Wikipedia article. It’s a sponge cake soaked in a sweet syrup made of various milk-related products.
There are many recipes for this cake on the internet, and almost all of them are exactly the same recipe. (However did these people all manage to come up with the same recipe independently! Mysterious!)
This recipe is not that recipe. It is a slightly modified version of that recipe.
Contents
Ingredients
Cake
- 11⁄4 c all-purpose flour
- 11⁄2 tsp baking powder
- 1⁄4 tsp salt
- 1⁄3 c milk
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 5 eggs (extra-large), separated
- 1 c granulated sugar, divided (1⁄4 c and 3⁄4 c)
- 1⁄2 tsp cream of tartar
Milk mix
- 12 oz. evaporated milk
- 8 oz. heavy cream
- 4 oz. sweetened condensed milk
- 4 oz. milk
Frosting/etc.
- 1 tbsp cocoa powder
- 11⁄2 c heavy cream
- 1 tbsp granulated sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
Instructions
- Prepare the “milk” mix by combining ingredients in a saucepan, jar, etc. Set aside.
- Grease a 9″ round cake pan and line with parchment paper. Preheat oven to 350 °F.
- Sift together dry ingredients (11⁄4 c all-purpose flour, 11⁄2 tsp baking powder, 1⁄4 tsp salt).
- Using electric mixer, beat 5 egg yolks with 3⁄4 c sugar until thick and pale yellow in color.
- With clean whisk attachments, whip 5 egg whites with the 1⁄2 tsp cream of tartar until soft peaks form.
- Add 1⁄4 c sugar to the egg whites and keep whipping until glossy.
- Add the 1⁄3 c milk and 1 tsp vanilla extract to yolks and mix until just combined.
- Fold dry ingredients into yolk mix.
- Gently whisk one-third of the beaten whites into the batter, just until incorporated.
- Fold the rest of the whites into the batter. Do not over-fold.
- Spread batter into prepared pan and bake for 50–55 minutes, until top is golden.
- Remove cake from oven. Dust top of cake with 1 tbsp cocoa powder. Let cake cool in pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto cooling rack and let cool completely.
- Line cake pan with extra-wide sheet of heavy-duty aluminum foil, and place cooled cake upside-down into pan.
- Using a skewer, poke many holes in cake surface, making sure that they go most or all of the way down to the bottom.
- Slowly spoon the milk mix onto the cake. Wait a few minutes after every quarter or so of the mix, to let the liquid descend into the cake.
- Cover cake with foil or plastic wrap and chill in refrigerator overnight.
- Whip the 11⁄2 c heavy cream with the 1 tbsp granulated sugar and 1 tsp vanilla extract until stiff. Spread (or pipe, etc.) over cake.
- Eat cake.
Variations
Coconut
Buy or prepare 1 cup coconut cream (not cream of coconut, which is a totally different thing!). In the milk mix, replace 6 oz. of the heavy cream and 2 oz. of the milk with the coconut cream.
(To make homemade coconut cream, heat 11⁄2 c milk to not-quite-boiling; add to 11⁄2 c unsweetened shredded coconut. Let stand for an hour, then strain, reserving the liquid. Discard coconut.)
Add 1 tsp coconut extract to the cake batter along with the vanilla extract.
Coconut-almond
As coconut variation, but replace 1⁄4 c to 1⁄2 c of the shredded coconut with crushed toasted almonds, to make coconut-almond milk.
Add 1⁄4 tsp almond extract to the cake batter along with the vanilla and coconut extracts.
Alternative toppings
Whatever you like. It’s a sheet cake, so the sky’s the limit, really. Examples:
Clockwise from top left: cream cheese frosting dusted with cocoa powder; coconut macaroon topping drizzled with dark chocolate; cherry cheesecake topping; salted caramel sauce.
