Raspberry custard cake

March 27, 2021

   

I've made a few more batches of the Raspberry Ripe cups this year, but the secret about them is that they don't actually require a lot of raspberries. An 8-year-old blog post for Magic Custard Cake popped up when I looked up my raspberry-tagged online bookmarks; we had a lot of eggs on hand so it felt like time to give it a go.

This isn't my usual style of baking at all, but I really enjoyed it for its difference. This is a cake with all the usual ingredients in all the wrong proportions, building a dessert that is a firm milky custard in the main, with the crust and top layer of a sponge cake. A handful of raspberries cuts through the smooth richness with texture and tang.

The two spoons version comes with an optional caramel sauce, yet I was more interested in the recipe note suggesting that it would work well with toasted flaked almonds. I didn't figure out how to arrange them artfully (see above), but they were an excellent less-sweet garnish that was easy to repeat with the leftover cake.

Since this cake is neither vegan nor gluten-free, I won't find many opportunities to make it again and share it around. I'm nevertheless glad that I gave it a shot. 

Raspberry custard cake

(a recipe from two spoons,

where it's credited to White on Rice Couple)

120g butter

115g plain flour, plus extra for dusting

4 eggs, separated

2-3 drops white vinegar

480mL milk

150g icing sugar

1 tablespoon water

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

3/4 cup raspberries, fresh or frozen (no need to thaw)

1 tablespoon sugar

flaked almonds, toasted, to serve

Melt the butter, and set it aside to cool slightly. Brush a 20cm square cake tin with a little of the butter and dust it evenly with flour. Preheat an oven to 160°C.

Place the egg whites and vinegar in a small-medium bowl, and beat them to stiff peaks. Set aside.

Gently heat the milk to lukewarm and set it aside.

In a medium-large bowl, drop in the egg yolks and sift over the icing sugar; whisk until well combined. Whisk in the remaining melted butter and the water. Whisk in the flour, milk, and vanilla. Gradually fold in the egg whites. The batter will be very thin with frothy whites on top.

Place the raspberries across the bottom of the cake pan and sprinkle them with sugar. Gently pour over the cake batter, and bake for 30 minutes. Continue to bake, 10 minutes at a time, until the cake is golden brown on top, firm with a little wiggle, and a skewer comes our relatively clean. (This took about 55 minutes for me.) Allow the cake to cool, before gently removing it from the tin and serving with flaked almonds.