(Filipino) Custard Cake

One of my favorite merienda back when I was still

From Custard Cake

working in PI in a busy Pasay-Makati area, this Custard Cake (Filipino style) was available in the nearby cheap bakeries, NOT in the more expensive ones, yet I loved it. It tasted good and was very affordable. My mother used to make them too when we had our own bakery, although when I ask my Nanay now for how-to's and recipes, she cannot recall anymore because of lack of practice.

In the past few days I had been experimenting with caramelizing sugar using microwave , then I could not take my mind off of what to do with my mini baking pans with caramel. I was considering preparing flans, or making bread pudding, or trying this custard cake. One morning that I woke up too early for my interview at another hospital, I (crazily) proceeded with baking these (and was done in time for preparation for my interview). I did not come up with the familiar taste I would have wanted to recreate, but I got approval from my kids and (most importantly) my hubby, so I will stick to this recipe from now on.

For the flan topping:
Caramelized pan
Leche flan mixture enough to create thin layers of flan for topping (I will show you later what to do with the rest of the leche flan mixture, aside from making them into leche flan)

Pre-heat the oven to 350 deg F. Put caramelized pans into bigger pans with water enough to cover the sides of your smaller pans up to the level of leche flan. Pour a thin layer of leche flan ONLY WHEN THE OVEN IS READY. Bake the flan for 15-20 minutes (depends on how hot the water you use for water bath) until flan is jelly-like wiggly at the center. Meanwhile, prepare your ingredients for the cake.

For the yellow pound cake:(I followed the instructions at the side of the box)

From Custard Cake

1 box Yellow cake mix
1 small vanilla instant pudding and pie filling mix
4 eggs
1 cup water
1/3 cup vegetable oil

Combine dry ingredients in one big bowl. Combine the liquid ingredients in another bowl. MIX ONLY WHEN FLAN IS READY. Beat these together for two minutes at medium speed then pour on top of baked flan. Continue baking these for 25-50 minutes depending on what size pan you used (I made small ones the size of custard cups and a bigger one in an 8-inch round pan so I had two different baking times).

Once done, let rest on a cooling rack for about 10 minutes. Loosen the sides with a spatula and invert onto a plate (or a bigger pan).

Now for your own preference, maybe instead of the pound cake recipe (I found this too heavy for me), you might want to experiment with plain yellow cake.

UPDATE:
Please see a similar and very creative post made by MaMely. Yummy!