Lemon Steamed Sponge Cake - Lemon #1

I have this phobia about steamed cakes. I think I am not the only one.
I am ok with small steamed cakes, but my legs will be shivering at the thought of large ones.

The fear of collapsing is not unreal, it is very deep in me. I don't fear failure, I fear wastage.
I fear of having to eat the failure and forcing myself to do it rather than discarding.

Steamed Pumpkin Muffins

For mothers out there, pregnancy is a wonderful experience. The changes that one goes thru thoughout the pregnancy is sometimes weird and unanticipated.

I've heard of people eating toothpaste, eating shoe polish or some find clay to be tasty. Disgusting, right? But I've only heard about such incidences where those people actually consume a limited diet, and they might be malnourished in some way and the body makes then comsume something that in nature contains the nutrient that the mother so needed. I've never heard of funny stories from people who lived in town, or consumes a veriety of food and never impoverished.

In one of the schools I worked in before, the school cleaner once chatted with me, about how she survived all her pregnancies craving for toothpaste, consuming only cream crackers with chilli paste and drinking only tap water for 9 months!! The rest are all, yucks to her. And she was the one who told me stories about people who eat funny stuff, and those people are relatives of hers.  Hard to believe? But I guess it could be true. Just that we are too privileged to be in contact with people who are never deprived of proper food.

When I was pregs with Lydia, from week 5 onwards, I was binging. Eating meals, not snacks every 3 hours. I gained 4 kg in just 2 weeks. Mike looked at me in horror, to see the way that I'm eating.I told him, I can't help it, my tummy is growling furiously.  But when week 7 came by, my appetite dropped drastically. I could eat nothing except fruits. Food made from rice were the worse. From congee to vermicelli, they all smell yucks! I could look at a burger, just look. I don't feel like picking it up. And if I pick it up, I won't feel like biting. And if I finally bit into it, I don't feel like chewing. After chewing, I don't want to swallow it. The whole eating process is just a torture to me. But if I see fruits, I can eat and eat. I dropped 7 kg throughout this difficult period. Which was 3 kg less compared to pre pregnancy. If I wasn't binging during early pregnancy, I'd lose even more.

Actually that time, my hormones were all crazy and I was having bad constipation. Constipation during pregnancy is due to the increment of progesterone. It's the way that my body reacted and helped me to overcome the problem that I was facing by rejected all foods except fruits. Taking in whatever that is needed to help the mother. When the constipation stopped at week 14, my appetite came back, in a snap! Even now, I totally believe in listening to my body. Eat when it tells u to, and don't eat when it doesn't tell u to. So, if I crave, there's no excuse for not eating. That's one pretty good excuse. Hahahaha!

This time, the pregnancy affected not my appetite, but my kitchen mojo. It hit me so bad that I don't want to wash my cup. I didn't want to touch the sink, didn't want to cook anything at all. I didn't bake anything out of fun, but only out of neccesity. I was craving for something with coconut milk, so I made and oil-less pandan chiffon. It was Mike's birthday and  I made him Chocolate Enigma Cake. With the extra cream from the cake, I baked another cake (I'll post that within this week) And I did a sponsored post with a health product that I've promised way before my pregnancy. I didn't cook a proper meal for almost 4 months!! We were eating out daily. Now that I'm at week 22, I'm pretty much the old me now. Not all there, but almost. Still not cooking 3 dishes 1 soup, but one plate meals mostly, like noodles, pasta, fried rice, and congee mostly. Won't call them one pot meals as cooking rice uses one pot and frying uses another wok. LOL.

Funny right? Hard to believe? I was still posting daily, right? hahaha! What you are seeing were usually posts so stale that they were made months ago. Haha! I still have lots of back logs to last me til I move in March.

So now, if you think that this bun in me is a sausage roll, which explained the different pregnancy experience, nah!!! Even Lydia and Lyanne weren't the same. Being pregs with Lyanne was a breeze. I loved food, especially white plain rice during the first 3 months, whereas I hated rice when I had Lydia. Both were burgers, and yet, different. Even now, both girls are very different. One is lingustic, the other technical and artistic. Haha.

Enough pregs talk, let's food talk.
This is the first thing I made, right after I got back my mojo at week 16. And I attempted this recipe twice.

First attempt flopped bad time. Simply because I read in one of the comments that aunty Yochana said the baking powder has to be double action baking powder, whereas the recipe itself called for only baking powder. My first attempt used DABP and weirdly the muffin was super dense and tasted sourish. I’ve encountered this when I simply substituted regular baking powder with DABP and my baking results were always less than acceptable.

