Ube is a tuber often used on Filipino cooking, and mostly in sweets. It has a very distinct flavor, and there is nothing I can compare it to. As my husband is Filipino I have had it many times, and a good friend who LOVES ube was having a birthday, so I decided to try it. What the heck!
It wasn't great. But I will not be beaten!
So, I madetried it again, and this time it was super yummy!
A couple things I did in this recipe to make it different...
I made the ube halaya (jam) from scratch. The result of which meant I had quite a bit left over which I could put in a nice jar and give as a side gift!
When I made the frosting, I didn't add ube to all of it, hence the ombre style. I split it into 3 and gradually added more as I went, and it was fun! I kept a bit of each color for the piping on the top. Of course, you don't need to do that, or you could go even farther than I did and do more colors.
Fun fact, I ran out of ube extract and my hubby had to run out to Seafood City (the Filipino Store down the street). I used one brand of extract when I made the cake, but they were out of that, so I had to use a different brand for the frosting. The result is that the inside of the cake and the frosting have different tints. The inside is Mcormicks, which actually emulates the color of natural ube (the jam color), and the frosting has a more blue hue. They are both pretty, but I would try to stick with one next time.
Ingredients
Ube Jam
12 oz can evaporated milk
107g cup brown sugar
500g fresh ube
10 oz can condensed milk
1/2 tsp. salt
57g unsalted butter, softened and cubed (1/2 stick)
Ube Cake
115g unsalted butter, softened (1 stick)
250g sugar
60g light brown sugar
3 large eggs
50g ube jam
110g buttermilk
75g grapeseed oil
2 tsp. ube extract
1 tsp. vanilla extract
purple food coloring -gel or paste-(optional)
185g cake flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp. salt
Ube Soak
113g water
50g sugar
2 tsp. ube extract
Swiss Meringue Buttercream
5 large egg whites
223g sugar
pinch of salt
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
450g unsalted butter, room temperature, cut in pieces
ube extract to taste
purple food coloring (optional)
Equipment
parchment paper or silicon mat
acetate strips (2 strips - 3 inch x 20 inch)
Step 1: Make Ube Jam (Halaya)
Put ube in a pot and fill with enough water to fully cover. Bring to a boil. Boil for about 30 minutes, or until a knife goes through it with little resistance.
Drain and allow to cool for about 10 minutes. While still warm, grate, then push through a sieve.
In a large non-stick skillet on medium heat, combine evaporated milk and brown sugar until sugar is dissolved. Add ube, condensed milk, and salt.
Stir until it thickens considerably. You have to stir this constantly, or the bottom will burn.
Once the jam has thickened, (about 20 minutes) add the butter in chunks, continuing to stir.
Cook and stir until you can drag a spoon through the middle and the jam stays in place.
Step 2: Bake the Cake
Heat oven to 350F. Spray a quarter-sheet pan and line with parchment paper or silicon baking mat.
Combine butter and both sugars in bowl of a stand mixer with paddle attachment and cream on medium-high for until light and fluffy (2-3 minutes). Scraping down as needed.
Combine buttermilk, oil and both extracts. With mixer on medium slowly stream them into the batter, about 3 minutes. Scrape down sides. Add food coloring, if desired, and paddle on medium-high for 2-3 minutes. until twice the size of original mixture, nice and fluffy.
Whisk together cake flour, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl.
With the mixer on low, slowly add the dry ingredients and mix for about a minute, just until it comes together. Scrape down the sides and mix for another minute. Make sure all four is mixed in, but do not overmix!
Pour batter into the sheet pan and smooth the top with an offset spatula.
Bake for 30-35 minutes, rotating pan half way through. The cake should bounce back slightly on the edges and have risen well.
Let the cake cool in the pan on a wire rack.
Step 3: Make Ube Soak
Bring water and sugar to a low boil until all the sugar is dissolved. Turn off heat. Add ube extract, stir and let it cool.
Step 3: Make Swiss Meringue Buttercream
Put egg whites, sugar and salt in a heatproof bowl of a stand mixer and set it over a pan of simmering water.
Whisk by hand until it reaches 140F. (Make sure no crystals are forming on the side of the bowl as you whisk)
Move the bowl directly to your stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment and whisk on medium-high until stiff peaks form, bowl is cool and mixture is smooth and fluffy.
With mixer on medium-low, gradually add the butter, a little at a time, scraping down as needed.
Add vanilla and stir. (You can add ube extract and food coloring to the whole mixture now, or you can divide the frosting and add different amounts to portions for the ombre effect)
Step 4: Assemble the Cake
Put a piece of parchment paper or a silicon mat on the counter and flip the cake onto it. Peel the parchment or mat from the bottom of the cake. Use the cake ring to stamp out 2 cake rounds. These will be the middle and top layers of your cake. You will use the other scraps to assemble the bottom layer.
Clean the cake ring and place it on a cake board, or wherever you plan to serve the cake. Line the inside of the cake ring with 1 strip of acetate.
Put the cake scraps in the bottom of the ring and tamp down well into a flat even layer.
Dunk a pastry brush in, or fill a soaker bottle with, the ube soak and use about 1/8 cup liquid on this layer.
Use a spoon to spread 1/4-1/3 cup of the jam in an even layer (if it has gotten difficult to spread, you can add a bit of the soak to thin it, there will be leftover).
Top with some frosting in an even layer.
Carefully tuck the second strip of acetate between the cake ring and top of the first strip of acetate
Add the middle layer and repeat: soak, jam, frosting.
Add the top layer. (you will NOT add soak or jam to this layer)
Crumb coat entire cake. (that is a thin layer of frosting to prevent crumbs getting on the final layer) Refrigerate for 30 minutes.
Frost cake and decorate as desired.
Swiss Meringue Buttercream does not do well in the refrigerator, but you can leave it out at room temperature for a couple of days. Then you do have to stick it in the fridge. (It wont last that long anyway.)
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