Traditional Steam Egg Cake (1)

Traditional Steam Egg Cake

Without oil is what I like about this cake.

It taste nostalgic. When I was young, my siblings and me will take turn to whip up 10 eggs in a pail to steam a large egg cake for prayers.

I like the "open flower" look of the cake.

Recently a few friends recommended a recipe from Kathrine Kwa.

Traditional Steamed Pandan Cake by Kathrine Kwa 

It uses extracted pandan juice to the batter and it was very nice after I made it. The colour of the cake will be tinted green. I also tried using less pandan juice. The cake taste as good with a very nice yellow colour. (See top picture). From this recipe, I understand that in order for the cake to rise, we need to steam the cake with high heat. 

As usual, the "normal" cake recipes is sweet. We do not like too sweet stuff. So I did a change of the sugar and it turn out well. Also, I used a 7.5" x 3" round cake tin to have the cake steamed into one instead of a few small ones. Do watch her video on the helpful tips to make the cake. I will share with you what is the changes I made. 

The ingredients used are very simple. This is my tweeted version.

3 large eggs (those 60 grams ones)

Plain Flour 300 grams (Self raising flour can be used too)

Sugar 200 grams 

Pandan Juice 200 grams from 6 leaves (Sometimes, I only use the leftover from previous batch, mix with water, resulted in a normal cake with nice pandan fragrance)

Round baking tin 7.5" in diameter by 3" height.

Line the baking tin in baking paper. Need not oil the pan.

Steaming time : 35mins

High heat in order for the kueh to open up

Place 3 eggs and 200 grams of sugar in a mixing bowl.

Sieved 300 gram of plain flour. (I tried self raising flour and it gives a lighter texture).

200 gram of pandan juice.

You may refer to this link if you do not know how to extract Pandan Juice.

According to Kathrine guidance, she mentioned to beat the eggs mixture for 5 mins. I ended up beating for about 8 mins to be able to get the fluffy texture. It all depends on the mixer we use. As a guide, we need to beat at least 5 mins. But if our mixer is a small and slow one, then we need to ensure the batter is pale yellow and fluffy.

Incorporate the flour with water into 3 batches.

Sieve the 1st 1/3 flour to batter, pour in 1/3 pandan juice into batter, then fold into the batter. Repeat the balance into another 2 times. I use the help of the hand mixer to fold in the flour and liquid. Use the spatula last to ensure all flour and liquid are fully mixed. 

This is how it look after the batter was porperly mixed. Lightly drop the pan on the table once to clear the air bubble. Time to steam it in high heat for 35 mins.

Ensure we wrap a piece of cloth on the lid/cover to prevent water droplets from droping onto the cake when steaming. Ensure water is enough for 35mins in the steamer as we cannot open the lid while steaming.

Steam under high heat to achieve the "open flower" on the cake effect. 

Remove from steamer when cake is done and cool it on top of a rack.