When we were kids in the Minnan region, this traditional mille-feuille cake was always the last dessert served at wedding banquets! It was the most anticipated treat at weddings back then, but it's hard to find now. It's different from chiffon cake; chiffon cake is drier, while this traditional cake is moist and melts in your mouth! It uses the scalded dough method!
Materials
Old-fashioned cake, mille-feuille cake (childhood memories!) – Steps for making the dough using the hot water method
(Separate egg whites and yolks, freeze egg whites until ice crystals appear) Sift low-gluten flour into a bowl, heat oil to 70-80℃, pour it into the flour, and quickly stir until smooth. The old-fashioned cake made using the hot water method is softer and lighter!
Pour in the milk, stir well, add the egg yolks, and continue stirring until smooth. When you lift the whisk, it should look like this.
Begin whipping the egg whites. Squeeze in lemon juice and whip on high speed until foamy. Add 1/3 of the sugar and continue whipping until small bubbles appear. Add another 1/3 of the sugar and whip on medium speed until soft peaks form. Add the remaining sugar and whip on low speed to smooth out the peaks. Scrape the sides of the bowl with a spatula and whip until soft peaks form. (Medium-stiff peaks)
Take 1/3 of the egg whites and fold them into the egg yolk mixture until combined. Pour this mixture into the remaining egg whites and mix well. Pour the mixture into the mold. Mix 30g of batter with cocoa powder until smooth. Pour the mixture into a piping bag and cut a small opening. Do not place the opening of the piping bag too close to the batter. Tilt the bag at a 45-degree angle and stretch it into a long strip.
Take a chopstick and draw a thousand-leaf pattern vertically.
Preheat oven to 145℃, bake for 60 minutes on the middle or lower rack, and for the last 10 minutes, increase the temperature by 5℃ and turn on the convection fan.
After baking, tap the pan to release the hot air. I didn't use parchment paper; I let it cool directly to hand temperature, then lined the surface with parchment paper, unmolded it, flipped it over to cool, and cut it into pieces. If you used parchment paper, take it out of the oven and place it on a cooling rack to cool.
Cut into pieces, perfect! Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator.
More dense and moist than chiffon cake