So, with some pumpkin left, immediately I did my 2nd attempt with just regular baking powder. The results were wonderful, all smiling happily and they were all soft and fluffy. I’m now wondering how the taste will be with coconut milk… maybe next time.

Steamed Pumpkin Muffins

Adapted from Aunty Yochana

Yields12 steamed muffins (I used egg tart pans)

125gm steamed pumpkin flesh

1 egg

120gm sugar

100gm evaporated milk or coconut milk

30gm corn oil

180gm cake flour

20gm rice flour

1.5tsp baking powder

1. Prepare your steamer and bring the water to a boil

2. Put steamed pumpkin flesh, egg, sugar, milk and oil in blender and whizz for 30 seconds.

3. Sift cake flour, rice flour and baking powder into a mixing bowl.

4. Make a well in the center of the flour mixture and pour the blended ingredients into the well. Mix until well combined.

5. Spoon into lined steaming cups and steam on high heat for 15 minutes. It will bloom by itself, no need to make a cross with oil.

Verdict:

I love this. My kids love this. My hubby the pumpkin hater said nothing. But please don't ask me if this taste like Fatt Gou, I have no idea. I've never eaten a proper fatt gou in my life, except once, a very very dry yucky one. The muffin stays soft the next day, not as soft as fresh from the steamer, but acceptable even when cold.

See Lydia's thumb????

LOL

Steamed Banana Cake

Don’t say I didn’t warn u. If u think that this is a tender soft cake, nope it is not. Not even when it's fresh from the steamer.

This doesn’t contain any oil (no yolks, no oil, no butter, what so ever)
It’s bouncy with a bite to it. I won’t say it’s dense.. not til that stage. Just that, not soft like a sponge, not dense like a brownie 

I ate another piece hours later, and still the texture was the same, same meant, no hardening, which is good for steamed cakes.
I adapted this recipe from a magazine, Happy Kitchen that my mom bought.
She buys it, I make it, as always

100gm bananas

60gm sugar

70gm egg white (from 2 eggs)

1 Tbsp water

80gm cake flour

20gm corn flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/3 tsp sodium bicarbonate

1. Prepare ur steamer/wok, put water in and bring to a boil.

2. Sift flours with baking powder and sodium bicarb, set aside.

3. Put bananas and sugar into bowl and beat with a mixer until mashed and creamy.

4. With a hand whisk, whisk in egg whites and water .

5. Put in sifted flours and whisk until just smooth.

6. Put batter into lined steaming cups until 90% full.

7. Steam on medium heat for 6 minutes. (As per the recipe. But I steamed my 2nd batch on high heat, and the texture was slightly softer than the 1st batch on medium heat)

The original recipe called for liquid glucose, and I omitted it, scared that it’ll make the batter too sweet. But the main reason was that, I don’t have it at home that time. Well, I could always substitute it with golden syrup that I still have lots, but nah… let’s try it without. U can add in 30gm of liquid glucose into the batter.

Maybe next time I should put in some oil or melted butter… A Tablespoon or 2, just to make it softer.

Steamed Brownies

Steamed brownies.... ha!

Frankly never liked brownies as I found them to be too dense and crumbly for my liking, some even taste dry. But this one... is steamed. So it's better.

The recipe uses emulsifier, so it's pretty easy to make. I might try another time w/o the ovalette, change the method and see how it goes.

Mike loves this, but people who are not crazy for chocolates will find this way too chocolatey. I adapted the recipe from Pennylane's Kitchen but u may still follow the original recipe exactly.

Ingredients
5 eggs
2 egg yolks
180gr caster sugar
1/2 tsp salt
10 gr emulsifier (ovalette)
1 Tbsp baking rhum (I omitted this)
150 gr flour, sifted
10 gr cornstarch
50 gr cocoa powder (dutch processed), sifted
150 gr butter
220 gr milk cooking chocolate ( I used Cadbury milk chocolate, which is a eating chocolate, and I didn't half the amount, used the whole big bar, therefore I reduced some sugar and some butter amount from the original recipe . The original recipe also called for chocolate paste, which I omitted, so I took up the courage to replace that with more chocolate)
Rice chocolate/chopped dark cooking chocolate, for filling.(I used choc rice, somehow I regretted it. Maybe dark cooking choc will be a better choice)

Instructions:

