Kueh Bahulu

I came home today on a mission:
To bake the perfect Kueh Bahulu.

When i was really little my Mom used to buy these for me and my sister.
So we would lounge on the couch munching on this precious little sponge cakes,
or snack on it in the pool.

It's perfect, spongy, bite-sized.
A dieter's dream.

In my lifetime (and that's totalling up to fifteen years), i have come across many a dry, chewy, bland Kueh Bahulu.
Thus i vowed that mine shall come out perfectly baked, just the correct amount of moisture (moistness??).

And then i realised i did not have enough eggs.
Why why why, does this always happen? I must start rearing chickens in my backyard because i am becoming the queen of oops-i-need-more-eggs-to-bake.

The recipe called for three eggs. So being the daring, risk-taking, never-say-never baker that i am (ahemmm), i decided to halve the recipe.

So i weighed the two eggs that i did have on my fancy little digital scale and took out a quarter of it.
No easy task, i must say.

So sadly, the rest of the recipe had to be sliced and i ended up with 18 little Kueh Bahulus to watch a whole season of Big Bang Theory with.

The first Batch was a little undercooked so the photos are of the second.

Kueh Bahulu is a traditional little Malay sponge cake that's supposed to be a tad bit crunchy on the outside and soft and spongy inside. I think it's eaten and baked around Chinese New Year and Hari Raya. But now I have the recipe i can eat it all the time (and frankly, that makes my waistline very afraid).

Now it's time to give your waistline the jitters. And i wouldn't worry about it if i were you. This is sponge cake. It is meant to be eaten in excessive amounts.

Kueh Bahulu

3 eggs

1 cup sugar

1 1/4 cup flour (sifted)

1 tsp Vanilla Essence

1/4 teaspoon Bicarbonate of Soda

2 tablespoons of cooking Oil/Butter (optional)  (i added this so that the cake would be more moist)

1. Beat the eggs with an electric hand-mixer until frothy. Then add in the sugar and continue to mix until well dissolved

2.Add in the vanilla essence and mix well.

3. Gently fold in the flour and bicarbonate of soda and add in the cooking oil or butter if using. Continue to beat with hand-mixer until well blended.

4. Grease Kueh Bahulu moulds and fill with batter. Bake in a preheated oven at 190 degrees C for fifteen minutes or until golden brown. Remove from moulds and cool on wire rack. Dust with powdered sugar, if desired.

The butter or cooking oil is entirely up to you. But i guess it's encouraged as it's way easier to slip out of the mould with it. Plus your little kuehs end up nice and moist.

I didn't have the traditional Kueh Bahulu moulds so i IMPROVISED (don't i always) and used a little cookie baking mould. Madeline moulds would work might fine, too.

So if you've got one of those, you're set. You have no more excuses to go into your kitchen right now and whip up a batch. It took me all but thirty minutes.

Unless, of course, you're out of eggs.