Old style Chinese egg cake calls everybody’s childhood memory. This is also referred as mini Chinese sponge cake.

Chinese egg cake

I am always wondering where those yummy little cakes are originated. But I am familiar with them when I was just a little girl. At that time, cakes were quite treasure because we cannot make them at home. However they are always available at larger stores. You can even smell the aroma from miles away.

Chinese egg cake

Growing up, I love to recall the food in my childhood from time to time. At the very beginning, this Chinese egg cake is steamed other than baked. Then at sometime, baked version was on almost every store. Compared with steamed version, I prefer baked version because I can still taste the raw egg taste even after adding lemon zest in the batter.After made this successfully around two weeks ago, I make this little egg cake at least twice every weekend for a quick breakfast.

There are many easy and quite yummy cakes during my childhood. This one is made with egg and flour and we have another one made with yeast and rice flour, check that recipe here-Chinese steamed  rice cake(sometimes is also known as sugar cake)

Chinese egg cake

The muffin tin I am using is around 50*15mm for each cupcake.

Chinese egg cake

The most important step of this recipe is to  whip the egg until really light(white and no large bubbles anymore). I would suggest using warm water to speed up the process in cold winter days.

Chinese egg cake

Chinese egg cake

I got lots of requests concerning about measuring the ingredients in volume like cups, tablespoons and teaspoons.For traditional Chinese stir fries or soups, I used to skip any measurement process and made adjustment based on personal experience. But I started measure in volume especially for seasonings once I realize that reliable personal experience need years of practice. I use my kitchen scale for almost all of my baking and dessert recipes, as the precise ingredient amounts are so important of a successful baking.   So Elaine still highly recommend buying yourself a kitchen scaleTechnology changes cooking skill only if you use it. 

However, I understand that many of you come across with a desperately needed recipe but there is no kitchen scale on hand. So I update this recipe with volume measurement. I am using US volume measurement. So 1 cup=240ml, 1 tablespoon=15 ml and 1 teaspoon=5ml.

Chinese egg cake

Chinese Egg Cake

Old-styled Chinese egg cake
4.86 from 35 votes
Print Pin Rate
Course: Dessert
Cuisine: Chinese
Keyword: cake, egg
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 20 minutes
Total Time: 30 minutes
Servings: 12 Making 12 mini egg cakes
Calories: 45kcal
Author: Elaine

Ingredients

  • 2 middle size eggs ,room temperature eggs
  • 60 g cake flour ,1/2 US cup
  • 40 g castor sugar ,around 3 tablespoons+1 teaspoon
  • 5 g oil ,olive oil or other vegetable oil around 3/4 teaspoon
  • warm water ,for speeding up the whipping process, not required in summer days.

Instructions

  • Preheat the oven to 180 C around 350F.
  • Prepare a larger container and add half full warm water, then place your mixing bowl on the warm water. Add eggs and castor sugar. Whip at medium speed until light and fluffy. And then use low speed to remove some large bubbles. This step is the key of success and may take 12- 15 minutes until the mixture reach the ribbon stage.
  • Shift flour in. Then use a spatula to combine well. And lastly add oil and well combined too.
  • Prepare a mini 12 paper lined muffin tin mold and pour the batter in.
  • Bake at the middle rack for 15 to 20 minutes until the surface is well colored.

Notes

The muffin tin I am using is around 50*15mm for each cupcake.
 
The Nutrition Facts is based on each single cake.

Nutrition

Calories: 45kcal | Carbohydrates: 7g | Protein: 1g | Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 27mg | Sodium: 10mg | Potassium: 15mg | Sugar: 3g | Vitamin A: 40IU | Calcium: 4mg | Iron: 0.2mg

Chinese egg cake

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223 Comments

  1. Hey, I was wondering if self raising flour would be alright. I am doing this for a school project. Hopefully you still reply

        1. Normal (all-purpose) flour won’t work. It has too much protein/ gluten. Spelt flour won’t work either. The cake won’t rise and become fluffy.

  2. I like your recipe because it’s simple and uses only few ingredients, however mine didn’t brown on top and had cracks on it, I don’t know where I went wrong. Btw, I whisked the egg and castor sugar by hand and made sure it reached ribbon stage, as soon as I added the cake flour, it formed small clumps of cake flour with bubbles. It turned out more like rice cake.

    1. Denise,
      The most possible reason I guess is that the egg is slightly over whisked, so it becomes quite hard to mix the batter as smooth. Or you need to use larger eggs.

      1. Oh okay, I wish I could show you a picture of how it turned out but there’s no option to post it in here. Thank you for your reply. Will definitely give this recipe another try!

  3. I’m not sure if I didn’t whip the eggs enough but my batch came out very small (only filled about 6 cupcakes). Any ideas on how I could try to fix this?

  4. I’m not sure how much water to use. The ingredients did not give exact measurements and I was hoping you would reply.

    1. Vienna,
      No water should be add in the batter. We only use it in order to speed up the whipping process. So it is very much depended on your container.

  5. Hello! I followed this recipe and beat the sugar and eggs past ribbon stage. I beat till soft peaks stage. Then when I added in the flour, it seems like the flour can’t be folded in well. When eating, there are small tiny clumps in the cupcake. Any idea what is the reason? The top of the cake is also quite sticky after cooling down. Wonder why. Overall is a simple recipe and we quite like the taste. Thanks!

    1. Maddie,
      Clumps in the cake is because the flour is not well mixed. And the sticky problem is because the baking time is not enough or the temperature of the oven is too low. If you love the flavors, continue practicing and you will get better result. I made this for 3-4 times before a successful result.

      1. Hi Elaine, sorry I didn’t get which flour is best this recipe. It looks good , I want to try it. Thanks.

  6. 5 stars
    Hello, thanks for yr recipe. My cake ended up being dry, tho it is light and fluffy… any idea why? Thnx lots 🙂

    1. Isabel,
      The bubbles are killed during the process of adding flour in. You need to be more gentle and quick next time.

  7. Hello there,

    Is it essential to add the oil in the last step? I felt that I messed up on the cake as usually you split the egg yolk and egg white in a separate bowl to whisk? Please can you also tell me if this is US measurement for the ingredients or UK?

    Thank you.