Black Sesame Steamed Cupcake

It's one of those weekends you wake up to the sounds of the rain and traffic. You try hard to re-enter the world of dreams but alas, your mind is filled with messy and scrambled thoughts - like a fuzzy TV with bad reception.

So you start making plans for this precious day.

Will it be a day of chores *gasps*? Or a day in the cafe (specifically St. Ali in South Melbourne) with a favourite book? How about taking the new granny trolley out for a test drive at the food market? Or hop on those tourist bus and explore this new city?

No doubt the decision will set the pace for the whole day....

I wrapped myself up in a blanket and head out to the kitchen to put some water in the kettle. From the window, the wet concrete road seems to be to drying up. It was this moment I caught myself with a selfish thought - I wanted it to pour outside. I want a downpour to be precise. I would like to be stuck at home with a reason like that - and to cook hot chocolate over the stovetop and to make ginger snaps with molasses and watch black and white movies.

But I have no molasses nor ginger!

So I get out a bowl and started whisking together the flour, egg, milk...and ground black sesame powder. I miss this steamed cupcake recipe that I used to make.

I also found some left over sweet red-beans in the fridge and decided that perhaps, they'd make a good match with the black sesame. And they did!

Within 20 minutes, I had several steamed goodies in front of me. Right this moment, everything seems to be falling into place. The piping hot steamed cakes were soft like bread, full of strong black sesame flavours and just plain simple. And sometimes, isn't it usually the simple things in our daily lives that cause us to pause - and feel content and grateful for the moment?

All of a sudden -  I didn't want it to rain anymore. No hot chocolate, thank you.

Quickly pulled my favourite jumper over my head. Rain or shine, Melbourne - here I come!

Steamed Black Sesame Cupcakes
Makes 6 cupcakes

• 1 large egg
• 30g sugar (I used brown)
• 1/4 cup of milk (or yoghurt)
• 1 tablespoon grapeseed oil (can use other oil like canola or olive)
• 60g flour
• 50g cooked/sweetened red beans (optional)
• 20g black sesame powder (you can get it from most Asian grocery stores)
• 1 teaspoon baking powder

1. In a bowl, beat the egg lightly then add the sugar and mix well.

2. Then add the milk into the mixture as well as the grapeseed oil. Beat well.

3. Sieve the flour, and baking powder then combine with the black sesame powder. Incorporate into the egg mixture and mix well.

4. Finally incorporate the red-bean into batter and mix gently (or you can keep the red bean separate from the batter and ladle it in between the batter as I did)

5. Ladle the batter into 6 separate cupcake/panna cotta containers which are lined with cupcake liners/muffin cups.

6. In a large pot (or cast iron casseroles), fill it with enough boiling hot water such that when you put the cupcakes in, the water comes about half way on the mould. Steam for around 13-15 minutes with the lid on. I prefer to wrap a cloth/towel on the lid to prevent water droplets dropping onto the cupcakes.

7. Carefully remove from pot as they cupcakes will be steaming hot!

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Steamed chocolate and adzuki (red bean) cupcakes

I don't mean to bore you with another steamed cupcake recipe, but I enjoyed this cupcake so much that I do want to document it for future reference :)

When I think back on the past few years, certain things have been tough. In fact, very tough.

There were days when I felt completely defeated. You know, those days where you just can't see the light at the end of the tunnel? But usually sometime during the day, I'd get a text message saying,

'Meet you at the gym at 6:45pm?' from my friend Miss P.

Despite my exhaustion, I did look forward to those gym sessions...because, truth be told, those weren't really gym sessions. I did jog (ok, I mainly strolled) on a treadmill with my fancy and shiny sneakers, but for the next half hour or so, I would pour out all my days frustrations and minute details to this dear friend (poor girl!) and she'd walk alongside with me and listen.

And eventually I'd feel calmer and inevitably, I'd start talking about food...

...and when I'm talking about food - I am laughing and I am rejuvenated and relaxed. The treadmill would then read 30 minutes and it's time to call it the end of a tough workout session.

So one thing I am missing now that I have moved away is an exercise buddy. Actually it's more than that. I'm missing a good friend who sometimes has to sample some of my baked goods gone wrong and who, like me, believes that ice-cream should be part of your everyday diet ;) I cannot recall how many times we've visited Coles just to stroll through their ice-cream section!

So obviously this post is dedicated to this dear friend. Not only is she truly a genuine and beautiful friend, she's the type of person who really prays for you and is always conscious of the things going on in your life.

Having friends like these are such blessings huh?

Thank you for the friendship and the encouragements. Gym sessions will never be the same again without you!

