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Honey Ogura Cake

 

Hello everyone!

I recently made this Honey Ogura cake for my dad's birthday. If any of you live near Milpitas, CA, there's a Chinese bakery called Golden Bakery that sells honey cakes. Their cakes have a super fine crumb and it's spongy, fluffy, and just melts in your mouth. Ever since I've tried that honey cake, I have wanted to recreate it.

And, thus marks the start of my journey to recreating that honey cake.

I started off by researching different types of cakes. I thought about making a regular western cake (like those in Safeway), but western cakes lacked that tight crumb seen in the honey cake. Then I thought about sponge cakes, but looking back at all the sponge cakes I've tried making in the past, my sponge cakes always seem to deflate and they always had lots of bubbles in the crumb (hence they have a large, coarse crumb).

Then, I stumbled upon several Japanese sponge cakes: Castella, Ogura, and Chiffon. They all seem to have a super fine crumb and seem to be very spongy and tender. From what I've learned, the difference between these cakes is that Castella cakes tend to use bread flour, Ogura cakes are made with cake flour and have one extra egg than Chiffon cakes, and Chiffon cakes are usually made in an angel foods cake pan or tube pan.


These three types of Japanese sponge cakes all seem to be made with the same method, namely whip egg whites into meringue, sift in flour, pour into pan, and bake at low temperatures in a water bath.

The reason I choose to make an Ogura cake instead of a Castella or Chiffon cake is because (1) I didn't have bread flour and (2) I didn't have a tube pan. But, taking the common method of making these Japanese sponge cakes, I, in some ways, combined these three types of cakes into this cake. And I think this was a *very* successful cake. You can see the fine crumb in the picture and the taste is just amazing. It's not too sweet, and the texture is light, soft, and moist.

Aside from my poor cake decorating skills, the only thing the cake lacked was the flavor of honey. So, for future attempts at this cake, I plan on adding a bit more honey and reducing the castor sugar in order to enhance the honey flavor.

This recipe is also dairy-free. I'm lactose intolerant, which is why I used soy milk instead of regular milk and coconut cream instead of heavy whipping cream. If you are not lactose intolerant, then go ahead and make this cake with fresh milk/heavy whipping cream. It will probably make the cake a lot richer too.

Another thing I found about this cake is that I actually didn't have much trouble with the cake shrinking after taking it out of the oven. Some people might experience this with their cake and my tip for you is to reduce the temperature your cake bakes at. From what I have experienced, baking your cake at low temperatures (and I mean low like at 250 degrees F) for a longer time will keep the cake from shrinking. But also make sure not to bake your cake at too low of a temperature/for too long, otherwise your cake runs the risk of getting too dry.

And, just to give credit, I based my recipe on Nasi Lemak Lover’s recipe for Pandan Coconut Ogura Chiffon Cake.

Now, onto the Honey Ogura Cake recipe.




Honey Cake (makes 1 9x5 loaf pan cake)
  • 5 egg yolks
  • 1 whole egg
  • 40g canola oil
  • 3 tbsp honey + 1 tbsp water
  • 80g soy milk
  • 85g cake flour
  • 5 egg whites
  • 52g caster sugar
  • 1/4tsp cream of tartar

Coconut Whipped Cream (makes ~1 cup whipped cream)
  • 1 can coconut cream (or coconut milk)
  • 5 tbsp powdered sugar (or more if you like it sweeter)

Toppings
  • Strawberries
*Note: if you want to make coconut whipped cream, place a can of coconut milk or coconut cream in the fridge overnight.

Cake:
  1. Pre‐heat oven to 300 F and place the baking rack at the 2nd lowest position. Lightly oil the side of a bread loaf pan (9x5 inch), dust with cake flour, then line the bottom with parchment paper.
  2. Add the whole egg with the egg yolks and stir well with a whisk.
  3. Add in canola oil, stir to combine. 
  4. Mix together honey and 1 tbsp water in a small bowl until honey is dissolved.
  5. Add soy milk and honey mixture into the egg yolk mixture, mix well.
  6. Add in cake flour and stir to combine. 
  7. Strain the batter through a strainer into a clean mixing bowl (very important if you want fine crumbs!). Make sure the bowl you are straining into is big enough for the entire cake batter because you will be using this bowl to combine the meringue and the egg yolk mixture together.
  8. In a separate bowl, add cream of tartar and egg whites, beat with a hand mixer (or by hand) until foamy. Gradually add the sugar in 3 batches and beat till soft peaks form (when you flip the bowl upside-down, meringue should not fall out). Do not over mix. (It is better to be more on the soft peak side than on the stiff peak end)
  9. Take 1/3 of the meringue and mix with egg yolk batter using a hand whisk. Change to silicone spatula, fold in 1/3 of meringue till almost combined, then fold in remaining 1/3 meringue and gently fold until smooth and combined (batter should be fluffy and thick, not runny). Pour batter into the prepared baking pan from a foot high in order to remove air bubbles. 
  10. Lightly tap the cake pan on the countertop to remove even more air bubbles.
  11. Place cake pan in a bigger pan (I put my loaf pan in a 9x13 inch cake pan), fill the bigger pan with hot water about 1 cm high. Bake at 300 F for 20 mins, then reduce to 250 F for 40 mins.
  12. Once the cake is out of the oven, invert the cake onto a cooling rack. Let the cake cool a bit before taking it out of the loaf pan. Then, let the cake cool completely before decorating.

Coconut Whipped Cream:
  1. Place a can of coconut cream (or coconut milk) in the fridge overnight. 
  2. Scoop the cream at the top of the can into a bowl and whip with a hand mixer on speed 4-5
  3. Add the powdered sugar, incorporating after each tbsp
  4. Keep whipping until stiff peaks form

Decorating:
  1. Trim sides of cake to make it more even.
  2. Cut the cake horizontally to get two cake layers. 
  3. Between the cake layers, fill with a layer of coconut whipped cream, then a layer of cut strawberries, then another layer of coconut whipped cream.
  4. Place the second layer on top. Scoop remaining whipped cream on top of the cake and garnish with more strawberries (and "Happy Birthday" sign, candles, and little plastic trees). 

The cake itself tastes amazing on its own, but if you want to make it a bit more complex, coconut whipped cream and strawberries really bring it to the next level (and makes it quite similar to the predecorated cakes found in Chinese bakeries). The only problem I faced with the coconut whipped cream is that I didn't use the solid cream part of the coconut cream, which is why the photo of my cake has cream that looks like it's melting. So, make sure you guys use the solid part of the coconut cream!!

I will definitely be making this cake again in the future (with maybe 2 tbsp more honey and 20 g less caster sugar).

Hopefully you guys give this a try and let me know how it goes!

Nutrition (based on 1/2 can coconut cream, since scooping the cream from a can of coconut cream technically doesn't use the entire can)
  • Serving size: ¼ of the cake
  • Calories: 508 Calories per serving


Until next time.
Jenny 

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