Vanilla Sponge Cupcakes (香草海绵杯子蛋糕)

The cake is fluffy, moist and not too holey. The buttercream is velvety smooth and not too rich or too sweet. The roses look reasonably like roses, and stayed that way without air-condition.

Yup, I'm happy with my vanilla cupcakes.

My sponge cupcakes are made with whole eggs, i.e. the eggs aren't separated. This method is a bit tricky because yolks and whites whisked together deflate easily when you add flour and butter/oil. Deflated batter makes cupcakes that are dense and hard.

I make light and fluffy sponge cupcakes that are moist, not dried out like some sponge cakes tend to be. And the crumb isn't too holey. How do I do it?

I whisk the eggs, along with sugar and a bit of glucose, till the ribbon stage, i.e. when I lift the whisk, a "ribbon" falls in a steady stream and sits on top of the mixture without sinking.

The eggs are now thick, with some air bubbles visible. To prevent the cake from being too holey and rough, I have to get rid of these visible air bubbles. How do I do that? By whisking slowly for a few minutes, till the eggs are silky smooth, i.e. I don't see any air bubbles.

Once the eggs are whisked to the right thickness and smoothness, I sift cake flour into the mixture. If it goes into one spot, all in one go, the flour would sink and stick to the bottom of the bowl. I can loosen the flour with a spatula, right? Sure I can but the eggs can't stand that much agitation. By the time I'm done, the mixture would be horribly deflated. Solution: sift the flour into the bowl in two lots, and move the sieve around as I sift. Done this way, the flour doesn't sink like it's in quicksand but sits nicely on the eggs.

After adding each batch of flour, I mix it with the eggs using a whisk. The objective here is not to mix evenly yet but quickly spread out the flour in the eggs so that it doesn't clump and form lumps. I have to stir gently, without the whisk touching the bottom of the bowl at all. The bottom half of the eggs is undisturbed, so it has no chance of deflating. It acts as the support for the top half, and prevents that from deflating as it's being mixed.

Milk, oil and vanilla extract are stirred together, then gently drizzled around the bowl so that some of the mixture – the more the better – sits on the batter. Next, I mix a bit with a whisk to gently and quickly spread out the amount that hasn't sunk and disappeared from view. Again, the whisk doesn't touch the bottom of the bowl.

I now have an uneven batter, right? I switch to a spatula and scrape down the sides of the bowl. Then I fold the batter, scraping the bottom of the bowl, and I keep folding till I don't see any oil or flour. I now have an evenly mixed batter that's totally billowy, not deflated.

The batter is very light and airy, so it sets very quickly in the oven. To make sure the top is nicely golden brown when the inside is done, I add a bit of glucose to the eggs before I start whisking. I also move the cakes a bit closer to the oven's top heat for the last five minutes of the baking.

What makes the cupcakes moist? It's the combination of oil, milk, glucose and sugar. Can you leave out or reduce any of these ingredients? Of course you can. Hey, you can leave out the flour, eggs, salt and vanilla extract as well and bake empty muffin pans in the oven if that suits you. Whatever floats your boat, you know? And if your boat sinks, or you have no boat to speak of, please don't ask me why.

VANILLA SPONGE CUPCAKES (香草海绵杯子蛋糕) (Recipe for 8 cupcakes) Cupcakes 100 g eggs 6 g glucose 40 g castor sugar 40 g cake flour 1/16 tsp salt 10 g full-fat milk 30 g corn oil add to milk ½ tsp vanilla extract add to milk and corn oil Buttercream (source: adapted from WendyinKK) 50 g sugar 30 g egg white 85 g unsalted butter, soft but not too soft Preheat oven to 180°C. Place paper liners in 8 muffin cups. Place muffin cups on baking tray. (Paper or cardboard moulds are good too. This recipe isn't fussy about what it's baked in.) To make cupcakes, whisk eggs, glucose and castor sugar till ribbon stage, i.e. mixture is pale and, when whisk is lifted, drips back into bowl and stays visible. Sift half of cake flour into egg mixture, moving sieve around bowl so that flour isn't clumped in one area. Gently stir just top part of eggs with whisk, till you see only a bit of flour. Sift remaining half of flour as before. Add salt. Repeat gentle mixing, this time till you don't see any flour. Stir milk, oil and vanilla extract till well mixed. Gently drizzle mixture around bowl. Mix with whisk till you don't see any oil, again stirring just top part of batter. Using spatula, scrape down thoroughly and fold till just evenly mixed. Divide batter equally between muffin cups, i.e. 27 g each. Bake 10 minutes on middle shelf till batter is risen. Transfer to upper-middle shelf. Continue baking till golden brown and slightly springy when pressed, another 5 minutes or so. Remove cakes to wire rack. Wait 5 minutes. Unmould. Serve whilst warm and top is slightly crusty. Alternatively, leave till cool and serve topped with buttercream. To make buttercream, cook egg white and sugar over low heat, whisking constantly and checking from time to time if sugar is melted by rubbing drop of mixture between fingers. When sugar is just melted, whisk on high speed mixture till thick, glossy and cold. Add half of butter. Whisk on high speed till well combined. Add remaining butter. Whisk on high speed till mixture is stiff. Pipe or spread on cupcakes as desired. Recipe makes enough for frosting 16 cupcakes, or 8 if you're a pig.

