Even though I’ve grown up eating all things ube, including this tasty cake, it wasn’t until recent years that ube has gotten exponentially popular in every form. From cake to ube crinkle cookies, ube ice cream, and even ube waffles. It’s gotten so popular that sometimes it’s even difficult to find ube cake from my local Red Ribbon shop, so I’ve made my own version that includes my favorite things. This ube cake will give you ultra-moist chiffon ube cake layers, macapuno filling, and coconut milk and ube buttercream frosting.
Making the cake from scratch vs boxed cake mix
Traditionally, ube cake from Red Ribbon is made using a chiffon cake recipe, which is a cake made with traditional ingredients of flour, eggs, and sugar, but also includes vegetable oil to produce an extra moist cake and meringue to create an airy texture. After testing different recipes, I ended up doing a nontraditional substitution for the vegetable oil. Instead of using oil and milk for wet ingredients, I used coconut cream to get a more flavorful cake and keep the added fatty moisture—two birds with one stone. If you’re in a pinch, you can also use boxed cake mix, however, I’m not too sure how using coconut cream would affect the texture. I would definitely recommend making this batter from scratch because using cake flour really gives you a softer cake due to the lower gluten.
100% real ube vs powder vs extract
For this recipe, I used ube puree that I made by rehydrating pure ube powder and water in addition to ube extract. Due to the popularity of ube, it’s been getting harder to access frozen ube puree or ube roots. Getting your hands on ube powder is a lifesaver because it lasts longer on the shelf and you can rehydrate it when you need. You can also make ube halaya with the powder too. To rehydrate ube powder, I used a 1 to 5 ratio of ube powder to water and cooked it over a stove while stirring until the powder rehydrated. One caveat about ube powder is that it can be quite gritty during cooking or rehydrating, so it may take some time to fully soak up the water over the stove so be patient. A faster way to get ube is using ube halaya (which often times is cooked with sugar so be mindful when you add it to this recipe) or ube extract. I use ube extract to get a deeper purple color and concentrated nutty and vanilla flavor for my cake. Note: ube extract lists “natural ube identical flavoring, water, preservatives, and food coloring,” so if this isn’t your thing you can omit it from your cake, but the ube flavor won’t be as pronounced. You can also use natural food coloring to get a deeper violet. Often times when you eat ube flavored anything at a store and its deep purple, you are most likely eating ube extract. I joke about how we’re so used to eating ube extract (instead of pure ube roots) that most of us probably don’t know what real ube tastes like these days.
The macapuno (coconut string jam)
Macapuno is a Tagalog term for “coconut string jam,” and you can find it readily available at your local Filipino store, or even at a general Asian store like Ranch 99. It’s used in many Filipino desserts, like halo halo. Coconut and ube flavors go together like peanut butter and jelly, so it’s the perfect filling for this cake.
How to make ube buttercream frosting
Ube cake is well known for its vivid purple whipped frosting and sometimes crumb cake outer layer, but I have never been a fan of this whipped cream frosting. It often times doesn’t last in warmer weather and melts, and it also doesn’t taste as good as good old buttercream frosting. For this recipe, I used a whipped buttercream frosting and added coconut cream (along with some drops of ube extract) to decorate my cake in an ombre style. One of the most important parts of this frosting is to whip up your butter for a good 5 minutes in the stand mixer—this creates a light and soft base for your sugar and coconut cream. It takes about 10 minutes to finish the frosting, but it’s worth it!
Serving and storage
If you’re like me and can’t wait, you can serve and eat this cake immediately. I would also recommend chilling the cake in the fridge for about 20-30 minutes before serving to enjoy a firm texture in the cake and icing. If you have extra cake, store it in an airtight container in the fridge and it should last for a couple of days.
