Ube Velvet Cake with Vanilla Frosting
My ube velvet cake is super moist and has a vibrant purple crumb. The beautiful nutty flavor comes from ube paste and extract and complements the tanginess of buttermilk in my recipe.
I developed this recipe after many requests from fellow bakers. Before attempting this cake, I taste-tested various ube-flavored desserts I purchased from local bakeries in my area. There were cheesecakes, flans (omg, these were so good), chiffon cakes, and ube-flavored frostings and sweet bread to ensure I got the flavor balance correct. It’s a fantastic flavor and the most beautiful naturally derived purple color I’ve ever put into a cake.
I’ll show you how to make an 8-inch 3-layer cake with condensed milk frosting in this recipe. My technique for this cake is universal for multiple cake pan sizes. Read below to get an idea of how the cake batter comes together and bakes. If you need another size or want cupcakes or mini cakes, feel free to use my Cakeculator to pick your own frosting and size to create an ube cake.
What is Ube?
Ube is a tuber or a large part of the underground root structure of some plants. A common type of tuber is potatoes. Ube is a species of yam that is bright purple and is thought to originate from the islands of Southeast Asia. It’s an essential crop for the Philippines, where it is used in many traditional dishes.
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Ube has beautiful earthy and nutty flavors like sweet potatoes or taro. It can sometimes be hard to source in the US, but well-stocked Asian markets usually carry some products, including ube jams or frozen shredded ube.
What ingredients do you need for my ube cake?
Cake flour is a type of finely milled and lower protein content flour, and it produces a more delicate crumb and softer crumb framework for a cake. You can use all-purpose flour, but it will create a coarser crumb, so I highly suggest sourcing some cake flour for the softest cake.
Baking powder is the leavening agent for this cake. It creates rise by expanding our air pockets by creaming the sugar and fats together.
Salt is a flavoring agent. I use unsalted butter in 99% of my baking recipes, and this is because salted butter contains varying amounts of salt. By separating the two ingredients, we can prevent an overly salty dessert.
Buttermilk in this cake provides moisture and acidity. It’s not overly sour but has a very subtle dairy flavor that works quite well with sweet cakes. If you’ve ever had an overwhelming sweet dessert, you can offset the taste by offering an acidic ingredient. Buttermilk does this exceptionally well in cakes.
Ube jam or ube halaya is a sweetened paste made from ube yams. You can make your own or buy it prepared in jars, and I buy mine in jars since it’s hard to find fresh ube.
Ube extract is a concentrated liquid flavoring agent that tastes very strongly of ube. I buy mine from my local Asian grocery, but you can also get it online.
Brown sugar brings a molasses-rich sweetness to this cake. I love the smoky flavor paired with the nuttiness of ube, but you can swap it out for white sugar. It will make the cake just the tiniest bit drier since brown sugar is a moisture contributor for cakes, but it will still be amazingly delicious.
Unsalted butter is one of the fat ingredients and brings flavor and moisture.
Oil is the other, and it makes the cake incredibly moist. Almost all my cakes use a combo of butter and oil - I’ve perfected the ratio to give the perfect balance of flavor and moisture in my cakes.
Egg yolks and whole eggs are both used in this recipe to bring moisture and structure.
What frosting goes well with ube cake?
The earthy and nutty flavor goes really well with any sweet frosting. So far, I’ve tried the condensed milk frosting recipe you see in this post and my quick cream cheese frosting, vanilla Swiss meringue buttercream, and whipped cream frostings.
Step by step:
(This is a visual tutorial for making the ube cake layers. The condensed milk buttercream recipe is listed in the recipe card below, but if you need a visual tutorial on the buttercream, I have a whole post here.)
Step 1. Prepare the dry and wet ingredients.
Whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt (1a). In a measuring cup, whisk together the buttermilk, ube jam, and ube extract (1b).
Step 2. Cream the fats + sugar; add in eggs.
In a mixing bowl, cream together butter, brown sugar, and oil until it looks like this (2a). Mix in the eggs (2b).
Step 3. Alternate dry + wet ingredients.
Add flour (3a) and ube-buttermilk (3b) to the butter-sugar mixture.
I like to add the last bit of flour by hand (3c). Check out the beautiful color of the batter!
Step 4. Bake and trim tops.
Bake at 350F for about 35 minutes. When they are done, a toothpick will come out clean, and their tops will be nice and browned (4a). Once the cakes are cooled (yet slightly warm), remove them from the pans, trim them to tops if you want (4b), then wrap them in plastic wrap until ready to use. The tops are for snacking ;) (4c). You can keep your cakes on the counter and room temp like this for up to a day, and they will remain fresh tasting and moist.
