Filipino Custard Cake

Fact: I can eat a whole plate of leche flan. Well, you may not be surprised with all the deserts I've been making (and eating!). There's something about the smooth custard and the sweet syrup that is just heavenly.

My daughter loves leche flan too. I introduced her to leche flan while eating at a local Goldilocks restaurant. She was hooked! Whenever she'd see leche flan at home or at a restaurant menu, she would ask for it. She takes after her mom! :-)

Leche flan plus angel cake = custard cake = sweet tooth heaven! Custard cake for me is very Pinoy. You can find this anywhere - from small bakeries outside your house to the fine restaurant uptown. This has been a pleasant dessert ever since I was little.

Off to Google again for a good custard cake recipe. Found just what I was looking for at a website by a Filipina based in the US. I browsed through her other recipes and observed several things: (1) She's not a professional food writer. She writes very straightforward - which I like. I'm not into food literature that much - Food is meant to be eaten, not to be read. (2) She has loads of tips! I read through all of these to make sure I follow her recipe correctly. I'm glad I did :-), and (3) I like that she includes the reaction of her family whenever they try the food she serves. She's very honest with this - she even mentioned her husband does not like a cake she made.

Done with the website review and on with the cooking! :-)

Filipino Custard Cake
from Kusina ni Manang

Manang's recipe is for a 9X13 pan cooked bain marie. I have a problem with this because my 9X13 pan fits snugly into my oven so there's no way I can cook this on top of another pan.

I had to divide the recipe into 8" round pans. A 9X13 pan recipe will make 3 8" round pans. I made 2 8" pans so I had leftover leche flan. I used up the whole cake batter though.

First, make the caramel. In the 8" round pans, place 1/2 cup sugar each.

Heat on top of low heat until the sugar melts. Be careful not to burn the sugar like I did, oops!

The right way

The burnt way

Prepare the custard mixture.

• 4 whole eggs
• 1 can condensed milk (14 oz)
• 1 can evaporated milk (15 oz)
• 1 tsp vanilla

Add all the ingredients in a blender.

Pulse 3 times for 3 seconds each.

Do not overblend or your mixture will form bubbles. Set this aside.

Make the chiffon cake

• 5 eggs
• 1/4 tsp cream of tartar
• 2/3 cup cake flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 4 tbsp oil
• 6 tbsp milk
• 1 tsp lemon extract
• 1 tbsp grated lemon rind
• 1/2 cup sugar

Separate the eggs. Add the cream of tartar to the egg whites and set aside.
Whisk the flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl.

Make a well in the center and add the wet ingredients including the rind. Add the sugar on the sides of the bowl.

Using a mixer, start beating from the center to the side of the bowl. Mix until well blended.

Beat the egg whites until soft peaks form.

Gently fold the egg whites into the batter with a spatula.


Assemble the cake.

In the pan with the solidified caramel, pour the custard into the pans. In my case, I used 1/3 of the mixture on each pan (so I have leftover 1/3).

Pour the cake batter on top of the custard.

Bake at 325F bain marie for 45 minutes. Bain marie is a method of cooking via a steam bath. Place your cake pan in a larger pan with water. The water has to be 1/2 - 1 inch high.

The cake is done when a toothpick comes out clean.

This is plating fail!

So painfully ugly! It's a delicious mess though :-)

A slice for me! The custard was really smooth!

Plating the second cake - again, failed

Off-center, plating mess hahaha! Bahala na si batman! It was super yummy though!

Pawis rating: 3 of 5 only because there were several steps involved. The individual steps though were relatively easy :-)