1. Line 8 inch round pan with baking paper. Prepare your steamer(it’s gotta be bigger than the pan ). Fill it with sufficient water and bring it to boil on high heat.
2. Melt butter, and milk cooking chocolate. Let cool.
3. Beat egg yolks, egg whites, sugar, salt, emulsifier, baking rhum (I omitted this), flour and cornstarch at high speed until pale and thick.
4. Fold cocoa powder into egg batter with spatula until well blended. Fold in the butter-chocolate mixture, mix well. Make sure there are no butter left at the bottom of your bowl.
5. Divide the batter into 3 equal parts (weigh it if you’re not sure). Make sure the water is steaming hot now. Pour 1 part of the batter into prepared pan, steam for about 10 minutes or until the surface sets.
6. Open your steamer, sprinkle rice chocolate/chopped dark cooking chocolate evenly on the first layer, then pour the second part of the batter. Steam for about 10 minutes or until the surface sets.
7. Open your steamer, sprinkle rice chocolate/chopped dark cooking chocolate evenly on the second layer, then pour the third part of the batter. Steam for about 20 minutes or until the whole cake is done (do the toothpick test, if necessary).
8. Take the pan out of the steamer, let cool down totally on a rack. Turn the cake into cake board. Slice it nicely, serve.

Oh ya one thing, I found that after I changed my wok lid from aluminium to stainless steel, steamed cakes seem to have taken the waves. So to my readers who tried my steamed cupcakes and had waves, is the cover u used stainless steel? My friend who made my seri muka also confirmed my point. Test first, it's just my assumption. If ur steamer cover is stainless steel, try high heat for the first layer, if it's wavy, steam the 2nd layer with medium high. If it's still wavy, use medium. I used medium high for my last layer and it had less waves than my first 2 layers.

I cut this brownie way too sooon...... See how the gooey chocolate flowed down like a waterfall????

I waited longer, let it cool down further and it was much better.

DO NOT REPEAT MY STUPID MISTAKE OF CUTTING THE BROWNIE TOO SOON!!!

Patience is a virtue..something that I lack :)

Care for a slice?
Yum yum!!!!

Steamed Pandan Cup Cakes

My Braun Multimix of 12 years said good bye to me recently... so, making cakes that needs lots of whipping up has to be put off until I get a new good mixer..

I made this based on my previous post of Steamed Cheese Cake.

Steamed Pandan Cup Cake Recipe

Dry ingredients

(A) 200gm cake flour
¼ tsp salt
4 tsp baking powder

80gm sugar

Wet Ingredients
100ml pandan juice (from 3 blades of pandan leaves)
100ml coconut milk
2 eggs
20gm melted butter

Method:
1. Sift A.
2. Mix sugar with (A)
3. Beat eggs and combine all wet ingredients.
4. Combine wet and dry ingredients well.
5. Spoon into paper lined cups until 2/3 full.
6. Steam on high heat for 15 minutes.

**********
10 cup cakes

Steamed Cheese Cake 蒸芝士蛋糕

There is this Steamed Cheese Cake in Sun Moulin bakery (Isetan KL) that I love very much.., moist, cottony soft…

But look at mine… it’s not as soft or moist as Sun Moulin’s..but still…. Yummy, with a nice cheese aroma..

This is a recipe that I found on Pinky Fantasy’s site. Her steamed cake smiled wide, but mine is round with a dome, similar with the one where Pinky Fantasy got the recipe from which is Warm Sweet Home.. Both of them found the cake a bit tasteless on the cheese side, Warm Sweet Home cut down on the cheese, but Pinky Fantasy didn’t. Maybe they expected more, I guess…

To me, I expected it to taste somewhat like Sun Moulin’s, so I wasn’t that disappointed. The strength of the aroma is similar to the one in Sun Moulin, but taste wise… not as soft. The mouth feel is like a steamed pound cake. Sun Moulin’s steamed cheese cake has a flat surface, while mine is dome shaped, so, definitely the texture will be different.

This is a definite keeper, nice for breakfast or tea. I modified it a bit, rounding up some measurements making it easier for my non digital weighing scale.

Steamed Cheese Cake Recipe

Ingredients: (I made 7 pcs with this amount, just nice to make a hexagon on my steaming wok.)
100 ml milk
10 gm butter (1 mini plastic pack)
2 pcs cheese slice ( Kraft Singles, Chesdale type, I used Valumetric)
1 large egg

100gm low gluten flour (Pau flour)
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
50 gm sugar
1 tbsp cheese powder

Method:
1. Bring milk to a boil and turn off the fire. Put in butter and cheese slices to melt. Let mixture cool down a bit and beat in egg.
2. Prepare steamer and bring water to a boil.
3. Sift flour with baking powder. Mix in sugar and cheese powder.
4. Pour the egg cheese mixture into the dry ingredients and combine well.
5. Spoon batter into paper cups in muffin tins.
6. Steam at high heat for 15 minutes.


These were my first attempts before the minor adjustments of recipe.
My 2nd attempt looked smoother on the dome, with the cheese granules not visible.