An ube leche flan cake, also known as a custard cake, is a delicious mishmash of two desserts in one: ube cake and silky leche flan. It’s doubly delicious!
What is leche flan cake?
Also known as a custard cake, this type of cake that combines two desserts into one as a layered cake. The two batters are the cake batter and a custard or leche flan batter. It is commonly baked in a water bath so the cake, as well as the custard, gently bake. It can also be known as a magic cake because you add two kinds of batters into one cake pan and the resulting cake is a glorious two-in-one confection that has creamy leche flan on top and a soft and fluffy cake on the bottom.
Since it’s a cake, it’s highly versatile! The cake can be made in any number of flavors, including but not limited to mango, coffee, chocolate, and yes, even popular ube like this recipe! You can even make the cake a light-as-a-cloud Japanese cheesecake and it would be delicious!
How To Serve Ube Leche Flan Cake
The leche flan cake is best served chilled or at the least, cool from the refrigerator. Unlike most cakes, the leche flan does need to be chilled to be at its best but serving it at room temperature may not deliver the best texture and feel of the leche flan.
How To Make Ube Leche Flan Cake
The leche flan cake batter is basically two batters combined into one cake pan. So to make a leche flan cake, you just need to make the two batters: the leche flan batter and the cake batter. The leche flan batter however also needs the caramel topping so you need to do that first to prepare the cake pan. Then you can proceed with making the two batters, taking care to only combine the two when ready to place in the oven soon after. Do it too soon and the caramel will melt into the batter.
After baking is where the magic happens! The leche flan cake is one of those rare cakes that need to be removed from its pan immediately. This is because the leche flan and the cake have a tendency to separate if left to cool on their own. That’s because the cake normally shrinks as it cools while the leche flan will not. This difference in cooling can mean you will have one part of the cake smaller than the other which can lead to the two layers separating.
To avoid this, the cake needs to be flipped out of its cake immediately while still hot so the two layers can hold themselves together. Don’t worry! It will be easy since the caramel layer on the bottom will ensure it doesn’t stick.
This also means you need to ensure that both the cake and the leche flan layers are firm enough to hold their shape while still hot. The good news is that both the cake and the leche flan bake at the same time.
Tips To Make An Easy Ube Leche Flan Cake
The leche flan cake is quite easy to make! The leche flan layer is a simple leche flan recipe while the cake is a small-batch chiffon cake recipe like this taisan chiffon cake recipe with cheese. To make this ube, we used a small ube cake recipe like this easy ube cake recipe. Since ube is a root crop, it’s denser than your usual so the chiffon cake recipe is the perfect cake to make it lighter.
Here are tips to ensure that your ube leche flan is as perfect as it can be:
- • You can more easily coat the cake pan with caramel if the pan is hot, too, so grab oven mitts and warm it up.
- • Remember to whip the egg whites to stiff peaks before adding to the egg yolk mixture so you can keep as many of the air bubbles as possible in the foam.
- • Lighten the stiff egg yolk batter first. To do this, add a big scoop of whipped egg whites and mix it well. It’s okay to beat this first batch in since it will make folding the rest of the egg whites easier.
- • Pour the leche flan batter into the cake pan first. Then pour in the cake batter. Don’t worry! The cake batter should be buoyant enough to float to the top creating the two distinct layers you’ll see in the finished cake.
- • Made too much leche flan or cake batter? Transfer any excess into cupcake pans and make mini leche flan cupcakes!
How To Store Ube Leche Flan Cake
The leche flan cake needs to be stored in the refrigerator so the leche flan can set. It’s best kept there until ready to serve.
Recommended Videos
Are you ready and eager to make an ube leche flan cake? You can see exactly how it’s made in this step-by-step recipe video:
Ube Leche Flan Cake Recipe
Ube Leche Flan Cake Recipe
Ingredients
Ube Leche Flan Cake Ingredients
- 1/2 Cup sugar
- 8 large egg yolks
- 1/2 Cup sweetened condensed milk
- 1 1/2 cups evaporated milk
- For the ube cake
- 3 large eggs
- 3/4 Cup sugar
- 1/2 Cup vegetable oil
- 3/4 Cup ube halaya (ube jam)
- 1 Cup all-purpose flour
- 1 1/4 teaspons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon Salt
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F or 180 degrees C. Place tray with water for the water bath in the oven on the rack.
- Make the Caramel for leche flan: In a saucepan, add sugar. Place over medium heat. Let stand until edges begin to melt and brown, then swirl the pan, away from the heat as needed to prevent burning, to completely melt the remaining sugar and caramelize. Keep hot.
- Pour caramelized sugar into a warmed up 7-inch aluminum cake pan. Tap and swirl the pan as needed to spread the caramel evenly over the bottom of the pan. Reheat the cake pan as needed to spread the caramel properly. Set aside. Alternatively, if you have a gas stove, you can also melt the sugar directly in the metal cake pan that you ll use for the cake, taking care to use oven mitts while holding the metal cake pan.
- Meanwhile, make the Leche Flan: In a large bowl, whisk sugar, egg yolks, and condensed milk, then evaporated milk until smooth. Set aside.
- Make Ube Cake: In a large mixing bowl using a whisk, whisk eggs, oil, and sugar together until well mixed. Add ube, and whisk until well combined.
- Add flour and baking powder. Sprinkle in salt and fold in flour. Mix until just well blended.
- To assemble, pour leche flan batter over the caramel in the cake pan. Pop any bubbles that form on the surface. Slowly pour the ube cake batter over the leche flan batter. (Cake batter will float to the top.)
- Place the filled cake pan in the oven with the water bath, and bake for 50 to 60 minutes or until the cake is completely set.
- Once baked through, remove from the oven and place on a wire rack. Immediately run a knife or spatula around the edges and down to the flan underneath the cake. Place a plate with a rim over the cake pan and quickly flip over the cake onto the plate. Caramel should gradually pool onto the plate. If not, gently tap or run the knife again around the pan to help release the flan from the bottom then remove the cake pan. Let cool completely. Chill until cold. Serve cold.
