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Incredibly soft Ogura cake infused with pumpkin puree and warm spices. It’s a perfect cake that tastes so light yet enough to satisfy that craving for a slice of cake without overdoing it!
Pumpkin season is upon us again and I’ve been wanting to share this pumpkin ogura cake for a while but did not get a chance to type it up here 🙂 I love using pumpkin in baking. It makes your baked good moist and I love the faint aroma of pumpkin in this ogura cake.
In case you ever wonder what ogura cake is, it’s basically a hybrid between chiffon cake and Japanese cheese cake. It is richer than chiffon cake but lighter than Japanese cheese cake. The texture is soft and fluffy! It’s a cake that does not need any frosting whatsoever (eventhough you sure acn if you want to!). It’s light enough for breakfast and/or that afternoon tea time!
How to make soft pumpkin ogura cake
1. Whisk egg yolks, oil, milk, pumpkin puree until combined.
2.Sift in cake flour, corn starch, salt, all the spices and whisk again until smooth. Set aside
3. Clean your mixing bowl by wiping it with a bit of vinegar to make sure there’s no grease in a bowl. Your egg white will not beat well if there’s a trace of oil
Whisk the egg white over speed 4 until it’s foamy, then add lemon juice/vinegar and add 1/3 of the sugar and continue until you use up all the sugar. Turn the speed up to speed 6 (don’t go higher speed than this) and beat until the egg white start to form a firm peak with a slight bent on the tip. Lower the speed to 4 and beat for 10 seconds and then continue to lower down the speed every 10 seconds and then turn off the machine. This helps to even out large bubbles.
4. Fold 1/3 of the meringue into the thick batter. Use a whisk to fold in the meringue into the batter. Mix until the batter is incorporated. Continue with the next 1/3 and then the last 1/3, switch to a spatula and make sure to swipe the bottom of the bowl to make sure everything is incorporated
5. Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Gently lift the pan up and tap on the counter several times to pop any large air bubbles
6. Place the pan inside another larger pan. Very gently pour in the hot boiling water until it comes up to about 1 inch of the baking pan
7. Place this in the middle of the oven. Close the oven door and bake for 90 minutes or might be longer. We bake at lower temperature throughout and this really yields a cake that is very soft, spongy, yet sturdy and resistant to collapse. When you force a cake to rise too quickly, it will collapse and shrink when you take it out of the oven. The cake should be dry to the touch and spring back when you touch it and no longer jiggly. If it is, bake another 5 minutes and check again
8. Once out from the oven, remove from the water bath and drop the pan from about 6-7 inches height for 2-3 times. This will minimize shrinkage.
9. Remove the cake out from the pan by gently grabbing the parchment paper and placing it on top of the cooling rack. Peel the parchment paper off the sides of the cake. Let it cools down completely
10. To serve, use a serrated knife to gently cut the cake into the desired size
Did you make this pumpkin ogura cake recipe?
I love it when you guys snap a photo and tag to show me what you’ve made 🙂 Simply tag me @WhatToCookToday #WhatToCookToday on Instagram and I’ll be sure to stop by and take a peek for real!
The recipe is adapted from Katherine Kwa’s, but the method is modified. I love her cake recipes.
Super Soft Pumpkin Ogura Cake
Ingredients
Please weigh ingredients for accuracy
Cake batter:
- 80 g cooking oil
- 80 g cake flour
- 24 g cornstarch
- 120 g pumpkin puree I used store-bought canned pumpkin puree
- 75 g whole milk (room temperature)
- 120 g egg yolks (room temperature)
- ¼ tsp ground cinnamon
- ⅛ tsp ground nutmeg
- ⅛ tsp ground ginger
Meringue:
- 180 g egg whites (room temperature)
- 1 tsp lemon juice
- 90 g sugar
Instructions
- Take the eggs and milk out from the fridge 30 minutes before you plan to make the cake. The egg white will whip better and the cake will rise better too
- Preheat oven to 320 F (160 C). Brush some oil on the bottom and sides of the pan. Line a 8-inch (20 cm) square pan with parchment paper. The best is to line two parchment papers overlapping and come up to the side so you can easily remove the cake from the pan. If you use a pan with a removable base, wrap the outside bottom of the pan with aluminum foil to prevent water from the water bath from sipping into the cake pan
- Bring a large pot of water to a boil. You will pour this over a large baking pan later for the hot water bath
Prepare the cake batter:
- Whisk egg yolks, oil, milk, pumpkin puree until combined. Sift in cake flour, corn starch, salt, all the spices and whisk again until smooth. Set aside
Prepare the meringue:
- Clean your mixing bowl by wiping it with a bit of vinegar to make sure there's no grease in a bowl. Your egg white will not beat well if there's a trace of oil
- Whisk the egg white over speed 4 until it's foamy, then add lemon juice/vinegar and add 1/3 of the sugar and continue until you use up all the sugar. Turn the speed up to speed 6 (don't go higher speed than this) and beat until the egg white start to form a firm peak with a slight bent on the tip. Lower the speed to 4 and beat for 10 seconds and then continue to lower down the speed every 10 seconds and then turn off the machine. This helps to even out large bubbles.
Fold in the meringue into the thick batter:
- Fold 1/3 of the meringue into the thick batter. Use a whisk to fold in the meringue into the batter. Mix until the batter is incorporated. Continue with the next 1/3 and then the last 1/3, switch to a spatula and make sure to swipe the bottom of the bowl to make sure everything is incorporated
- Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Gently lift the pan up and tap on the counter several times to pop any large air bubbles
Baking (in a hot water bath):
- Place the pan inside another larger pan. Very gently pour in the hot boiling water until it comes up to about 1 inch of the baking pan
- Place this in the middle of the oven. Close the oven door and bake for 90 minutes or might be longer. We bake at lower temperature throughout and this really yields a cake that is very soft, spongy, yet sturdy and resistant to collapse. When you force a cake to rise too quickly, it will collapse and shrink when you take it out of the oven. The cake should be dry to the touch and spring back when you touch it and no longer jiggly. If it is, bake another 5 minutes and check again
- Once out from the oven, remove from the water bath and drop the pan from about 6-7 inches height for 2-3 times. This will minimize shrinkage. Remove the cake out from the pan by gently grabbing the parchment paper and placing it on top of the cooling rack. Peel the parchment paper off the sides of the cake. Let it cools down completely
When ready to serve:
- Use a serrated knife to gently cut the cake into the desired size
- The cake can be stored at room temperature for 3 days. After that, store the leftover cake in a fridge wrapped with a cling plastic wrap and try to consume in the next 3 days. The longer you keep it in the fridge the drier the cake will be
5 comments
This might be my new favorite cake. Fast & easy to mix up, and baked like a dream. Beautifully soft and not too sweet.
Is the amount of cake flour 80 grams? You have 80 ml of cake flour.
Hi Laura, the measurement should be in grams for cake flour. It’s a typo error! Glad you asked!
Thank you for sharing such an awesome recipe! The oven temperature is right on. The cake browned nicely on the top and the inside remained cotton soft! I love spices and kicked it up by using 1 tsp of cinnamon, 1 tsp of ginger, 1/8 all spice, 1/8 clove and 1/8 nutmeg.
Nice touch on the spices! I bet they gave nice scents to the cake!