I’ve jumped on the magic cake bandwagon! After having seen this cake quite a few times recently, I decided to try it out myself to see what the fuss was all about. It’s actually pretty fuss-free to make, and kind of amazing! It separates into three layers – fudge at the bottom, custard in the middle and sponge on the top.
The original recipe (in Spanish) comes from decoraciondemabel, but there are numerous English versions in the blogosphere too. Mabel has a video of making this cake which is well worth checking out, and she says you can sub 50g of the flour for cocoa and add a pinch of salt, for a chocolate version. I suspect making that one might be on the cards soon!
Ingredients
4 eggs, separated, at room temperature
150g sugar
1 tbsp water
2 tsp vanilla extract
125g butter, melted and cooled to room temperature
115g all-purpose (plain) flour
500ml milk, lukewarm
powdered sugar for dusting
Directions
Preheat oven to 160°C. Grease and flour a 20 x 20cm glass or ceramic baking dish and set aside.
Beat egg whites until stiff peaks form and set aside.
In another bowl, beat egg yolks with sugar, water and vanilla until pale and fluffy.
Add melted butter and continue beating for another minute.
Add flour and combine well.
Add lukewarm milk and beat until well incorporated. The batter will be very thin.
Fold in beaten egg whites using a whisk until there are no large pieces evident but the batter looks lumpy, kind of like undercooked scrambled eggs.
Pour batter into dish and bake for about 60 minutes or until the top is golden.
Cool in dish for at least 3 hours. This cake isn’t designed to be unmolded, but served direct from the dish. It will puff up disconcertingly in the oven but will sink on cooling.
Serve dusted with powdered sugar.
pizzarossa 
I must have been hiding under a rock lately because I have not heard of this magic cake!
I have to say that it looks really tempting and the idea of a chocolate version is borderline dangerous!
I first saw it on foodgawker a few weeks ago and bookmarked it, but then I saw it on there and a few other places about 6 times in the next two weeks – I thought I must have been missing the trend! LOL! It is delicious, very custardy. I can’t wait to try the chocolate version once I get some other projects out of the way 🙂
Haven’t seen this before but it reminds me of a lemon pudding my mum used to make that separated into a sponge topping and sauce underneath. Yummy!
The lemon self-saucing pudding uses the same magic, I think. Or the same physics, but that’s less fun! I love that pudding too – and spring is a good excuse to pull out the recipe! 🙂
I haven’t seen or heard of this either but it looks seriously lovely! I have to agree with Sawsan, the chocolate version might cause a bit of entire-cake-eating behaviour in some people (especially me!)
I’ll definitely be making the chocolate version this week and will report back – Number One Son will be home for the long weekend and my first instinct is to bake for him! 🙂
Pingback: Breakfast cookies | Chef in disguise