Traditional Chinese Steam Egg Cake 1

I don't remember when was the last time I ate this cake before I actually called my mom and ask for the recipe. I remember the taste of it and the smell of it but some how I don't remember to eat them. Must be the temptation from modern cakes :). My grandmom always made this cake for prayers when I was young and I still remember how she manually whisked them and there's always a red dot on the centre of the cake. Long story cut short, the smell, feel and taste of this cake really walk me down the memory lane.


Ingredients:-

• 4 eggs
• 3/4 sugar
• 1 cup self raising flour, sieved
• 4-5 tbsp carbonated drinks (You can use 7-up or Sprite) OR milk
• 1/2 tsp rose essence / rosewater
• 1 tsp cornflour
• 1 tsp cooking oil/olive oil

Method:-

1. Boil some water in wok (about 4 cups), line bamboo steaming tray or baking tin with baking paper and heat it up for 5 minutes.
2. Whisk sugar and eggs with hand whisk for 15 minutes or until batter turns fluffy and creamy (creamy lemon colour)
3. Slowly incorporate / fold flour and cornflour into egg mixture. Mix well.
4. Add in carbonated drinks, mix in rosewater essence and oil. Mix till just incorporated.
5. Pour batter into prepared steaming tray and steam over rapid boiling water in high heat for 20 to 25 minutes or until the tester inserted in the middle of the cake comes out clean. 

Well, due to my love to chocolate, i tried to add some chocolate in the batter... I tried to make something like marble steam egg cake. In order to do that, Just follow step 1 to 4 above, for step 5, pour half of the batter into prepared steam tray and mix the other half with cocoa powder and swirl over the batter in steaming tray to create marble effect.

Updated 12/09/2010: I added cornflour into the ingredient to get more tender cake with  finer texture and crumbs. While oil is to produce moist and tender cake : D

Following are pictures of steam cake with added cornflour and cooking oil... :D

TIPS:-

• The key to make this cake delicious is the amout of eggs use
• Why heat up steaming tray??? It helps the cake to raise more
• Adjust carbonated drink according to the consistency of the batter. The batter is consider well done when it runs down constantly when tested by fork.