Steamed Cake - Mini Vanilla Cakes

Having been invited by Miss B of Everybody Eats Well in Flanders to enter the Aspiring Bakers Steaming Hot Cakes Event, I have been thinking of what to make.  I've never attempted a steamed cake before and am assuming most cake recipes work whether you bake or steam?  Although cooking times may vary I'd imagine.

Recently, I've been baking biscuits or baking Madeleines and even bread or buns.  I had Kenwood Mixer out today so I thought I would whip up some Madeleines for my son - he loves his "Boat Cakes".  My Madeleine mould would not fit in my largest pot/wok so I decided to use silicone cake cases & steam them in a bamboo steamer over a wok.

I wondered if they'd be like Chinese Steamed Sponge: Ma-Lai Goh 馬來糕 but it is not nice, bubbly and fluffy like one.  I tink the Madeleine recipe is too dense for that kind of texture - too much flour.  Anyway, it has a nice flavour all the same and makes you think you are eating something healthy! (?!!)



Recipe is as pretty much similar to how I made Madeleines before.

Airy, but lacking big bubbles

Mini Steamed Vanilla Cakes

3 free range eggs
100g caster sugar
200g plain flour
10g baking powder
1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
20g honey (I used a set honey but otherwise a runny one will be fine)
60ml milk
200g butter (melted, cooled)

Whisk the eggs and sugar in a large bowl until pale and thickened.

Add the milk and honey to the melted butter and mix.

Pour the melted butter mix into the egg batter but down side of bowl.  Be delicate with the whipped egg and air mixture! Add vanilla.

Sift in half the flour and baking powder and fold gently.  Sift in remaining flour and baking powder and fold.

Place a tablespoon of mixture into a small silicone cupcase.  Place the cases into a bamboo steamer and replace the steamer lid.  I used to lid to prevent condensation droplets making the cake tops soggy.  Steam over medium heat f or 15 minutes.

I am submitting this post to Aspiring Bakers #25 - Steaming Hot Cakes (November 2012) hosted by Miss B of Everybody Eats Well in Flanders.  Link HERE 

Hi!

I've not disappeared!  Just enjoying time as a mum and watching little "leaf" develop into a funny little, cheeky, lovable chappie!  So I apologise for not keeping you all posted! 

Minh's first birthday has come and gone and I will have to load up some photos of his grand day.  We decided to get caterers for the food but I made all the desserts.  This was a mighty affair!  We had: Lemon Cheesecake; Blueberry Cheesecake; Fresh Fruit and Cream Gateaux; Tropical Fruit salad (ok, this one was bought in!) and Minh's crowning glory, a 3-tier birthday cake!  Tiers were: lemon with homemade lemon curd, vanilla with homemade jam and to top, a gluten-free carrot cake with lemon butter icing!  I also made iced biscuits for the children's party bags!  Yes!  It was hard work especially as cakes cannot be made too far in advance!  Can you understand why we had caterers in now? 


Just thought I'd share a Steamed Bun recipe - it's a favourite of mine as it uses baking powder as the raising agent - not yeast which I find can taint the taste of steamed buns.  (I'm sure I'd promised to share the recipe?)  Little Leaf and Daddy Leaf enjoyed the buns and its lovely to see them sat on the bottom step opposite the door to the kitchen sharing a bun.  (Little Leaf doesn't eat the filling - he's a bit funny like that!)

Still not quite as white and cloud-like as restaurant buns but tasty all the same :)

Steamed Barbecue Buns

Ingredients:

Bun Dough

250 g (2.5 cup) Special Bun Flour  (I use chinese bun flour as the UK supermarket flour makes an off white dough and doesn't result in a white fluffy bun)

18 g (3.5 tsp) baking powder

45 g (3 tblsp) caster sugar

30 g (2 tblsp) white vegetable fat (Trex) or vegetable oil (or lard)

120 ml (1/2 cup) water (approx)

1/2 teaspoon white vinegar

Method:

• Sift flour and baking powder into a bowl add sugar and mix, rub in the vegetable fat/lard with your fingertips until evenly distributed. (If using oil, just add oil with the vinegar and water.)
• Add water and vinegar together and knead until a fairly soft dough.
• Shape into a ball and let it rest, covered, for 30 minutes.

