1 Butter + 1 Sugar + 1Egg + 1 Flour + 1 Milk = Pound/Butter Cake-Guaishushu’s Version

INTRODUCTION

I am contemplating whether I should publish this post to share with readers. A 95% successful simple butter cake, after long thoughts and since some readers are requesting it, I have decided to share.

The next question is is it in this blog or its sister Facebook Page, Guaishushu’s Facebook Page, the answer is here because there are too many pictures to squeeze into the Facebook Page.

It followed by another question as to the name of the cake, there are so many versions of this cake floating over the net, I have decided to term it as Mrs. NgSK’s Butter Cake-Guaishushu’s Version.

Added On 14 August 2013

Subsequent to discussion with Ms. Wendy ( her blog is mentioned as follows), as the Guaishushu’s version is materially different from Mrs. NgSK’s butter cake as in her blog, therefore, I have decided to rename the cake as Pound/Butter Cake – Guaishushu’s version.

WHY THIS CAKE…

I have quite a detailed description of why I decided to make this cake including the recipe source and the reasons why it is called NgSK’s butter cake and you can refer here. Very briefly, Table for 2, a rather famous blogger in Malaysia is thanking a lady named Mrs. Ng SK for providing her a recipe that makes her butter cake with a flat top and crack less. You can read more from her blog here.

I have only followed her method of separate beating of egg whites and egg yolks, other than that volume of each ingredients is using my own traditional pound cake recipe. In addition, the steps that she detailed is also different from mine. Therefore, the name Guaishushu’s version were used.

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WHAT IS REQUIRED

The uniqueness of my recipe is it is extremely flexible and easy to remember. Look at the ingredients and you shall concur with me that it is an easy recipe to remember.

• 250 g of salted butter
• 250 g of sugar (divided into 150 g and 100g for beating egg whites)
• 250 g of self raising flour – sifted and set aside
• 250 g of eggs or 5 eggs separated into egg whites and egg yolks
• 250 g of fresh milk
• 2 tablespoons of vanilla essence

Note:

For the eggs, it is rather hard to get exactly 250 g. It is absolutely okay with that. What you need to do is for any excess volume of the eggs, you just deduct the excess from the fresh milk. For example, one egg is 58g and 5 eggs will work out to be 290g. Therefore excess eggs will be 290g –250g = 40g. You milk will become 250-40g = 210g. Another way of expressing it will be eggs + fresh milk = 500 g where eggs shall not be less than 250g.

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STEPS OF PREPARATION

The steps of preparation will involve:

• Beating of egg whites
• Creaming of butters
• Folding of flours and egg whites
• Baking

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Preparation…

• Preheat the oven to 180 degree Celsius

• Lightly grease an 8” x 8” baking tin preferably with a detachable base.

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Beating of egg whites…….

• In a big mixing bowl, place your egg whites and beat using the machine whisk to whisk the egg whites until firm peak. Note that the bowl have to be extremely clean, dry and free of any oils.

• When the volume expands, add in the sugar (100g) gradually, beat until thick and glossy and until all the sugars dissolved. Spoon the filling into a clean bowl and set aside for later use.

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Creaming of butter

• Change your whisk to a K beater (look at the second picture for the shape). Place your remaining 150 g sugar and butter, beat until light and creamy.

• Add in the vanilla essence and eggs yolks and use slow speed to “mix” until well mixed. Eggs yolk should be added one by one and scrap the bottom of the bowl to ensure no unmixed egg yolk settled at the bottom of the mixing bowl.

• Off the machine and bring out the mixing bowl.

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Folding of flours and egg whites…..

• Use a big metal spoon or wooden spoon or a spatula, quickly and swiftly fold in fresh milk and the sifted flours. Alternate between fresh milk and sifted flours.

• Once well mixed, fold in the egg white swiftly and lightly until the batter are smooth.

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The Baking Process ……

• Transfer the batter into the baking tin and baked at 180 degree Celsius from the first 30 minutes.

• Reduce the temperature to 150 degree Celsius and bake for another 15 minutes or until the top turn yellowish brown and until a skewer comes out cleaned.

• Transfer it to a wire rack and let it cool for at least 1 hour before cutting the cake. It is best to let it rest overnight if time permits.

Note that the demo picture here have a slight burnt on top and if you want to know the reasons you can refer to this post where I have explained my eagerness to get my cake done by upping the temperature.

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CONCLUSION

• This cake’s recipe is based on the traditional pound cake ratio of one each for each ingredients. Therefore it is easy for the readers to remember the recipe.

• The critical success factors of this cake is the separate beating of egg whites and egg yolks and the folding of flours and beaten egg whites into the batter. In the original recipe of Mrs. NgSK’s butter cake, Wendy the blogger advised that don’t be stingy with butter and her ratio of butter to flour is much higher than mine. My ratio is 1:1 whereas her ratio is 1:0.83. However, my ratio of milk to flour ratio is 1:1 whereas hers is 33%. Therefore, my butter cake is moister (in terms of water content) as compared to hers.

• It is possible to achieve the flat top with no crack if readers adhere to what is written above. It is rather usual in the process of baking, the cake have a rise in the middle and that very much depends on your oven temperature. However, for this recipe, as the cake is very light therefore the centre is also easier to cook. It will drop to the same level after cooling.

• With this process, I tend to agree with WendyinKK of Table of 2 that we are not jinxed to have a crack cake. It is the recipe that I previously used are not correct!

Cheers and have a nice day.

Results of second cake baked the days after