Butter Cake

 

It is my family tradition to make butter cakes for the new year. Throughout the years, I have tried asking my mum why we have this tradition.

When I was young, she would tell me, "It's for Papa to eat while he works" - my dad was a taxi driver who worked 365 days a year. CNY was the time of the year where he gets the most 'customers'. The cake was probably my mum's way of showing love for my dad for working so hard on a day where most people would spend with their own family.

When I grew older, she would say, "The cake is for our relatives to snack on in case they are hungry."

Whether it's for our family's consumption, or a treat for relatives when they come over, I have taken over the role of making butter cakes in the recent years. Although I had mum's Hong Kong flour butter cake recipe, I made two cakes with recipes that I found on the internet (Hugbear's and Ju's recipe) this year. Both these recipes called for milk to be added as I wanted the end result to be moist.

Butter Cake
(adapted from Baking Mum)


Ingredients

250g Butter
180g Caster sugar
6 Eggs
300 Self-raising flour (sifted)
180ml Evaporated milk (Carnation Brand)

Method

• Preheat oven to 160`C. Line cake pan with baking paper.
• Cream butter and caster sugar.
• Add eggs one at a time and mix well.
• Add evaporated milk and mix well.
• Fold in flour into mixture and mix well.
• Pour into lined cake pan and bake for 60 minutes*.

* Halfway through the baking, cut a slit in the middle of the cake to create the 'open' effect.

The second cake failed terribly. The batter looked very watery. I had miscalculated the amount of milk to be added.  The milk overdose caused the cake to turn into a 'kueh'... Hahahaha....

新年快乐，万事如意！

Gong Xi Fa Cai!

Happy Tigger Year!!