Ube Macapuno Cake Recipe for FIA’s Cake-a-Thon

Ingredients

• 2 1/4 cups cake flour
• 3 teaspoons baking powder
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 7 egg yolks (from large eggs)
• 1/2 cup vegetable/canola oil
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 cup fresh grated ube (purple yam)*
• 1 teaspoon ube flavouring*
• 1/4 teaspoon violet gel paste*
• 8 egg whites
• 1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
• 3/4 cup sugar
• Ingredients Whipped Cream Cheese Frosting:
• 2 cups whipping or thickened cream
• 1 250g package of cream cheese
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 12 oz jar of macapuno (preserved sweet coconut strings)

Instructions

Procedure for Cake:
1. Preheat oven to 170 degrees Celsius. Prepare two 9" round, 2 1/2" high pans by lining bottoms with baking paper.
2. In a large bowl, sift together dry ingredients:cake flour, baking powder, sugar and salt and combine well. On a separate bowl, combine wet ingredients:egg yolks, oil, milk, ube, ube flavoring, violet gel paste. Add wet ingredients into dry mixture. Beat on your lowest setting until just combined. Set aside.
3. In a separate bowl, whisk egg whites on high speed until frothy. Gradually add in sugar and cream of tartar and beat until stiff peaks are formed.
4. Gently fold in egg whites into 1st mixture until very well combined. Divide batter equally into prepared pans.
5. Bake for about 45 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Invert pans into wire rack immediately and cool completely.
6. Using a thin knife carefully slide it around sides of pans to release cake. Using a serrated knife, half each cake horizontally. Set aside one of the top halves for use later.
Procedure for Frosting:
7. In a small bowl beat cream cheese till smooth and creamy. Beat heavy cream, sugar and vanilla with the whisk attachment and mix on high speed until stiff*. Slowly fold in cream cheese and beat again at high speed for a few seconds just until its combined. Be very careful to not over beat your frosting.
Notes:
8. *Fresh grated ube – Boil purple yam till its soft but not mushy. Carefully peel its brown skin making sure that you don’t cut/peel the rich purple color meat which is just right under it’s skin. Once you have completely removed its skin and hard root part, grate the meat. You can buy fresh yam in Lulu I think it is labeled Kachil.

9. *Ube Flavoring – I bought a couple of this flavoring back home since I still haven’t found one here in Dubai. You can omit this from the recipe if not available. I use the McCormick brand.
10. *Violet Food Gel – You can opt to not use this coloring since the McCormick Ube Flavor already has a rich purple color. But if you don’t have the ube flavoring I suggest you add the food gel.
11. *Frosting – For better result please make sure that your bowl and whisk attachment are clean and chilled. I always clean my beaters with warm soapy water and rinse it after with lemon water mixture just to make sure that there is no trace of oil.

12. To assemble:
13. Drain some of the syrup from the macapuno. Set aside.
14. Place one of the cake layers (bottom half of one of the cakes), cut side up on your serving plate or cake board. Spread and level some whipped cream onto the cake layer until it is about 1/4? thick.
15. Place second cake layer, cut side down on top of bottom cake layer.
16. Top the cake with the third layer (cut side down). Spread frosting to cover top and sides of cake. (You don’t have to put a lot, just enough for the cake crumbs to stick to it). Remember to leave some frosting for your borders.
17. Spread macapuno on the middle of your cake.
18. Crumble about 3/4 of the last cake half using a food processor or blender. Gently stick the crumbs to the cake top and sides until it is fully covered.
19. Using the remaining frosting, pipe out big rosettes around the cake’s top edge. I was not to happy with my rosettes that’s why I sprinkled more cake crumbs to hide my rosette imperfection.