To make the buns

• Divide the dough into12 portions.
• Mould each into a smooth ball.
• Roll each out on a lightly floured surface to a circle about 4 inches across.
• Put a heaping teaspoon of filling in the centre and gather the edges inward, folding and pleating to make a neat join.
• Twist dough to seal.
• Put each bun, join upwards, on a flattened paper cake case, in a steamer.
• Cover and steam for 15 minutes.
• Serve warm.

The filling for today's buns was Barbecue Pork -  I'm fortunate enough to have a supplier for this - also known as my mum, "Mrs Plum".  Here's how I made my filling:

Barbecue Pork Filling:

160 g barbecue roast pork (thinly sliced into 1cm sized pieces)

1 shallot (very finely diced)

100 g water

1.5 tsp Lee Kum Kee “Char Siu Sauce”

1 tsp oyster sauce

15 ml water

1 tsp cornflour

Fry shallot in a little oil, add finely sliced barbecue pork and fry gently for 2 minutes. Add water, char siu sauce and oyster sauce. Simmer for 3 minutes. Thicken with cornflour/water mix. Taste sauce for seasoning. Allow to cool slightly before using as bun filling.

Recipe adapted from www.recipezaar.com/11087

I will upload some piccies of the steamed buns later - the buns have disappeared so quickly I'm off to make another batch!

Hot steamy action!

I hope you are enjoying the festive period and are enjoying time with friends family and some great food!

My two taste-testers!  If the son & hubbs approve it must be good! :D

Hakka Steamed Radish Dumpling ~ 蘿蔔粄 (Law Pet Ban)

Both my parents are Hakka descendants and when we were little wewere taught to speak our parents' mother tongue, Hakka.  As we grew older, English quickly became our preferred language as we were surrounded in English language through school, television and our friends.  We still had to speak Chinese at home to our parents though and we even went to Chinese School to learn how to read and write in Cantonese.  Nowadays, we mainly speak Cantonese at home. 

Mealtimes were almost always Chinese meals and often Hakka specialities.  Sometimes mum would make Hakka snacks, one of these were Radish Dumplings 蘿蔔粄 (Law Pet Ban).

It has a soft dough that almost sticks to your teeth without being tough and chewy and is filled with shredded radish which is seasoned with lots of white pepper, sweetened with dried shrimps with ground pork and Chinese mushrooms for added flavour.

She made these back in November (I've been meaning to blog about so many things!  I have a backlog building up!) and although I wanted to help her - the technique she used to roll the dough skin seemed tricky.  She was precise with the dough skin, it had to be a certain thickness and if it wasn't right she would scrunch the dough up and start again. 

 Here you can see her rolling the dough around an orange.  This is so it will have the 'cupped' shape which is then generously filled.

Stuffed and steamed ready for sampling! Mmm!  Reminds me of my childhood days!

Boxing Day Delights - Crispy Roast Belly Pork (Siw Yuk) & Steamed Taro Cake (Woo Tau Goh)

*** APOLOGIES: I started this post with the intention of finishing it after Boxing Day and posting it.  I was worn out from the festivities and totally forgot this was in my Draft folder! ***

On Boxing Day we revert to Chinese dishes and we usually have crab/lobster in spring onion and ginger sauce as well as other luxurious goodies.  This year we also had steamed scallops with bean thread noodles and garlic.  Last year (2009) I made a contribution to the meal as I thought seafood was off-limits for me as I was pregnant.  I now realise that most seafood is okay if cooked thoroughly and served hot (with the exception of large fish like shark, marlin and limited amounts of tuna as they can contain high levels of mercury.).  I decided to make Chinese Crispy Roast Pork as I (thought) couldn't eat the prawns in tomato sauce, or lobster we were having.  As that was so well received I thought I would do the same again this year (2010).  Only half of the skin puffed up so it was light and crunchy.  The otherside was dry and crisp but not that light bubbly crunch.  Still, it was yummy!

 

I also made steamed taro cake.  First time I had made this and it was okay.  Not particularly outstanding.  I think I will make steamed radish cake in the future and make sure it has plenty of tasty bits: dried marinated pork belly strips, dried sausage, dried seafood, dried mushroom.  I'll fill it with so many goodies they will be no room for radish and rice flour!

I was thoroughly worn out after my manic Boxing Day baking, roasting and steaming!  As soon as Mr Leaf was back to work I had a peaceful, lazy day with me and the baby and enjoyed a nap (?!) from 5pm to 8pm one evening!  Hubbs saw we were both asleep when he came home from work and didn't wake me.  He had to get his own dinner - he had instant noodles!  (I had to make myself a baked potato when I woke up!)

