Making of mini cashew blueberry banana cakes for mommy!

I told my mom that I am into steaming cakes recently and promised to make her some sugarless ones.
Knowing my mom couldn't take hard food like nuts anymore, I told her I would grind them into powder and make them into cakes.
I am all set to make the mini cakes. This is a healthier choice as I have omitted sugar and oil. All these are substituted by natural ingredients. Sugar substituted by banana and blueberries.Oil by cashew nuts. I have done some internet searching, I seemed to be the only one using cashews as an oil substitution for cakes. I am not sure whether it will work but just do a trial and error. It works! And the greatest news of all is that my mom enjoys it! =)

Very own cashew blueberry banana cake

Sugarless Cashew Blueberry Banana Cake (No added oil/ fats)

Ingredients:

• ½ cup (75g) all purpose flour
• ½  tsp. baking soda 
• 1 egg
• 2 Tbsp. milk
• 1 big ripe banana or 2 small ones
• 12 roasted cashewnuts
• handful of blueberries (at most 1 ½  handful)
• 1 tsp vinegar

Procedure:-

homogeneous cashew nut and banana

1. Blend the cashew nuts to powder. Add in the banana and blend till homogeneous. Set aside.
2. Set up the steamer and boil the water over medium high heat
3. Whisk the flour, baking soda in a big bowl using fork for about 20 times. 
4. Then beat the egg in a separate bowl. Add in milk and vinegar and whisk together
5. Combine the two mixture and mixed till smooth.
6. Fold in the blueberries and cashew nuts +  banana mix.
7. Scoop the batter into the 4 prepared foil/ramekins cups that are lined with paper liners , load them into steamer (make sure the water is boiling) and steam for 10 min (depending on size of the steam cake, it can be anywhere between 8 min to 15 min)
8. Use a toothpick or skewer to test whether the cakes are ready.
9. Once it's done, take the cakes out and allow to cool.

Now you have your very own cashew blueberry banana cake! Enjoy!

Not giving up!!! I want to make sugarless banana walnut cake!

I failed to make the carrot, pumpkin cake for my girl. Nevertheless, I am not giving up and I am trying something new. Steaming on a frying pan! This is not my idea actually. I got this idea when I read Nami's  Just One Cookbook, she was steaming cakes in it. So I thought of doing the same. If you are into sugarless cake, you may want to try the below recipe. Otherwise, you may want to add 2 tablespoon of sugar when you are beating the egg.

Steaming cakes in a frying pan

Sugarless Banana Walnut Cake

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup (75g) all purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda 
• 1 egg
• 1/4 cup of yogurt
• 1 Tbsp olive oil
• 1 big ripe banana or 2 small ones ( I used 1 small one and the cake is not sweet)
• handful of chopped baked walnut

Below method is to prepare for 4 mini steamed cakes

Ingredients

Procedure:-

My batter

1. Chopped the walnuts. 
2. Set up the frying pan and boil the water over medium high heat.
3. Mash the bananas.
4. Whisk the flour, baking soda in a big bowl using fork for about 20 times. Otherwise sift them.
5. Then beat the egg in a separate bowl. Add the oil and yogurt and whisk them together.
6. Combine the two mixture and fold in the mashed banana and chopped walnuts. You may want to reserve 4 pieces of walnut to decorate the top of your cakes
7. Spoon the batter into the 4 prepared foil/ ramekins cups that are lined with paper liners
8. Put one chopped walnut onto each cup batter.  
9. Place all 4 foils/ ramekin cups into frying pan (make sure the water is boiling) and steam for 10 min (depending on size of the steam cake, it can be anywhere between 8 min to 15 min)
10. Use a toothpick or skewer to test whether the cake is ready.
11. Once it's done, take the cakes out and allow to cool.

Steaming in a frying pan, I can see through the glass cover

Well, one reason for using the frying pan is that I can see through the glass cover whether the cakes are rising. I was quite amazed and worried when I saw my aluminium foils cups 'swimming/ floating' around the pan. I kept thinking, will it work or will it fail? I was practically over the moon when the cakes did rise. 

Although the cake is not sweet at all (I used 1 small banana then), my girl loves it. I probably try to make again the carrot / pumpkin cake, but with lesser quantity of ingredient and more baking soda.

My steamed cakes

Noticed I didn't line 2 of the aluminium foil. I am testing out whether is there any difference in steaming with or without cake liner. It seemed that there is not much difference in size.

I am still trying to figure out why the cake sort of sucken after it is taken out of the pan.

Note: do be careful when steaming this way, I had put too much water once and the boiled water went into the cakes!

Experimenting with baking soda - steaming cakes

After the first success, I have been experimenting making cakes with baking soda. The first time, I make it with lemon juice.

I read that baking soda can act as a leavening agent with mixed with fruit juice, yogurt and vinegar. So, I went along experimenting.

On my second attempt, I tried mixing with mixing with yogurt. The result was a failure, probably due to a heavy batter (125g mashed pumpkin, 2/3 cup of shredded carrot , 1/3 cup of chopped walnut and 1/2 cup yogurt) and only 1/4 tsp of baking soda. The cake didn't raised and was more looked more like kueh. I have to steam it for 45 min for it to be fully cooked.

the cake wouldn't raise

looks more like kueh

Not wanting to give up, I tried again with a lighter batter. And it was a success! This time I used 1 small banana, some walnut and 1/4 cup of yogurt. I opt not to use sugar as I thought banana should be quite a sweet substitute.When I saw the mini cakes rise, I was over the moon! So, I am on the right track. The resulting cake is not sweet and it got me really excited to experiment more, what about increasing the amount of banana?

So the next experiment was a few days later, I promised to make my mom some. This time, I ran out of yogurt, I substitute with 1 teaspoon of vinegar. Hmm... I really wonder whether it would affect the taste of the cake but I guess a little won't hurt. This time, I grind some cashew nut into it. My mom can't take nuts as her gums are weak. I added also blueberries to make it even sweeter. The result cake, I find is rather sweet although I didn't add sugar! So, it really can be done by substituting with sweet fruit (they contain natural sugar) like banana and blueberries.

The only minus point of using baking soda is that you have to quickly bring the batter to the steamer or oven fast. Otherwise, they lose their leavening power and the cake may not rise.

That's it! Have fun making cakes with baking soda!