They say simple is the best so this Foolproof Vanilla Custard Cake is simple and best!
Also known as the California Fruit Cake
Vanilla Custard Cake is an old school bakery cake that caused lines to form outside of the bakery door on a Sunday morning!
Simply made with two layers of fluffy yellow cake and a quick stove top custard!
Loaded up with the entire recipe of the vanilla custard
The California Fruit Cake as it was made in all the bakeries in New jersey including mine
Iced up with a light almond buttercream, sliced toasted almonds and all the fresh fruits of the season
This website may contain links as part of the Amazon Affiliate program, which means when you click a link and make a purchase through my website I may earn a small commission at no additional cost to you
Notes for Success:
If you plan to serve this cake over several days I would recommend to melt some apricot jelly with a tablespoon of water to glaze the fruits from air exposure and prolong the shelf life
For the custard, cornstarch is a very difficult ingredient to measure consistently with a volume spoons measure
So while I list both measures below I cannot stress enough how the grams measure with a scale is going to give you the best results.
Many times people have complained that their custard is like rubber and they don’t know why!
I tend to use cake flour and all purpose flour together in many of my cake recipes
Some people are not familiar with what is cake flour so be sure to click the link to read all about it!
Meanwhile other people have had negative results using cake flour
If that is you, please use All Purpose Flour (plain flour) in the total amount of 370g
Gluten free flour in a 1:1 blend like Bob’s Red Mill can be substituted for the all purpose flour in the same amount as listed *not sponsored
While I am not an avid gluten free baker I have learned that by allowing the batter to sit for about 30 minutes before baking will help the final texture
As well as baking for an additional 10 to 20 minutes longer than the recipe specifies *this time is dependent upon the size of the pans you are using
Vanilla Custard Cake
Ingredients
For the Yellow Cake Batter:
- Plant Milk 1½ cups (355ml)
- White Vinegar 1½ Tablespoons
- Vegan Butter ½ cup (113g)
- Vegetable oil of your choice ½ cup (117ml)
- *or more vegan butter melted
- Granulated Sugar 1¾ cup (350g)
- Salt ½ teaspoon
- Vanilla Extract 3 teaspoons (15ml)
- All Purpose Flour 2 cups (250g)
- Cake Flour 1 cup (120g) *see notes above
- Baking Soda 2 teaspoons
For the Custard:
- Plant Milk 2¼ cup (533ml)
- Granulated Sugar ¾ cup (150g)
- Cornstarch 6 Tablespoons (48g)
- Turmeric ¼ teaspoon *for color optional
- Vegan Butter 1½ Tablespoons (21g)
- Vanilla Extract 1 teaspoon (5ml)
for the icing & garnish
- 1 Recipe your favorite buttercream
- Sliced toasted almonds for garnish approx ¾ cup
- Assorted fresh and/or canned fruits of your choice
- Apricot Jam ¼ cup *optional, see notes above
Instructions
- Grease & Parchment line 2-8" cake pans Preheat the oven to 350°F
- First prepare the cake by combining the vegetable oil with the melted vegan butter add the vanilla extract and set aside
- Combine the soy milk with the vinegar and let stand for 5 minutes to thicken.
- Sift all the dry ingredients together in a large mixing bowl, including the sugar.
- Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients in the mixing bowl and whisk smooth (this will be the plant milk mixture and the butter/oil mixture)
- Pour the batter into the greased and parchment lined pans and bake immediately in the preheated 350°F oven for 15 minutes, then turn the open temperature down to 325°F to bake the rest of the way, approximately 15 minutes more or when you gently press the centers they are springy to the touch. Or do the toothpick test for moist crumbs.
- Cool in the pans until you can safely touch without burning yourself then turn the cakes out onto a cooling rack to cool the rest of the way.
- Next prepare the custard: combine all the ingredients except for the vanilla extract and the vegan butter in a medium sauce pot over and cook over medium to high heat and bring to a boil stirring constantly to avoid scorching the bottom .
- Once it starts to bubble let it boil on low heat for about 10 seconds.
- Remove from the heat and add the vegan butter and vanilla extract and stir until melted and smooth.
- Once the cakes are completely cooled (I Like to refrigerate mine for several hours to make sure they are also very COLD)
- Build the cake with a ring of buttercream to hold in the custard filling.
- Crumb coat and then do a final icing with the buttercream
- Decorate the edge with sliced toasted almonds and then arrange the fresh fruits on top.
- For a video visual on how to assemble a similar cake CLICK HERE
Notes
The California Fruit Cake must be kept refrigerated at all times and will stay fresh for about 6 or 7 days wrapped loosely to prevent drying.
I do not freeze cakes filled with custard as they turn soggy & the custard will crystallize
Didn’t turn out. Inside of cake is basically liquid. Going to find a normal cake recipe that doesn’t use this cake flour
Hi Gretchen, is there a specific soy milk that works best for this recipe or does it not matter? Thanks
Any will do however I find that Vanilla Plant Milks really give a great added vanilla taste!
Gretchen, I would like to know, and I don’t mean offend, but can I just use non vegan ingredients to make your recipes non vegan.Thanks
Hi Lana, my recipes have not simply been converted from non vegan recipes, meaning I did not just take a non vegan cake recipe, take out the eggs and add in something else. Therefore I cannot just direct you to now take out the vegan ingredients and then add in eggs (or whatever). Since I formulate my recipes specifically from scratch I could not tell you what ratio or amounts to use if you wanted to use animal ingredients. I cannot guarantee that it would work. I would recommend to just use non vegan recipes in that case rather than try to mess around with something that is already perfect the way it is written
I would love it though, if you would give a try the vegan recipes, you would see quickly that we do not need animal ingredients to make great bakes! Not to mention there are no strange ingredients in these recipes that you would have to go out and buy something specifically 🙂
Love this reply & explanation SO MUCH! 👏🏽 ❤️❤️
Thanks for the Recipe. Could you please also make a video about this cake. I am a visual person. Please.
Btw I am a new subscriber.
Thanks
Bhavika
Hi Thankyou! I will note that request!