Pandan Chiffon Cupcakes (班兰戚风杯子蛋糕)

Pandan chiffon cake hot from the oven is way better than cold pandan chiffon cake.

That's a bit like saying Bill Gates is rich, or Angelina Jolie has thick lips. We all know that.

So when was the last time you had pandan chiffon cake that was still hot?

WHAT? You've always had PCC stone-cold?

Oh . . . my . . . God . . . . Oh dear, POOR YOU!

Why don't you eat the cake hot, or least warm?

Because you bake chiffon cakes in a chiffon pan, and those have to be cool before you can unmould them?

Hey, ditch the chiffon pan! Let's bake cupcakes!

Small chiffon cupcakes can be much fluffier than big chiffon cakes baked in a tube pan.

Why's that?

Because the taller and wider the cake is, the less fluffy it has to be or it'll collapse.

A pan with a tube in the middle makes the cake narrow. But the "tube cake" is very tall compared to a cupcake. It must have a denser structure than its small brother or it caves in after it's removed from the oven. Hence, it can't be as fluffy as a cupcake.

All cakes lose some of their fluffiness as they cool down. Those that have butter or coconut oil lose more because saturated fat is liquid when hot but hardens as it cools down. Pandan chiffon cakes made with coconut milk are at their fluffiest when they're still hot.

Not only is pandan chiffon cake fluffier when it's hot, it's also  more fragrant. And there's something about hot PCC, psychologically,  that makes everyone go "Wow!" and "Oooh!"

My recipe comes with a warning: the pandan chiffon cupcakes crack. If there aren't any cracks, then the cakes aren't as fluffy as they should be.

The cracks close up once the cakes are removed from the oven but you'd still see the "scars". If you like your cakes scarless, then this recipe isn't for you. Or maybe you could use icing sugar as a concealer. A bit of makeup always helps.

Do the cakes have a sunken top like Hokkaido cupcakes? No. The top should be flat or very slightly rounded, not caved in, after the dome subsides.

Once you get used to chiffon cake hot from the oven, you may never go back to eating it cold. Unfortunately, no one sells cakes hot (save for chocolate lava cake?). That means every time you want to eat chiffon cake, you have to bake it yourself. Of course, if you're smart, you get someone to bake it for you. I guess I'm not so smart since I'm the one who bakes.

PANDAN CHIFFON CUPCAKES (班兰戚风杯子蛋糕) (Recipe for 8 big cupcakes) 60 g egg yolks 25 g castor sugar 50 g corn oil 50 g young, light green pandan leaves rinse thoroughly and drain; chop roughly  75 g undiluted fresh coconut milk blend with chopped pandan leaves; press with potato ricer to yield 65 g green milk; discard pandan pulp 1/8 tsp salt 80 g cake flour ¼ tsp baking powder sift with cake flour 150 g egg whites 60 g castor sugar Measure and prep ingredients as detailed above. Line eight 180 ml moulds with parchment paper. Preheat oven to 200°C. Whisk egg yolks and 25 g castor sugar till thick and pale. Add corn oil. Whisk till well combined. Add 65 g green milk and salt. Whisk till evenly mixed. Re-sift sifted cake flour and baking powder into mixture. Whisk till just evenly mixed. Set aside. Wash whisk thoroughly. Whisk egg whites till thick. Gradually add 60 g castor sugar whilst continuing to whisk. Keep whisking till egg whites just reach firm peak stage. Add egg whites to yolk mixture in 3 batches, mixing till almost even after each batch. Scrape down thoroughly. Fold till just evenly mixed. Bang mixing bowl against worktop 3-4 times to get rid of big air bubbles. Fill moulds with batter, about 60 g each. Tap moulds gently against worktop to level batter. Bake till cakes are golden brown and slightly springy, about 20 minutes. Cakes should crack after first 10 minutes. Transfer cakes to wire rack. Wait till cracks close up, about 5 minutes. Unmould and serve.