Saturday, December 22, 2007

Horlick Layer Cake

Gosh this blog is really encouraging me to dig out my old faithful binder files with my butter stained recipies. The Horlick Layer Cake is really one of the family favourites. It is not as sweet as traditional layer cake but super rich because of the ingredient. When my brother was studying in Penang, he will always make sure he 'hide' some of the cake to bring back with him for his so call friend (don't understand why he can't say its for her gf!).

But bewarned, this cake takes lots of patience and time. This cake requires around 4-5 hours of steaming. Do not be discouraged by this. The result was worth it!! I tried to bake this every Chinese New Year but I skipped a minor detail last year. The cake end up going mouldy in just 3 days! Suffice to say that I learned my lesson and will never ever do that again. So, DO NOT SHORTEN THE BAKING TIME!!!!! Anyway, happy trying:

Ingredient:
Butter 250gm
Caster Sugar 3/4 cup
Flour 1/2 cup
Eggs 10 + 1
Baking powder 1/2 teaspoon
Horlick (original) 1/2 cup
Condensed milk 1 small can (about 1 1/3 cup)
Nescafe 1 tablespoon diluted in 2 spoon hot water
(You can use any other instant or decaf coffee but keep it strong!)

How:
1. Mix the butter and caster sugar with electric mixer until smooth and creamy
2. With the mixer still on at medium speed, add the 10 eggs 1 by 1 (note I typed 10. Keep the 1 egg for later)
3. Combine the baking powder and flour together and mix this gently to the egg,butter,sugar mixture.
4. Pour in the condensed milk.
5. Divide the batter into 2 bowl equally.
6. Add horlick to one of the batter and nescafe solution to the other one. Add the extra egg to the horlick batter so that the batter wont be so thick.
(Thanks Irene from Btu for making the effort to ask me!I completely forgotten about the extra egg. This shows how blur I am!)
7. You will need a steamer that you can fit your baking tray into. Normaly, I will recommend a round 8 inch tray but you can use a smaller one and bake 2 batches or using multi layer steamer, if you have one, to save time. Remember to keep the steamer at its lowest temperature or else your batter will have bubbles.
8. Greese the baking tray with cooking oil or olive oil.
9. Start by taking 1 scoop of the horlick batter (soup scoop/ladle will do very well) and spread it over the bottom of the pan. Don't worry if it start to mix with the oil.
10. Steam for about 10 min. If you see a bubble, use a long slim skewer and pierce it.
11. Pour the nescafe batter in and steam again. Repeat the process until the batter finished.
12. When you are finished with the last one, steam the whole cake for another 1 hour or until the skewer comes out from the middle of the cake completely clean.
13. Leave the cake on the rack to cool.

I know sounds like a complicated but believe me, you will get so much satisfaction when you cut the cake and see the delicate layers!

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi..
Nice blog. Im from Bintulu.
I was reading your Horlick recipes and notice that you need 10 + 1 eggs. What is that 1 extra egg use for? You did not mention in your methods.. Thanks.
Irene

JenJen's Place said...

Hi Irene,
So sorry about that. I completely forgotten about the extra egg!! Actually, the egg is to be added to the horlick portion of the batter as it will be pretty thick. So the egg will help to dilute the batter abit!
Again, sorry & thanks for taking the effort to mail me. Gona amend the blog now!!

JenJen's Place said...

Irene- oh yah...by the way!
Thanks for visiting my blog! Feel free visit more. I used to stay in Bintulu n studied in SMK Bintulu previous, form 1-3. ^_^

Anonymous said...

Hi Jen
SMK Bintulu... my school too... :) ... why only 3 years.. and ... (scratch head)...
I think that will be in the 90's when you study there.. so after that do you visit Bintulu? Change a lot lah.. When you happen to visit Bintulu do give me a call or drop an email to me.. >_< . my email add: karenirene@hotmail.com.
I do go to Kuching too as I have relatives and friends there.Furthermore, we do have a Branch office there too.
BTW, you seems to be very excited huh... going to meet your babe in KL. Wish you have a great times and holidays and enjoy yourself there.

JenJen's Place said...

Hi Irene-
Need to follow my parents back to Kuching after form 3. So only did 3 yrs there but I had fun bcos 1st time in co-ed school. In Kuching, only go to all gals school! So, learn things about boys n relationship!

Abt the KL trip, sigh..maybe not jadi bcos the training provider might postpone last minute. Will only know tomolo...~>_<~

dumb-baker said...

Hi Jen,
First of all, thanks for sharing the recipe. Actually i have tried numerous layer cake recipes. Tried the baked type...but it was a bit too dry...tried the steamed type, it always turn out too 'wet' to me although all my 'white mice' said the cake is fine and delicious. Any tips or advice for me (things i should avoid) b4 i start to steam the layer cake using this Horlick Layer Cake recipe of yours? tia :)

JenJen's Place said...

Hi Dumb-baker,
U r most welcome! I am always happy to share the joy of baking and am learning too!~
By the way, if u r experimenting with layer cakes, then I think u r being humble about being a dumb baker! If you gona bake layer cake in oven, I find that it is better to choose recipe with more butter compared to flour. Then it wont be so dry.
The thing to watch out for when steaming is the bubbles caused by overheating. So, keep the fire as low as possible or else when u cut the cake, it will fall apart because of the air bubble. Still taste nice lar but not pretty nia lor..
Happy trying!!

dumb-baker said...

Hi Jen,

Thanks for tip! Shall try your recipe soon...*curious curious*. I have linked you to my blog page...hope you don't mind :)

JenJen's Place said...

Not-Dumb-at-all-baker,
OF COURSE I dont mind^_^
Hope you enjoy the horlick layer cake