Caramel cake

This is a wonderful cake, delicious and incredibly easy to prepare it. I was surprise when even my husband, who's not at all a big fan of the crème caramel, ate it with pleasure. I really recommend you this cake and believe me: it will be on your favorite desserts list.

Prep.: 20 min

Cook.: 1 hour

Difficulty: easy

Ingredients for a pan (not a baking pan, just a normal one) with a diameter of 20 cm (round 10 portions):

100 g sugar for the caramel syrup

For the crème caramel:

75 g sugar

500 ml milk

5 eggs

1 pack vanilla sugar

For the cake:

2 eggs

1 sprinkle salt

2 tbsp flour

2 tbsp sugar

½ pack/vial vanilla

½ tsp grated orange rind or orange flavouring ()

Method:

Caramelize the sugar on a medium heat, directly in the pan where you will bake the cake. When sugar is gold-brown, remove from the heat and turn the pan around to coat the base and the sides.

Mix the eggs with the 75 g sugar and vanilla sugar; add the milk and mix a little bit more. Pour this mixture over the caramel. Maybe the layer of caramel will crash, but that's no problem, it's normal because of the temperature difference.

Put the pan in a baking tray filled with some hot water and bake it in the preheated oven at 200° C for 30 min.

Meanwhile prepare the batter: mix the egg whites together with the sugar and salt, until very firm.

Then whisk gently at a time: the yolks, vanilla, grated orange rind and the flour.

After 30 min, pour the batter over the crème caramel. Check before this if its surface is should be hard enough to keep the batter on top. If not, bake it a few more minutes, but not too much in order to avoid sides burning.

Bake the cake for 30 more min. Then take it out of the oven and leave it in the pan until it's completely cold. Then put a big plate on top of the pan and turn it. I recommend you before doing this, run a knife across the edge, between the pan and the cake, to be sure that the cake will fall on the plate and the syrup will get into the cake. Leave the pan on top of the cake and keep it in the fridge over night.

Next day you can cut it without any problems. The syrup has moistened the cake and you will have a gorgeous dessert with a minimum effort!

My tips:

Add 1 tbsp water when you caramelize the sugar in order to prevent lumps forming. I don't do this and still I have no problems, but I’ve read this and maybe it will help you.
I would advise you to cover the sides of the pan with the caramel half hight.
I don't use orange rind/aroma, because we don't like it, but I can tell you it's equally delicious.
You can decorate the cake with whipped cream and/or candied fruits, but also without these, it looks very nice and the taste is great!

Enjoy it!