heart-shaped steamed banana cake

Valentine Day's round the corner.  How about some heart-shaped cupcakes?

After placing liners in a regular cupcake tin, place a marble or small ball of aluminum foil in each well between the liner and the tin to create a heart-shaped indent.  Fill it up with batter and starts baking/steaming your cake.

Happy Valentine's!

banana chocolate chiffon cake

Ingredients [A]
> 4 egg yolks
> 50g corn oil
> 25g milk
> 80g bananas (mashed)
> 80g Cake Flour (sieved)

Ingredients [B] 
> 4 egg whites
> 70g castor sugar

Ingredient [C] 
1 tbsp cocoa powder and 1 tbsp hot water, mixed, to be used later.

Method
[1]  Sieve cake flour and set aside.
[2]  Mix Ingredients [A] - beat egg yolk and corn oil, pour in milk, mix in mashed banana.
[3]  Lastly add in cake flour and mix with a mixer.
[4]  Beat Ingredients [B] till stiff.[5]  Remove one third of the white batter to mix into the yolk batter, fold.
[6]  Mix in the rest of the white batter and fold.
[7]  Take half of the mixed batter and add in cocoa mix.
[8]  Pour banana batter in an 18" chiffon mould.  Tap pan lightly to get rid of trapped air bubbles.
[9]  Add in cocoa batter, with a chopstick or knife, move around the batter in circles. 
[10]  After preheating oven, bake at 170°C for approximately 30-35 minutes.
[11]  Invert the pan immediately and let it cool completely before serving.

steamed banana cake

Min loves doing this... mashing the bananas!

Ingredients
> 500g ripen bananas ('pisang berangan')
> 250g 125g castor sugar 
> 250g low protein flour (sieved) 
> 2 tsp baking soda 
> 2 tsp baking powder
>  1  1/2 tsp cinnamon powder (optional) 
> 1 tsp banana essence
> 150ml less than 70ml corn oil 


Method
[1]  Mash bananas in a big bowl.
[2]  Add in baking soda, mix well and leave aside for 1 hour to leaven.
[3]  Add in castor sugar and stir a little.
[4]  Add in other ingredients (low protein flour, baking powder, cinnamon powder, banana essence).
[5]  Mix well and leave aside for another 1 hour.
[6]  Lastly add in corn oil.  Fold well and rest for 10 minutes.
[7]  Spoon into small moulds lined with paper cups.
[8]  Steam cake for 15 minutes.

For this cake (8" square), steaming time is about 45 minutes

vegetarian apple & carrot cake

I wanted to try baking this Vegetarian Apple & Carrot Cake and if it is a success, it will be my next Chinese New Year cake.  It is the family's tradition to observe vegetarian diet on the 1st day of Chinese New Year.

Ingredients [A]
> 180g margarine/butter 
> 1 tbsp golden syrup
> 100g 50g castor sugar

Ingredients [B] 
150g green apple slices, mixed with
100g sliced carrot and 1/2 cup water,
cooked till soft and blended finely

Ingredients [C] 
> 200g self-raising flour
> 1/4 tsp mixed spice
> 40g ground almond
> 100g raisins, chopped
> 1 tsp grated lemon peel

Method
[1]  Greased and lined a 20cm/8" square baking tin.
[2]  Beat Ingredients [A] till light and fluffy.
[3]  Add in Ingredients [B] and mix well.
[4]  Lastly add in Ingredients [C] and mix till well-combined.
[5]  Pour mixture into baking tin.
[6]  Bake at 170 160°C for 35-40 minutes or till golden brown and cooked.
[7]  Remove, leave to cool and cut into pieces. 

Recipe courtesy of Agnes Chang, Baking Made Easy

steamed chocolate moisture cake

Ingredients [A]

> 180g butter
> 180g castor sugar
> 200ml evaporated milk

Ingredient [B]
> 2 large eggs

Ingredients [C]
> 100g low protein flour
> 50g cocoa powder
> 1/2 tsp baking powder
> 1/2 tsp baking soda 

Method

[1]  Double boil Ingredients A and mix well.
[2]  Let it to cool.

[3]  Add in the eggs.
[4]  Sieve Ingredients B, divide into 2 parts and mix into Ingredients A.
[5]  Line a cake tin, pour mixture into it.

[6]  Steam cake for 45 minutes.
[7]  Chill before serving.

pandan chiffon cake

I have always like chiffon cake and I've been buying from a local cake shop, their chiffon cake is soooo light and spongy.  I bought a 16cm (about 7") chiffon cake mould recently as this is just the nice size for my small family.  Unfortunately, the chiffon cake recipe in the cookbook that I have is meant for a 22cm cake mould.  I searched the internet for a 7" chiffon cake recipe and found this one.

I had 2 failures (sinking cakes) before getting this cake up and rising, not perfect yet though.  While writing this post, I also found these tips in making chiffon cake, Chiffon Cake Tips and Trouble II. 

Ingredients [A]
> 3 egg yolks (use large eggs, 60g without shell)

> 35g 30g castor sugar

> 70g coconut milk milk

> 55g vegetable oil coconut oil
> 1 tsp vanilla extract
> 1/2 tsp pandan paste

> 1 tbsp pandan juice

> pinch of salt
> 100g cake flour superfine flour

Ingredients [B]

> 4 egg whites (use large eggs, 60g without shell)

> 50g castor sugar

(Note: The blogger has omitted the baking powder and cream of tartar which is called for in the original recipe.)

Method

1. Place egg yolks in a mixing bowl.  Whisk the yolks a little with a hand whisk.
2. Add in sugar and whisk till the mixture turns pale and thick.
3. Add coconut milk gradually, stir to combine.
4. Add vegetable oil gradually, stir to combine.
5. Add vanilla extract, pandan paste, pandan juice.  Stir to combine.
6. Sieve over the flour and whisk till the flour is fully incorporated.  Do not over mix.
7.  Set aside. 

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1.   In a clean, dry mixing bowl, beat egg whites with a handheld electric mixer on low speed until mixture becomes frothy and foamy.
2.  Add half of the sugar amount and turn to high speed and beat the mixture.  Continue to add in the remaining sugar and beat until the egg whites reaches the soft peak stage.  (The soft peak stage is reached when the peaks of the whites curl over and droop slightly.  The egg whites should appear smooth and glossy.  Do not over beat the whites still stiff, it is better to beat the whites still soft peaks for easy folding with the yolk batter.)

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1.  Add the beaten egg white into the egg yolk batter in 3 separate additions, each time folding gently with a spatula until just blended.
2.  Pour batter into a 17cm tube pan (do not grease the pan).
3.  Tap the pan lightly on a table top to get rid of any trapped air bubbles in the batter.
4.  Bake in pre-heated oven at 170° for 35 mins.
5.  Insert toothpick to the centre of the cake, toothpick comes out clean.  When lightly pressed the cake will spring back.
6.  Invert the pan immediately and let it cool completely. 

(Recipe courtesy of happy home baking.)

steamed pandan cake

Ingredients
> 2 eggs
> 168ml fresh milk
> 250g sugar
> 2 tsp double action baking powder
> 2 tsp sponge quick (sponge stabilizer/ovalett)
> 300g low protein flour (sieved)
> 10 tsp pandan juice

Method
[1]  Mix ingredients into mixing bowl and beat until fluffy.

[2]  Put paper cups into cup mould.

[3]  Pour in batter.
[4]  Arrange cup moulds in wok and steam for 15 minutes.