Japanese Steamed Cakes in Egg Shells

Earlier in the year, my friend Sally baked some adorable cakes in egg shells which were decorated to resemble little chicks. I thought it was such a wonderful idea. Since we are on the steamed cake theme for Aspiring Bakers this month, I adapted a Japanese Steamed Cake (Mushipan) recipe and made them in egg shells.

“Mushipan” in Japanese means steamed bread, but has a more cake-like rather than bread-like texture. It is easy as you can simply mix everything in a bowl; and healthier as it uses very little oil and sugar. The basic recipe can also be tweaked to include other ingredients such as green tea flavour or chocolate or even savoury items like vegetables and meat.

I love how springy and fluffy the cake is. However, the recipe doesn’t use a lot of sugar and isn’t sweet. For those with a sweet tooth, you may want to increase the sugar content a little.

Japanese Steamed Cake in Egg Shells (6 eggs)
Recipe from Just One Cookbook

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup (75 g) all purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 egg
• 2 tbsp milk
• 2 tbsp sugar
• 1 tsbp vegetable oil

Method

• To prepare 6 egg shells, crack a small hole at one egg gently and pour out the contents. Rinse the egg shell and pour out any excess water. (Keep one egg aside for this recipe and the rest to make an Omelette for dinner!)
• In a medium bowl, combine flour and baking powder and sift it twice. (Just One Cookbook recommends that you can whisk them about 20 times as a shortcut for sifting).
• In a small bowl, combine one egg, milk, sugar, and vegetable oil and whisk them all together. Pour the egg mixture into the flour mixture and mix until smooth.
• Using a spoon, gently fill the egg shells with batter till it is 2/3 full.
• Place the egg shells in muffin cups. Use some rice to stabilise the eggs if your muffin cup is too big (see picture above).
• Steam the egg shells over a large pan of water for about 10 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the cake comes out clean.
• Cut out almonds and raisins for the eyes and beak. You can also use other items such as chocolate chips or candies as decorations.
• When the cake has cooled a little, gently peel off the shell. Some of the cake will stick to the shell but that’s fine because it gives the chicks a fluffy look. Decorate as desired.