“god of fortune” vanilla ogura love cake “财神到” 香草相思蛋糕 (。´✷ฺЗ✷ฺ)・;゛.:’;、

if a normal person generates on average 25,000 thoughts a day, i think i tripled that… i just enjoy thinking about everything and figuring about the most nonsensical things… and last night, i couldn’t stop thinking about the God of Fortune “财神爷“.. and the lyrics “财神到!财神到!财神到我家大门口! ” just kept ringing off my head! `(๑ △ ๑)`* so to put that into action… i baked him….

Recipe adapted from Corner Cafe

Ingredients (makes an 8″ square pan cake)

Cotton Sponge Cake:
85g cake flour
15g custard powder
1/4 teaspoon salt

55g canola oil
70g milk
5 egg yolks
1 whole egg
30g icing mixture (confectioners’ sugar)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla bean paste (or 1 teaspoon vanilla extract)

5 egg whites
70g caster sugar
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar

Filling:
1/4 quantity mock cream

Directions

– Preheat oven to 150°C. Grease and line a tall 20cm (at least 6cm tall) square cake tin. Get another tin that is slightly larger than the cake tin and fill it with hot water (be very careful when doing this, don’t burn yourself!) – place the cake tin inside the larger tin, and carefully fill the larger tin with hot water to come up about halfway up the sides of the cake tin; you need to press the cake tin down to measure the water level as it will float. Remove cake tin and set aside; place the larger tin with hot water into the preheating oven
– Sift cake flour, custard powder and salt 3 times and set aside. Mix oil, milk, egg yolks, whole egg, vanilla and icing sugar, and whisk well to combine. Sift the flour mixture, in about 3 to 4 batches, into the egg mixture and lightly whisk in well after each batch. Set aside
– With an electric beater, beat egg whites and cream of tartar until soft peaks formed. Gradually add in caster sugar, a tablespoon at a time, and continue to beat until stiff peaks formed
– Fold 1/3 of the beaten egg whites into the flour mixture first, then repeat two more times with the remaining beaten egg whites
– Pour batter into the prepared cake tin. Tap the tin once on the bench top to get rid of any large air bubbles and place the cake tin inside the larger tin with hot water in the oven. Bake in this water-bath for about 1 hour, or until cooked when tested
– Remove cake tin from the oven, give it another tap on the bench top then leave it for 5 minutes to cool down slightly. Carefully turn out onto a tray (or rack) lined with tea towel, discard lining paper then flip cake over to a cooling rack so it is right-side up and let cool completely
– Cut the cake horizontally into two halves, and sandwich with a thin layer of mock cream. Serve in slices

Personal notes:

– i did not line or grease my pan and baked my cake on the second lowest rack of the oven
– i mixed about 4 tbsp of batter with 2.5 tsp of dark cocoa powder (dissolved in a bit of hot water) and painted the God of Fortune “财神爷” on the cake before baking
– my cake was baked for 30 mins on 150 degrees C, and another 38 mins on 160 degrees C. After removing cake from oven, i let it cool for 15 mins in the pan before inverting to remove the pan base (from the cake) and reverting it back up immediately to further cool. my cake sank about 5 percent after it has totally cooled
– i omitted the mock cream on the cake
– i had some fine cracks around the drawing but overall it is fine

… 迎财神…
… 我接财神…
… 把财神接到我家里头…
(๑^ں^๑)
(need more practise on my chinese characters)

Pollution index: 25 (excellent)