Magic Custard Cake Recipe (2024)

FAQs

What are the 3 types of custard? ›

There are three types of custard: baked, stirred, and frozen. Baked custards include bread pudding, flan, and cheesecake, and are prepared by baking in an oven or water bath. Boiled Custards include beverages like eggnog. Puddings, creme anglaise (krem on-GLAYZ), and pastry cream are some examples of stirred custards.

Stir constantly with a wooden spoon, until the custard thickens and coats the back of the spoon. Stirring distributes the heat so the custard doesn't become too hot, which can curdle it. Draw a finger across the back of the spoon and if it leaves a trail, your custard is ready.

In order for a successful gelling of a starch in the recipe, the enzyme has to be killed by cooking the custard almost to boiling (a little less than 212 degrees F). Otherwise the left-over enzymes digest all of the nice firm starch gel and your custard is nothing but liquid.

This type of custard cake is made of a chiffon or sponge cake base, then a creamy custard or flan, and finally, it is topped with a caramel syrup on top.

While most custard and pudding recipes both typically call for eggs, the main difference is that pudding uses a starch for thickening, whereas custard's thickening agent is the egg itself (or egg yolk, in most instances). Custard's texture also tends to be firmer than pudding.

In the USA it is more like ice cream, or frozen Yogurt, or what the local place in St Louis Ted Drewes calls “concrete”. In other word it's usually a chilled confection of the same consistency as ice cream and often served by itself in a pot.

The most common mistake people make in baking a custard is not putting enough water in the hot-water bath. The water should come up to the level of the custard inside the cups. You must protect your custard from the heat.

However if the proteins are overcooked, either by using a temperature that is too high or just cooking for too long, then the proteins will come together so tightly that they will start to squeeze out water and this causes the weeping in an egg custard (or the scientific term for this is syneresis).

Custard is a decadent dessert made with eggs, milk, and sugar. Eggs are responsible for custard's thick and velvety texture, but some recipes (such as this one) call for thickeners such as cornstarch or arrowroot for extra richess.

Overheating the custard can cause it to curdle or separate. To prevent this, cook the custard over low heat, stirring constantly until it thickens.

Why does my custard taste powdery? ›

If it tastes like flour you didn't cook it long enough. That's all. That's a very common problem as pastry cream starts out as a liquid but, as it cooks, quickly escalates to the thickness of wallpaper paste. When that happens people freak out as it's now very, very easy to scorch.

A cake that's wet in the middle, in most cases, has not baked long enough. Put it back in the oven for 10 to 15 minutes. Be sure to check every 5 minutes with the toothpick test for any changes. If sliced, cover with aluminum foil to prevent the top from browning even more.

Adding custard powder to a cake not only adds a sweet vanilla flavour, but the corn flour in custard powder gives the cake a light and fluffy texture. How do I know when the cake is ready? The cake is ready when a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean.

Using a Thickening Agent

For 1 cup (240 mL) of custard, use 2 tablespoons (17 g) of flour mixed with 4 tablespoons (59 mL) of cold water. Add the mixture into your custard ingredients as they cook on the stove. Use cornstarch as an alternative to flour. Cornstarch, like flour, requires cold water as a mixing agent.

Sweet custards are more common, though, and they can take the form of a filling for a pastry, like crème patissière, or pastry cream, which is a stirred custard with added flour; or a sauce that's poured over a dessert, such as crème Anglaise, which is simply a thin stirred custard; as well as the main element of the ...

CUSTARD AND PUDDING TYPES AND PREPARATIONS

Custards are of two types: stirred and baked. Both types create a rich, smooth sauce served warm or cold. Baked custards are prepared with whole eggs and are cooked in an oven with water surrounding its dish.

Flan, or crème caramel, is a custard baked in a dish coated with caramelized sugar that forms a sauce when the custard is unmolded. For crème brûlée, the baked custard is sprinkled with sugar that is caramelized under a broiler or with a hot iron called a salamander. The sugar forms a thin crisp shell over the custard.