Custard Cake

Custard cake is a Filipino dessert made of a chiffon cake topped with Flan. Its one of my favorite desserts. I haven't had this in a long time and I miss eating it. One of my aunts used to own a restaurant and she would come over and bring us some custard cake whenever we had family functions at my parents' house. They no longer own the restaurant and we don't see her as often anymore, so its been quite a while since I've had custard cake.

One day, I decided to do a search for a custard cake recipe and found quite a few versions. Some made out of boxed cake mixes, most made from scratch. But I decided to settle with this recipe from Panlasang Pinoy, a website dedicated to Filipino cuisine. Its quite complex recipe, with 3 things going on: the caramel syrup, the flan, and then the cake. But organize your ingredients and it should be pretty simple and so worth all the preparation.

Flan

1 1/4 cup sugar

6 eggs

1 can sweetened condensed milk

1 cup milk

1) In a small saucepan, heat 1 cup of sugar over medium heat. Do not mix sugar until the end, when sugar is almost all brown. Pour caramel in a 9 x 13 pan and evenly spread on the bottom and allow to harden like candy. Set aside.

2) In a small bowl, combine 1/4 cup sugar, eggs, condensed milk and milk. Mix well. Pour over hardened caramel. Set aside while making the cake.

Cake

1 1/2 cups cake flour

1 tsp. baking powder

6 egg yolks

1/2 cup sugar

1/4 cup milk, mixed with 1/4 cup water

1 tsp. grated lemon peel

6 egg whites

1/2 tsp. cream of tartar

1/2 cup sugar

1) Preheat oven to 350 deg F.

2) Sift together cake flour and baking powder. Set aside.

3) In a medium bowl, beat egg yolks then gradually add 1/2 cup of sugar. Continue beating for another 2 minutes. Add 1/3 of the flour mixture and beat until well incorporated. Add 1/2 of the milk/water mixture. Add another 1/3 of the flour mixture and then the other half of the milk mixture. Beat until incorporated and add the final 1/3 of the flour mixture. Add grated lemon peel. Set aside.

4) In a mixer bowl, beat egg whites on high speed for about 1 minute. Add cream of tartar and continue beating for 3-4 minutes. Gradually add 1/2 cup of sugar and beat until stiff peaks form.

5) Fold meringue into batter until well incorporated.

6) Pour 6-8 cups of hot water in a roasting pan. Place a rack in the roasting pan, and then place the prepared pan on top of the rack. Bake for 60 minutes, until toothpick test comes out clean.

Remove cake from the roasting pan cool completely. Invert cake on a serving tray and refrigerate at least an hour before serving.