Step 5. Assemble the cake.
Once ready to assemble the cake, take your frosting and frost between each cake layer (5a). I will have a recipe for the condensed milk version below, but if you need detailed photo instructions, you can check out this post. Stack your cakes (5b).
Apply a crumb coat and final coat of frosting over the entirety of the cake (5c-d).
Pipe designs with your leftover frosting if you like (5e).
Video
Read this before you begin
Measure by weight, if possible.
Measuring by weight is the best way for you to replicate my recipes. I develop recipes using ingredients (even liquids) measured in grams, which is why you see them listed first in the recipe cards. For measurements under 5 grams, I will typically only list the volumetric measurements (teaspoons, etc.), as most home scales are not precise for such small weights.
In most cases, I have converted grams to volumetric measurements (aka US customary units) for bakers who prefer this method. However, the measurements are not as precise and may have awkward proportions. The recipes should still work, but for the ultimate precision, try to use weight.
This is the OXO scale I use daily. I also purchased this budget version of a good scale, which I keep at my Mom’s house for baking. If you’re interested in other tools I use for my baking, I’ve compiled a list here.
Use room temperature ingredients.
All my ingredients should be used at room temperature, or 65-75 °F/18-24 °C. I will always indicate if you need something outside this range. If no details are given, room temperature is the default.
Pay attention to the ingredient descriptions.
I try not to be brand-specific, but I will always note an interesting result from a type of ingredient, be it negative or positive.
A specific note regarding salt: I use Diamond Crystal Kosher salt for everything on this site except for frostings. In frostings, you want the salt to dissolve more easily, and kosher salt tends to leave granules behind. If you substitute table salt (more finely granulated) for recipes that list kosher salt, you must use half the volume indicated in my recipes.
Substitutions are hard.
That’s not to say they’re impossible, though. For instance, in many cases, substituting reduced fat for whole milk (and thus reducing fat by less than 2%) will probably be fine. Using applesauce for oil or even Greek yogurt when sour cream is listed will definitely alter the fat content and adversely affect the crumb texture and density of the cake.
I experiment for hours to get these recipes to work for us. First, try to make them as written or use one of my tested substitutions, which I often dedicate a section to. Then, if necessary, you can make modifications afterward. Even then I would be pretty cautious, as substitutions are one of the hardest things to investigate in recipe development.
Read all the recipe instructions before beginning.
I’m in the “Pre-read the Chapter before Class Lecture” club... and I invite you to join! Baking new recipes can be intimidating, so let’s set you up for success. I want you to think about timeframes. Most fillings and frostings can be made ahead of time, and give you an extra day for mental space. Also, as you become a more proficient baker, you can anticipate and recognize steps. (“Oh, this has a meringue step, so I’ll need an extra clean bowl…” etc.) Ensure you go down the ingredient list and have everything at the right temperature.
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Ube Velvet Cake with Vanilla Condensed Milk Buttercream
Cake Ingredients
- 3 3/4 cups (450g) cake flour*
- 4 1/2 teaspoons (18g) baking powder
- 1 1/2 teaspoons (6g) salt
- 1 1/2 cups (363g) buttermilk
- 3/4 cups (180g) ube jam**
- 3 teaspoons (12g) ube extract
- 3/4 cups (171g) unsalted butter, softened
- 4 1/2 tablespoons (54g) oil (canola or other unflavored oil)
- 2 1/4 cups (480g) brown sugar***
- 6 large (90g) egg yolks
- 3 large (150g) eggs
Frosting Ingredients
- 3 3/4 cups (842g) unsalted butter, cool room temp*
- 2 1/2 cups (778g) sweetened condensed milk**
- 3/4 teaspoons salt (Diamond Crystal)
- 3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract (optional)
Cake Ingredients
- 3 3/4 cups (450g) cake flour*
- 4 1/2 teaspoons (18g) baking powder
- 1 1/2 teaspoons (6g) salt
- 1 1/2 cups (363g) buttermilk
- 3/4 cups (180g) ube jam**
- 3 teaspoons (12g) ube extract
- 3/4 cups (171g) unsalted butter, softened
- 4 1/2 tablespoons (54g) oil (canola or other unflavored oil)
- 2 1/4 cups (480g) brown sugar***
- 6 large (90g) egg yolks
- 3 large (150g) eggs
Frosting Ingredients
- 3 3/4 cups (842g) unsalted butter, cool room temp*
- 2 1/2 cups (778g) sweetened condensed milk**
- 3/4 teaspoons salt (Diamond Crystal)
- 3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract (optional)
Cake Instructions
- Ensure an oven rack in the middle and preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C).
- Butter the insides of three 8” cake pans and line the bottoms with a circle of parchment paper. Dust a very light coating of flour inside the pans.
