Ube Macapuno Cake Recipe

Dearest Sylvia,

Hi :)

I just wanted to thank you for the lovely postcard you sent me. That is so sweet of you. Really, to take time to send me one, very much appreciated. I haven't received a postcard in a while [the last one was from the '90s and it was from Dean Cain (when I was just so into Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman and I just have to write him a letter.) He replied with a postcard. My sister says it was his assistant who wrote that but the die hard fan in me knows it was him.]

Just so you know, the postcard has a special place in my cubicle at the office (your postcard, not Dean Cain's - I don't know where that is now). I stare at it all day (Oops... I did not just say that... I do hope my boss isn't reading this) and that cute picture of a delicately frosted cupcake just makes me smile.

And as a thank you, I baked you an Ube Macapuno Cake. I wish I can send some over to you in Sweden but I wouldn't dare. I could probably be sending it in pristine condition not a single piped swirl out of place but since it will travel long and far, it might come to you all squishy (and probably moldy?) so I made the next best thing, I am sharing the Ube Macapuno Cake recipe.

ps: Please forgive my piping-and-getting-a-cake-all-frosted-up skills. Can't get over those bubbles. Piping buttercream into a cake seems not to be my forte... needs tons of practice still. Anyway, here it is:

Ube Macapuno Cake
adapted from my Ma's Recipe Book
350F

What We Need:

Cake
2 cups sugar
1 1/2 cup canola oil
1 teaspoon vanilla
4 eggs
2 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup evaporated milk
2 tablespoon ube flavoring
1 cup ube halaya (purple yam)

Frosting
1 cup butter
1 pound icing sugar
2 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon ube flavoring
Macapuno preserves for topping

Here's how:
(1) Combine oil, sugar and vanilla. Mix well.

(2) Mix ube flavoring with milk. Set aside.

(3) Dry whisk flour, baking soda and salt. Set aside.

(4) Add eggs one at a time to the oil-sugar mixture.

(5) Add ube halaya. Mix well until combined.

(6) Add 1/3 of the dry ingredients

(7) Add 1/2 of the milk-ube flavoring mixture. Repeat until all are combined. Bake in two 7-inch pans for 30-40 mins or until done.

(8) For the frosting, follow instructions for the basic buttercream here replacing vanilla with ube flavoring.

(9) To assemble, divide cake into 4 (or just 2, depends on you), ice in between layers. Cover the whole cake with the frosting, top with macapuno preserves and pipe frilly borders on the cake.
(10) Get a cake slicer, a small plate and a fork.

(11) Turn the radio on to some easy listening music station and treat yourself to a slice. Or forget about step 10. Just. dig. in.