We are on a bit of an Indonesian fling at the moment, as you might have gathered. See my last post to find out how this came about. One of the desserts at our Indonesian pop-up dining event was these tiny pumpkin cakes. They are surprisingly tasty – just sweet enough with a hint of coconut.
We had several attempts at making them, and for the actual event I made 70 of them. Delicious as they are, I don’t think I will be making them for a while.
The trick in this recipe is to use the right balance of flours to get just that perfect texture – not too rubbery!
So here is the final recipe:
Ingredients –
Base layer –
200 grms steamed pumpkin
200 ml coconut milk
45 grms rice flour
35 grms tapioca flour
2 T brown sugar
¼ t salt
Dash vanilla extract
Top Layer –
180 ml coconut milk
25 grms rice flour
15 grms tapioca flour
1 T brown sugar
Method –
1 Put all base layer ingredients in a bowl and blend with a stick blender. Adjust salt and sweetener to taste.
2 Put all top layer ingredients in a bowl and blend. Also adjust to taste.
3 Get a steamer going on the stove.
4 Pour the base layer into greased mini molds, filling to about 75 to 80% to allow space for top layer.
5 Place molds in steamer. NB – Seal lid with a tea towel to absorb the moisture.
6 Steam for about 6 minutes.
7 Remove from stove and carefully pour in the top layer mixture to the molds. Take care not to disturb the base layer.
8 Return to steamer and steam for about another 6 to 8 minutes.
9 Remove from stove and insert green coloured coconut flakes as decoration/garnish
10 Remove molds from steamer and set aside to cool completely.
11 Once completely cool, remove from molds.
Notes –
1. The traditional garnish or decoration is pandang. We cannot get this here, so we took coconut shavings and soaked them in green food colouring, and then dehydrated them for a while.
2. It is important to use the tea-towel in the steamer lid, otherwise the tops of the cakes go watery.
3. The little molds I used were lent by someone. Not easy to find here in Cape Town. But you can just as well use larger cupcake size ones. Maybe steam for a few minutes longer to ensure set right through.
Everyone enjoyed these somewhat different treats.
Bon apetit!
