Marble Ogura Cake recipe

Selam everybody...Merhaba from Turkey.

Ogura cake, aka 相思蛋糕 / Xiāngsī dàngāo . No official sources why this cake name Ogura (Japanese language). Is it coming from Japan or invented in Japan or whatsoever. It's just this cake become very popular among Asian baker and Asian cake lover. The texture incredibly cotton soft, light and smooth texture with moist crumb. Rich in flavor yet light in sweetness.

If you are my regular reader you might notice that I only post one ogura cake previously, check my blood orange ogura cake here. And this post is my second post about ogura. Yep, I didn't bake that cake often it's not because I don't like ogura cake. I lllooovvveee it! I love anything light and not make my stomach full as dessert (cake).

I didn't bake it so often because until now I got pretty nervous baking it and still looking for perfect recipe that match with the pan size I have. I'm telling you..I don't purchase much baking equipment /baking pan like mostly Asian baker I know. In Turkey it's hardly to find many kind baking pan I need e.g removable NON non stick chiffon pan, or simple square NON non stick baking and some other more. Which if I'm in my homeland so easy to find. Using NON non stick baking pan is the best way to bake this cake~ which the most suitable one.
Why I'm looking for recipe that fit to my pan? because ogura cake recipe mostly hard to halved because the recipe require addition 1 whole egg in each recipe. And should I beat off 1 egg and simply halved it? please tell me people out there who mastered in ogura cake. What should I do if I have smaller/ or bigger pan than it required?


For me, making ogure cake should be precise in scale, correct meringue whisking, correct combining meringue with yolk batter and correct oven temperature. Then we can get perfect sexy, tall, not shrinking, and no crack on it surface, also yummy ogura cake. 
To reach nice and tall and not shrink cake you should really become best friend with your oven, knowing it better to get correct heat for this cake.

Today I bake my orange ogura cake with chocolate marble. I adapted recipe my my blogger fellow Ann Low at Anncoojornal here with minor adjustment and marble effect variation. Please do visit her beautiful page and her superb recipes.
For this recipe I use 8" round pan non stick removable pan while original recipe using 7" square NON non stick pan.

Orange Ogura cake with chocolate marble 
Recipe adapted from Ancoojournal.com with minor adjustment

Ingredients for making 7" square or 8" round pan

• 70 gr Orange juice ~~ I use mandarin orange juice
• 40 gr Vegetable oil
• ¼ tsp Salt ~~ I use ⅛ tsp 
• 55 gr Hong Kong Flour/Plain flour or Cake flour ~~ I use AP flour
• zest from 2 oranges ~~ I use zest from 1 lemon
• 4 Egg yolks + 1 whole egg (60 g each) ~~ I use 70 gr egg each with shell
• 150 gr Egg white
• ¼ tsp Cream of tartar ~~ I use 2 tsp fresh lemon juice
• 60 gr Sugar

For marble (optional):

• 2 tsp dark cocoa powder
• 1 tsp black forest paste (optional)

Method:

1) Line baking sheet at the bottom of an ungreased 7 inch square pan, here I use 8" round pan. Preheat the oven to 160 deg C with a tray of boiling water on the most bottom rack. We are going to bake this cake with steam bake method, not water bath (au bain marie)
2) Whisk egg yolks,and vegetable oil until frothy and add orange juice, mix well. Sift in flour, salt and orange zest (I use lemon zest), mix well set aside.
3) In clean mixing bowl. using an electric mixer, whisk egg white, cream of tartar (I use lemon juice) until foamy. Gradually add castor sugar till peak form (not stiff). 
Mix meringue to yolk batter in 3 batches. Fold gently to mix well. I use balloon whisk to fold at 1st and 2nd addition, then change to rubber spatula at last meringue addition.

4) This is optional step if you are using marble effect; Take about 21cup of batter then sift in dark cocoa powder and chocolate paste (if using), Fold gently to combine. Pour half white batter into pan and dollop some brown batter in some places. Then pour remaining white batter, finish with remaining brown batter. Use chop stick/ fork and swirl the batter to make marble effect. Tap pan lightly to remove air bubbles. 

5) Steam bake for 40 minutes at 160°C and bake for another 20 minutes at lower temperature 140°C until inserted skewer comes out clean.

Remove cake immediately after baked and invert cake on wire rack to cool.

I had a crack on my cake

My note:

I use my small oven, so I bake my cake 150°C for about 20 minutes then lower temperature to 140°C  and bake for about 35 minutes. But still I had crack on my cake, most probably the temperature still too high for this cake in my small oven. Next time I will try my big oven instead.

The cake slightly shrunk after cooling time.

The bottom slightly wet as ogura cake's typical, I invert my cake over a baking tray line with baking paper and put back on my oven using left over heat to slightly dry cake's bottom.

Happy baking (^,^)

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