Totoro Steamed Cake

Totoro! The fav boy's favourite cartoon character. I had the luxury to steam these little cakes over the PSLE Oral weekend. They're like little cutie pies that attract both the young and the old. They taste similar to the steamed egg cakes I used to have as a kid. 

The recipe was adapted from Angela Chia's video on Facebook. In her video, yield was not indicated (video showed that one would get 6 cupcakes but I got way more cupcakes than that [how misleading!]). I truly thought that somewhere somehow, I got the recipe wrong. 

In any case, this recipe is perfect for those who do not have ovens but yet wish to have some nice snacks! This recipe is relatively simple to do so I'm giving it a difficulty level 3 out of 5. It takes about 30 - 45 minutes in all to steam about 10 - 13 cupcakes depending on your steamer. I could only steam 7 at once so I did them in 2 batches. However, please do not whip up a super large batch at once and then let them sit for hours before steaming them. I'd suggest a maximum of 15 - 20 mins at max between whisking the batter and steaming them. 

Totoro Steamed Cake Recipe

This recipe yields 10 - 13 regular sized cupcakes

6 55g room temperature eggs

180g castor sugar

180g plain flour

wilton gel food colouring in desired colour

Method

Crack the eggs into the mixing bowl.

Add in the castor sugar.

Whisk at high speed.

I like to tilt my bowl at this angle to allow more air to get into the batter. This gets the batter ready faster.

Whisk till the batter is light in colour and fluffy. It should be multiple times in volume. When the batter is ready, you should be able to see distinct tracks in the batter. 

On the slowest speed, add the flour into the mixture. Once it has all been poured in, stop the mixer and use a spatula to ensure that all the flour has been mixed in. 

The batter should deflate quite a bit. Mine deflated about 1/2 in size!

Portion out 2 tsp of batter and colour it black. 

Portion out 1 tsp of  batter and leave it plain. 

Portion out 2 tbsp of batter and colour it grey. 

Place the batter into respective piping bags and snip off a tiny hole. 

Scoop the batter into pleated cupcake liners (for support) or if your tray can fit your steamer, you may use that coupled with liners. 

The batter should fill up 4/5 of the cup (almost full). 

Using a toothpick, pipe the air bubbles to allow the air to escape. This ensures a smoother cake surface. 

With the grey batter, pipe a crescent into the cupcake and fill it with the grey batter. 

Filled! (:

Using the plain batter, line dots for the eyes. 

Using the black batter, dot the eyes inside the white batter section. Dot a nose and also draw totoro's belly with 'n's. 

Steam in a pot of boiling water on medium heat for 15 minutes or till toothpick comes out clean when inserted into the middle of the cupcake. 

Lifting the steamer lid without dripping the condensation into the cupcakes is tricky. You may either wrap a cloth on the inside of the lid to absorb all the condensation or you may swiftly open the lid by tilting it to the side. This image may help you visualise better. 

Allow the lower side of the pot lid to be 'inside' of the pot so as to allow the condensation to drip back into the pot. So as long as your motion is swift, your cupcakes should not be affected by the condensation collected on the insides of the lid.

If you'd notice the picture below, my Totoro on the top right hand corner has a spot of water dripped into it so it wasn't as pretty. So the trick above will help you prevent such spots from happening.

Enjoy your steamed cakes! They're best eaten hot/warm. Alternatively, you may warm them up by steaming them for 3 minutes before serving. 

I'd love to see the bakes or stuff you've cooked using the blog's recipe! Do share photos of stuff you've baked or cooked using the blog's recipe with me either via FB message to http://facebook.com/limcynthia OR http://facebook.com/thebakingbiatch OR via email at cynthia.lim.hl@gmail.com! I look forward to hearing from you! (: