Philippines, aside from it's tourist destinations, is also known for it's local dishes and delicacies. Everywhere you go, every places you visit has their trademark dish or delicacy. In Argao (municipality in southern part of Cebu) for instance, they are known for their delectable Torta cake, commonly known as La Torta de Argao.
TheLa Torta de Argao recipe is very rich and tasty yet easy to make. For everyone's reference, here's the recipe of La Torta de Argao.
Cebu Torta Cake Ingredients:
10 egg yolks
1 cup coconut juice
1 cup sugar
1 star anise
2½ cups all-purpose flour
1 tbsp. baking powder
¼ tsp. salt
½ cup or 1 stick of butter at room temperature
¼ cup canola oil
1/8 cup fresh milk
1 sm. can (168ml) sweetened condensed milk
Instructions
Line molds with paper liners, but if you don’t have you can use wax paper and greased it with butter lightly and set aside. Separate eggs and whisk egg yolks until smooth and set aside the egg whites for another recipe, such as angel food cake, meringue, Lengua de gato, sylvanas and etc…
Preheat your oven at 350F. Boil the coconut juice and sugar over a low heat for 5 minutes and add in the star anise at the last minute to infuse in the syrup, set aside to cool. In a bowl, sift over flour, baking powder and salt together until well mixed and set aside.
In a mixing bowl cream the butter until smooth and pale and add in the egg yolks and mix for a minute. Add the oil, coconut syrup and condensed milk while continuously mixing. I don’t want to waste the condensed milk left in the can, so I pour the fresh milk into can and scrape all sides and stir, then add into the mixing bowl.
Lastly add the flour mixture and whisk until incorporated but don’t over beat the batter. Pour the batter into the prepared molds, or divide the batter using an ice cream scoop to yield a dozen of Cebu Torta Cake / Mamon.
Bake in a preheated oven at 350F for about 18-25 minutes or until toothpick inserted comes out clean.
Let it cool just enough you can handle it, then brush with margarine or butter lightly on top and sprinkle with caster or refined sugar on top and let it cool on a wire rack.
