Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Steamed Dried Longan Cake

I bought this book a couple of months ago out of curiosity. I have been browsing through it several times.
It's a book on steamed cakes by the well-known Alex Goh. In the past, I did steam cakes but they were mostly 'wa ko kueh', coconut blossoms, harum manis and a few others. Alex Goh has included some cakes besides cupcakes in his book.
The quantity of the ingredients used would be too much for my little steamer. Hence I down-sized the portions. I also reduced the sugar and substitute oil for butter.
Well, I am quite happy with the results so far.

I was attracted to his dried longan cake recipe and was curious to know what it would taste like.
I wasn't disappointed. It turned out soft, moist and not too sweet. Yay!


The Recipe:

A
75ml luo han guo drink/juice (I used water)
30g butter (I used 40ml oil)
50g brown sugar (Iused 40g)
100g dried longan, rinsed once

B
1 egg, lightly beaten

C
60g plain flour
1/3 teaspoon double action baking powder
1/3 teaspoon bicarbonate soda
50g chopped walnuts


1. Put all ingredients A in a pot and cook over medium heat till sugar dissolves. Set aside to cool completely.

2. Prepare steamer and bring water to a boil, lower heat to simmer.

3. Add cooled A too lightly beaten egg and mix well.

4. Add sifted flour, baking powder, baking soda and walnuts. Mix well. The flour added can barely cover the longans. At this stage, turn up the heat to bring the water to boiling point.

5. Pour mixture into a 6-inch or 15-cm round tin, lined and greased.

6. Place tin covered with foil and steam for 30 minutes. If the cake mixture is higher, the steaming time will be longer.

7. Once cooked, remove cake to wire rack to cool.


This one has a nice brown colour, like a baked cake.
The brown sugar did the job!



No regrets! Truly soft and moist!



16 comments:

  1. it's really look moist and fruity! Thanks for sharing!

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  2. this doesnt look like it's steamed at all, it looks just like an oven baked cake! looks moist and yummy :)

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  3. NICE! (: luo han guo is cooling and great for this hot weather. im sure the cake taste yummy! (:

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  4. Looks amazing, Judy. When do we get to try? :) Never thought of using dried longan for cake. How interesting.

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  5. Wen,
    You're welcome!


    Jean,
    The brown sugar made it looked baked.


    Wendy,
    It's good. I'll be making it more often.


    Jasmine,
    The dried longan tastes good and chewy.


    Edith,
    I found it interesting too. Curiosity led me to making it.


    Eelin,
    No problem if we do meet up again!

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  6. Oh how I love steamed cakes too! They always seem to stay moist and soft! The only steamed cake I have tried making at home is the Egg Cake - JiDan Gao ;p

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  7. Sounds interesting, already bookmarked, definitely going to try this one day.

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  8. I must get lo han go drink from pasar malam to make this cake, sound interesting and look good.

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  9. sound interesting and the cake looks moist and good.

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  10. This is an interesting recipe to bookmark for my try!

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  11. Mmmmmm... Looks delicious! I think I could use another fruit juice instead the luo han guo, right?

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  12. Hi Talita,
    Thanks for dropping by. I'm not sure if another fruit juice would compliment the flavour of the dried longans. But that's the joy of baking, to be able to play around with ingredients. Let me know how it goes when you do try out!

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  13. Wow, longan cake.....I like very much! Sure looks delicious!

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  14. Hi Pete,
    Thanks for the visit. It's good! I was so tempted to eat up the whole cake. Try it!

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