This steamed lemon and thyme cake, is sweet with a hint of sour lemon. Because it’s steamed, it’s also pretty much impossible to overcook. How good is that?
Steamed cakes are nothing new. You can find examples of it all over the globe. From the Malay sponge cake, to the Britsh pudding. While nowadays, baking cakes in the oven is more common, that wasn’t always the case. Until pretty recently, an oven would not have been standard kitchen equipment. But you don’t need any fancy stuff to create some steam.
While I used an Instantpot and a special waterbath cake tin with a lid, you can make a steamed cake with far simpler tools. All you really need is a pan with hot water, a covered heatproof bowl and something you can place in the pan to keep your cake above water.
There are pro’s and con’s to using steam. Steaming is actually a very efficient way of making a cake. Because of the steam, the cake doesn’t dry out. So it’s very difficult to overcook a cake with steam. The biggest con is that you don’t get that baking taste. After all, the cake doesn’t brown when steam it. Steamed cakes are light and moist when they’re fresh and warm. But unfortunately, they loose that moisture as they cool down and become more dense.
For that reason, this steamed lemon and thyme cake is best served warm. Either serve the cake immediately or leave it to cool and store it in the fridge until you need it. Then simply reheat it in the microwave for a minute or so.
Apparently, steamed cakes also keep well in the freezer. But I haven’t personally tried this. If you do try this, let me know how it went!
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- 170 g flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp thyme optional
- 2 eggs
- 150 g caster sugar
- 8 g vanilla sugar
- 100 ml sunflower oil
- 1.5 tsp lemon extract
- 100 ml milk
- 50 ml Lemonjuice
- 1 pinch salt
Ingredients
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- Prepare your baking tin, by greasing the inside with butter or oil. Then dust with flour and tap out the excess.
- I used a 1.2 L waterbath cake tin. However, you can also use a heatproof bowl covered with layer of baking paper and kitchen foil. But whatever you use, make sure it fits into your steamer.
- Mix the milk with the lemon juice and set aside. The vinegar will sour the milk, creating a kind of instant yoghurt.
- In a mixer-bowl weigh the wet ingredients: eggs, sugar, vanilla sugar, sunflower oil and lemon extract.
- In a separate bowl, combine the dry ingredients: flour, baking powder, thyme and salt.
- While mixing, add all the ingredients together. Alternating between the dry ingredients and soured milk, add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients in the mixer-bowl.
- Pour the mixture into your cake tin and put on the lid. (or cover with baking paper and kitchen foil.
- Place the trivet into the Instant Pot and add water. Keep the waterlevel just below the trivet, so the water doesn't touch the cake tin. Place the cake tin on the trivet and put the lid on the Instant Pot. If you don't have an Instant Pot, just use a large pan on the stove.
- Cook the cake on high pressure for 25 minutes, leave it for 10 minutes, then quick release the pressure. If you're useing a pan on the stove, bring the water to a gentle boil. Allow the cake to steam for 45 minutes. Check regularly to make sure there is still enough water in the pan.
- Take the tin out of the Instant Pot (or pan) and leave to cool for about 10 minutes. Then remove the cake from the mould.
- Serve the cake warm with lemon curd or some vanilla ice cream.
