Growing up, my mother was known for her milktarts. Whenever we went somewhere or got invited to a function, you could bet your last dollar that she would be whipping up milktarts to take.

She even had 2 special brown pie glass dishes that were only reserved for her milktarts.

She still has those 2 pie dishes, even though she hasn’t made a milktart since 2011. I wonder if she still knows how?

Now that she has become a vegetarian, and doesn’t eat eggs, milk tart is off the menu. For cakes or desserts that contain eggs, I normally substitute with my crushed flax seed and water mixture, but it doesn’t work for milktart.

Before lockdown, when you were still allowed to wonder the isle and touch everything. I came across an egg replacer powder and then lockdown happened and I never really attempted to try and use if to see if it was any good. I came across this recipe on Aniseeds wall and it seemed like the perfect opportunity to give this new egg replacer a go.

 What could go wrong? The egg replacer could create lumps or explode. The fun thing about converting this recipe to an eggless one was that there was no need to painstakingly temper the eggs to prevent them from scrambling. Nope, I could just pour the egg replacer straight in and not keep a watchful eye out for curdling. Less stress I tell you.

Talking about stress, the milk tart had a rocky start and the base had to be restarted.

My mum would make her base out of pastry, but in this recipe’s case, the base would be a malva cake. Let me just say, I have never made a malva cake in my life, so this was a second first for me. The first first was the egg replacer and the second first would be a malva cake… so many firsts, so early in the year.

The base was to be covered with foil and popped into the oven to bake for 40-50 minutes or until the cake tester came out clean.

While I was busy adding the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients, my mother needed to go to the spice shop to get a few odds and ends, which meant, that I had to throw everything in the bowl, whisk till an inch of its life, pour into the cake tin, cover with foil and pop in the oven and then ask my dad to keep a watchful eye on it and pray that he didn’t forget.

First mistake was the rushing part, I under estimated the ability of this malva cake to grow. I had poured it into a round cake tin and well after 30 minutes it was right at the lip of the tin, there would be no space for the filling. The second mistake was to ask my dad to keep an eye. He kept an eye, but he didn’t listen. The instruction was to start checking the cake after 30 minutes to see if it was still wet and how many more minutes it still needed.

He checked after 30 minutes and then he took the foil off, so when I came back 10 minutes later, the cake was more sticky toffee pudding texture than soft malva pudding base. No waste, we enjoyed the flop cake as a tea time snack with ice cream. My mother didn’t want to taste, because when she opened up the container she got a whiff of egg smell and some other strange smell coming from the container and well she started being stubborn and refused to sample a crumb.

The second go at the base, went off without a hitch, after 45 minutes, the cake was ready to come out of the oven and the sauce was poured over and then the filling went over and the nice thing, the filling didn’t need to be baked again. Once the filling had cooled down and the cinnamon powder was sprinkled over the top, I was able to clingwrap it and store it in the fridge for Sunday dessert.

The verdict, my dad forgot I made milktart and didn’t sample his slice yet. I was still mad at my mother for making me redo yesterday’s blog post and every time I  kept trying to tell her, it was supposed to be a light hearted funny post she kept giving me a lecture and I didn’t think she deserved to enjoy a slice and she screamed at me for acting deaf. In my defense I was sitting in the tv room, watching a movie on full blast crunching on pringles and she was three rooms away in the kitchen, I seriously could not hear her. I eventually gave in and gave her a piece, she loved it, it wasn’t too sweet and the filling was smooth and not lumpy. My verdict, I loved it. I was really impressed with the egg replacer powder.

I wonder what my dad’s food critics will say, will they love it or will they hate it? Only time will tell.

Ingredients for the base:

• 1 x cup castor sugar.
• 1 x egg or ½ x tbsp. egg replacer powder mixed with 2 x tbsp. water.
• 1 x tbsp. apricot jam
• 1 x cup milk.
• 2 x tsp white wine vinegar.
• 2 x tsp vanilla essence.
• 1 x cup cake flour, sifted
• 1 x tsp bicarbonate of soda.
• 1 x tbsp. butter.

Method:

• Cream together the butter, sugar, egg and jam till light and fluffy.
• In a separate bowl, whisk together the milk, vanilla essence and vinegar and set aside.
• Add the flour and bicarbonate of soda to the egg mixture and mix till it starts to come together.
• With the mixture running, slowly pour in the wet ingredients and mix till well combined.
• Pour into a greased deep cake tin.
• Cover with foil and pop into a preheated oven.
• Bake at 180 degrees for 40 – 50 minutes or until the cake tester comes out clean.
• When the cake has baked, remove from the oven and remove the foil.
• Set aside while you make the sauce.

Ingredients for sauce:

• ½ x cup fresh cream.
• 20g x butter.
• 4 x tbsp. castor sugar.
• 2 x tbsp. water.

Method:

• Place all the ingredients in a saucepan.
• Allow the mixture to heat over a medium heat on the stove. Do not let the mixture come to a steady boil.
• Remove from the stove and pour the sauce over the malva base.
• Set aside while you make the filling

Ingredients for the filling:

• 4 x cups milk.
• ¾ x cup castor sugar.
• 3 x eggs ( 1 ½ x tbsp. egg replacer powder mixed with 6 x tbsp. water)
• 2 ½ x tbsp. cake flour.
• 2 ½ x tbsp. corn flour.
• 1 x tsp vanilla essence.
• 1 x tsp butter.

Method:

• Place the milk in a pot and bring to the boil.
• And in the castor sugar and eggs and whisk till the sugar has dissolved.
• Add the corn flour and cake flour and whisk till the mixture starts to thicken.
• Once the mixture has thickened, remove from the heat.
• Add the butter and vanilla essence and whisk till the butter has melted.
• Evenly pour the filling over the malva cake base.
• Dust the top of the milk tart with cinnamon powder.
• Allow to cool to room temperature before cover with cling wrap and popping in the fridge to set to overnight.