Ube Chocolate Cake
One six-inch cake.
Ingredients:
For the cake —
56 grams of white chocolate
64 grams of unsalted butter
40 grams of heavy whipping cream
3 egg yolks
20 grams of granulated sugar
3 egg whites
40 grams of granulated sugar
27 grams of cake flour (or all-purpose flour)
1 tbsp ube extract
1/4 cup of fresh ube/purple yam, mashed
For the ganache —
120 grams of white chocolate
3 egg yolks
45 grams of milk (whatever your preference is! I use soy or oat.)
1 tbsp ube extract
For the whipped cream —
180 grams of heavy whipping cream
15 grams of granulated sugar
1 tsp of vanilla extract
Additional/Optional items —
Coconut shavings
Instructions:
For the cake —
Start by boiling your ube/purple yams for 30 minutes until they, when probed with a fork, come out tender. Once cooked, put them to the side for them to reach room temperature before peeling.
Melt the 56 grams of white chocolate and 64 grams of unsalted butter together - you can do this over the stove or in a microwave. If using a microwave, do it 10-second pulses to avoid splatters!
Add 1 tbsp of ube extract into your white chocolate butter mixture and combine.
Warm up 40 grams of heavy whipping cream in your chosen method and add it to the ube mixture. Whisk it until there are no lumps and set it to the side to cool.
In a medium sized bowl, whisk together the 3 egg yolks and 20 grams of granulated sugar very well. You’re aiming for a fluffy texture and the mixture to become a very pale yellow. I would recommend whisking this with 1 strip beater if possible as it takes some time.
Pour your ube white chocolate into the fluffy, whisked eggs making sure to scrape every bit of the ube chocolate mix. Combine this together until smooth.
At this point, your yams should be cool. Peel and mash them with your favorite utensil until you get 1/4 cup worth of smooth yam. Add this to your mixture.
Sift 27 grams of cake flour into your bowl. I would recommend using a whisk to combine the flour into the mixture by using a ‘scoop and fall’ method. Let the mixture fall through the whisk instead of vigorously whisking, as one would usually use a whisk. This takes longer, but we want to ensure we are not building too much gluten in our cakes. Set aside.
In a medium sized bowl, add your 3 egg whites and whip them until you get a beer froth texture. From here, add in 40 grams of granulated sugar in small batches until you get firm peaks.
Add 1/3 of the meringue to your ube batter and use the ‘scoop and fall’ method until you get a marbled batter. Add the rest of the meringue and switch over to a spatula to fold in the rest of the meringue.
Pour your cake batter into a 6” cake tin (ideally a tall cake tin to get optimal rise and center sinkage). Tap it on the counter to get rid of any air bubbles. Bake it at 340F / 171C for 30 minutes.
Once cooked through, drop the cake tin onto the counter a few times to let the center of the cake sink in on itself. You’re looking for a crater-like center to the cake.
Let it cool at room temperature for 10 minutes, then transfer it to a freezer to chill completely. We want this part of our cake to be a little dense, as the rest of the cake will have a lighter feel and compliment it well.
For the ganache —
Heat 120 grams of white chocolate in a heatproof bowl in a microwave. Remember to use this in bursts of 10 seconds to avoid burning and stir in between each microwave session. You want all the pieces to be melted evenly.
Mix in 1 tbsp of ube extract to your melted white chocolate until it’s well combined. Set this to the side for now.
In a separate bowl, add 3 egg yolks and 22 grams of sugar and whisk it together. This doesn’t need to be whisked as much as it was in the cake stage - just make sure it’s well combined.
Add 45 grams of your milk of choice to a small pot and heat it on medium until the edges start to bubble. Keep an eye on this! You don’t want to scald the milk.
Slowly add the warmed milk to your egg bowl in several additions while whisking constantly to avoid scrambling the eggs. Once you’ve poured in all the warm milk to the eggs, return the egg/milk to the pot and turn the stove to a low/medium heat. We are going to further cook this to a safe consumption temperature.
With your eggs back in the pot, make sure u are stirring constantly to avoid scrambled eggs. Using a rubber spatula works. Mix them constantly until you get a custard like texture. At this point, feel free to take it on and off the stove periodically to avoid over cooking.
To ensure your texture is completely smooth, run the custard through a sieve to remove any overcooked yolk bits.
Add the melted ube white chocolate to your cooked yolks and combine it well to make an even ganache.
Pour this ganache into the center of your cratered cake. Use a knife, spoon, or angled spatula to even it all out to the edges of the cake.
Return this back to the freezer to harden.
For the whipped cream —
In a chilled bowl (or over an ice bath), add 180 grams of heavy whipping cream and whisk until you have soft peaks.
Add the 15 grams of sugar as you whisk, in small additions.
Once you have denser peaks, add in the vanilla extract. Be careful in pouring this in. I’ve had some experience where dumping it in can cause damage to the peaks I’ve worked hard to whisk!
Taste, and sweeten as necessary.
Cake assembly —
Once the cake is fully set, frost your cake with the whipped cream. In my photos, I had extra ube ganache that i put on top of the whipped cream, creating a ring-ling effect of whipped cream you see in photo one (left).
Ube is frequently paired with coconut, so I topped mine off with a few shavings of coconut.
Notes:
This is your dessert - I’m just here to share how I like it. Drop a note through my contact page if you have any questions or suggestions, and please tag me if you end up using this recipe!