Learning My ABCs (Asian Birthday Cakes)

Mainstream Western cakes that people bring to the office tend to be sweet, dense and moist—think the chocolate whisky cake from Rocket Kitchen, for instance. In contrast, Asian bakery cakes (which people tend to buy for special occasions like birthdays) differ in a few ways:

1. they are light, soft, and airy
2. they are less sweet
3. they tend to have multiple layers
4. they are covered in whipped cream
5. they tend to have detailed, maybe even over-the-top, decorations
6. bonus points for fresh fruit
7. Asian flavours like taro, durian, mango, or green tea cakes are available

Fresh cream gateau from the Gateau House website.

While you or I could easily whip up a standard cake ourselves by following various recipes from a magazine or cookbook, not many people attempt to make the Western-style cakes* that are sold in Asian countries like Hong Kong, Korea or Vietnam (I was surprised to read this style of cake is also eaten in Mauritius.). Partly, I think it is because people in Asia don't tend to have an oven (they are more likely to steam cakes instead). But it doesn't help that there are not many recipes published for the cakes sold in Asian bakeries**, and they are often quite elaborate and challenging to make at home.

* I say "Western-style cakes" because traditional Asian cakes are a different beast, from the thick and dense mooncakes, to the chewy, steamed, bite-sized kuih.

** By "Asian bakeries", I mean bakeries similar to those you would find in Asian countries, not old-school bakeries that happen to be run by Asians.

There are now plenty of Asian bakeries in Auckland, including Gateau House, La Couronne, Classic Bake House, Well-done Bakery, and Rio Kitchen.

The "Sponge"

It turns out the part of the cake which I had always thought of as "sponge" is only sponge in the general sense, an umbrella term for foam cake. The particular kind of foam cake used in Asian bakery cakes is actually a reduced sugar chiffon. You'll end up with a lighter texture than if you used a standard sponge recipe anyway.

Type of Foam Cake	Eggs	Fat	Texture	Other Comments
Sponge	Whites and yolks whipped separately	None (other than egg yolks)	Firm, yet well aerated, relatively dry
Genoise	Whole eggs	Butter	Airy, relatively dry	Rich flavour from butter. Less sweet than other foam cakes. Eggs are warmed before beating in sugar.
Chiffon	Whites and yolks whipped separately	Oil	Moist, light and springy	Rich flavour from oil. Often has added baking powder.
Angel Food Cake	Whites only	None	Delicate, light and airy	Highest sugar content to support egg whites.

There are all sorts of tips and tricks out there for baking chiffon cake, but the most important ones I found were:

• using an ungreased aluminium pan, so the cake can climb up the sides
• turning it upside down immediately after baking, optionally resting the pan on four glasses

The Cream

As you will see, the whipped cream topping was the part I struggled with the most. Freshly whipped cream tastes amazing, but I either overwhipped it and made it grainy, or it wouldn't hold its shape, and the cake looked like a mess by the time we went to cut it. No matter how hard I tried, my whipped cream did not have the amazing airiness and staying power of the commercial cakes.

I'm not sure what professional bakers use, but I wonder if it might possibly be an imitation whipped cream like Cool Whip or Pastry Pride, though I haven't seen these for sale in New Zealand, and I assume the flavour wouldn't be that great. The Cool Whip ingredients look pretty unappetising, with the main ones being hydrogenated vegetable oil and high fructose corn syrup, and containing less than 2% cream. Bakel's NZ has a new Easy Whip product that is made of dextrose, skim milk powder, vegetable oil, sugar, and stabilisers and emulsifiers. I guess that might be what you are eating if you buy something from those cheap, run-down bakeries.

Cool Whip Original ingredients from Kraft Brands website.

According to some posts online, whipped cream in bakeries holds up longer because it has a higher fat content, or has stabilisers added, such as pectin, xanthum gum or guar gum. Dr Oetker's Whip It product (available to home cooks in North America at least) contains dextrose, modified corn starch, and tricalcium phosphate.

You can achieve amazingly airy whipped cream by using canned whipped cream, as in Tatua's Dairy Whip. Nitrous oxide (N2O) is mixed into the cream and when pressure is released, foams the cream up to four times its liquid volume (compared to whipping by hand which only doubles it). Unfortunately, this whipped cream does not last long, and will go back to liquid form after 20 - 30 minutes.

