Steam Moist Chocolate Cake (almost Awfully)

Tasters say it’s almost like Awfully Chocolate, wow! A lot of good stuff went into this cake – varlhona, callebaut and lindor. The steamed cake body is soft and moist and I was almost afraid to handle it.

Suffice to say the taste of this popular cake is really awesome and chocolatey. I used the same can of evaporated milk to make the ganache, so no wastage!

I’ve made a 8″ cake here. The fudge is enough to cover the top with drip effect. But there are many possibilities, you can make two 6″ cake tins to stack, or make it in a Swiss roll tray, slice and then stack also.

You can also bake this! See details below. The texture is slightly firmer but still a very soft chocolatey cake.

Or, you can also bake them into cupcakes!

Recipe (8″ round cake tin, or 11″ by 11″ swissroll tray, or about 12 cup cakes )

Cake

120g plain flour
50g cocoa powder
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
180g butter or cooking oil (can reduce to 160g, i usually use 80g salted butter and 80g cooking oil)
200g evaporated milk
180g sugar (can reduce to 160g)
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract (optional)

Ganache

60g evaporated milk or whipping cream
15g butter
120g chocolate (can be chips or bar, good quality chocolate)

Method

1. Line bottom of 8″ cake tin and grease the sides. Sift flour, baking powder, baking soda and cocoa powder. Set aside.

2. Place evaporated milk, sugar, salt and butter (or oil) in a pot and heat gently on low flames. Hand whisk till butter and sugar have all melted.

3. Let it cool for a while. Add in vanilla.

4. Beat the egg slightly and pour it in. Hand whisk till well mixed.

5. Finally pour this wet mixture into dry ingredients and mix till no dry flour. Batter is watery. Pour into cake tin and cover loosely with aluminum foil.

6. Steam for 45 min until skewer comes out clean. Unmould and let cake cool on wire rack.

If baking, no need to cover with foil. Bake at 170 deg C for about 40-45min.

If baking in a Swiss roll tray 11 inch by 11 inch, baking time can be reduced to 20 min. This cake is not suitable for rolling. You can slice in 2 or 4 pieces and stack as layered cake.

If baking as cupcakes, fill up to 3/4 height into 12 cups, and bake at 180 deg C for 20 min.

7. Next, on ganache. Place butter and evaporated milk into a bowl. Microwave in bursts of 10 sec till hot or boiling. Mix butter and milk well.

8. Pour into another dry clean bowl of chocolate and let it seat for 30 sec, then stir with a butter knife. If necessary, you can zap in microwave in short bursts of 5 sec to make the chocolate melt further. Pour over cake and use butter knife to spread slightly towards the edges.