Steamed Banana Walnut Cake

Following my first attempt a week ago, I know I can do better. So I kept thinking how else I can play with the ingredients so that the cake will taste better. A colleague talked about having a banana cake recipe and the idea stuck in me. With some googling, I managed to find a recipe for steam banana cake.

After reading the recipe and more brain-work in process, I realised I should just modify from the earlier steamed chocolate cake recipe and incorporate banana and walnut into it. My recipe goes like this:

Steamed Banana Walnut Cake

1/4 butter (250g type)
1/2 can full cream milk
1 cup caster sugar
2 eggs, beaten
1 1/2 cup flour
1/2 tsp Baking powder
1/2 tsp Baking soda
1/2 tsp Vanilla Extract or 1 tsp Vanilla essence
1 bag walnuts, crushed slightly
3-4 bananas, mashed slightly

1. Combine castor sugar,evaporated milk,vanilla extract or essence and butter in a saucepan, stirring over low heat until sugar and butter is dissolved. Turn off the fire and keep warm.


2. Add the beaten eggs into the slightly cooled mixture and stir till well mix.


3. Sift the flour, baking powder and baking soda into a large mixing bowl then pour the eggs mixture over the flour and stir till well mix (cake batter should be runny). Add in the mashed bananas and crushed walnuts.


4. Heat up the steamer. Lined and greased a 8 or 9 inch baking pan.


5. Pour the batter into prepared pan and place the pans into the steamer and cover the top of the pan loosely with a piece of aluminium foil.


6. Steam over medium heat for 45 mins.


7. Cool the cake in pan before turning out for further decoration.

The cake came out very fragrant and the banana smelt was all over the kitchen. The cake was moist and soft, and the crunchy feel of the walnuts made the perfect complement to the cake. If the bananas were more coarsely mashed, you can also taste the soft bits of banana too!

Steamed Moist Chocolate Cake

I chanced upon this recipe and decided to make this my first attempt to domestic goddess-hood as it does not require baking (I don't have an oven at home). All I need to do is to steam it and it is supposed to taste as nice as the infamous Lana Chocolate Cake, which I had not exactly tasted before.

Woke up on a fantastic Sunday morning and got ready to get my hands on making the cake. I followed the recipe, word for word, line by line. Honestly, I was abit 'horrified' at the amount of butter, eggs and cream milk that goes into a cake. Imagine the calories! I could almost feel a surge of nausea coming up as I see 3/4 of the butter melting into the mixture. I thought to myself, the next attempt shall be a healthier recipe or at least a healthier version of the cake.

After getting the cake into the steamer, I went on to make the chocolate fudge topping. I did not have corn oil, and the smart aleck in me told me to use olive oil instead. Should be ok, since both are oil. Then the olive oil could not make up the required quantity, so I added peanut oil to top it up. I was crossing my fingers as I mix the oils in. Will someone die eating my cake?

After a 45 min wait, the cake was out of the steamer, extremely beautiful and fluffy. The chocolate topping turned out a bit too thick, hence it was extremely tough spreading it round the cake. And it also had the lingering smell of olive oil - thanks to my ingenuity! I topped it with walnut, such that at least it can look presentable. The verdict - the cake was soft and fluffy with strong cocoa taste. Steaming it was as good as baking. Texture was just as soft. Yummy!