Friday, October 27, 2006

Steam Sponge Cake ....

My dh's favourite childhood cake is the steamed sponge cake. I've finally found the ideal recipe to make a consistent steam sponge cake. Here's sharing the one I made yesterday.


Ingredients:
250 gm top flour
250 gm caster sugar
2 tbsp milk powder
6 large eggs
60 gm corn oil

Method :
Sift flour and milk powder together.

Beat the eggs and sugar together till light pale in color and the ribbon stage. (If you lift the beaters up and do a figure of eight on the batter, the figure of 8 must be visible for about 3 secs. before disappearing).

Gradually fold in the flour mixture and oil and batter till well mix using a spatula.

Pour batter into a 8" square baking pan lined with greaseproof paper.

Cover the top with aluminium foil.

Steam on high heat for 30 mins and check if skewer comes out clean.
If not steam for another 5 to 10 mins.

42 comments:

Cranberry said...

Hi Cecily, this is Jestina. Thanks for sharing your lovely Steam Sponge Cake recipe. All family members love it very much as the texture is really very soft and it taste yummy too. This recipe is definitely a keeper for me!

Chawanmushi said...

Hi Jestina
Thanks for dropping by and I'm glad that they liked it.

Anonymous said...

Can i omit top flour( can't find it in NY grocery store) to cake flour?

Chawanmushi said...

Hi anonymous
You can substitute top flour with cake flour :-)

Anonymous said...

Cecily,
If I half the recipe, what size pan do you think I should use?

Chawanmushi said...

Hi reena
I would assume for half recipe I would use a pan about 4 inch to 5 inch square or round but I have yet to try it. Alternatively, you may want to use aluminium cups.

hth

Anonymous said...

Hi Cecily,
I made this for breakfast in the wee hours since I can't get to sleep :P Used cake flour and steamed in 8" round, took me almost an hour to have a fully cooked cake... The end result is fluffy but does not taste spongey. I think it's abit dry too. Did I get it right or wrong?

Chawanmushi said...

Hi reena
Since you did some substitution you may have to adjust accordingly.
The kind of flour, size of egg and the timing all matter to determine how the cake will turn out. If you had steamed for an hour, that could also be the reason why your cake was dry too.
Don't lose heart, do try again.

fat witch said...

Hi. Can I replace milk powder with milk? No milk powder at home.:P If yes, same quantity? Tks!

Chawanmushi said...

Hi densar
You may wanna try with 2 tbsp of evaporated milk, however the cake may not turn out the same as 2 tbsp of milk powder.

hth :-)

Anonymous said...

Hi Cecily
What is top flour ?

Chawanmushi said...

Hi anonymous
Top flour is one of the finest flour for making sponge cakes.

hth

Anonymous said...

Hi Cecily,
Can you recommend me what brand of top flour should i use and i dont seem to be able to find it.please help.i am from Malaysia by the way.

Thanks

Chawanmushi said...

Hi vivien
I usually use the Top Flour from Prima. I hope you have that in Malaysia :-)

Anonymous said...

hi Chawanmushi,

is it possible for me to replace top flour with multi purpose flour?

Chawanmushi said...

Hi vivien
You may replace it with all purpose flour but the cake texture will be different ....not as fine or soft.

hth

Unknown said...

Hi Chawanmushi, can i usse optima flour instead of top flour as I use that for baking sponge cakes. Is that the same if I omit sugar

shiokus

Chawanmushi said...

Hi seok keow
I'm not sure what Optima flour contains and the amount of sugar in it. I'm sorry I don't know how to advise.

Anonymous said...

can i substitute top flour with self-rising flour?

Chawanmushi said...

Hi anonymous
You may substitute with self raising flour. The texture of the cake will be less fine.

hth

Anonymous said...

Hi cecily!

Thanks for sharing the recipe~ :) i made them~ and i mus say they are delicious~ the egg scent was not too overpowering. This time i used cake flour, i will try top flour the next time! :D

Amanda

Anonymous said...

hye cecily
thnks for the post! im a medical student and only have rice/steamer cooker. so this recipe is definetly on my list to do. one question..what is a caster sugar? can i use everyday sugar?

Chawanmushi said...

Hi anonymous
You may use fine sugar. hth

Anonymous said...

I wonder what if I use much less sugar. Or can I substitute white sugar?

