Yummy Toddler Foods: Steamed Pandan Muffins

I had a sudden craving for those extra-soft Chinese steamed cup cakes while browsing through photos of nicely steamed cakes. The recipe for the above pandan cup cakes is courtesy of the author of ‘Table for 2 or more’. Besides using natural pandan juice, I liked her use of coconut milk to enhance the flavour further.

The first attempt produced rather salty cup cakes as I accidentally doubled the amount of salt!! Argh. The same cup cakes were also rather tough in texture. So I asked the author of the recipe to help troubleshoot with the texture. It turned out that I overmixed the wet and dry ingredients. I learned that the trick was to use the muffin-making mixing technique – just mixed briefly until wet and dry ingredients are just combined and don’t be bothered by lumps of flour in the batter (those lumps would dissolve during cooking).

My second attempt was much better. I managed to get a soft eating texture. :) Hence, I think the product should be named steamed muffins rather than steamed cup cakes. I also learned that those Chinese steamed cakes I was craving for were made of rice flour. Okay, my next baking project to KIV. :)

Below is a photo of Hannah eating a too-much-salt-and-quite-hard muffin from my first attempt. She’s my greatest fan! She would eat almost anything I cook even when it didn’t turn out okay. Our darling girl :)