![]() So rest assured, as with all recipes featured here, perfection is not required. My last baking-powder version wasn’t visually perfect (left foreground below) – probably because I’m too rushed to sift my flour or make sure my batter is even – but it works and tastes like it should. But in the end, I think a little baking powder makes for a more forgiving recipe. Old school Chinese cooks made this cake with a bowl each of eggs, sugar and flour, without the aid of measuring cups or electric mixers. But the kids loved the soft denseness of it. It’s denser than the ones you’d buy in Chinatown, and I still had a few spots that fell a bit (see the darker yellow bits). My family liked the simplest egg-sugar-flour version best, with no baking powder and no water bath. In this version I made a smaller batch in a bamboo steamer. And it took a lot longer to beat the eggs sufficiently high. I tried the genoise approach of beating the eggs over a hot water bath to incorporate more air into the egg-sugar mixture. But it is hard for me to get a consistent result, and often I get spots in the cake that are denser than others. I like the purity of the egg-sugar-flour approach without additional leavening. You can mix manually with a whisk, but an electric mixer will incorporate more air and make a lighter cake. This is one recipe that calls for an electric mixer. As Grace Young suggests in her classic Wisdom of the Chinese Kitchen, you can also prop the pan on empty 2-inch cans with the ends cut out. Find a wide, covered pot that will fit the pan, and the only trick is finding a rack to fit in the bottom of the pot that will hold the cake pan above the boiling water. But more attractive is to use a regular 8-inch cake pan. Usually I just make it in the steamer basket of my pasta pot after lining it with wax paper. You don’t need a bamboo steamer to make this cake. ![]() It’s a cake I make just because I like to eat it. But I don’t make this cake for its looks a steamed cake will never have the nicely golden crust of a baked one. I’ve made this cake many times over many years, and it is never quite perfect. Its spongy texture makes it convenient for eating out of hand, unlike a regular cake which would be too crumbly, and its light vanilla sweetness is appealing any time of day. It works for breakfast – not health food, but it is very eggy – or to grab a slice on the run. Its Italian/French sponge cake cousin, the genoise, can be dry, but steaming makes the Chinese version softer and moister, even without the added butter of many genoise cakes. It has the springiness of angel food cake but a fuller flavor, like a regular omelet compared to an egg white one. Steamed sponge cake is the rare dim sum item that is easily made at home. But the Chinese know how to make use of this versatile method – with succulent steamed fish, moist steamed chicken, and, most notably, the vast array of dumplings and other bite-sized savories stacked in towers of bamboo steamers at dim sum.ĭuring my 20s in New York City, no weekeend dim sum excursion to Chinatown was complete without a steamed sponge cake to take home – a couple of dollars for a square so giant that even after pulling off sweet, cushy bites all the way home I would still have plenty for a snack later that day and perhaps even the next. In America, steaming as a cooking technique is pretty much limited to vegetables. Closer to a Western idea of dessert is this soft, springy sponge cake made simply with eggs, sugar and flour. Traditional Chinese treats are made on the stovetop – fried goodies such as sweet, chewy sesame seed balls made with rice flour, or steamed treats such as the sticky Chinese New Year rice flour cake called nian gao. ![]() Even today, ovens are not typically found in Chinese kitchens. Dairy products such as cream and butter, so essential to pastry, were uncommon in China until recent years. Nobody goes to a Chinese restaurant for dessert. ![]()
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