What is magic cake?

Get your Pinterest and Instagram at the ready...here is the latest Internet craze - Magic Cake! The captivating and delicious trend is reliant upon science!

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Learn more about the wonderful 'magic cake' and try it out for yourself with a selection of recipes! The captivating and delicious trend is reliant upon science – sadly Harry Potter isn't around to take credit for this. Rather than spending hours in the kitchen labouring over building a stunning layered cake, turn to this speedy process. And what's even better? This cake uses the exact same ingredients as the majority of cakes – this equals even less work.

So, what is magic cake?

Magic cakes are essentially made up of eggs, sugar, flour, butter and milk. The batter of the cake is much more liquid than normal batter, so it divides into three layers on its own, each with its own texture and flavour:

The base - is a dense, moist cake base
The middle - a light delicate cream
The top - this forms into a lovely light Genoise sponge

If you're still unable to fathom this incredible revelation, Mashable claim that the 'magic' is in the loose batter, it causes the layers to self separate in the baking procedure. The whipped egg whites help the very top layer to turn into an ultra-light sponge, whilst a cooler baking temperature results in a custard-like middle, and the base turns into a dense, cakey pudding. [caption id="attachment_8650" align="aligncenter" width="600"] What is magic cake?

Image: Instagram/Carlos Vivian[/caption]

Want to try a recipe? Here are a few to get you started...

At first glance, you might think this recipe is a lot of work with its three delicious layers of dense crust, smooth custard and light cake that simply melts in your mouth. But that’s exactly why this cake is called a magic cake, as you only need to make one quick and easy cake batter which magically transforms into three layers whilst baking!

Magic Cake

Preparation time 20 mins Baking time 1 hour 15 mins Serves 16 Instructions:

4 eggs, separated
150g caster sugar
1 tbsp of water
110g butter, melted and cooled
115g plain flour, sifted
480ml milk, lukewarm
Icing sugar for dusting

Method:

Grease a 20cm square baking tin and line the base and sides with baking paper. Preheat the oven to 180˚C/160˚C fan/gas mark 4.
Whisk the egg yolks and sugar together in a large bowl until light and fluffy. Whilst whisking continuously pour in the water and then the melted butter. Add the flour and whisk until evenly combined then add the lukewarm milk and mix thoroughly. Set to one side.
Whisk the egg whites in a large grease free bowl until stiff peaks form. Add 1/3 of the whisked egg whites to the flour mixture and whisk until combined. Add another 1/3 of the mixture, whisk again then add the remainder of the eggs whites and whisk until fully incorporated.
Pour the batter into the prepared tin and bake for 1 hour 15 mins. Remove from the oven and allow to cool fully in the tin. Chill in the fridge for 4 hours or overnight before removing from the tin, dusting with icing sugar and cutting into squares.