Chawanmushi said...

hi erik
If you use less sugar then I suppose the cake will be less sweet. If you substitute sugar with raw sugar or brown sugar ... then the cake will have the fragrance of the sugar. But do not substitute with sugar substitutes. Not advisable cos' they may turn carcinogenic under high temperatures.

shy kitchen said...

Hi Cecily,

I've tried your recipe and it turned out wonderful although I halfed the recipe. Thanks very much for sharing this.

shy kitchen said...

Dear Cecily,

Tried your recipe and it turned out wonderful although I halfed the recipe. Thanks a lot for for sharing. Will definitely do it again soon.

Chawanmushi said...

hi Panda Q
I'm glad you liked it :-)

MsCake said...

Hi Cecily

Thanks for posting so many lovely cakes. This is my first time visiting your wonderful blog.

If I steam this cake in a round tin with 90pct full, wondering will the cake 'smile' like huat kueh ? Have you tried before ?

I tried similar sponge cake using DJ FenYing's recipe but she used HK flour. As I could not find just HK flour, I used HK Pau flour, the cake turned white colour instead of the egg colour and a little crumbly texture.

Anyway, I will try your recipe tomorrow.

Thanks again for sharing.

Catherine

Chawanmushi said...

Hi Catherine
Welcome to my blog. You try and let me know .... OK? If you are in Singapore, I believe you can buy the HK flour from Cold Storage :-)
hth

Eileen said...

Hi Cecily

Thanks for prompt reply.

I will try this sponge cake tomorrow and let you know the result.

I thought HK Pau flour and HK flour is the same....

Thanks

Catherine

Eileen said...

Hi Cecily

Aiyoh! I thought it is easy to make this sponge cake but it was a disaster for me yesterday....

Initially, when I was whisking the egg and sugar, it rose till quite high BUT when I began to fold in the flour, it seemed so difficult to bind all in just few strokes. So I whisked it. The moment I started, the whole batter collapsed immediately. I went ahead to steam it, but it was heavy and not fluffy at all. Very disappointed ...

Thanks for sharing.

Catherine

Chawanmushi said...

hi catherine
Awww..... it happens! You have to make sure the batter is thick enough to be able to write the number 8 and stay on the surface a few secs. And it's better to fold in flour using spatula .... it may take more then a few strokes but it can be done! Don't give up and do try again :-)

MsCake said...

Hi Cecily

Thanks for replying.

I did whisk the egg and sugar till thick and the batter pattern '8' come and go after few seconds. In fact it rose very high up. It is the folding in of flour that spoilt everything.

I may give it a try again.

Thanks.
Catherine

Michele said...

Hi I tried your receipe and it was great, very easy to make. I cut the sugar by about 30% though and it was still perfect :)

Su. said...

Hi Cecily, thanks for sharing this wonderful recipe.
I just tried it 2 hrs ago. It taste great. But the only setback is the centre sink in and the side turns out a little on the dry side and the centre is a little moist.

There's 1 step which I missed, that's covering with aluminum foil. Was this why my cake sank in the centre?

My family loves it anyway. Thanks again! Cheers!

Susanna

Chawanmushi said...

Hi Sue
The problem you've described seems to indicate that you have uneven heating/steaming. When the centre of the cake is moist, it means that the cake is not entirely fully steamed yet. You may need to adjust your timing to steam a little longer cos' of the uneven heating.
However you said that you did not use the Al. foil to cover the cake pan. As a result the condensation water may have fallen from the cover onto the cake and that could also be the reason why your cake had a moist centre.

Su. said...

Oh I see!! Thanks! Will definitely try again.

My family loves it. I'll make it often as I think is a healthy snack for my girls to bring to school as snack.
Thanks a lot for sharing.

Cheers!

Susanna

Anonymous said...

Dear Cecily,

You've given another good reason to love baking (in this case, steaming). My first attempt and it works! Thank you, thank you.

Picture of my first steamed sponge cake http://www.new.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=2718728&l=dd4a038c61&id=728648788

Andrew

kzi said...

simple but so delicous..
thanks.. :)

Elsie Hui said...

I can smelled the freshly steamed sponge cake from here! Your recipe turned out great! :)

Anonymous said...

thanks for yr receipt. being first time of baking i have very good result. fr.joannelim8016