Steamed Orange Cake

I love steamed cake with a velvety top and a moist soft crumb. Steamed cake allows one to taste the original flavour of the flavouring ingredient without the interference from the caramelized crust like an oven baked cake. It is energy efficient and required just a small amount of water to create a low steam environment😊

For a quick preparation, I used bottled less-sugar orange juice and frozen orange peel to prepare the cake. I always kept some cut orange peels wrapped in small packets of about 3 to 5g each in my freezer. So, they came in handy without having to peel an orange. Orange peel is important in terms of lending a true orange flavour to the cake.

An original orange cake does not appear orange. If it appears orange in colour, it is not natural 🍊😉

Ingredients

All ingredients in room temperature 

Using 57 to 59g eggs

{A}

2 egg whites 

Pinch of low sodium salt

20g fine sugar

20g raw sugar/fine sugar

2 egg yolks

{B}

70g top/cake flour

{C}

50g less-sugar orange juice

10g golden syrup/honey

10g rice bran oil/mild flavour vegetable oil

1/4 tsp vanilla extract

3g orange peel, cut finely

Directions

1. Line a 135x45mm round pan with parchment paper. Set it aside.

Picture for demonstration

2. Start to bring 130g of water in a 18cm sauce pan or a small pot to a boil in medium-low heat. Cover the pot with a glass lid with a steam vent.

3. Mix {C} ingredients in a small glass. Set aside.

4. In a clean and dry mixing bowl, beat egg white with salt, fine sugar and raw sugar till reaching firm peak. 

Mix in yolks and beat till reaching ribbon stage as {A}.

5. Sieve and mix in 1/3 of {B} using an electric hand mixer.

Pour and mix in 1/2 of {C} orange juice mixture from Step 3. Continue to mix in the remaining {B} and {C} in alternating sequence. End the mixing with {B}. Use a silicone spatula to do a final mixing into a smooth batter.

In the sequence of: 1/3 B → 1/2 C → 1/3 B → 1/2 C →1/3 B 

6. Pour the batter into one 135x45mm round pan lined with parchment paper prepared in Step 1.

7. Lower the pan into a pot of boiling water, and stand over a low steamer rack. Steam at medium-low heat for 5 minutes; lower to low heat and continue to steam for 14 ~ 15 minutes

Turn off the heating, without opening the lid, let the cake simmer for 5 minutes to gradually “cool down” in the pot.

8. Open the lid carefully to avoid the steam condensation from dripping onto the cake surface. Drop the cake with pan over a cloth thrice. 

Let the cake cool down for 5 minutes over a cooling rack before lifting out of the cake pan. 

Peel away the parchment paper, and cut the cake after cooling down. Enjoy 😋