These Berries & Cream Tres Leches Cake Parfait Cups are a no-bake layered dessert combining soaked cake, sweetened milk syrup, whipped cream and fresh berries in individual servings. The standout trait is the quick assembly and option to use store-bought angel food cake for zero baking required.
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For a truly no-bake dessert, use a store-bought Angel food cake. Remove the cake from packaging and cut the cake into bite-sized squares.
Alternatively: Preheat the oven to 350F. Prepare one recipe of my 'Basic Vanilla Cake' recipe; linked in the post above and in the menu under 'Back to Cake Basics'. Prepare a 13x18-inch sheet pan - line the bottom with parchment paper and spray the sides with baking spray. Bake the cake in the preheated oven for 25 to 27 minutes, until golden brown on top. Remove the cake from the oven, cool completely, then cut into small squares. The cake can be made ahead of time; just keep it covered to prevent drying.
For the tres leches soaking mixture, simply combine the whole milk, evaporated milk and condensed milk in one large bowl or measuring cup. Whisk until the mixture is uniform.
For the whipped cream, combine the cream, vanilla and sugar into a large mixing bowl. Whisk on high speed for 3 to 4 minutes, until stiff peaks form. For faster assembly of the dessert, transfer the whipped cream into a large pastry bag tipped with a star tip.
To assemble the dessert, first add a few cake pieces into each cup, then soak the cake generously with the tres leches mixture. Add a few dollops of cream, a few berries and fruit pieces, then repeat this process again until the parfait cup is full. Keep the parfaits refrigerated if not serving with an hour.
Cover and refrigerate up to 1 hour before serving. Assemble no more than 1 hour in advance to keep whipped cream stable; make the tres leches mixture and cake components a day ahead if desired.
Pastry bag with star tip (optional but recommended for efficiency)
Yes. Use store-bought angel food cake cut into bite-sized squares instead of baking from scratch. Simply assemble with the tres leches mixture, whipped cream and berries.
The tres leches mixture is applied generously to cake pieces during assembly and absorbs as the parfait sits. Keep refrigerated if not serving within an hour.
Yes, assemble up to an hour ahead and refrigerate. Whipped cream stays best if added closer to serving, or use a pastry bag for easier layer-by-layer assembly.
Use a spoon to dollop whipped cream between layers. A pastry bag with a star tip is optional but speeds up assembly for multiple parfaits.
Yes. Use any chopped fresh fruit, stone fruits, citrus segments or a combination. Dried fruit won't absorb the tres leches flavors as well.
