During my recent visit to Malaysia, I made it a point to look for some moulds for kuih-muih (traditional Malaysian snacks/desserts).  I was so excited to buy the mould to make Kuih Bahulu, one of my favourite snacks, and yesterday I finally made some, just in time for Chinese New Year!

Kuih Bahulu are mini sponge cakes made in the shapes of flowers or goldfish. I guess they are sort of like the Malaysian answer to French Madeleines. Kuih Bahulu are especially popular during the festive holidays, such as Chinese New Year and Hari Raya Puasa. They’re best fresh out of the oven, when they’re crispy on the outside and deliciously soft on the inside.  I love having them with a cup of black coffee. 🙂

For cakes, I always use eggs at room temperature, but this recipe uses cold eggs and it seems to work fine.  The only thing was that when I was trying to remove the cakes after baking, they stuck a little to the mould, and so some of them didn’t have a nice, complete floral shape.  Next time I’ll have to try greasing some more.  So there’s definitely room for improvement.  But they’re pretty easy to make and they tasted great!

Happy Chinese New Year!

(Adapted from Nasi Lemak Lover)

KUIH BAHULU

Ingredients:

3 large eggs (56g-57g per egg)
120g caster sugar
35g cake flour
70g self-raising flour
Vegetable oil, for greasing

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400F (200C). Grease Bahulu mould.

2. Sift cake flour and self-raising flour together, set aside.

3. Remove eggs from the fridge, add into a large mixing bowl and add in sugar. Beat until pale, thick and fluffy (I use a hand electric mixer, 4 minutes at high speed 4, 11 minutes at speed 2, 1 minute at speed 1). Meanwhile, place Bahulu mould in the oven to preheat for 5 minutes.

4. At the slowest speed, add in flour in 3 additions.

5. Remove Bahulu mould from the oven, spoon mixture into mould and fill 100% full (so you can have cakes with nice rounded tops).

6. Place on the middle rack of the oven and bake for 12 minutes, or until golden brown.

7. Remove from oven and place on wire rack. Using a toothpick or bamboo skewer, prick the cakes to lift out, Cool on wire rack. Store in an air-tight container once cooled, and consume within 2 days.

Note: For subsequent batches, grease warm mould again and place in the oven to reheat for 5 minutes before baking the rest of the batter.