Steamed Pumpkin Nutella Cake

Added a little pumpkin into this soft and light steamed cake to make it slightly healthier. Although pumpkin is a relatively healthy ingredient, it is rather bland in taste. Therefore, a little flavorful Nutella hazelnut spread and vanilla extract were being included into the recipe :)

Yield: One 14cm round cake

Ingredients:

75g top/cake flour
1/8 tsp baking powder 

30g fresh milk, room temperature

20g mashed steamed pumpkin

15g condensed milk
10g vegetable oil

1/2 tsp vanilla extract, optional 

2 egg whites, room temperature
60g fine sugar

2 egg yolks

2 tsp Nutella 

材料

2粒 蛋，蛋白蛋黄分开

60ｇ 细糖

30ｇ鲜奶

20g 熟南瓜泥

15ｇ炼奶

10ｇ食油

1/2 茶

75ｇ低筋面粉

1／8小匙 泡打粉

2 茶匙 榛子酱

Directions

1. Line a 14cm round cake pan with parchment paper. Wrap the base with aluminum foil if you are using a removable base pan.

2. Mix top/cake flour with baking powder. Set aside.

3. Steam pumpkin in a mini steamer for about 15 minutes, or till soft.

Collect 20g of cooked pumpkin and mash using a fork.

4. Mix fresh milk, mashed pumpkin, condensed milk, oil and vanilla extract, in a small bowl. Set aside to return to room temperature.

If you are using cold ingredients to prepare, you may have to extend the steaming time.

5. In a clean and dry stainless steel mixing bowl, beat egg white till frothy. Add in fine sugar in three batches, beat at medium high speed, till firm peaks formed. Towards the end of the whipping, gradually reduce the speed to low.

6. Add in the egg yolk, one at a time. Whip till the pulled up batter can stay on the batter for more than than 5 seconds.

7. Add in the flour mixture (2) and milk mixture (4) in alternate sequence. Starting with flour and end with flour. 

Do not over mix the batter, or you'll end up with a tough cake.

Finally, use a spatula to give the batter a more thorough mix. Ensure there is no unmixed flour or milk settled at the edge and bottom of the bowl.

8. Add Nutella and about 1/4 of the batter from (7) into a small bowl and mix well.

9.  Pour the milk batter and the Nutella batter, in alternate pattern, into the prepared cake pan.

For the final layer, pour the milk batter to the middle, and drizzle the Nutella batter in a few spots.

Finally, run a chopstick, touching only the surface layer, to draw the swirl pattern.

Bang the cake pan against the work top to get rid of trapped air parcels.

10. Steam the batter in a pre-heated pot of water at medium high heat for 5 minutes. Then reduce the temperature to to low, and steam for about 13 to 15 minutes, or till an inserted cake tester came out dry.

When the cake starts to plateau, lower the heat and continue till the cake is cooked.

The cake is done！

The cake is ready when an inserted cake tester came out dry.

11. Remove the cake from the pot, drop it from a height of about 5cm to a kitchen  cloth, and let the cake cool down in the pan for 5 minutes.

Remove the cake from pan, and let it cools down on a wire rack.

10. When the cake has cooled down, slice and enjoy :)