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Miss P treated me to delicious meals and gave me a most thoughtful present just before I left..so I baked (no, I steamed!) those incredible cupcakes for her just to say, thanks! They're super soft, moist and rather healthy! I used whole adzuki beans (as opposed to red bean paste) to add texture to the cupcakes. Red beans on it own are rather flavourless. But when mixed with chocolate, you can just smell the faint aroma of the beans but they hardly overpower or clash with the rich chocolate in anyway. 

If you're a fan of red beans like me, give this a go - I think you'll like it! 

Steamed chocolate and adzuki cupcakes
Makes 6 cupcakes

Ingredients (updates in RED)

• 2 large eggs
• 30g sugar (I used brown - you may want to up on this to say 50g as I tend to prefer my food not too sweet)
• 1/4 cup of milk (or yoghurt)
• 1 tablespoon grapeseed oil (can use other oil like canola or olive)
• 40g all purpose flour
• 20g cocoa powder (I used dutch processed)
• ~50g cooked adzuki beans (whole)
• 1 teaspoon baking powder

1. In a bowl, beat the eggs lightly then add the sugar and mix well.

2.  Then add the milk (or yoghurt) into the mixture as well as the grapeseed oil. Beat well.

3. Sieve the flour, cocoa powder and baking powder and incorporate into the egg mixture and mix until the batter does not have white parts from the flour.

4. Finally incorporate the adzuki beans into batter and mix gently.

5. Ladle the batter into 6 separate cupcake/panna cotta containers which are lined with cupcake liners/muffin cups. I used jelly moulds! Please refer to my previous 

6. In a large pot (I used cast iron casseroles), fill it with enough boiling hot water such that when you put the cupcakes in, the water comes about half way on the mould. Refer to the photo in my previous post.

7. Steam for around 13-15 minutes with the lid on on low-medium heat. I prefer to wrap a cloth/towel on the lid to prevent water droplets dropping onto the cupcakes. Don't steam over-time as the cake will become 'soggy'.

8. Carefully remove from pot as the cupcakes will be steaming hot!

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Steamed Goji and Longan cupcakes

Since my last post, I've managed to fit 'my life' under 20kg and left Sydney to begin this new journey of mine!  So, hello from Melbourne! I am feeling a little unsettled - one reason may be because I don't have anything in my pantry except for oatmeal and rice! And I am also feeling a little out of place and disoriented thus have been avoiding this space lately.

So the packing proved to be a massive challenge. I had to take out more than half of what I had initially packed whilst reminding myself...'what you need, not want Viv!' and relunctantly took out my favourite cookbook and the fluffiest pillow. Nothing from my kitchen made it into the suitcase (except for 4 random sticks of cinnamon! And I don't even know why!) 

It really is a privilege to cook whatever I want and to share it in this space of mine. A privilege I too often take for granted.

I may have to give up on this privilege for the time being as I try to find my feet around here and get my kitchen set-up (a chopping board would be a great start!)

Anyways, these cupcakes are one of the last things I made back home.

You know why they're special?

Because they're healthier than your usual cupcakes (steamed with no butter!) and can be done in less than 30 minutes (including steaming time!)

I do love my goji and longan! Feel feel to substitute with other ingredients you may have like walnuts, cranberries or red beans!

Steamed Gogi and Longan cupcakes
Makes 5 cupcakes

Ingredients

• 1 large egg
• 30g sugar (I used brown)
• 1/4 cup of milk (or yoghurt)
• 1 tablespoon grapeseed oil (can use other oil like canola or olive)
• 80g flour
• 25g goji berries (soak in hot water first)
• 25g longan
• 20g soy bean powder (if you don't have it, simply add another 20g of flour)
• 1 teaspoon baking powder

1. In a bowl, beat the egg lightly then add the sugar and mix well.

2.  Then add the milk into the mixture as well as the grapeseed oil. Beat well.

3. Sieve the flour, soy bean powder and baking powder and incorporate into the egg mixture and mix until the batter does not have white parts from the flour.

4. Finally incorporate the goji and longan into batter and mix gently.

5. Ladle the batter into 5 separate cupcake/panna cotta containers which are lined with cupcake liners/muffin cups. I used jelly moulds!

6. In a large pot (or cast iron casseroles), fill it with enough boiling hot water such that when you put the cupcakes in, the water comes about half way on the mould.

7. Steam for around 13-15 minutes with the lid on. I prefer to wrap a cloth/towel on the lid to prevent water droplets dropping onto the cupcakes.

8. Carefully remove from pot as they cupcakes will be steaming hot ;) 

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