Mandarin Orange Mini Spongecake (Kueh Bahulu)

Kueh Bahulu, or mini spongecake, is a popular snack available perennially. To make a more festive oriented kueh bahulu, I added a little mandarin orange zest to it 😄
This is a simple recipe and can be prepared in a short span of time. Therefore, I prefer to bake in small batches and serve them fresh 😋

Yield: about 23 pieces of 3.5cm-spongecake
Baking temperature: 180℃ for about 20 minutes, at middle rack.

Ingredients

All ingredients in room temperature

1 egg, about 55~60g
pinch of salt
35g caster sugar
35g Prima Plain Flour Plus/plain flour
1/4 tsp rice flour, optional

some mandarin orange zest/or vanilla extract

Directions:

1. Brush some rice bran oil or any mild flavour vegetable oil to the kueh bahulu mould. Ensure all the grooves and rim of the mould are well coated with oil.
Or line small cupcake mould with cupcake papers.

2. Mix plain flour plus/plain flour with rice flour in a bowl. Set aside.

3. In a clean, dry and grease-free mixing bowl, whisk egg white till frothy. Add in a pinch of salt and 1/2 of the caster sugar. Continue to whisk at Turbo/high speed of an handheld blender for about 1 minute before adding the second 1/2 of the sugar. Reduce the speed to Slow in the final 1 minute.

Continue to whisk till reaching firm peak stage.

4. Blend in the egg yolk. Whisk briefly till the yolk is well blended to the meringue.

5. Sieve and blend in the flour mixture from Step 2, in about 2 batches.
I use the balloon whisk to break out the flour before using a silicone spatula to do a more thorough mixing.

6. Add in the mandarin  orange zest and mix well into a smooth batter.

Transfer the batter to a piping bag fitted with a Wilton 1A nozzle. This step is optional. It only facilitates transferring of the batter to the small moulds.

7.  Before piping the batter to the mould, preheat the oven to 180℃ and heat up the empty kueh bahulu mould (has been applied oil).

8. Pipe the batter till reaching about 4/5 height of the moulds.

Lightly bang the tray to level the batter.

9. Bake at middle rack of a preheated oven at 180℃ for about 16 to 18 minutes, or till the cake slightly shrink.

Remove the tray from the oven, let it cool awhile, then use a thin skewer to flip the cake over.

Return the cake to the oven to bake for about 8 minutes, to dry up the bottom of the cakes. This helps to reduce the moisture and make the crust crispier.

While for cupcake in paper, just let them bake for about 20 minutes, or till golden.

10. Let the kueh bahulu cool down before keeping in air-tight container. Enjoy 😋