Up until Lewis Road Creamery started selling double cream (48% fat) a couple of years ago, there was only one kind of cream for sale in New Zealand, with around 37% fat. I can't imagine bakeries making cakes with premium quality organic double cream, so I looked at what methods people used to stabilise their whipped cream:

• Adding milk powder - this was actually the only method I tried as I happened to have milk powder I wanted to use up. It didn't seem to make much difference for me though.
• Dissolving gelatin in hot water, then mixing into cream - the most popular method on the web, but you have to use it quickly after making it. Some also add cream of tartar.
• Using agar agar - vegetarian substitute for gelatin, either using the same amount or less.
• Cooking cornstarch before beating into cold cream - easy method but can give a grainy texture or floury flavour.
• Mixing in crème fraîche - also makes the cream tangier.
• Using processed ingredients like marshmallows, piping gel or pudding mix

Also, there's a buttercream recipe (fresh cream not needed) with rave reviews, which apparently has the texture of light whipped cream and is not too sweet. I'll definitely have to give this a go some time!

Cake Attempt #1: Chestnut Chiffon Cake

My parents gave me a bag of fresh chestnuts, so I decided to bake a cake with them in it. It really is a labour of love, because shelling chestnuts is a time-consuming exercise! Most recipes tell you to cut an X into the flat side, but I found it easier cutting a single slit along the rounded side of the chestnuts.

Shelling roasted chestnuts.

Although I had a tray full of roasted chestnuts, there was not enough there for the chestnut chiffon cake recipe I wanted to try, so I supplemented it with tinned chestnuts too.

Canned chestnuts (left) and roasted fresh chestnuts (right).

The sponge came out beautifully, though it did not rise much, presumably because I used baking paper, and did not invert the cake after baking.

Chestnut chiffon cake.

I used the fresh chestnuts in the lighter whipped cream topping, and the canned chestnuts in the intensely dark and delicious caramelly filling (enhanced with a nut flavoured liqueur).

Mixing chestnut cream.

I need to work on my technique a bit as the final cake was on the dense side, but the flavours were worth the effort!

A slice of chestnut chiffon cake.

Cake Attempt #2: Taro Chiffon Cake

Making a taro cake is a lot easier, because you can simply buy frozen taro from your local Asian grocer and steam it—it's not such a fiddly process as boiling, roasting and shelling fresh chestnuts.

Mashing steamed taro.

I used a Japanese chiffon cake recipe, and Eupho Cafe's taro filling (minus the coffee creamer). The chiffon cake came out very springy, but I found its flavour overwhelmingly eggy.

Japanese chiffon cake.

The taro filling was lumpy and solid when I first mixed it, but once I put it into the food processor for a few minutes, it turned into a smooth and fluffy spread.

Taro filling, smooth filling on top, lumpy filling at the bottom.

If it weren't for the strong egg flavour in the sponge, this would have been an excellent cake!

Cake Attempt #3: Durian Cake

In an attempt to reduce the egginess of the cake, I tried making an angel food cake, which only uses egg whites. Unfortunately, I lined the bottom of the pan with a circle of baking paper this time, and it made a crater when the cake was turned upside down.

Curved bottom of angel food cake.

It was also cloyingly sweet, though it did have a very soft and light texture. I ended up chopping it into cubes, coating it in dark chocolate, and palming it off to workmates.

Levelling the bottom of the cake.

Next, I tried Nasi Lemak Lover's Vanilla Sponge Cake. It had me baking the cake for over an hour, which was a lot longer than some other recipes, though admittedly at a lower temperature and for a higher volume of batter. The top of the cake split, and the outside seemed to have browned too much, so it was a bit dry and overcooked.

Overcooked cake.

I tried the recipe again, this time lowering the temperature at the end, turning the oven off altogether for the last 10 minutes. It rose promisingly high...

Cake rose high.

... but still cracked after further baking.

Flattened and cracked.

Although I turned it upside down for cooling, it actually shrank upwards (away from the bench), and ended up being pretty dark as well. The taste and texture of the sponge were pretty much perfect once I cut away the unsightly parts though.

Cake shrank on cooling.

With the chiffon sorted, I mixed up my own durian filling using about half a frozen durian (it takes a good few hours to thaw!) and about the same amount of sweetened whipped cream. I should have used a bit more sugar to bring out the flavour of the durian, but it seemed fine on its own, and I forgot to take into account the fact that the sponge part was not very sweet either.

Creamy flesh of thawed frozen durian.

I decorated the cake with whipped cream mixed with a bit of milk powder and icing sugar, and also added some slices of dried durian candy. Not the most beautiful of creations, but you'll love this if you like the aroma of durian!

