Osmanthus Water Chestnuts Butter Cake 桂花马蹄牛油蛋糕

"好香噢。。。" this was my first reaction when I started to cut the cake 😋 The magic came from the dried osmanthus flowers 桂花 and lemon zest which I added to the cake. The tiny yellow flowers not only infused my favourite moist and velvety butter cake with a sweet floral scent, but also enhanced the yellow hue of the cake 🌻

Water chestnut was added for additional moisture and texture. However, I chopped the water chestnut too tiny that I could not find any crunchy bit in the cake 😶 The cake also tasted a little tangy from the lemon juice in it 🍋

Pan size: One 26Lx10Wx7H cm loaf pan

Ingredients

Ingredients in room temperature
Using 55g Omega 3+6 eggs

110g unsalted butter, softened 无盐牛油，软化
105g fine sugar 细糖

3 eggs 鸡蛋
1/8 tsp fine salt 幼盐

110g top/cake flour 低筋面粉

5g rice flour/top flour 粘米粉/低筋面粉
15g milk powder 牛奶粉
1/2 tsp baking powder 泡打粉

20ml lemon juice 柠檬汁

15g honey 蜂蜜

1/4 tsp lemon zest 柠檬皮屑

1 tbsp osmanthus flower 干桂花

15g water chestnut, peeled & finely chopped 马蹄 *

* If you omit the water chestnut, you can omit the 5g of rice/top flour

Directions

1. Coat the loaf pan with butter, followed by dusting some top flour over it. Set aside.

2. Peel and chop water chestnut into fine bits. Set aside.

I used about 1 water chestnut.

3. Collect 20ml of lemon juice, and 1/4 tsp of lemon zest from a lemon. 

Pour lemon juice, honey, and lemon zest, in a small bowl.  Set aside.

4. Cream softened butter and fine sugar, till pale and fluffy using a hand whisk. Set aside.

5. Sprinkle a little salt over the eggs, and beat them till frothy.

Cover and set aside.

Add beaten egg into the butter cream from (4) gradually.  Start adding the next batch of beaten egg after the previous batch has been well incorporated with the butter cream.

6. Mix top/cake flour, milk powder, rice flour and baking powder in a separate mixing bowl before sifting into the butter cream mixture.

7. Blend in the lemon-honey mixture from (3).

Followed by the dried osmanthus flowers and chopped water chestnut.

Give the batter a more thorough mix using a spatula.

8. Pour the batter into the prepared cake pan​. Level the surface before baking.

9. Bake at middle rack of a preheated oven set at 155° Celsius for 40 minutes. Increase the oven temperature to 170° Celsius for additional 5 minutes to give a nicer brown top.

 End of baking

Let the cake cool down in the loaf pan for about 10 to 15 minutes over a wire rack before inverting it out to cool further.

I love the caramelized brown crust encasing the entire cake. The butter cake would not smell fantastic if without this brown crust.

10. Cut the cake after it has cooled down. Enjoy 😋🍰