw the cake in the trash.
- Taste: If your three milk cake tastes sour or bad, it is spoiled, so get rid of it so you don’t get sick.
Why does the 3-milk cake spoil?
The 3-milk cake is a wet dessert, and the humidity, as we well know, creates the perfect environment for bacteria and other microorganisms to develop quickly.
For this reason, it is not advisable to leave it for a long time at room temperature since the development of microorganisms accelerates a lot. In addition, due to the combination of dairy products, it is much less convenient to leave it too long at room temperature.
After a while, that same humidity will make the cake soften more and more until it is completely disrupted and watered.
How long does the three milk cake last?
The pastel tres leches does not have an extensive shelf life. So here I leave you a summary of the preservation time of the same.
| Product | Duration |
| Refrigerated 3 milk cake | 3 – 5 days |
| Frozen biscuit or base | 2 – 3 months |
What is the best way to preserve the pastel tres leches?
The only way to preserve the three milk cake is to store it in the fridge, where you can maintain its texture and the flavor will be better.
You should not freeze the tres leches cake, especially if it has whipped cream or chantilly on top since its texture and flavor will change badly. But if you could freeze the dry cake from the cake.
To learn how to preserve some other dessert or food, explore or search for what you want on this site, as I have the most extensive list of topics on food preservation.
[1] https://vtechworks.lib.vt.edu/bitstream/handle/10919/84264/FST-286.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y