I miss my mom for so many reasons. But, one of them is for her cooking and baking. She was known for her generosity and food among so many other reasons. One that I was craving was a steamed sponge egg cake. I don’t have her recipe, but found this one online. The first time I did it, it was only ok. Not great, but decent. I made it again and made my own adjustments. It was a hit with my family! My son alone ate half the cake. And my aunt liked it so much she requested the recipe. Below is what I did to make the cake:

Ingredients

• 1 cup of eggs at room temperature (approx. 6 large eggs or however many it takes to make 1 cup. mine was slightly less at 5 eggs, and slightly more at 6. I would err on the side of more)
• 3/4 + 2 tbsp granulated sugar
• 1 cup all-purpose flour minus 2 tablespoons
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• Pinch salt
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

1. Line an 8-inch cake pan with wax paper or parchment paper. Identify a wide pot or wok that can accommodate the pan and a rack that can fit in the pot and hold the pan above water level (you can also sit the pan on 2-inch high cans with ends cut out). Add water to about 1/2-inch below rack. Cover pot and heat water while you mix cake.
2. Sift together flour, baking powder and salt.
3. Add eggs to a large mixing bowl. Using an electric mixer on high speed, beat eggs for one minute and add sugar slowly. Beat for until mixture thickens, about five minutes. Add vanilla extract during last minute.
4. Gradually whisk flour mixture into eggs.
5. Pour batter into prepared pan. Set pan on rack and cover pot. Turn heat to medium and steam until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean, about 20-25 minutes. If you run out of water during cooking (ie you stop seeing steam), carefully add boiling water to pan. Take care when removing lid so that condensation from lid does not drip on cake. Serve cake warm or cooled.

Notes

• The original recipe called for 1 cup of Cake flour
  • substitution: remove two tablespoons from 1 cup of all-purpose flour; replace with two tablespoons cornstarch (aka corn flour). Or if you don’t have cornstarch, simply use the smaller amount of all-purpose flour.
• You may also substitute almond extract for vanilla
• I’ll take pics next time and will update post