Yema Cake

Let me start my blog with a short post about our family’s favorite dessert—Yema Cake!

At first glance of this dessert, I thought to myself “oh that’s so plain”. With its light yellow chiffon cake, pale yellow (and runny!) cake frosting, and grated cheese on top what is there to love about this cake? What is so special about this cake that it’s so famous back home?

What is yema cake really? Yema cake is a popular dessert among Filipinos. As I’ve said it’s basically a chiffon cake covered with yema icing sprinkled with grated cheese on top. Yema literally translates to egg yolks in Spanish. But for us Filipinos, it is known as a sweet combination of egg yolks and condensed milk. People have different takes on this yema filling—could be mixed with cream, butter, or evaporated milk. It could be used as cake icing, spread or as candies (yum!).

As a mom of two, I love joining cooking and baking groups on FB and subscribing to baking channels on YouTube. I am one of those silent readers. I scroll baking sites to get recipes and ideas.

My curiosity on yema cakes grew more when I joined a baking group on Facebook. I would see never-ending posts about yema cake… My newsfeed would always be filled with members discussing how-tos or tips to bake the perfect yema cake.

So, putting my fear and intimidation aside, I tried baking this yema cake. My first cake, I wouldn’t lie, is a fail. Even the second one is a fail! The recipe I followed did not really work out for me. I tried few more times (using a different recipe which I also got from a baking group) until I was able to get it right—just about right that I was able to share it with family and friends then soon selling it to them!!!

There were a lot of trials and errors before I got to the point of being comfortable and confident in baking this cake—a lot of cake flour, cans of condensed milk, egg yolks, and egg whites were consumed (and wasted!). To date, I am still in the process of perfecting our yema cake. I know there are still rooms for improvement. I am open to reinventing and improving this cake.

Next up, I’ll be making a video on how to bake this lovely dessert. For now, I am ending this post with some pictures and boomerang videos of our yema cakes. Have a good day and God bless!