Taste of Home

It is no secret that MacGyver loves the egg custard type desserts like leche flan, egg pie, egg tart, custard cake and the like.  He says he once finished a whole llanera of leche flan I had made for him.  I don't really remember that.  I think I deleted that story from my memory banks because I refuse to believe that I allowed him to do so.  I simply don't want to think about the number of eggs and amount of sugar I had allowed him to consume in one go if he really did eat the whole llanera.

Of course it is entirely possible that the convenient deletion of that memory gives me a clear conscience to continue trying out similar recipes, considering I tend to gravitate towards those types of desserts if left on my own.   (Something like that movie Clean Slate or 50 First Dates where everyday the main character starts the day fresh.)

I found a a recipe from a blog of a Filipina living in the States for custard cake that I had wanted to try during my leave. The recipe called for a 9" baking pan.  Based on the photos on the recipe, my 9" square pan was too shallow.  I decided to use the 9" round pan which was deeper.  Once again I left my maths out the window during the baking session because clearly the area of a 9" round pan is smaller than that of a 9" square pan.  Besides, the fact that I used the 9" square pan as the baine marie should have triggered me to conclude that the round pan would be too small.

The desire to get the cake in the oven must have been greater than the need for logic because into the round pan went the caramel and once it was in that pan, there was no turning back.  The custard followed soon after.  

After that, I poured in the cake batter inside the pan.  I poured ... and I poured ... and I poured ... then I stopped.

There was just NO MORE SPACE for the rest of the batter!

I had to place the rest of the cake batter into a small baking dish.

The (overflowing) 9" round pan sitting inside the 9" square pan went into the oven beside the small baking dish.  Needless to say, the round cake was literally over the top.

Instead of a regular looking custard cake, we ended up with a mushroom-like cake.

Both cakes turned out nicely.  The extra batter made a sponge cake which just disappeared after we sliced it.  The round cake had a nice crispy edge as a result of the overflowing batter on the rim of the round pan.  The cake was nice and moist.  MyGirl watched the cake bake and extended the baking time to ensure that it passed the skewer test and was baked all the way through. The custard part turned out well.  We had opted to use powdered milk instead of the specified evaporated milk using the recommended 2/3 c powdered milk : 3/4 c water to make 1 c evaporated milk equivalent, using estimated ratios to make about 12 oz of milk).  And finally, the caramel on the bottom  (which eventually became the top) was not excessively sweet.

By and large it was a great success.  

I would definitely want to try it again.  It does not seem as sinful as leche flan because one serving does not have as much of the custard as one (MacGyer-sized) serving of leche flan. Besides, if MyGirl and I are able to perfect this, we could make it our pot luck dessert for special occasions.   

(Of course, any excuse to try it again would work, too.)