Steamed moist chocolate cake

This has been in my to-do list for some time. Since I bought a new heart shape mould which was on sale at Ikea and I wanted to test out this mould so I made this cake today.
I got this from  Vivian Pang's blog with beautiful pictures of the cake which attracted me.
Since my family love chocolate, I decided to give it a try. It is a very simple recipe except that you need some time on steaming. Recipe as follows with a bit of tweaking on the sugar ( reduction) and type of flour ( I used cake flour).

 

Recipe for Steamed Moist Chocolate Cake

 

Ingredients 

For the Cake

180g butter

60g caster + 60g brown sugar (original recipe calls for 200g caster sugar)

200g full cream evaporated milk

2 eggs, slightly beaten with fork

100g cake flour (original recipe uses plain flour)

50g cocoa powder (I used Hershey's)

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp vanilla extract or 1 tsp vanilla essence

2 tbsp of rum (optional, I forgot to add)

 

For Chocolate Fudge Topping

200g condense milk

1/2 tsp vanilla extract or 1 tsp vanilla essence

2 tbsp corn oil

20g cocoa powder, sifted

a pinch of salt

 

Method (for the cake)

1. Combine sugar, evaporated milk, vanilla extract / essence and butter in a saucepan.

2. Stir over low heat until sugar is dissolved and butter is melted, turn off the heat and keep warm

3. Add the beaten eggs into the slightly warm evaporated milk mixture and stir to mix well

4. Sift flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and baking soda into a large mixing bowl, then pour the eggs mixture over the flour and stir till well mix (use balloon whisk) (Cake batter should be runny). Add in rum if desired and mix well.

5. Heat up the steamer

6. Lined and greased an 8 or 9 inch baking pan.

7. Pour the batter into the lined pan and place the pan into the steamer and cover the top of the pan loosely with a piece of aluminium foil

 

Method (for Choc Fudge)

1. Combine the sifted cocoa powder, condense milk and oil in a saucepan

2. Stir over low heat with balloon whisk till thicken

3. Add in salt and vanilla extract or essence

4. Cool the chocolate fudge a little before spreading on the cake.

5. Refrigerate before serve it

 

Notes:

1. I did not line the cake pan, but I greased the pan with butter (although I use a non-stick silicone mould)

2. Boil a kettle of water as stand-by while steaming the cake. This is to top up the water in the steamer if it dries up. (Optional, as contingency)

Wholemeal Cinnamon rolls (Tangzhong)

My family loves wholemeal and they love cinnamon too. So I decided to combo these. I have always use the following recipe for buns and loaf making as it produces very soft and fluffy bread. In addition, this texture will last for 2-3 days without having to re-steam. I referred to Christine's recipe as I have tried many of her recipes and they were all excellent.

 

Recipe for Tangzhong wholemeal cinnamon rolls

Ingredients

110 g milk

45 g whisked egg

100g Tangzhong

40g sugar

5g salt

200g bread flour

150g wholemeal flour

6g instant yeast

40g butter, softened to room temperature

Filling

40g softened butter

85g brown sugar

1-1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

40g raisins, soaked, drained dry

To make Tangzhong:

Mix 25g of bread flour with 125ml of water in a pot. Stir to mix well with a balloon whisk.  Heat pot over stove on medium low heat. Continue stirring till mixture thickens. Once you notice some 'line' appear in the mixture for every stir you make with the whisk.  Its done. You get tangzhong.  Remove from heat.

Transfer to a clean bowl. Cover with a cling wrap sticking onto the surface of tangzhong to prevent from drying up.  Let cool.  The tangzhong can be used straight away once it cools down to room temperature. Just measure out the amount you need.  The leftover tangzhong can be stored in fridge up to a few days as long as it doesn't turn grey. If so, you need to discard and cook some more.  (Note: the chilled tangzhong should be returned to room temperature before adding into other ingredients)

 

Method

1. Add all ingredients ( except butter) into mixing bowl. I am using a stand mixer. You can manually knead but it takes patience.

2. Mix well at speed 1. When the ingredients come together, add in softened butter and switch to speed 2. Knead for 25 minutes.  You should be able to get dough that is elastic and will pass the windowpane test.

3. Let the dough complete 1st round of proofing by transferring into a mildly oiled bowl. Cover with plastic film and proof for about 45-60 minutes, until doubled in size.

4. Transfer the dough to a clean floured surface. Deflate and roll into roughly 14x12" rectangle.

5. Mix sugar an cinnamon well in a bowl. Spread soft butter over the top of dough. Leave 1/2" from both ends of the 14" side uncoated. Sprinkle evenly over the sugar and cinnamon mixture. Lastly, spread with raisins.

6. Starting from one of the 14" ends, tightly roll the dough into a swiss roll form. Cut into 9 slices and place them cut side down in a well buttered pan. I chose to line the baking pan as it is easier to do cleaning. 

7. Cover with plastic wrap and put them back into a warm spot to rise for another 45 minutes. 

8. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 170-175 deg C. 

9. Once risen, bake them for about 20-25 minutes or until golden brown.