My durian chiffon cake,

Cake Attempt #4: Mango Chiffon Cake

For my final cake, I made a mango chiffon cake with a layer of pudding mix in the middle, as well as custard (okay, maybe pastry cream is more accurate) and tinned mangoes.

I used the same chiffon recipe as before, but placed a piece of foil over the pan to protect the top of the cake once it started browning. I didn't get the same splitting and dark colouring I saw earlier, but it still sank even after being cooled upside down.

Some sinking in my chiffon.

Once you slice the top off, it doesn't really matter anymore though!

Chiffon cake, sliced horizontally.

I added less water to the mango flavoured pudding mix than instructed, so that it would have a more intense fragrance, but it was very sweet, so I thinned it out a bit again. I poured the liquid into a springform cake tin lined with baking paper, which wrinkled up from the moisture, as you can see in the picture below. After refrigeration, it set into a very slippery round of jelly which smelt more mangoey than real mangoes themselves.

Jelly-like mango pudding layer.

Although the jelly sat on top of the cake layer with no problems, the next layer (pastry cream with mango pieces which I dolloped on top) threatened to slide right off.

Pastry cream and mango layer on top of the pudding layer.

Indeed, that is exactly what happened, after the cake was transported to a restaurant, put in the fridge, and taken out again at the end of our meal. The entire top half of the cake shifted slideways, making it look like a spectacularly chaotic heap.

Top half of the cake slid to one side.

Looks aside, the cake tasted better than I expected, thanks in no small part to the Asian mango pudding mix, which also added an interesting texture contrasting with the softness of the cream and the sponginess of the chiffon. Thanks, artificial flavours and colours!

A very thin but tasty slice of mango chiffon cake.

This post is part of Our Growing Edge, a monthly blogging event aimed at inspiring us to try new things. This month, it is hosted by Pia from Joie de Vivre and Cupcakes, with the theme "party with friends".

A Week in Hong Kong: Sweet Soups @ Wong Kei Tong Shui (王記糖水)

(See closest Auckland equivalents)

The Cantonese love to have their dessert in the form of a sweet soup, or tong sui (糖水, literally "sugar water").  It can seem like too much food after dinner, especially when it's made with a filling ingredient like taro, kumara or beans, but it's no worse than having bread and butter pudding after a heavy meal, right?

In Hong Kong, we were fortunate enough to live not far from a little shop specialising in sweet soups.  Wong Kei Tong Shui (王記糖水) is close to the North Point MTR station, and on most nights, you can see a queue going around the corner of the street.  Actually, there are two queues: the shorter one on the left, closer to the shop, is the one for dining in; the longer queue on the street side is the one for takeaways.

 

Queues at Wong Kei Tong Shui can go around the street corner.

Since the tiny shop only has a few seats, we have always opted for eating their desserts from the comfort of home. The polystyrene containers come in two sizes: most desserts could be had small for 15 HKD or large for 17 HKD.  The large tub holds roughly twice as much as the small one, so it is no surprise that I have never seen anyone order the small size.

Two servers are constantly filling takeaway containers from vats at the front of the store.

Although there were probably over 20 types of sweet soups available, we only tried a couple which we ordered over and over again, because they were so delicious we didn't want to take a chance with anything else.

Some of the sweet soups available.

One was a taro sweet soup with coconut milk and sago, or wu tao sai mai lo (芋頭西米露) listed on the menu as heung wu ye zap sai mai lo (香芋椰汁西米露).  They always ask you whether you want it with a drizzle of evaporated milk, or faa naai (花奶).  It went so quickly each time that I never managed to get a photo.

Another dessert we particularly liked was boiled glutinous rice flour balls, called tong yuen (湯圓), in this case filled with ground black sesame seeds and served in a thin ginger syrup.  This geung zap zi maa yung tong yuen (薑汁芝麻蓉湯圓) is the default offering, though you can also ask for the balls to be served in one of the other dessert soups, such as the sweet black sesame paste, or zi maa wu (芝麻糊).

Half-eaten tong yuen filled with ground black sesame.

On Christmas Day, we turned up for our usual dessert fix, only to find the shop shut!  For the first time, there was a queue for the dessert shop next door instead.  There were a number of others who were surprised to see their favourite shop closed; some joined the neighbour's queue, while others turned around and walked away.

Fung's Dessert (鋒少甜品) struggled with the unexpected patronage, with several customers having to demand their food after a long wait.  There was a delay with our tong yuen (though at least that meant they were freshly made) and we were disappointed with the number of balls that were served (only five in the container, compared with the eight or ten from our usual store).  The soup it came in was also more sugary and less gingery.

