Thursday, December 23, 2010

Merry Christmas 2010!

Hello everyone, I'm having Christmas blues right now. There's not much Christmas spirit in the air over here in Beijing. I'm missing my friends at my old workplace. Saddest thing is that it hasn't even started snowing here this year...

Mr Tofu and I will be heading down to IKEA later to buy some julmust, pepparkakor and chocolate almond cake to have our own little celebration at home tonight. ^ ^

Merry Christmas to all of you reading this!! ^ ^


This is a picture of my latest Christmas toy with the pandan plant that's struggling to survive the cold winter here ;)

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Ji Dan Gao 鸡蛋糕 (Steamed Cake)

You can make this with the simplest ingredients that you can find in every kitchen ~ eggs, sugar, milk, self-raising flour. It's kinda amazing that no additional fat is needed. Plus, it's steamed and not baked, very healthy cake indeed...  ^__^

Aunty Ann, I did it!! ^ ^ The cake is very soft and moist. Thank you for sending me the recipe. I miss your (and Agnes') cooking all the time...



Ji Dan Gao 鸡蛋糕 (Steamed Cake)
(makes a 15cm/6 inch round cake)

Ingredients:
3 Eggs
120g Sugar
0.5tbsp Ovalette (optional)
50ml Milk
125g Self-raising flour, seived (or 125g Plain flour + 0.5tsp Double action baking powder)

Method:
* Beat eggs and sugar till pale yellow, light and fluffy.
* Mix milk into egg.
* Fold flour quickly into egg and milk batter.
* Steam on high heat for 15-20 minutes. 

Notes:
# The criss-cross cut on top of the cake was made when the skewer for doneness came out clean and 2 minutes before I turned off the fire, so there wasn't much "smiling" effect to speak of.
# Use of ovalette - Ovalette is an emulsifier/stabiliser commonly used in cake-making. It helps to strengthen the air bubbles in beaten eggs so that they can hold up during other steps of cake-making, eg, mixing in the flour. Other names for ovalette: sponge gel, cake emulsifier.
# Double acting baking powder - "Double" means "two stages" here. Stage one, air released immediately when baking powder comes into contact with water. Stage two, more air released when baking powder is exposed to heat (steaming/baking). Only Stage one happens in regular baking powder, so you have to be quick in mixing the flour and putting the cake into the pre-heated oven/steamer. With double acting baking powder, the batter can wait another 20 minutes for the heat. "Double" doesn't mean that the cake will rise twice as much as regular baking powder. :)
# Cake flour or Hong Kong flour will give this cake a softer and finer texture, use them instead if you have some in your kitchen. 
# When to add milk - Although the original recipe called for milk to be added after mixing the flour, I added mine before. Not sure it'll make any difference to the end product. If you know why, pls leave me a message. ^^
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