Chinese Steamed Savoury Cake 鹹蛋糕
This is a Chinese-style steamed sponge cake with savoury filling. The combination of the sweet and the savoury is not really that uncommon in Chinese cuisine, think of the Chinese steamed buns, for example the Char Siew Pau, which is also a combination of sweet bun with savoury roast pork filling.
Adapted from the recipe '鹹蛋糕' in '點心專輯 Chinese Snacks' by 黃淑惠 Huang Su-Huei, published by Wei-Chuan Publishing, 1995 (1996 revised edition).
[Ingredients]
Sponge Cake:
4 eggs, at room temperature
1/8 teaspoon salt
160g caster sugar
75g plain flour
45g cornflour
20g melted butter
40ml hot water
Filling and Topping:
2 to 3 tablespoons crispy fried shallots 油蔥酥
1 tablespoon (20ml) light soy sauce
1 teaspoon caster sugar
3 to 4 tablespoons pork floss 豬肉鬆
http://cafeoftheeast.blogspot.com/
[Preparation]
Sponge Cake:
1. Line a 18cm aluminium steaming basket (with holes at the bottom, see tip below) with a piece of wet, but wring dry, pudding cloth. Start boiling water in a wok, with water level at least 1cm below where you intent to place the cake for steaming. (I used a wok with a steaming rack sitting across the middle of the wok and water about 1cm below the rack.) Sift the plain flour and cornflour together three times and set aside. Mix melted butter with hot water and set aside.
2. Beat eggs and salt for about 1 minute on medium high speed. Start adding sugar gradually as you continue to beat the egg mixture. Beat until the mixture leaves a trail of ribbon when you lift the egg beater, total beating time can be 6 to 10 minutes depending on the power of your beater.
3. Sift the flour mixture in a few batches into the egg mixture and fold in after sifting in each batch. Once all the flour is folded in, pour the butter/water mixture along the outer edges of the batter and fold in.
4. Pour half the batter into the prepared steaming basket. Steam for about 8 - 10 minutes, depending on how strong the heat of your stove is. Open the cover of the steamer, drizzle half the shallot mixture evenly over the surface of the cake. Then spread half the pork floss evenly over the surface as well. Pour the rest of the cake batter over, drizzle the remaining shallot mixture evenly over the surface of the cake batter. Then spread the remaining pork floss evenly over the surface. Cover and steam for another 8 - 10 minutes. Turn off heat but do not remove the cover immediately. Wait five minutes before removing the cake from the steamer, this is the lazy man method of preventing water dripping onto the cake when you open the cover. Let cool before serving.
Filling and Topping:
Mix crispy fried shallots, light soy sauce and sugar together. Put pork floss aside separately.
[Tip]
Use bamboo steamer if you don’t have an aluminium steaming basket. Note that the bamboo steamer will be shallower than an aluminium steaming basket, so you may need a 20cm diameter steamer in this case.
[Note]
1. Please note this recipe uses 1 standard cup of 250ml, 1 tablespoon of 20ml and 1 teaspoon of 5ml.
2. The size of egg used is about 60g (includes shell) unless otherwise stated.
Adapted from the recipe '鹹蛋糕' in '點心專輯 Chinese Snacks' by 黃淑惠 Huang Su-Huei, published by Wei-Chuan Publishing, 1995 (1996 revised edition).
[Ingredients]
Sponge Cake:
4 eggs, at room temperature
1/8 teaspoon salt
160g caster sugar
75g plain flour
45g cornflour
20g melted butter
40ml hot water
Filling and Topping:
2 to 3 tablespoons crispy fried shallots 油蔥酥
1 tablespoon (20ml) light soy sauce
1 teaspoon caster sugar
3 to 4 tablespoons pork floss 豬肉鬆
http://cafeoftheeast.blogspot.com/
[Preparation]
Sponge Cake:
1. Line a 18cm aluminium steaming basket (with holes at the bottom, see tip below) with a piece of wet, but wring dry, pudding cloth. Start boiling water in a wok, with water level at least 1cm below where you intent to place the cake for steaming. (I used a wok with a steaming rack sitting across the middle of the wok and water about 1cm below the rack.) Sift the plain flour and cornflour together three times and set aside. Mix melted butter with hot water and set aside.
