 |
| Magic Custard Pudding Cake |
We saw this Magic Custard Pudding Cake on Pinterest a little while ago, swiftly baked it, and fell totally head-over-heels in love. It's such a simple cake - no icing, no choc-chips, no flavourings apart from vanilla - but is so very delicious! It also seems to get a lot of love when I Instagram it - loads of people ask for the recipe, and one of my friends baked it twice in the week after I shared the picture!
I got the recipe from
White on Rice Couple (I've rewritten the recipe in my own words, below, with some very slight adaptations), which itself was adapted from
Pasteles de Colores - but as far as I can tell, this is a classic American cake, with hundreds of variations from household to household.
You make a single batter, and during the baking time it separates into three layers: a fluffy cake-like layer on the top, a denser, slightly squishy and gelatinous base (think Nyonya kuih), and the best bit: a soft, warm vanilla custard in the middle.
Let's have a look at the making of the cake. You start with vanilla-infused warm milk. (I used a vanilla pod
and vanilla extract, rather than just the vanilla extract suggested in the original recipe)...
 |
| Vanilla-infused milk |
...a buttery, eggy batter...
 |
| Eggy-buttery base |
...and whipped egg whites!
 |
| Whipped egg whites |
The batter is very liquidy, and it's difficult to combine the egg whites in evenly - the egg whites seem to rise to the top as soon as you've folded them in. I figure this excessive liquidity is what enables the batter to separate as it bakes.
 |
| Cake batter |
Ta-dah! You're supposed to let it cool completely before cutting it into squares, but it smells too good! I've never been able to let it cool beyond lukewarm.
 |
| Baked! |
 |
| Baked and unwrapped |
I made this cake as my contribution for
April and
Hubby's baby shower, as well as
Ottolenghi's herb pie. (The recipe is in
Jerusalem, as well as in his
Guardian column). You see, we've started getting an organic veggie box delivered every week, and on this particular week there was a huuuuge bunch of silverbeet in there. Silverbeet is actually one of the few foods I actually loathe, and I figured I'd need a killer recipe to use it up. Ottolenghi to the rescue! I figured that a recipe with silverbeet (AKA Swiss chard), with three types of cheese, filo pastry and
loads of butter would have to be good!
 |
So much green! |
It took ages to make, and it was quite a bit of work washing and chopping the silverbeet, cooking it, chopping and adding herbs and onions... and this was before assembling the pie itself. Whilst it was very tasty, I don't know if it was worth a whole afternoon of work. However, it was a good way to use up all the herbs in my fridge, as well as the silverbeet, of course!
Rather than making one big pie, I made the pie in large cylinders to make it easier to share, and to maximise the ratio of buttery pastry-to-filling!
 |
| Herb Pie |
 |
| Herb Pie |
Here's a pic of the food table at the baby shower... food bloggers sure know how to throw a party!
I loved Shellie's
peanut butter jelly cake and her ondeh ondeh, April's
pulled pork and cheese pastries and her
pizza scrolls,
Wince's super-spicy otak-otak and his green tea cheesecake,
Cherrie's amazeballs banoffee pie and ube macapuno cake,
Adrian's spring rolls,
I-Hua's peanut butter cookies, her chocolate ganache lamingtons and Zeboy's
sticky pork belly with red nam jim sauce,
Agnes' pork and lamb sliders with homemade buns,
Thanh's peach frangipane tart,
Kat's Thai tea-flavoured cupcakes and her spicy chicken wings, and
Daisy's Hot Cross Muffins and Easter cupcakes!
Here's the recipe for the magic custard pudding cake: enjoy!
Magic Custard Pudding Cake
Ingredients
113 grams unsalted butter
1 vanilla pod
500 millilitres milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 eggs, separated
150 grams icing sugar
1 tablespoon water
150 grams flour
Method
Preheat the oven to 160C and line a 20cm square baking tin with baking paper.
Melt the butter and set aside.
Slice the vanilla pod lengthwise and scrape out the seeds. Place seeds and pod in a saucepan with the milk. Heat to just below boiling point, then turn off the heat, stir in the vanilla extract, and allow to infuse while you get on with the rest of the recipe.
Using an electric mixer, whisk the egg whites until stiff peaks form. Scrape into a separate bowl and set aside.
In the same mixer (no need to wash out the bowl or whisk), whisk the egg yolks and sugar until lightened and aerated.
Now, switch to a hand whisk! Pour in the tablespoon of water and the melted butter and whisk to combine. Sift over the flour and whisk gently to combine and remove lumps.
Remove the vanilla pod from the warm milk, and slowly pour the milk into the egg mixture, whisking gently.
Fold in the beaten egg whites using a whisk. (The mixture will be very liquid, so don't worry too much about getting the egg whites combined perfectly, just mix until there are no big bits of egg white left).
Pour the mixture into the lined tin, and bake for 45 minutes, or until golden brown on top and mostly firm. (It should jiggle a little if you shake the pan, but it shouldn't seem liquid beneath the crust).
Allow to cool before dusting with icing sugar and cutting into squares.
Makes 1 x 20cm square cake
|
| Magic Custard Pudding Cake |
We saw this Magic Custard Pudding Cake on Pinterest a little while ago, swiftly baked it, and fell totally head-over-heels in love. It's such a simple cake - no icing, no choc-chips, no flavourings apart from vanilla - but is so very delicious! It also seems to get a lot of love when I Instagram it - loads of people ask for the recipe, and one of my friends baked it twice in the week after I shared the picture!
I got the recipe from
White on Rice Couple (I've rewritten the recipe in my own words, below, with some very slight adaptations), which itself was adapted from
Pasteles de Colores - but as far as I can tell, this is a classic American cake, with hundreds of variations from household to household.
You make a single batter, and during the baking time it separates into three layers: a fluffy cake-like layer on the top, a denser, slightly squishy and gelatinous base (think Nyonya kuih), and the best bit: a soft, warm vanilla custard in the middle.
Let's have a look at the making of the cake. You start with vanilla-infused warm milk. (I used a vanilla pod
and vanilla extract, rather than just the vanilla extract suggested in the original recipe)...
|
| Vanilla-infused milk |
...a buttery, eggy batter...
|
| Eggy-buttery base |
...and whipped egg whites!
|
| Whipped egg whites |
The batter is very liquidy, and it's difficult to combine the egg whites in evenly - the egg whites seem to rise to the top as soon as you've folded them in. I figure this excessive liquidity is what enables the batter to separate as it bakes.
|
| Cake batter |
Ta-dah! You're supposed to let it cool completely before cutting it into squares, but it smells too good! I've never been able to let it cool beyond lukewarm.
|
| Baked! |
|
| Baked and unwrapped |
I made this cake as my contribution for
April and
Hubby's baby shower, as well as
Ottolenghi's herb pie. (The recipe is in
Jerusalem, as well as in his
Guardian column). You see, we've started getting an organic veggie box delivered every week, and on this particular week there was a huuuuge bunch of silverbeet in there. Silverbeet is actually one of the few foods I actually loathe, and I figured I'd need a killer recipe to use it up. Ottolenghi to the rescue! I figured that a recipe with silverbeet (AKA Swiss chard), with three types of cheese, filo pastry and
loads of butter would have to be good!
|
So much green! |
It took ages to make, and it was quite a bit of work washing and chopping the silverbeet, cooking it, chopping and adding herbs and onions... and this was before assembling the pie itself. Whilst it was very tasty, I don't know if it was worth a whole afternoon of work. However, it was a good way to use up all the herbs in my fridge, as well as the silverbeet, of course!
Rather than making one big pie, I made the pie in large cylinders to make it easier to share, and to maximise the ratio of buttery pastry-to-filling!
|
| Herb Pie |
|
| Herb Pie |
Here's a pic of the food table at the baby shower... food bloggers sure know how to throw a party!
I loved Shellie's
peanut butter jelly cake and her ondeh ondeh, April's
pulled pork and cheese pastries and her
pizza scrolls,
Wince's super-spicy otak-otak and his green tea cheesecake,
Cherrie's amazeballs banoffee pie and ube macapuno cake,
Adrian's spring rolls,
I-Hua's peanut butter cookies, her chocolate ganache lamingtons and Zeboy's
sticky pork belly with red nam jim sauce,
Agnes' pork and lamb sliders with homemade buns,
Thanh's peach frangipane tart,
Kat's Thai tea-flavoured cupcakes and her spicy chicken wings, and
Daisy's Hot Cross Muffins and Easter cupcakes!
Here's the recipe for the magic custard pudding cake: enjoy!
Magic Custard Pudding Cake
Ingredients
113 grams unsalted butter
1 vanilla pod
500 millilitres milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 eggs, separated
150 grams icing sugar
1 tablespoon water
150 grams flour
Method
Preheat the oven to 160C and line a 20cm square baking tin with baking paper.
Melt the butter and set aside.
Slice the vanilla pod lengthwise and scrape out the seeds. Place seeds and pod in a saucepan with the milk. Heat to just below boiling point, then turn off the heat, stir in the vanilla extract, and allow to infuse while you get on with the rest of the recipe.
Using an electric mixer, whisk the egg whites until stiff peaks form. Scrape into a separate bowl and set aside.
In the same mixer (no need to wash out the bowl or whisk), whisk the egg yolks and sugar until lightened and aerated.
Now, switch to a hand whisk! Pour in the tablespoon of water and the melted butter and whisk to combine. Sift over the flour and whisk gently to combine and remove lumps.
Remove the vanilla pod from the warm milk, and slowly pour the milk into the egg mixture, whisking gently.
Fold in the beaten egg whites using a whisk. (The mixture will be very liquid, so don't worry too much about getting the egg whites combined perfectly, just mix until there are no big bits of egg white left).
Pour the mixture into the lined tin, and bake for 45 minutes, or until golden brown on top and mostly firm. (It should jiggle a little if you shake the pan, but it shouldn't seem liquid beneath the crust).
Allow to cool before dusting with icing sugar and cutting into squares.
Makes 1 x 20cm square cake
No comments:
Post a Comment