About the Recipe
This cake is a two in one: Leche flan on top and ube cake on the bottom. This cake is also super easy to make, no decorating required. And yet, it looks so amazing with minimal effort. All you do is make the two elements separately and put them together and forget about it once it’s in the oven.
Its creamy, fluffy, custardy, not too sweet, and everything you could love in ube cake and leche flan and the best part is that it just gets better overtime, with the flan syrup being soaked up by the cake layer but honestly, I don’t think this cake will last that long once you make it.
The special thing with this cake is that you put the leche flan mixture at the bottom first and then the cake batter second and it magically bakes perfectly all together. You also need to use a waterbath for this cake. Since leche flan is usually steamed, so this will give that gentle steam in the oven needed to create the silky smooth leche flan and moist, fluffy ube cake.
Bring this to your next gathering. Fair warning: you may be in charge of dessert every year after that.
Ingredients
Caramel:
115 g sugar
50 ml water
Flan:
4 egg yolks + 1 whole egg
230 ml condensed milk
270 ml evaporated milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
Ube sponge:
3 eggs, separated
80 g sugar, divided by 2 for yolks and whites
50 g neutral oil (I use canola oil)
75 g flour
2 tsp ube extract
8 g ube powder
1/4 tsp baking powder
Preparation
For caramel, dissolve sugar and water on medium-high heat until it turns a light amber colour.
Immediately transfer to cake pans and evenly spread the caramel onto the pan, swirling it around until the bottom is evenly coated.
Whisk all the flan ingredients together until the mixture is homogeneous and set aside.
For the ube cake, whisk the egg whites until frothy, then slowly add 40 g of the sugar until it reaches a soft peak.
Whisk egg yolks with the rest of the sugar until frothy, then mix in the ube extract and oil.
Sift the dry ingredients together in a separate bowl. Fold one-third of the meringue and one-third of the dry ingredients into the egg yolk mixture, alternating between the two until it is all mixed together. Mix carefully to prevent the egg whites from deflating.
Pour flan mixture evenly between the two tins then add the cake batter. Place both pans into a larger pan and put boiling water in the larger pan for a water bath. Place the pan into a preheated 350F oven for 35 minutes, then leave inside with the oven off for 10 more minutes.*
Refrigerate for at least three hours after it is cooled before serving!
*(Note: To ensure that the cake is fully baked through, before turning off the oven, insert a knife or skewer in the middle. It should come out clean. If not, leave it in the oven for 3-5 more minutes).