Steamed Sticky Pumpkin Dumplings

I saw these whilst blog-hopping at the weekend and thought they were great!  I saw them here at Precious Moment.  I tweaked the recipe a little as I wanted to make savoury pumpkins.  My mum loves pumpkins and sweet potatoes so I often bookmark recipes with pumpkin in them.  Today was the first time I'd actually made something pumpkin related from a blog.

Our not very orange pumpkins!

I actually ended up using Butternut Squash.  I have seen small squashes in the supermarkets right now but I used Butternut Squash as its easier to peel - less knobbly bits I suppose.  The squashes are fascinating as they come in different shapes and colours - must take a sneaky snap next time.  The great thing about them is they are smaller than pumpkins so are easier to cut through and to use up.  We had squash braised with belly pork slices today for dinner at mum's - delish!  (Sorry no snaps of that one!)  Love Mondays, that's dinner at mum's day & it was great 'cos as I helped her do the prep for dinner I was prepping the ingredients for these Pumpkin Dumplings and mum also cooked the filling for me.

Anyway, this is what we did:

Pumpkin Dumpling

300 g butternut squash, peeled and in 1 inch cubes
150 g glutinous rice flour
100 g rice flour
150 g minced pork (any other meat will be acceptable too)
2 shallots, finely diced
1 small carrot, finely diced
50 g butternut squash finely diced
1 spring onion, finely chopped (only as I cut up too many for dinner!)
seasonings: salt, pepper, sugar, soy sauce, sesame oil
cornflour paste to thicken
1/2 cup water

Steam the squash until tender.  (As I was at mum's and she always makes soup, I put the squash in a sieve and put it in the soup pot for about 10 minutes or so until soft.)
Mash the squash thoroughly with a fork.  Ideally until no lumps left. 
Mix in the flours in several batches.  Mine seemed on the dry side and I began to doubt whether it would come together, but with some kneading, it soon became a dough.
Fry the shallots in some in oil until fragrant.  Add the minced pork and continue to mix breaking up the meat as it colours. 
Add the carrot and squash and fry for 1 minute before adding the water.  Season according to taste.  The seasonings mentioned are basics to what my mum uses and what our palate is accustomed to.  You can adjust it how you like with chilli, curry powder, spices, herbs etc. 
Cook for a few minutes before thickening with cornflour paste.  You want any sauce to coat the fillings and not be runny or you will encounter problems when wrapping.
Pinch a walnut-sized piece of dough and roll between your palms until smooth.  My dough felt dry and was cracking (maybe the squash isn't as wet as pumpkin mash?) so I put a drop of oil in my palm and kneaded the dough to make rolling easier.  Flatten with your fingers into a 2 inch circle, place 1 teaspoon of filling in the centre and wrap to enclose the filling.  Flatten the ball slightly to resemble a squat shaped pumpkin and mark ridges with the back of a knife.
Use a small strip of pumpkin peel to resemble the stalk and place in the centre of the dumpling.  I used some of the peel from the dark green squash we had at dinner.  Cloves make a good substitute stalk.
Place on a greased steaming rack and steam over a moderate heat for 10-15 minutes. 

Think we made too much filling as this is what's left over!  Or I was too stingy with the filling!

My pumpkins were rather yellow/green in colour as the butternut squash wasn't very deeply yellow/orange in colour.  Perhaps the butternut squash was picked too early in the season and deep orange colour hadn't developed yet?  It looked liked cubed mango before I mashed it!  My younger brother complained that the dumpling skin was too thick and he didn't get enough filling to eat!  As the dough was on the dry side it wasn't so pliable and was prone to cracking.  This made wrapping tricky and probably why the skin was thick.  Next time I will add flour slowly and stop when the dough is wet enough.  I'd probably add 1 tablespoon of oil whilst mixing the dough to make it easier to work with.

The filling can be changed to suit your mood.  Crisp water chestnut pieces would be nice, Chinese mushroom will give it a meaty fragrance, dried shrimps will give it a pleasing sweetness too. 

I shared a dumpling with my brother but almost chomped it all before I remembered to take a photo! 

We made 16 dumplings from this batch of dough and had far too much filling left.  Maybe next time I would halve the quantity of meat.  Now, what shall I make with the left-over cooked meat filling?