Sarawak Black Cake (Kek Serikaya or Kek Hitam) 砂劳越黑蛋糕

After i made Kaya, the first thing came into my mind is to make this famous Sarawak Black Cake. I received two bottles of gula hitam (a special browning sugar for black cake) from a reader (Thanks to Angeline) few months back. 

When i try to take these pictures just now, sky was dark with heavy rain, very poor lighting this time and it was so difficult to take picture with very dark and black cake ^_^..



This is the gula hitam

Recipe adapted from Mui Mui aka My Little Favourite DIY. See so many ingredients in this recipe..i could not find Nestle cream that used by Mui Mui, instead i replaced it with dairy whipping cream.

Not sure why the batter became curdle..

After mixed with flour, the batter become smooth, but the colour still not look dark at this stage..

After steamed, cake colour changed to very dark. In order for this black cake look more attractive, i sprinkle with silver beads

I have never eaten this cake before, if you asked how this cake taste like, for me, it taste quite close to "dodol" and a bit bitter caramel taste, not that over sweet and this cake is very moist but a bit oily..

It was tricky to handle gula hitam, the texture similar like maltose. When i added into batter, it was sticking to the whisk and i have hard time to mix it well with batter..I think should add some hot water to dilute gula hitam before adding into cake batter..

I halved the recipe and made a small cake instead..

Sarawak Black Cake (Kek Serikaya or Kek Hitam) 砂劳越黑蛋糕

(recipe source: adapted from My Little Favourite DIY who adapted from Mrs EG, with minor changes)
*makes a 7” square cake

173g unsalted butter
60g sugar
110g plain flour
4 eggs (large)
50g condense milk
60g Horlick
50g dairy whipping cream
90g kaya (i used homemade kaya)
70g gula hitam
1 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder

Method
1. Grease and lined parchment paper on a 7" square baking tray. Allow extra parchment paper or baking paper over hang on both side of the baking tray.
2. Beat butter and sugar till pale. Add in egg one at a time, beating till each combine well.
3. Beat in condensed milk, whipping cream and kaya till well combine. Then add in gula hitam.
4. Fold in Horlick, cocoa powder and flour and mixed well.
5. Pour mixture into the prepared baking tray. Cover the cake loose with a piece of aluminium foil to prevent (condensation) water from dripping into the cake.
6. Steam over medium high heat for 2 hours in a steamer or wok. Do check water level regularly and replenish when necessary.

Castella cake 长崎蛋糕, Finally....

世上无难事，只怕有心人 ! Finally i have done a perfect Castella cake...

After this successful lesson, i learnt that i need to know better about my KA mixer..the beating process in the original recipe was not work for my KA mixer..
There are 4 points lead me to this success:-
1. To use cold eggs directly from the fridge.
2. Beat cold eggs on high speed in order to get a foamy texture then reduce to medium speed to stable the batter till thick.
3. Earlier recipe requested is to warm milk, honey and SP together. I found SP/Ovalette not easy to dissolve in liquid, thus i only warm milk and honey.
4. Cool in the oven for few minutes with oven door ajar (updated on 26 March-this step is not necessary since the cake need to upside down to prevent shrinkage)

See how stable the batter is..very thick and creamy white, look really white!

Upside down the cake to cool..

I was really happy when i removed the baking paper, tall and firm cake! no major shrinkage after cooled down..

I happened to saw a bakery shop selling this cake, locally we called honey cake, bought one to try and it was really good and yummy, very strong honey aroma and moist texture..
I found this recipe i tried don't have that strong honey aroma and quite dry, maybe i should increase honey amount next time...

To ensure my new findings are working, actually i bake two batches in a row..

This is my improve version from old recipe here

Castella (Kasutera)cake长崎蛋糕(カステラ) New!!

*makes one wooden size of cake-21c m (L) x 10.8cm (W) x 7.8cm (H)- Internal dimension

5 medium eggs, cold from fridge
80g fine sugar
50g honey
75g milk
10g cake emulsifier/Ovalette/Cake stabilizer
55g high protein flour / bread flour
90g low protein flour / cake flour

50g melted salted butter
10g mirin

1. Pre-heat the oven to 180C.
2. Line wooden box with parchment paper and wrap with foil with 1” height from bottom, place on a large baking pan.
3. Warm milk and honey over simmering water.
4. Add eggs into the mixing bowl, then add in milk and honey mixture, add in bread flour and cake flour, lastly add in sugar and ovalette.
5. Beat at low speed (KA mixer at 2-3) till mix well. Scrap the side and bottom twice in the mixing progress.
6. Increase speed to high (KA mixer at 8) for 1-2min till batter slightly thick. Scrap the side and bottom. Reduce to medium speed (KA mixer at 5) and continue to beat for another 7mins or until batter is thick and creamy white ( you can write a “O” on the surface with the whisk, it should stay there long enough for you to read it before it disappears).
7. Combine melted butter and mirin together, slowly add into the batter and beat over low speed (KA mixer speed 2-3), scrape down the bottom and sides of the bowl to ensure blend well.
8. Pour batter in the lined wooden cake box (I also warm the cake box in the pre-heated oven for 3mins). Put cake into the oven and reduce oven temperature to 160c (with fan). Bake for 55mins at middle rack of the oven (My oven-at the 4th steel bar from top)
9. Once the cake is done, remove from oven, place a non-stick parchment paper on top of the cake and follow by another cake pan, turn up side down the cake. Cool on a wire rack.
10. When the cake is cool enough to handle but still warm (~15mins), invert the cake again, remove the pan and wooden box. Continue to cool on a wire rack.
11. Cool slightly and wrap the cake nicely. Chill in the fridge overnight before serving (This step is critical to ensure the Castella has a moist texture).

