Mini Vanilla Sponge Cake (Kueh Bulu)

This cookie is one of the traditional snacks enjoyed by Singaporean and Malaysian Chinese during the lunar new year festive. It has a crispy crust and a soft centre. Using simple ingredients like eggs, sugar, flour and vanilla essence.

My mother used to make this mini vanilla sponge cake using a heavy brass cake mould with a lid about 40 years ago. She would bake the mini sponge cake over a charcoal stove. In order to bake the top, she would place a few amber hot charcoal over the brass lid. It was a tedious process. This baking method gave the sponge cake an unique charcoal frangrance.

Nowadays, these mini sponge cakes are either baked in oven or with an electric cake mould. With the help of an electric hand mixer and oven, the process has been largely simplified.

Yield:  about 25 to 28 mini round cake

Ingredients 

2 eggs, room temperature

70g fine sugar 

1/2 tsp vanilla essence 

70g all purpose /cake flour

1/2 tsp rice flour

2  粒蛋，室温

70g 细糖

1/2 tsp 香草精

70g 中/低筋面粉

1/2 tsp 粘米粉

Direction

1. Mix cake or all purpose flour with rice flour in a bowl. Set aside.

将中/低筋面粉和粘米粉在碗中混均。待用。

2. Beat egg in a clean mixing bowl at medium speed till frothy (about 1 minute).

以中速将鸡蛋打至发泡，大约一分钟。

3. Add in fine sugar and beat at medium high speed till ribbon stage. The batter can leave an '8' trail that can stay for a few seconds. This process takes about 5 minutes to achieve.

加入细糖后以中高速打至蛋糊能在表面画下“8”字样，大约需打5分钟。

4. Add in the vanilla essence.

加入香草精。

5. Sift in the flour and mix well using a pair of whisks. Finally use a spatula to give a more thorough mixing.

Avoid over mixing.

筛入面粉后再以打蛋器用手混均。最后以刮刀混均。避免过度搅拌。

6. You may use a batter dispenser to dispense the batter to the cake mould. Or, pour the batter into a piping bag fixed with a round nozzle for easy dispensing. 

可用面糊注入器填蛋糕糊到蛋糕模。或将蛋糕糊装进已套上圆形嘴的挤花袋，较方便填进蛋糕模。

Or 或，

7. Brush the mini cake mould with coconut oil or vegetable oil.

将蛋糕模刷上椰油或植物油。

8. Pour the batter into the mini cake mould to about 4/5 full.

将蛋糕糊注入蛋糕模至4/5分满。

9. Place the cake mould at the lower rack  of a preheated oven set at 180 degree Celsius for about 20 minutes or till the surface turns golden.

将蛋糕模置入预热至180度C的烤箱底层，烤大约20分钟至蛋糕表面呈金黄色。

When the cake is cooked, the edge will shrink away from the cake mould.

蛋糕熟透时，蛋糕会缩小，就可脱模。

10. Use a skewer to help you take out the mini sponge cakes.

You can return the SpongeCake to the oven to bake for an extra 5 minutes, with the bottoms facing up to get a crispier crust.

用一支竹签帮忙将蛋糕取出。

若将底朝上的蛋糕再送进烤箱烤5分钟，蛋糕的外层会更香脆。

11. Allow the mini sponge cake to cool down before keeping in an air tight container. This helps to keep the sponge cake crispy for a longer period.

让蛋糕完全冷却后收藏在密封罐子中，以保持蛋糕脆感。