Here is my secret recipe how to make cotton sponge cake was published last year September. By far the tastiest homemade cotton cake ever! This is new, an improved version and recipe I had tried previously many times until satisfied, the taste of smell is closely related to Taiwan's famous castella cake with cheese. Follow my secret recipe and easy steps below and you are sure to wow and impress everyone.
Ingredients
(A)
• 35g, 5tbsp melted butter or corn oil
• a pinch of sea salt
• 33g, 3 tbsp whole milk
• 20g, 2 tbsp sugar
• 54g, 6 tbsp cake flour
• 3 egg yolks, cold
(B)
• 3 egg whites, cold
• 1/4 tsp lime / lemon juice or cream of tartar
• 48g, 5 tbsp sugar
(C)
• softened butter - for greasing the cake pan
Prepare 6-inch cake pan / 23cm square baking pan or loaf tin and using paper rub a little butter and cut a round piece of parchment paper that fit to your pan, Take a small handful of flour and sprinkling it evenly around the inside of the greased pan and remove excess or You can line with the prepared parchment paper in the bottom and the sides and grease with butter.
(D)
For the Decoration & Filling:
• cheese slices
• grated parmesan cheese
Method:
Pre-heat oven, always bake with both top and bottom heat with fan assisted. To make sure your cake to succeed even better. It is best to use an oven thermometer and you'll always have the exact temperature of your oven in mind.
1) Heat the butter or corn oil in a saucepan, over low heat. Add a pinch of sea salt, milk and sugar until it dissolves. Turn off the heat, sift the cake flour, add the egg yolks and mix by hand, less than 25 times until just combined. do not over mix!
2) In a separate bowl, Whisk (B) egg whites until foamy then squeezing a little lime or lemon juice and add sugar a little bit at a time, beating until stiff peaks, the peak stands straight up when the beaters are lifted from the mixture about 3-5 minutes.
3) Using a whisker, and turn the small amount of egg whites into the batter, mix until just combined and then turn back the batter into the whites, the most important part here is not to stirring and carefully folding is gentle mixing technique until just incorporated.
4) Pour cake batter into your prepared pans and add cheese slices and sprinkle grated parmesan cheese as a filling and over the top, then pour remaining batter into baking pan. Use a spatula and smooth the surface. Bang the cake pan a few times and get the air bubbles out of your cake batter.
5) To prepare a water bath. Pour enough cold water in a larger pan. Bake in preheated oven 130°c - 150°c for 1 hour or until the cake is set in the centre. Baking time it will depend on the size of your cake pan.
6) Once cooked, leave to cool 15-20 minutes, until the oven temperature reached 50ºC. Dropping the cake pan from high once. Make sure cakes are properly cooled before cutting them.
7) Dropping the cake pan from high once to prevent the cake to shrink too much during cooling. Make sure cakes are properly cooled before cutting them.
8) Transfer the cake to a plate for serving. Any leftover cake can be covered and kept in the fridge for 2-3 days.
Helpful Tips:
1) Be careful not to get the saucepan hot because the oil will burn.
2) For guaranteed results it's important to follow exactly this recipe and baking at the right temperature is important. It's recommended to use an oven thermometer.
3) Do not bake the cake quickly at a high temperature and don't remove hot cake out of a baking pan. otherwise the cake could fall apart and crack on top. Baking cake at a lower temperature will help the cake rise much higher and bake more evenly.
4) Please understand that everyone's oven work differently. You should also check the temperature of your oven. if not, your cake won't rise well.
5) You can test the cake by poking it with a skewer, if it's cooked the skewer will come out clean. if not pop it back in the oven and bake until it's ready.
6) Folding egg whites into a cake batter. Do not stir and never use an electric mixer.
7) Use a clean, dry bowl, free of yolk and any other oil or grease while beating egg whites. Do not over or under-beat the egg whites.
Recipe Source: Josephine's Recipes
