This mocha cake with ube lava cream has become one of my favourite flavour combinations! The coffee notes in the mocha cake complement the ube cream perfectly.
The cake itself isn’t too heavy, nor too sweet. Just bite after bite of fluffy mocha cake. The recipe calls for two things that may seem extra. Cake flour and a water bath. Both are well worth paying attention to, because this is the secret to the super moist and tender crumb in the cake!
Cake flour
The difference between cake flour and standard flour is the protein content. Standard flour has about 10-11% protein content compared to 8% in cake flour. Less gluten forms when it is mixed into a batter which gives a more soft and tender cake.
Make your own cake flour using this recipe:
1 cup standard flour – 2 Tbsps flour + 2 Tbsps cornflour = 1 cup cake flour.
Sift the flour a few times to make sure it is well incorporated and produces a nice fine crumb.
Water bath
It involves putting your filled cake tin in a large pan of hot water as it enters the oven. I recommend you to fill the water bath up to halfway or two thirds of the cake pan, leaving enough room between the cake tin and the water bath pan for hot water to circulate. Just don’t use a springform pan in case of leakage!
The recipe calls for a longer baking time at a lower temperature than usual. The steam from the water adds moisture, and cooks the cake in even and slower heat source. More on the science behind the water bath here.
You can make this quite the showstopper by whipping the cream to a light consistency so it flows theatrically down the side of the cake when you release the acetate. And the best part? There is no messy decorating or cleanup afterwards!
If you love ube, make sure you try my absolutely favourite ube cake, ube cookie and ube ice cream recipes.
I’d love to see your baking creations. Tag it with @ultimateomnoms on Instagram so I can share and give you a shoutout!
Mocha lava cake with ube cream
Ingredients
Mocha cake
- 66 g oil
- 30 g dutch cocoa powder
- 1 Tbsp instant coffee powder
- 200 ml milk
- 60 g castor sugar
- 6 eggs
- 175 g cake flour
- 1 pinch salt
- 1/2 tsp cream of tartar
- 135 g castor sugar
Ube lava cream
- 3-4 drops ube extract
- 200 ml cream
Instructions
Mocha cake
- Heat the oil in a small saucepan using low-med heat. Add cocoa powder & coffee and stir until incorporated.
- Mix in the milk and sugar and take the saucepan off the heat.
- Add the egg yolks in one at a time, whisking between each one.
- Sift in the cake flour and add salt. Whisk until smooth.
- In another bowl, whisk the egg whites until foamy and add the cream of tartar. Add the sugar in batches and whisk until the egg whites reach stiff peaks.
- Preheat oven to 150ºC and prepare your water bath.
- Add one third of the egg white to the yolk batter and mix well. Using a spatula, fold the remaining egg white in two batches.
- Pour the mixture in a prepared 8" cake pan.
- Bake in preheated oven for 1 hour 20min or until a skewer inserted in the centre of cake comes out clean.
Ube lava cream
- Add ube extract into the cold cream
- Whisk the cream until consistency of the cream drips off the whisk. Test this against an overturned cake tin. It should flow down easily. If you accidentally overwhipped, add more fresh cream to lighten up the cream