Castella (Kasutera) cake长崎蛋糕(カステラ)

I feel myself still have long way to master in baking, like this an example of Castella cake, I only success on the 4th attempt (thought still not a perfect one!) even i have the recipe and resources for reference.

Earlier i was too confident because I thought i have this wooden box that specially to make Castella cake, sure i have no problem to make this cake. And i even has more confident as there is a cake stabilizer added in..This is cake stabilizer or so called Ovalette / SP, widely used in Asian baking but don't think can be found in Western countries..Actually this is not good when consume frequently and i also dislike the plastic smell. I just tried this time specially for this cake...

These were the 3 failed attempts! A layer of uncooked flour formed at the bottom..

1st failed attempt - I bake at the lower rack, the heat could not flow fast to the bottom and resulted a layer of uncooked flour...

2nd failed attempt- This time i bake at the middle rack, but still a thin uncooked flour layer formed but better than 1st time, maybe i underbeat the batter..

3rd failed attempt- still at the middle rack, increase the temperature but still formed a thin uncooked flour layer

I almost give up after the 3rd failed attempts..I sent an SOS email to Castella cake master sifu Jane and got some advice from her. I rememberd Jane asked me to take it easy (平常心 ) to make this cake. But I could not do that because I already failed 3 times, hahaha.. So I cracked my head to find out the reason..At last, i concluded that I should remove the layer of foil wrapped outside of the box (more heat contact from the bottom since four size of the box is thick wood) and only line with paper and also change the cake pan.

I also came out with my own paper layout that suit and perfect fit in this wooden box.

You need to beat the batter till stable and creamy..

Also inverted the cake after bake..(next time i will try not to invert to see any ifference)

Thought my 4th attempted still not perfect, the bottom shrunk a bit..(I suspected i bake at a bit high temperature of 170c instead of 160c as suggested, cake rise too fast and tall, resulted rapidly shrunk once contact with cool air)..

With my failed experinces as per above, i hope it will help you to success making this cake for the 1st time...
The taste of this cake is just ok, something like Egg sponge cake (Ji Dan Kou) with honey aroma but the texture more firm if compare with normal cake, between cake and bread. If i have opportunity, I must taste the real Castella cake in Japan.

Updated on 25th February 2012- I would like to reiterate that this is actually a good recipe, just my poor skill resulted these failed attempts..In fact, i got a very nice smooth and not wrinkle top cake surface, and the surface also not sticky once cake is cooled down.

Castella (Kasutera) cake长崎蛋糕(カステラ)
(recipe source: adapted from Jane’s corner, original recipe by周老師)
*makes one wooden size of cake

250g eggs (at room temperature)
80g fine sugar
50g honey
75g milk
10g cake emulsifier/Ovalette/Cake stabilizer
55g high protein flour / bread flour
90g low protein flour / cake flour
a pinch of salt
50g melted butter
10g Mirin

1. Pre-heat the oven to 180c.
2. Line wooden box with parchment paper and place on a large baking pan.
3. Warm milk, honey and cake emulsifier and mix through over simmering water.
4. Pour all ingredients into mixing bowl except melted butter and mirin. Beat with medium speed (KA mixer speed 4) until batter is thick and creamy white (about 8-10 mins), scrape down the bottom and sides of the bowl from time to time. When you are done the batter will be thick enough to form soft peaks when you draw up your whisk. If you write a “O” on the surface with the whisk, it should stay there long enough for you to read it before it disappears.
5. Combined melted butter and Mirin together, slowly add into the batter and beat over low speed (KA mixer speed 1), scrape down the bottom and sides of the bowl to ensure blend well.
6. Pour batter in the lined wooden cake box (I also warm the cake box in the pre-heated oven). Put cake into the oven and reduce oven temperature to 160c. Bake for 55-60mins at middle rack of the oven.
7. Remove cake from oven, place a non-stick parchment paper on top of the cake and follow by another cake pan, turn up side down the cake. Cool on a wire rack.
8. When the cake is cool enough to handle but still warm (~15mins), invert the cake again, remove the pan and wooden box. Continue to cool on a wire rack.
9. Cool slightly and wrap the cake nicely. Chill in the fridge overnight before serving (This step is critical to ensure the Castella has a moist texture).

Baked Cassava cake

When I saw My Kitchen Snippets's baked cassava cake, i immediate bookmarked but I only managed to do it after 4 months later. I was curious how cassava can make into cake with butter and flour. The ingredients are slighlty difference from what the usual Bengka Ubi (see Jane's recipe here).

This cake is buttery and taste quite good. If next time I going to do this , I must grate cassava till finely as i find the grated cassava in this cake was a bit hard.

Baked Cassava cake
( recipe source: adapted from My Kitchen Snippets and Table for two or more , with minor changes)

300g well drained grated cassava (grate finely)

130gm butter, room temperature
160gm caster sugar
3 large eggs
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
½ cup thick coconut milk
140gm self-raising flour
1/4 tsp salt

1/3 cup of freshly grated coconut (optional , not in original recipe)

Method
1. Greased and line a 8” or 9” square cake tin.
2. Beat butter and sugar till creamy and light.
3. Add in egg one at a time, well combine.
4. Add in vanilla extract,salt and coconut milk, combine well
5. Add in flour, grated cassava and grated coconut, fold well.
6. Pour into the baking pan and bake until golden brown for 45 minutes or until the skewer inserted into the center comes out clean.
7. Remove from oven and let it cool completely before cutting into it.

Happy Baking !!