magic custard cake.

This blew people away when it first entered the online foodie world. The many variations (nut, chocolate, butterscotch) that immediately followed on foodgawker showed that I was clearly not the only one intrigued by this cake.

As a side note, it's been forever since I last blogged. I had a lot going on for a while .. and now it's summer break ("break") and I have a little more time & a lot more ridiculous thoughts, so it's appropos to gradually re-enter this little blog I guess I've created for myself + whoever else may be interested.

Nothing has really changed .. I did get my interest in baking back! It'd gone away for an alarmingly long while as exams and quick meals of roasted veggies dominated my life.

I am still busy .. Dance Marathon and pre-med activities will do that. Food-wise, I have become enamored with spinach smoothies and have them at least 2x / week. They're just so dang delicious and their insane health benefits makes them that much easier to have all the time. I put flax in mine this afternoon, with some frozen mango and banana.

Served with homemade blueberry compote (blueberries, lil OJ, very little sugar) one night

I haven't ventured into too daring food projects. This is a nice transitory creation, though.

It's called magic cake because during baking, the batter separates into three layers - very thin crust, custard middle, and cakey top.

The batter looks terrible when you pour it into the pan to go bake. Just warning you now, because I only read that on one site, and if I had not, I might have beaten the air out of the egg whites in a highly destructive effort to create homogeneity in the batter. When I poured it in, there were egg white chunks bobbing in an otherwise custardy liquidy sea.

But don't fear, all iz well! It ends up how it's meant to.

Magic Cake
adapted from this great site. the addition of vinegar helps the top cakey part of this dessert become distinct.

• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
• 2 cups milk 
• 4 eggs, separated 
• vinegar
• 1 cup brown sugar 
• 1/4 cup confectioner's sugar 
• 1 Tb water 
• (115 g) 1 cup flour 
• 1 tspn vanilla extract 

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Lightly grease an 8x8" baking pan. 
2. Brown the butter, then set aside to cool slightly. Warm milk to lukewarm and set aside. 
3. Whip egg whites to stiff peaks. When halfway done, add 4 drops of vinegar. I used white wine. The flavor of the vinegar will not have any effect. 
4. In a separate bowl, Beat egg yolks and sugar till light. Add butter and water, then mix for about 2 minutes. 
5. Mix in flour till evenly incorporated. 
6. By hand, mix in milk and vanilla. Batter will get liquidy. 
7. Gently fold in all the egg whites, 1/3 at a time. Just be sure to get rid of any big chunks. The egg whites will look like curds.
8. Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake 40 - 60 minutes. My oven finished in about 40 minutes, but some may take longer. When the pan is gently shaken, the center will be slightly jiggly, but firm-seeming. If the cake does not really jiggle, it is overbaked. 
9. Cool cake completely before serving. Top with confectioner's sugar, or serve with a fruit compote, if desired.