Steamed Vanilla Spongecake

Steamed vanilla cake is an easy to prepare cake which can be "transformed" into other flavour cake simply by adding creams, spreads, or sliced fruits to it. The cake is soft, moist and spongy. In order to get a flat-top cake, the warm batter is steamed at medium to low temperature. A pot with a glass lid is an advantage as you can keep a close watch over the rising cake. Be careful not to over-steam the cake which may cause it to shrink excessively after cooling down.

This is a low-fat recipe as only 10g of oil has been added :)

Vanilla Sponge Cake

All ingredients in room temperature

Ingredient A

55g fresh milk

10g condensed milk

10g rice bran/vegatable oil

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Ingredients B

70g top/cake flour

Ingredient C

2 egg whites

50g fine sugar

2 egg yolks

Directions 

1. Line a 14 cm round cake tin with parchment paper.

2. Mix ingredient A together and set aside.

You can keep warm the mixture in a rice cooker. It helps to warm up the cold ingredients faster as compare to leaving in room temperature.

3. Loosen ingredient B using a hand whisk. Set aside.

4. In a clean and dry mixing bowl, beat egg white of ingredient C till frothy. 

Slowly add in the fine sugar, in 3 batches. Continue to beat till the whisks can draw up a long and narrow meringue.

5. Beat in the egg yolks, one at a time. Continue to beat till the batter can hold its shape for at least 5 seconds.

6. Fold in ingredient A and B in alternating sequence. Start with flour and end with flour.

7. Give the batter a thorough mixing using a spatula. Ensure no liquid ingredients sink at the bottom.

Do not over mix.

8. Pour the batter into the lined cake pan. 

Steam at medium heat for 8 to 12 minutes. The duration will depend on the batter temperature. This is also the duration for the centre of cake to rise from concave to plateau. 

Reduce the heat to low and continue to steam for about 8 to 10 minutes, or till an inserted cake tester drew out clean.

Keep the temperature low, so the cake will not rise too high and form a high dome top, not very nice for frosting.
Do not open the lid while the cake is steaming! The cake will collapse if this happens.

When the top of the batter starts to flatten from concave, it is time to lower the heat.
When the batter rises, it will starts to rise from the side, and gradually move towards the centre. So the centre of the cake is the last to be inflated.

End of steaming.

Test the cake with a cake tester while the cake is still in the pot.
Picture for demonstration purpose only.

Drop the hot cake with the pan 3 times from a height of about 10cm. This is to prevent the cake from over shrinking.

9. Allow the cake to cool in the pan for about 5 minutes, before transferring out.

Let the cake cools down completely on a wire rack.

10. After the cake has completely cooled down, cover with an inverted container and keep in the fridge for about 1/2 an hour if you are applying cream and fresh fruit.

11. Trim the parchment paper and divide the cake into 3 portions.

12. Spread whipped cream and lay sliced strawberries in between layers. Cover and refrigerate for about 1 hour before cutting.

13. Slice the cake and enjoy it cold :)

So sorry I'm not good at whipping cream, please pardon me of my crude method of whipping the cream.

Whipped cream

Ingredients

60g cold whipping cream

10g icing sugar

Directions

1. Keep a metal bowl, a damp cloth and a hand whisk in the freezer for about 1/2 to and hour. You need cold equipment to whip up the cream.

2. Pour whipping cream into a cold metal bowl and place the cold cloth under the bowl.

Our warm climate posed difficulty in whipping up the cream, so you may have to return the whole set up to the fridge for a few minutes before continuing.

3. Beat the cream till it becomes frothy. Add in the icing sugar and continue to whip till the cream can cling to the ball of the whisk.

Do not over whip the cream as it would segregate into butter milk and butter.

4. Keep the cream in the fridge for about about 30 minutes before applying on cake.

Multi-nuts Soya Pulp Milk Bread

Honestly, this is a very aromatic loaf of bread with the addition  of the multi-nuts soya pulp. Unfortunately, this bread is only available to those kitchens which brewed multi-nuts soya milk.

I knew it won't be a popular bread recipe due to the difficulty in getting the key ingredients. However, I think I should just share it in my blog. Hopefully, someone who has soya pulp at home can make good use of the pulp.

Bread weight: 552 g
Raw dough weight: 585 g

Ingredients

165g cold milk
20g condensed milk
30g multi-nuts soya pulp

20g beaten egg
30g raw sugar
2g fine salt
30g cold unsalted butter

270g bread flour
20g superfine wholegrain flour
3/4 tsp instant dry yeast

Directions

Follow the multi-grains soya pulp bun recipe for the pictorial guide in preparing the dough.

1. Combine cold milk, condensed milk and multi-nuts soya pulp in a beaker. Keep the content in the fridge till needed.

2. Mix bread flour and superfine wholegrain flour in a bowl. Set aside.

3. Pour all the ingredients into the bread pan following the sequence which they are listed.

Dig a hole in the flour mixture and pour the instant dry yeast into it.

4. Start the kneading process by choosing "C-11" Ferment Dough function of the Mayer bread maker.
The process, which consists of mixing, kneading and 1st fermentation, would take about 1 hour and 30 minutes to complete.

5.When the program ends, allow the dough to stay in the bread maker for an additional 20 minutes.

6. Turn out the dough onto a floured work top. Deflate the dough with your palm.

Divide the dough into 3 portions.

Roll the cut dough into balls, cover and let them rest for 15 minutes.

7. Roll out the dough into a flat dough.

Roll up the dough and allow to rest for 20 minutes.

8. Roll out the dough again.

Flip over the dough so the smoother face will be facing out after rolling up

Place the dough into a greased non-stick Pullman tin. The open end of the dough should be facing down.

9. Spray some water over the dough and place the doughs in a closed oven.

Let the dough proof in a closed oven for about 50 minutes, or till the dough reaches close to the rim of the Pullman tin.

10. After the second proofing and the dough has reached close to the rim of the Pullman tin, remove the dough out of the oven. Preheat the oven to 170  degree Celsius.  And brush a coat of beaten egg or fresh milk over the dough.

11. Bake the dough at the lower rack of the oven at 170 degree Celsius for about 50 minutes. If your Pullman tin has a thinner wall, you can bake for about 40 minutes at the same temperature.

If the top of the dough brown too fast, around 30 minutes, you can cover the dough with an aluminum foil.

12. Remove the bread from the Pullman tin immediately after leaving the oven. Let the loaf cool down on a wire rack before slicing it.

Sweet Coconut Filling

Yield: 357g sweetened coconut

Ingredients

250g grated coconut, room temperature 

          椰丝，室温

90g gula melaka/palm sugar 椰糖

2 tsp red sugar 红糖 (optional 可免)

1/4 tsp salt 盐

50g water 水

2 pandan leaf (optional) 香兰叶

1 tsp glutinous rice flour 糯米粉

2 tbsp water to mix with glutinous rice flour 水，用来调糯米粉成糊

Direction

1. Dissolve palm sugar/gula melaka, red sugar and salt in 30g of water with pandan leaf under medium heat. Let the ingredients boil for a while in order for the fragrance of the pandan leaf to infuse into the sauce. Stir regularly.

2. Stir in the grated coconut and mix well.

3. Finally pour in the glutinous rice water and blend well. Stirring regularly till the mixture becomes slightly drier and sticky.

4. Remove the pandan leaf and transfer the sweetened coconut to a metal bowl to cool down. Set aside.