Yema Cake

Jhuls @ The Not So Creative Cook

10 years ago

Yema Cake is something like vanilla-chiffon cake with a rich custardy filling and frosting. In the Philippines, we have these sweets called YEMA which are made by mixing a little butter and condensed milk until thick, shaped into small balls when warm enough to handle and then rolled into white granulated sugar. These YEMA balls are kept in an air tight container and when kept a little longer, they become crunchy on the outside and little soft on the inside. To end your imaginations, here’s what YEMA looks like:

Condensed milk is the star! 😀 Though more ingredients are need in making the YEMA cake frosting, still condensed milk is the star. If not and we’d use condensed milk as a frosting, why not call it condensed milk cake? 😛 Hmm, I think I have a recipe for that. Where did I put it? I need to look for that and make that soon. I bet condensed milk lovers would love that.

Going back to this cake, I searched and searched for a recipe which uses lesser eggs. Because as an egg obsessed lover, I don’t like to spend too many eggs with baking. Ha! I don’t want my supply of eggs to be gone in seconds. I’d be in a panic mode if I reach two eggs just like yesterday in which I baked something and I haven’t noticed that I have only four remaining eggs, I took two for baking and only two remaining and I was going crazy that I want to go out of the house just to get two trays (and those are sixty eggs in total). No, I did not panic. NOT. AT. ALL. The problem of not reading the ingredients carefully resulted in a panic mode. (Okay, I panicked, I admit.) As I was preparing the ingredients for the batter, I realized that I needed four more eggs for the frosting. I was just going to collapse. (What?? Eight eggs??) Can I just undo what I just did?? Of course, I can’t.

“You better be delicious…” that’s the thought playing on my mind over and over again while baking. So when this cake starts to smell, I knew the eggs were worth the sacrifice. 😀

Yema Cake

Servings: 6-8 slices, 10-inch cake
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Ingredients:

For the chiffon cake:

1¼ cup cake flour
¾ cup sugar, divided
2 tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
4 egg yolks
4 egg whites
½ cup evaporated milk
¼ cup canola oil or vegetable oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
½ tsp cream of tartar

For the Yema frosting:

14 oz can condensed milk
½ cup evaporated milk
4 egg yolks
3 tbsp butter, softened
1 tsp lemon juice or vanilla extract

Instructions:

For the cake:

Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease 10-inch round baking pan. Set aside.
In a jug, add in egg yolks, milk, oil and vanilla. Whisk until well combined.
In a bowl, well combine flour, 1/2 sugar, baking powder and salt. Make a well in the center and add in the wet ingredients. Whisk until smooth.
In another bowl, add egg whites and cream of tartar. Beat until soft peaks.
Gradually add the remaining 1/4 cup sugar and beat until stiff peaks.
Gently fold the egg white mixture into the flour-yolk mixture in 3 portions. Gently mix until no streaks of white remain.
Pour this mixture into the prepared pan.
Bake for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.
Remove from the oven and let cool in the pan for about 5 minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely before frosting.

For the frosting:

In a saucepan with low heat, combine all frosting ingredients and mix very well.
Cook while constantly stirring for about 30 minutes or until spreadable.
Remove from the heat and let it cool down.

To assemble the cake:

Cut the cake into two layers as evenly as possible. Set aside the top layer.
Evenly spread half of the frosting on top of the bottom layer.
Put the top layer of the cake over the frosting.
Spread the remaining frosting on top of the cake and the sides.
Sprinkle with toppings, if desired.

Source recipe: Yema Cake by Pinay in Texas

I must say that the chiffon cake was beautifully burnt on the top and smelled incredibly heaven. The frosting was absolutely perfect. I even reserved spoonful or two of the frosting and ate as is. 😀 It took time for me to decorate the top, so I gave the cake comb to my friend and I let her do it. 🙂