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| That perfect golden-yellow hue! |
After years experimenting for a not-too-sweet and butter-oily cake, I finally settled for this recipe. 5 ingredients in 4 steps. This is the easiest cake ever! Great for beginners. Here's my version of a basic, fluffy cake recipe. Turn it into a banana cake, chocolate cake, fruits and nuts cake, blueberry cake or any other types of cake to your liking. Plus: solutions for common baking problems at the end of post.
Recipe
125kcal per 1/8 slice
330kcal for 1/3 of the whole cake
Makes a 8" X 1" cake
100g Self-raising flour
50g Sugar
50g Salted Butter, softened at room temperature
3 Tbsp or about 50 ml Full-cream milk
2 Eggs (53g each, w/o shell)
1. Put all ingredients into a bowl.
2. Using a manual hand whisk, mix everything carefully till batter turns smooth and lump-free. [Note: After this, if you are mixing in fruits and nuts, switch to using a spoon]
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| From this... |
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| ...to this. |
3. Next, bake for 40 mins. PS: I 'bake' using a rice cooker with cake function. You can try baking in the oven @ 170 degrees for 25 mins.
4. Finally, let cake cool and cut with a wet knife for serving.
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| A perfect sponge cake! |
*As this is a rather small cake, you would want to double or even triple the ingredients accordingly for a bigger cake. You may also want to experiment with different flavours and ingredients for fun (see below). But, be wary not to be sucked too deep into the whirlpool of baking frenzy (like me) where your days are either spent on baking experiments or helplessly thinking about the next cake that you'll be baking - very addictive!
Experiment with your own creations now!
1. Wholemeal/Oat Cake. Replace 50g flour with 50g wholemeal flour or oats or even both. All 'flour' should add up to 100g. My favourite one is 40g s-r flour with 30g wholemeal flour and 30g oats.
2. Nutty, Seedy and Fruity Cake. Mix in about 2 Tbsp each of your choice into the prepared batter. You can also sprinkle them on top of the batter. Some of my favourites include:
- Nuts like almond flakes, crushed walnuts/pecans/cashew, pine nuts
- Seeds like sunflower seed, pumpkin seeds, flaxseeds, black/white sesame and
- Small dried fruits like sultana, black/golden raisin, dried cranberry/blueberry/prune. Reduce the amount of sugar to just 30g as dried fruits tend to be rather sweet.
3. Different Flavoured Sponge Cake. Unless otherwise stated, add the ingredients below before mixing the batter.
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| Moist and yummy banana cake with walnuts, pine nuts, and cinnamon |
Banana Cake: Add in 120g of mashed banana (from about 2 medium bananas) before mixing the batter and, if you like, add in chopped walnuts and a dash of cinnamon after mixing the batter. PS: If the bananas are very ripe (which means they are very sweet), I'll use about 30g of sugar instead as I don't have a sweet tooth. And because mashed banana has a 'heavy' texture, I used only 1 egg to counter that - using 2 eggs is okay but will result in a not so fluffy cake. So, for convenience, here's the banana cake ingredients that I use: 100g Self-raising Flour, 30g sugar, 50g salted butter, 120g mashed banana, 3 Tbsp full-cream milk, 1 egg.
Blueberry Cake: Mix in 1 cup blueberries or other berries and 2 Tbsp of almond flakes into the prepared batter. Reduce the amount of sugar if your berries are very sweet.
Other Fruit/Vegetable Cake: Add in other fruits like apple, pineapple, mango, peach or even durian! Or add in vegetables like pumpkin, sweet potato, corn and carrot. Just mix in 1 cup of them (diced into small pieces) to the prepared batter before baking. I made pumpkin cake that day and my hubby whipped them off in an afternoon!
Tea Cake: Replace 30g flour with 30g (2 Tbsp) of instant 3-in-1 tea beverages powder like milk tea/teh si and ginger tea/teh halia. All flour and powder should add up to about 100g (i.e. 70g flour plus 30g beverage powder). Reduce sugar to 30g if you like. Teh Si Cake anyone? ;)
Coffee Cake: Replace 30g of flour with 30g (2 Tbsp) of instant 3-in-1 coffee beverages powder like coffee with milk, cappuccino and latte. All flour and powder should add up to about 100g (i.e. 70g flour plus 30g beverage powder). Reduce sugar to 30g if you like. Cappuccino Cake anyone?
Green Tea Cake: Replace 30g flour with 30g (2 Tbsp) of green tea/matcha powder. All flour and powder should add up to about 100g (i.e. 70g flour plus 30g beverage powder).
Chocolate/Milo Cake: Replace 30g flour with 30g (2 Tbsp) of chocolate powder or milo. All flour and powder should add up to about 100g (i.e. 70g flour plus 30g beverage powder). If you're using pre-sweetened 3-in-1 Milo powder (instead of the unsweetened Milo powder that comes in tins), reduce sugar to 30g, if you like.
Kaya Cake: Add 2 Tbsp kaya and reduce sugar to 30g.
Pandan Cake: Add 1 tsp pandan essence.
Vanilla Cake: Add 1 tsp vanilla essence.
Cheese Cake: Add cheese pieces or shredded cheese of your choice into the prepared batter.
Yogurt Cake: Add 2 heapful Tbsp of yogurt. Preferably plain greek yogurt.
Lemon/Lime/Honey Cake: Add 2 Tbsp of lemon/lime juice or 1 Tbsp of honey or both of them. Reduce sugar if you like. For a zesty kick, add in finely-shredded pieces of lemon/lime rind (the outermost layer of those citrus fruits, avoiding the white bitter parts).
Chocolate chips/Oreo chips Cake: Add in 2 to 3 Tbsp for either of them into the prepared batter. Oreo Cake anyone?
Egg Cake (Mandarin: Ji Dan Gao): Add in another egg yolk in addition to the 2 eggs used.
4. Muffins and Cupcakes. Yes! Use the same batter to make muffins or add cream toppings to make cupcakes :)
5. Try your own combination (at your own discretion!). Add herbs, dried garlic pellets, ginger/nutmeg powder, ground cinnamon/five spice powder, cajun, ham, meat floss, salted egg yolk ([pseudo] mooncake anyone?), dried seaweed flakes, bonito flakes and anything else to your liking. You can also combine the ideas from 1 to 4. Example: Wholemeal Banana Pecan and Cinnamon Muffins! The possibilities are endless - you simply have to let out your adventurous streak :)
Solutions for common baking problems
Years of trial and error gave me insights of some baking problems. Just want to share my findings. Hope it helps :)
- Dry, hard cake: Add more butter
- Rough texture: Add less milk
- Doesn't rise properly/too dense: Add less milk and egg, but will result in a drier and less chewy cake.
- Add more milk if you use less eggs to keep the cake mixture 'balanced' and to have a successful cake.
I will update if there's anything good. Now get your creative juices flowin' and mix away!