We were not able to compare the taro sago dessert between the two shops, because Fung's did not offer this option.  Instead, they had mango coconut sago soup, served cold rather than hot, which was actually surprisingly delicious.  The black sesame paste they made, on the other hand, was watery and bland.

There's a reason why there's normally a long queue outside Wong Kei Tong Shui.  Why not try it out, next time you are in North Point in Hong Kong?

Closest Auckland Equivalents

* Cheuk Cafe (卓悦美食)
466 Dominion Road, Mount Eden
(09) 551 3013

The only sweet soup here is the mango and sago one, but they have an exciting range of delicious and inexpensive desserts, as well as Hong Kong style snacks such as hot sandwiches and curry fish balls.  Although I have seen "durian snowballs" (balls with a thin glutinous rice skin, filled with durian and whipped cream or icecream) at China and Red Guard downtown, Cheuk Cafe is the only place in Auckland where I have come across durian pancake, that is, durian and cream served in a folded crepe (another of my favourite Asian desserts).  They also have an exciting range of icecream flavours, including lychee, mango, rose, durian and black sesame.
[Added 31 August 2014: Cheuk Cafe is now closed, but you can see another blogger's review of the place here.]

* Guang Zhou Soup Shop (廣州燉品店)
952 Dominion Road, Mount Roskill
(09) 620 2625

This plain looking shop with its hand-painted sign sells both savoury and dessert soups, as well as herbal teas and dishes with more solid substance.  Don't worry about all the Chinese on the walls; they do also have an English menu.  Prices here are ridiculously cheap, with a small coconut sago soup, sweet mung bean soup, peanut paste or sesame paste dessert costing only $2.  They may not be the best specimens of sweet soups, though well acceptable for the price, as the coconut sago we tried was thinner than the desserts we have had elsewhere.

* Hansan (漢山越南餐館)
Various locations, including Panmure and Newmarket
See www.hansan.co.nz for addresses and phone numbers

This Chinese-Vietnamese chain has some thick coconut cream desserts, not really liquid enough to be called a sweet soup, but warm and satisfying all the same.  Flavours include Banana Sago, Sticky Rice and White Bean, and Taro and Sticky Rice.

Restaurant Details

Wong Kei Tong Shui (王記糖水)
5 Shu Kuk Street, North Point, Hong Kong (香港北角書局街5號)
+852 2811 5611

Opening hours:
Mondays to Saturdays 6pm - 3am

Still Missing Malaysia

Thanks to various bloggers, I've discovered that some specialties available in Malaysia, which I thought weren't available in Auckland, can actually be found here.  Things like fresh durian, fresh roti canai and banana leaf rice,which I'll go into in a minute.  And though I have yet to see another establishment sell a kaya toast set here since the demise of Kaya+Toast (mentioned in my previous post), it is pretty easy to create it yourself at home.  What I absolutely don't have information on, though, is the dish that my friends roundly regarded as our best meal in Malaysia: beef ball noodles from a stall in the basement of the Lot 10 shopping complex.  Not only have I failed to find a place which sells this in Auckland, but I have failed to find a recipe for it on the web, though there were plenty of photos in the search results.

A half-eaten beef ball noodle set.  The noodles were pale yellow to begin with and came with vegetables which also had a dark sauce on top.

"What do you mean", I can hear you asking.  "I've seen plenty of places around selling beef balls and noodles."  Well, yes, but they aren't the same beef ball noodles.  What you are probably talking about is beef ball noodle soup.  These were dry noodles, with a combination of two dark sauces ladled over the top, the secret ingredients of which I would dearly love to know.  I am pretty sure that the lighter of the two was made of minced pork, and I found something in the Asian grocery store which resembled the contents of the darker sauce: Chinese olives preserved with vegetables (gan lan cai, olive vegetable or 橄欖菜 on the label).  But what have they done with these things to make the sauces taste the way they do?

I'd rather dwell on my successes, so let me tell you about the dishes that I have managed to find...

Fresh Durian

Okay, so durian is not so much a dish as an exotic fruit.  Frozen durian can help satisfy a strong craving for its fragrant flesh, but nothing beats the taste of a fresh creamy durian.  Widely known as the King of Fruits in Southeast Asia, it is probably considered more a Tyrant of Fruits by those who dislike its strong odour and unusual flavour.  You'll never know if you are a lover or a hater of this plant till you give it a try, so round up your friends for a culinary feast (to share the fun, and because you will never get through a whole durian by yourself).

