Chinese Smiling Steamed Cake or fondly known as 'Huat Kuih' is a famous cup cake among Malaysian Chinese culinary. 'Huat' - a Hokkien dialect, in layman's understanding could mean 'prosper' or 'expanding in volume'. The traditional Huat Kuih or Chinese steamed cake that I know of is made from rice flour but nowadays there are several variations to prepare it from wheat flour or even self-rising flour. To me, the fun of making Huat Kuih is to see them 'blooming' or 'flourishing' which is rewarding! In a way, these cakes are 'smiling' and that's how the name came about.

The recipe below is adapted from Lily's blog with a bit of twists and turns at my home kitchen.

Ingredients (makes ~ 10 steamed cakes)
2 cup self rising flour - I use HEB brand
2/3 cup brown sugar  
1/2 cup water
1 small can (5.6 fl oz - 165 ml) coconut milk - I use Chaokoh brand
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla essence

Method:
1. Combine brown sugar, water, salt and vanilla essence into a mixing bowl. Mix well.
2. Add coconut milk and whisk lightly.
3. Add self rising flour. Stir well.
4. Spoon batter into paper cups about three quarter full and steam for 15 minutes.

Tips: Ensure high heat is observed and prevent condensed water to drip onto these cakes during steaming.

Note: It works too when I attempted with whole milk instead of coconut milk.

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Comments (2)

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written by mk , February 05, 2010

looks nice How's the taste? I remembered my mom said can put ENO to make it bloom more.

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written by Shirley T , February 05, 2010

Thanks mk. Coconut milk's fragrant is strong and appealing yet not too creamy ('lemak'). Perhaps next experiment shall use ENO

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