Steamed Cake (蒸糕)

The Steamed Cake recipe is taken from a Taiwanese cookbook. The texture and taste of the cake is similar to Malaysia/ Singapore version of "egg sponge cake" (鸡蛋糕), but this recipe calls for milk which is not commonly used in "egg sponge cake" though.

I find that this is also a versatile recipe; a variety of ingredients can be added as the taste of the cake is mild. In the book, the author prepared two batches of cake using walnuts and red beans, but I used sesame and pine nuts instead. Other variations I can think of are raisins, chocolate bits, prunes, red dates... The possibilities are endless!

I did not fill the cake batter up to the rim of the muffin cups, as I thought that it will rise above the rim when cooked. But it did not turn out as expected. So do remember to fill up the cups fully when you try out this recipe.

Steamed Cake (蒸糕)

Ingredients:

120g cake flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 large egg
60g caster sugar
1/8 tsp salt
80ml milk
3 tbp olive oil
10g black & white sesame

1) Stir-fried the sesame in a wok until fragrant. Remove from wok and leave to cool.
2) Whisk the egg, sugar and salt in a large bowl until slightly foamy.
3) Add in milk, stir the mixture until combine, follow by olive oil.
4) Sift the flour and baking powder onto the mixture. Stir until the flour is fully combined with the mixture. Finally, add in the sesame.
5) Pour the mixture into muffin cups.
6) Steam the cakes for 15-20 minutes. Serve.

(Yield: 5 mini cakes)

* For Steamed Cake with pine nuts, replace caster sugar with brown sugar, and use about 30g of pine nuts instead of sesame.