Knowing durian is in season and acting on a tip, I could already smell my target before I entered the fruit shop housing it.  After picking out a 2.5kg specimen (shipped over from Thailand) and getting it wrapped in newspaper, I placed it in the boot of my car for transportation.  I should have thought to bring plastic ziploc bags with me, because I could smell it in my car for a week after I brought it out for slaughter.  Having the beautiful, spiky ball in my hands was worth it though.

Fresh durians for sale in Newmarket

My durian, cut open

And the verdict?  This durian tasted just like the durians we ate in the streets of Kuala Lumpur, but there were some crunchy bits along with the soft, gooey goodness.  I am guessing I should have given it an extra few days to ripen before consumption.

Available for $13.99/kg at
Song Kee Fruit & Veges
5-11 Kent Street, Newmarket, Auckland (that one way bit under the Rialto carpark, opposite the Newmarket Plaza food court)
(09) 520 6288

Fresh Roti Canai

I've been told there are a couple of places in Auckland where you can buy fresh roti canai, spun out on order in front of your eyes.  I've only been to Tastes of Malaysia in Manukau, and I don't need to go anywhere else, because the roti canai here are exactly how I expect them to be, soft and layered, with some crusting on the outside.

Roti canai with Chicken Curry, served on a plastic banana leaf plate with a small salad garnish on the side

The only disappointing thing is that they were rather slow to arrrive.  Friends who ordered the mamak mee goreng got their meals first.  A very hungry friend looked on jealously and quickly ordered a mee goreng of his own, which still arrived before the roti he had previously ordered.

I should also point out that this place is in a food court, but since when has ambience been an issue in the pursuit of good food?

Roti canai being spun out

Available for $4 - $12 at
Tastes of Malaysia
"Food Junction" foodcourt, 615 Great South Road, Manukau, Auckland
 (09) 262 2066

Banana Leaf Rice

The first time I was introduced to banana leaf rice in the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur, I was blown away.  Eating off a banana leaf was quite a novelty on its own, but having a whole range of vegetarian side dishes to accompany your dhal/gravy on rice was even better, especially when I discovered that all those exciting options (deep-fried bitter melon slices were my favourite) could be topped up endlessly, all for the equivalent of about NZD$2.

On my more recent trip to KL, we only managed to find a banana leaf rice place in the upmarket suburb of Bangsar.  The food was equally delicious, with seemingly more meat and fish options, but you had to pay extra for top-ups of side dishes, which included deep-fried okra, leafy greens and cucumber chunks in yoghurt.  Some friends had the optional chicken rice and extra meat dishes, and we all had a refreshing lime drink, making for a most satisfying meal.

When I discovered a restaurant in Auckland offering banana leaf rice, I just had to give it a go.  The first thing that was different compared to my Malaysian experiences was that containers of food were placed in the middle for you to serve yourself, rather than having someone come around and dish up each option.  In both cases you have control over how much goes onto your banana leaf plate, but I guess in the NZ version, you could end up with wasted food at the centre of the table, and presumably the labour costs in Malaysia are much lower.

Another difference was that you could eat as much as you wanted.  Not just the rice and side dishes, but also the chicken and lamb curry mains (sorry vegos, you have to make do with the sides, unless you want to pay extra).  I've always felt somewhat shortchanged at all-you-can-eat places, mostly because I don't eat that much, and I can think of other places where you could have done better for less.  Well, I don't know of any other banana leaf rice restaurants in Auckland, but it felt a little bit more expensive than I expected anyway.

Although the food tasted good at Santhiya's, the most interesting bits were missing from their banana leaf Sunday Special.  You got a poppadom, but no pickles or salted chilli.  You got side dishes, but they were braised cabbage, grated carrot in a sweet vinaigrette, lentil and potato dhal, and a kind of chutney; I missed the deep-fried curiosities, the dark leafy vegetables, the unusual flavours of unidentified ingredients.

Side dishes for banana leaf rice at Santhiya's

Not the best picture of banana leaf rice

Whatever its shortcomings, though, I am glad to have found a banana leaf restaurant in Auckland.  It brings back pleasant memories, and it is always great to have more diversity in the food scene.

Available for $16 (lunch) or $19 (dinner) on Sundays only at
Santhiya's
1270 Dominion Road, Mount Roskill, Auckland
(09) 620 2986
Mondays closed.
Tuesdays to Sundays 11:30am - 3pm and 5 - 9pm