Coconut Sugar Sponge

So I fell very sick and took a long break from baking. It was a nasty flu bug and I had to see a doctor twice because the cough was so bad, I could not sleep at night and the cough was incessant. Was a little worried about taking medication, but the doctor assured me that it was safe. It was so much better and I felt like there was hope after haha.

So I baked a simple cake to brighten my day because it was getting frustrating being only able to lie down and rest rest rest. Though it was a simple bake, it felt like there is finally some normalcy in my life now. So here’s a simple sponge recipe adapted from Jeannie Tay’s gula melaka sponge cake. The coconut sugar was bought by the hub from Thailand and I thought I’ll replace the gula melaka with the coconut sugar and see if it worked. When I melted the coconut sugar, I already felt that the sugar lacks character and is very mild. I’ll use gula melaka next time. Nontheless, the cake was very soft and fluffy.

(Makes a 8 inch square cake)

Ingredients

• 100g top flour
• 70g canola oil
• 70g milk
• 60g castor sugar
• 50g coconut sugar
• 0.25 tsp salt
• 6 egg yolks
• 6 egg whites

Method

1. Chop the coconut sugar into small bits and boil with a bit of water to form a thick syrup.
2. Sift flour and salt together and set aside.
3. Line the base of the cake tin and preheat the oven at 160 degrees.
4. Whisk the yolks in a large mixing bowl till pale and add oil and whisk to combine.
5. Add milk and whisk to combine.
6. Add the coconut sugar syrup and whisk to combine.
7. Add the sifted flour and salt to the mixture and whisk to combine.
8. In a separate bowl, whisk the egg whites till soft peaks and add castor sugar gradually and whisk till firm peaks (meringue).
9. Add a third of the ready meringue to the yolk batter and whisk to combine, you need not be too gentle at this point because this step is to allow the batter to combine better with the rest of the meringue.
10. Fold the remaining meringue into the batter gently, so that not too much air escapes.
11. Pour the batter into the prepared cake tin and bake in preheated oven of 160 degrees for about 60 minutes in a water bath. A water bath means to place the cake tin (covered with aluminium foil if the base is removable) in a tray of boiling water to gently bake the cake.
12. Once cooked, remove from oven and cool inverted or remove from tin after cooling for a while. The cake should pull away from the sides of the cake tin after a few minute.

Really love the texture, but I’ll use gula melaka next time.