- Whisk together your cake flour, baking powder, and salt in a small bowl for about 30 seconds.
- Combine your buttermilk, ube jam, and ube extract in a measuring cup. Mix thoroughly to completely dissolve the ube until your buttermilk turns a bright purple and is very smooth. Set aside.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer or a large mixing bowl, add your butter, brown sugar, and oil and beat with the paddle attachment for a minute until it’s combined.
- Add your egg yolks to the butter-sugar, one at a time. Make sure the previous yolks are blended in before adding the next. Then add your egg(s). Beat this on medium speed for one minute until it’s slightly lighter in color and texture.
- We will now alternate flour mixture (dry) / buttermilk mixture (wet) ingredients. I like to do this with a spatula to minimize overmixing the batter. If you have reasonable control over your mixer on its lowest setting, feel free to use that if you like.
Add the dry in 3 additions and the wet in 2 additions as follows:
Add half of your flour mixture to the bowl. Mix until all the flour has just been incorporated. Scrape down with a spatula.
Add in half of your buttermilk, mix, and scrape.
Next, add half of your remaining flour mixture, mix, and scrape.
Add the rest of your buttermilk, mix, and scrape.
Finish with the rest of the flour. You got it - mix and scrape ;) - Evenly distribute the batter into the prepared pans.
- Bake for about 35-40 mins or until a skewer inserted in the center comes out with a few crumbs attached. (Start around 30 mins.) If you do not have three pans, you can bake them one after another. Let the batter sit out at room temperature until you’re ready to bake it.
- Move the pans to a cooling rack and allow the cake to cool in the pans completely.
- Loosen the edges of the cakes using an offset spatula or butter knife, and flip the cakes out onto a cooling rack so you can peel off the parchment bottom. Make sure they are completely cool before assembling and/or frosting.
Frosting Instructions
- Using the whisk attachment, beat the butter on medium-high speed for at least 5 minutes until it has become slightly paler in color and a little fluffier.
- Add the sweetened condensed milk in thirds. Add the first third, and whip on medium-high speed until thoroughly combined. Repeat with the rest of the condensed milk. Once all the milk has been added, continue to whisk for another minute. You should have a thick creamy buttercream that balls up inside the whisk.
- If your buttercream looks greasy, curdled, or broken at any time during this process, it’s because the butter was too cold. Just keep mixing; eventually, the butter will warm as it mixes.
- Now let’s finalize the buttercream’s texture, flavor, and color. Switch over to the paddle attachment. The whisk adds many air pockets, and we need to smooth those out.
- Taste it - add more condensed milk if desired. (see Adriana’s notes above.) Some bakers like the flavor of just sweetened condensed milk. I always add salt, which adds another complexity in taste to a sweet frosting and a splash of vanilla.
- You may notice that the buttercream is cream-colored due to the condensed milk and butter. If you want a whiter frosting, take a tiny (like dip a toothpick’s end) in some purple gel food coloring. This will cancel out the orange and yellow hues. Start small with this step. You can always add more but cannot take away if it turns out too purple.
- Mix the buttercream on low speed until you reach a smooth, spreadable, and soft texture, about 2-3 minutes. You can use the frosting immediately or store it in the fridge for future use for at least a few weeks. Just let it come to room temperature, smooth it on the mixer, and you’re good to go.
Recipe Card - Adriana's Notes
Cake Notes from Adriana
*For the ultimate velvety crumb, look for cake flour with lower protein content. I use King Arthur’s unbleached cake flour, as it’s always available at my local Target.
**I purchase my ube jam, and the brand they have at my market is the “Pinoy Fiesta” brand, which is a little bit thick. Feel free to sub your homemade ube halaya, and keep an eye on the texture of my batter (I show you in the video) to ensure it’s similar so you’ll get a cake texture like mine.
***I love brown sugar in this cake! The molasses flavor, I think, enhances the earthy and nuttiness of ube, but feel free to sub out white sugar if you prefer. You can use the same amount (weight or volume).
Frosting Notes from adriana
*Take the butter out of the fridge before using it to warm up slightly. You don’t want the butter to be super soft, but give a little when you push it like a ripe avocado. This ensures you’ll be able to whip it up to the right texture and pull in the condensed milk to make the frosting.
**There are many brands of sweetened condensed milk with different flavors and colors. Look at this article from Serious Eats here if you want to learn about the differences. In my recipe here, I’ve used the Eagle Brand.
Also, this buttercream has a high capacity for condensed milk, so if it’s not sweet enough, you can add more in step 2. Start with just a tablespoon, mix it, and taste again. Remember that the more condensed milk you add, the softer the frosting.
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