If you walk into a Hong-Kong style Chinese bakery, you won't find many buttercream-frosted cupcakes, brownies, or bar cookies. You're more likely to find plenty of simple egg-based cakes, buns (sweet as well as savory), and tarts. One of my favorite things to get from the Chinese bakery is a simple paper-wrapped sponge cake. They are light as air, soft and fluffy, and taste mildly sweet and eggy.
At the Chinese bakery, these paper-wrapped sponge cakes are tall, probably 3 times the height of these mini cakelettes that I made at home using a regular muffin tin. To make the traditionally tall/large versions, you could buy specific molds made for the purpose or use a large muffin tin or try a popover tin. I've also seen it made using freestanding paper cups lined with parchment paper.
These little cakes are very much like my favorite chiffon cake, in a smaller, portable form. In keeping with my small-batch tendency lately, I made half a dozen of these little cakes and realized this is one instance where small batch might not be the way to go. They vanished in no time, and they make a great little afternoon snack if you want something sweet but not overly so.
The little cakes are really light and fluffy. As a big fan of eggs in every form, I love this kind of simple dessert that's full of egg-flavor, lightly sweetened and boosting a hint of vanilla in the background. It may sound silly but I love the eggy aroma that permeates the house when I'm making something like this. I wouldn't mind if my house smelled like that all the time!
This homemade version tastes just like the ones at the bakery. Texture-wise, I think I need to work harder at reaching the supreme fluffy/airiness of the ones I get from the bakery. I'll also own that size-wise, the traditionally larger ones make more sense. Because they are so light, a large one is probably just more appropriately portioned. With these cakelettes, you just want to eat three in one sitting! So the way I look at it, I need to either make larger ones next time or at least double the recipe.
These little paper-wrapped sponge cakes are one of those things I've wanted to try to make for a long time. I think we always want to re-create things we buy and love to eat, at home with our own hands. Since I love to eat so many things, I have a long list! For practical purposes, I wanted to make these cakes with things I already had at home. So I used my regular muffin tin and made my own parchment paper liners for them.
I cut 6-inch squares of parchment paper and molded them over a small can (one that would fit/sit in the opening of one of the muffin cups) to crease into shape. This is as crafty as I get, which is to say I am not crafty at all.
Because the recipe I used was set in grams, I was able to scale it down pretty easily to make these inaugural six. (In hindsight, I'd double the recipe for a full dozen of these little cakes.)
I have to tell you that for some reason, I was compelled to tap my batter on the countertop (I was concerned about the batter not reaching all the corners of the paper liners) and that probably was not a smart move when the cake batter is a fluffy one where you want to preserve the airiness. Hopefully, my banging didn't do too much harm but I'll be sure to skip that step next time.
The cakelettes are so light and rather adorable. It's fun to unwrap them from their papers...and just dig right in.
It doesn't take more than a few bites to devour one of these.
With matcha desserts everywhere lately, I was tempted to flavor these with some matcha powder. In the end, I stuck with the classic and what I know I'dm sure to love, which are this purely eggy little bites. But for anyone more adventurous than myself, a green tea version might be worth a try.
Recipe:
Chinese Paper-Wrapped Sponge Cakelettes
2 large or extra-large eggs, separated
36 grams superfine sugar
24 grams cake flour
6 grams cornstarch
Small pinch of salt
Rounded 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
24 grams melted butter
Line a standard-size muffin tin with six parchment paper liners. I made my own according to these instructions. Preheat oven to 392 degrees (200C).
Sift the cake flour, cornstarch, and salt together twice and set aside.
In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment (or using a handheld mixer), whip the egg whites until foamy. Continue whipping while gradually adding the sugar to the mixture until stiff peaks just form.
Lightly beat the egg yolks together with a fork. Add vanilla extract and scrape the yolk mixture into the beaten egg whites and gently fold together. Add the sifted flour and fold in until combined, and there are not streaks of flour in the batter. Mix a few tablespoons of the batter with the melted butter, then add this mixture back into the batter and fold again to combine.
Use an ice cream scoop to divide the batter among the six paper liners. Place the muffin tin into the oven, then immediately turn the oven temperature down to 350 degrees. Bake for about 20 minutes, or until cakes are golden brown.