2. Beat eggs and salt for about 1 minute on medium high speed. Start adding sugar gradually as you continue to beat the egg mixture. Beat until the mixture leaves a trail of ribbon when you lift the egg beater, total beating time can be 6 to 10 minutes depending on the power of your beater.
3. Sift the flour mixture in a few batches into the egg mixture and fold in after sifting in each batch. Once all the flour is folded in, pour the butter/water mixture along the outer edges of the batter and fold in.
4. Pour half the batter into the prepared steaming basket. Steam for about 8 - 10 minutes, depending on how strong the heat of your stove is. Open the cover of the steamer, drizzle half the shallot mixture evenly over the surface of the cake. Then spread half the pork floss evenly over the surface as well. Pour the rest of the cake batter over, drizzle the remaining shallot mixture evenly over the surface of the cake batter. Then spread the remaining pork floss evenly over the surface. Cover and steam for another 8 - 10 minutes. Turn off heat but do not remove the cover immediately. Wait five minutes before removing the cake from the steamer, this is the lazy man method of preventing water dripping onto the cake when you open the cover. Let cool before serving.
Filling and Topping:
Mix crispy fried shallots, light soy sauce and sugar together. Put pork floss aside separately.
[Tip]
Use bamboo steamer if you don’t have an aluminium steaming basket. Note that the bamboo steamer will be shallower than an aluminium steaming basket, so you may need a 20cm diameter steamer in this case.
[Note]
1. Please note this recipe uses 1 standard cup of 250ml, 1 tablespoon of 20ml and 1 teaspoon of 5ml.
2. The size of egg used is about 60g (includes shell) unless otherwise stated.
Labels: Asian Cakes, Teatime Treats
posted by SeaDragon @ 9.4.06
14 Comments:
Seadragon, thanks so much for the recipe :)
Wow, what luck, hehe. I was hoping so much someone would ask for the recipe. I really enjoyed this cake when I was in SYD / MEL, but cannot get it in ADL :)
I will be a busy gal this Easter... am going to try out the lor mai chi and now, this.
Really enjoy your website, Seadragon.
Tinkerbell
Angie,
You're welcome :)
Tinkerbell,
Have a good time making your cakes during the holiday :)
Thanks for the recipe! Delicious!!!
jadepearl,
Thanks! Have you made it already, fast hand you :)
Hi seadragon :
I enjoy reading your blog.
I would like to make this as father's day surpirse for my dad, he is cutting down on sweet stuff. May I know, can I use aluminium cake tin to steam this? I do not have bamboo or aluminium steamer. Thanks. Alice
Hi Alice,
You can always try if you are game :) but I haven't try it myself so don't know how successful it will be. As this is a type of sponge cake, the reason for using steamer basket or bamboo steamer is to have holes at the bottom so 'steam' can enter the cake from the bottom also so the cake can be cooked evenly top and bottom. Hope this answer your question.
Thanks SD. I think better buy a bamboo steamer, I guess can use bamboo basket and layer with pudding cloth.
Hi SD , sorry forgot to sign off, it's me Alice. :)
Alice,
Have fun making the cake :)
Hi SD :
It's me, Alice again.
I bought an aluminium basket this morning. The diameter is 24 cm(the only available size.) May I know what is the depth for your aluminium steamer? Should I increase the ingedients portion?
Alice,
My steamer basket is about 7.5 cm deep.
I did a quick calculation (hopefully did not made any mistake), assuming your 24cm basket is at least 7cm deep, it will be about 1.75 times the volume of mine. So you need to use at least 1.5 times the amount of ingredients to make any decent size cake. HTH.
Thanks SD, will keep you posted on the outcpme :)
cheers, Alice
Seadragon,
Thank you for all your recipes plus the photos and details that any aspiring cook would like to know before trying a new recipe. I have been wanting to make peanut pancakes and all the recipes I have seen so far are just to difficult. But you make it possible to try confidently.
Thanks again.
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