Steamed egg cake (雞蛋糕)

Steamed egg cake or 雞蛋糕 is one of the Chinese traditional snack or dessert. In olden time, they even treated it as a birthday cake and have it colored with red or pinkish. This traditional steamed egg cake was done by hand - what I meant by hand is, they usually whisk the batter by hand whisk, transfer it to bamboo steaming tray and steam at high heat.

It is one of my childhood snack as my maternal grandmother will make it occasionally. Besides, we also bought from that hawkers’ stall or at the wet market. It was soft and full of egg's fragrant smell. It sold at very low price, as it is suppose to be one of the simplest cakes at that time.

As per today, it has been selling commercially by using electric mixer; pre-mix ingredients and the taste wouldn't be the same anymore. I hardly find those soft and fragrant steamed egg cakes around nowadays! As my maternal grandmother has passed away and I didn't have the chance to learn how to make a good steamed egg cake, I began to find it online and also consulted many people the traditional recipe of making steamed egg cake. I have tried several recipes online and from the recipe book, which consist of many ingredients and ways in making it. I couldn't get the correct taste and the correct texture of the cake by using those recipes.

It was either can't rise nicely, the cake became too hard or too soft or didn't taste like a steamed egg cake. I didn't know that making such a simple steamed egg cake can be that hard at times, by looking at those recipes & pictures shown on the net, they are really good and nice!

As I have tried it for several months, trying an error by using the simplest ingredients, adding and minusing some of the ingredients, adjusting and improving the recipe. Finally, I am able to make a close to the original taste and texture of traditional steamed egg cake. There are several tricks and tips, which I have tried and tested including the differences of using an electric cake mixer and manual hand whisk, both gave me a total different result. Flour also plays an important role in making this cake, if you want to know which flour gives you the best soft texture in this recipe, check out my tips at the end of this post ...

Since I started making this cake as an experiment few months ago. My son too fell in love with this steamed egg cake. He is my loyal customer and always praised the cake. He can even ate half the 20cm steamed egg cake by himself. He would give me a smile on his face each time I passed the steamed egg cake to him. There is no other compliment that is greater than a child's smile after a hard work and I would say it is worth it. Same goes to my hubby, he would just grabbed and savored happily.


Tell me that I am too earnestly involved in making this cake. I even added my own ingredient to make a Cheese Steamed Egg Cake. The taste is so good with a touch of the cheesy flavour! It is suitable for kids as it is the most simple and soothing steamed cake! All the ingredients are simple and easy to prepare. You can do it within an hour, and it didn't require any complicated preparation.

Now, I can make it anytime as it has becomes one of our all time favourite steamed cake and it is much healthier! I have shared the recipe with my friend and she had a great time and successfully made this cake, even her family loves it very much! Give it a try!

Ingredients: 3 eggs (Grade A) 100gm Castor sugar 150gm Cake flour / Superfine flour 1 tsp Baking Powder 4 - 5 tbsp Milk 20cm bamboo steaming tray / rice cooker steaming tray Baking paper Methods: 1. Line a 20cm bamboo steaming tray / rice cooker steaming tray with baking paper. Set aside. 2. Whisk sugar & eggs with hand whisk for 15 mins or until batter turns fluffy with creamy lemon colour. 3. Combine flour with baking powder. Sieved. 4. Pour half portion of flour mixture into egg batter. Mix and stir well. 5. Repeat with the other half portion. 6. Add in milk and stir well. Adjust milk amount according to the thickness of the batter. If you find that batter is too thick, add another tablespoon of milk. 7. Pour batter into bamboo steaming tray. 8. Boil a pot of hot boiling water. Steam egg cake at high heat for 15 mins. 9. If you cover the steaming tray with another lid or a stainless steel plate, steam for 25 mins (I didn't cover with double lids for this recipe). 10. Open lids, test with a skewer, if the skewer comes out clean. The cake is done. 11. Remove egg cake immediately from the steaming pot. Let cool, then cut into pieces and enjoy! Cheesy Steamed Egg Cake Ingredients: 3 eggs (Grade A) 100gm Castor sugar 150gm Cake flour / Superfine flour 1 tsp Baking Powder 2 tbsp of Shredded Cheddar Cheese 6 - 7 tbsp Milk 20cm bamboo steaming tray / rice cooker steaming tray Baking paper Methods: 1. Line a 20cm bamboo steaming tray / rice cooker steaming tray with baking paper. Set aside. 2. Whisk sugar & eggs with hand whisk for 15 mins or until batter turns fluffy with creamy lemon colour. 3. Combine flour with baking powder. Sieved. 4. Pour half portion of flour mixture into egg batter. Mix and stir well. 5. Repeat with the other half portion. 6. Add in milk and stir well. Adjust milk amount according to the thickness of the batter. If you find that batter is too thick, add another tablespoon of milk. 7. Add in shredded cheese, break it with the whisk until well combined. Pour batter into bamboo steaming tray. 8. Boil a pot of hot boiling water. Cover the steaming tray with another lid or stainless steel plate. 9. Then, cover the pot and steam at high heat for 25 mins. 10. Open lids, test with a skewer, if the skewer comes out clean. The cake is done. 11. Remove egg cake immediately from the steaming pot. Let cool, then cut into pieces and enjoy! Useful tips: • Use cake flour / Superfine flour, it will gives your egg cake a smooth, light and soft texture compared to multipurpose / plain flour. • Whisk with hand whisk until egg batter is fluffy and creamy. I have tried electric cake mixer but the result is not as good as hand whisk, the cake became softer, bouncier and rise nicely with hand whisk. • Cover steaming tray with another lid to prevent steaming hot water dripping onto the egg batter to get a better nicer looking surface. • Adjust the amount of milk by testing the batter. The batter shouldn't be too thick nor too thin, test with a fork, if the batter is running down constantly, the batter is well done. • Use large eggs, Grade A is the best. • Use a high cooking pot about 30 - 40 cm tall for steaming. I am so glad to shared with all of you bits of my tips on this recipe! Let's the tradition carry on to another generation!