Custard Chiffon Cake

This is Rabbit's all-time favourite cake. This is the cake everyone requested (although in hot contending with chocolate cake) to my friend Rachel, who is both a fantastic cook and baker, whenever we organize a pot luck party. Oh, don't you know, there is not much to do in Brunei during our spare time except eating, eating and er.... more eating.

With a layer of moreish caramel custard sitting on top of what I reckon is the best recipe of chiffon cake with caramel dribbling down the side of the cake, what's not to like? Everyone always fight for the side, hehe.

Perhaps what is interesting about this cake is the texture of chiffon cake (or it should be called S. E Asian chiffon cake?), it is a cross between the extremely light chiffon cake and the classic butter cake. If you're familiar with Sara Lee's cake, it's almost identical in taste and texture but this cake uses vegetable oil which is different to Sara Lee's 'death by butter' pound cake.

Tada...this is my version! As I do not have a solid bottom cake tin, I used one of my bread tin to bake, turns out rather well I must say. As Big King does not like caramel :( , hence the 'anaemic' looking cake (see top view below).

Thank you Rachel for sharing this fantastic cake with us.

Recipe (in brackets are Rachel's modifications)

For the custard:

Ingredients:
Condensed milk ½ can
Evaporated milk 400 grams (2 cans)
Sugar 230 grams (120g)
Egg yolks 100 grams (8 medium whole eggs)

Method:
1. In a rectangular baking pan caramelize 120g of sugar and set a side until cooled.
2. For the custard: Mix together the 2 types of milk and yolks and pour onto the rectangular pan on top of the cooled caramel (which should have harden).


For the cake:
Ingredients:
Cake flour 100% 250g
Baking powder 3.6% 9g
Sugar 66% 165g (½ cup)
Egg yolks 57.2% 143g (6 yolks)
Water 48% 120g
Vegetable oil 57.2% 143g
Lemon/ orange flavor 1% 2.5g (juice from 2 limes)
Egg whites 85.8% 214.5% (6 whites)
Sugar 62.2% 155.5g (½ cup)
Cream of tartar 0.5% 1.3g (1 tsp)

Method:
1. Sift together cake flour, baking powder and sugar.
2. Add the rest of the ingredients (excluding the last 3) in the order listed and mix to a smooth consistency. Set aside.
3. Whip egg whites and cream of tartar to a soft peak. Add sugar gradually, continue whipping until medium peak.
4. Fold cake batter into the beaten egg whites. Drizzle the batter slowly into the rectangular pan on top of the custard (try to pour it from the corner of the pan). The cake batter is lighter than the custard so will sit nicely on top of the custard. Place the pan on a tray with water (bain marie) and bake at 375°F until done (about 35 to 40 minutes).

Let the cake refrigerate overnight before turning out. To turn out the cake: remove cake from fridge and let it sit on a pan of warm water (to melt the caramel) for 5 minutes. Divide cake and sides of pan with a knife carefully, scraping all the way down to the bottom of pan. Invert on a clean plate, tap all sides of the pan until you can hear the cake being released from the pan to the plate. Remove pan and serve. Unfinished cake can be stored in the fridge for about a week.

Note: As I have used an unconventional pan. I have butter and flour my mould but I still need to use a knife to divide the cake and the sides so I guess I shouldn't have bothered.......