Caramelicious Custard Cake

Question: What do you get when you combine: Liquid caramel + delicious custard flan +  pillow soft chiffon cake?

 

A.  Unwanted Cellulite

B. Clogged artery

C. Heaps of dirty dishes

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D. A Custard Cake aka Flan Cake!

It's so good an '' all of the above'' answer is totally worth it. If such indulgence were a sin, I would commit it again and again and again . 

Making it requires time, potential blisters, patience and yes an over exhausted dishwasher : machine or human alike. The end product will have you yearning for more.

There's probably hundreds and hundreds of recipes out there but  here's how I did mine.

Custard Cake ala Emily

First Step: Make caremelized sugar.

Heat 200 g of granulated sugar in a pan. Let it caramelize without stirring. Transfer hot caramel into your molder tilting it if necessary to cover  the surface bottom. I have several ramekins so I used it for this cake but end up having enough liquid caramel so I poured the rest into a rectangular baking pan or loaf pan. Set it aside and cool off completely. The liquid sugar will crack and will make  a tiny tingling sound as it cools. It won't affect the end result though.

Second Step: Make the flan.

 Yes, that is a measuring Cup. It has more purpose than calibration I tell you. In this case, I used it as a mixing bowl which happens to be quite handy and ideal for pouring liquid mixture.Less dished too. Into my measuring cup/mixing bowl goes 4 large egg yolks and 1 whole egg. Whisk 'em cholesterol until well combined.

Pour 1 can of condense milk into the beaten eggs and whisk everything until well combined. Since I used my measuring cup as a mixing bowl. I used the emptly can as a measuring cup then. (^_^). Add 2 cans of fresh milk into the egg mixture.

I then added a teaspoon of vanilla paste ( which I happen to marvel as much as my deep fryer by the way). You could see the tiny specks of vanilla seeds in it! It's like having the essence of vanilla in a jar minus the splitting and scrapping and cooking of the actual vanilla pod. Simply marvelous and undeniably practical too. Where were we? Ah yes, vanilla paste, vanilla extract could be an alternative. Whisk everthing until well incorporated. Hold your pants. don't pour in into you caramel yet. It will dissolve some of the caramelized sugar. Simply cover it with aluminum film and put it in the fridge for safety keeping. Don't start skipping, we ain't finished yet.

Third Step. Make the Cake.

In a big mixing bowl, whick together 5 large egg yolks and 100 gram of granulated sugar until pale and thick. In another mixing bowl combine 200 g of flour, a pinch of salt and 1/2 teaspoon of baking powder.

  

Sieve 1/3 of the flour mixture into the beaten egg yolks and gently whisk the batter. Add in about 3 tablespoon of milk. Alternately add flour and milk into the egg yolk mixture until all the flour and about 1/4 cup of milk is all used up.

Add in lemon rind from one lemon into the batter and whisk gently until everything is well combined and  try not to throw miserable glance over the messy kitchen at this point if you could help it.

In a  clean mixing bowl, beat the 5 egg whites using an electric beater until frothy. Gradually add in 100 g of granulated sugar, beat until it egg whites turn:

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Shiny and could give a a rude finger sign stiff swirl.

In batches, fold the meringue into the egg yolk mixture....gently. Use a spatula, whisking the batter at this point will incorporate unwanted air bubbles into the batter rending a dense and flat cake. Not good. The cake batter must remain light and fluffy.

Fourth Step. Assemble the cake.

Pour flan into your molder, cake pan or ramekin that's lined with caramelized sugar. The measuring cup, definitely serve its purpose well. The amount of flan in the cake may depend on one's preference. Some people wanted to have the flan layer as thick as the cake itself. The above flan recipe makes about a liter of custard. I was able to fill about 1/3 of  10 ramekins and 1 loaf pan.

Gently pour cake batter over the custard. Don't worry if the liquid custard mixes with the cake batter. As it cooks, the flan hardens and will settle at the bottom and will push the cake batter up.

Fifth Step: Bake the cake

Using a spatula, smoothen the top of the batter carefully. This cake must be baked Bain-marie style. To do that, you need a roasting or deep baking pan that is big enough to hold your molders, ramekins or baking pan. Fill this big roasting pan with  1 liter hot water . Place your molder into the hot water bath. Bake the cake at 180 °C for about 45 minutes or until custard is set and cake is done. To check, insert a toothpick into the cake and if it comes out clean, than the cake is ready. Take the cake out of the pan and cool off completely. Don't get too excited, inverting the cake too soon will ruin it. That's 2 hours work straight into the bin. Let the custard set. Go out,watch a movie.

Once the cake have completely cooled off, run a thin knife around the edges to loosen it up and carefully invert it into your serving plate. The caramel will drench the chiffon cake as you turn the cake upside down, partially soaking it and giving a bitter sweet sugary flavor. A nice boost to the chiffon cake's subtle note.

Last step: Sit back and enjoy the fruit of your labor!

Aaaaaaaaaahhhh such a bliss.