SUGEE CAKE

A few weeks ago, Andrew set his heart on a sugee cake for his fifth birthday cake. This was due entirely to The Marvellous Sugee Cake by Quek Hong Shin. It’s one of a set of four children’s books, the other three being The Incredible Basket, The Amazing Sarong, and The Brilliant Oil Lamp. The illustrations are gorgeous and the writing is engaging and doesn’t grate (which is more than I can say for some adult SingLit, but I digress. The Stacey museums series by Lianne Ong is pretty good too, if you’re on the lookout for local children’s books). 

I wanted to do the sugee cake justice, because when it comes to making things like these, these occasion cakes, I know you will agree there is no doing things by halves. As it is when I make something for the first time – and I generally don’t like testing recipes for sweets so I have to get it right the first time I make them, haha – I spent Too Much Time trawling the Internet for sugee cake recipes. 

There were surprisingly few websites/ videos for traditional Eurasian sugee cake recipes (compared to other types of cake). And the recipes were either vague in some parts (e.g. 90% of the ones I found) or just really bossy in tone (e.g. Kitchen Tigress. But I guess with a blog name like that, what was I expecting?). Even the video Hong Shin made with his friend Andre was a bit vague. 

Anyway, I consulted Jessica at Sunset Railway Café – she makes sugee cakes to sell every week – and in the week before Andrew’s birthday decided to go with Mrs Cecil’s Sugee Cake recipe, with tips from Kitchen Tigress’ recipe (I didn’t want to use the latter because she had you measure your egg whites and egg yolks by weight. Not a bad idea if you are really picky about this sort of thing, but come on, separating eggs is already so sian, who wants to weigh yolks and whites after that???). 

Eurasian grandmothers might be rolling in their graves at the following, but if you, like me, were looking for a sugee cake recipe and found them all frustratingly vague, this is for you. I hope it turned up when you Googled and that is why you are here.

Caveats: 

• I prefer my cake on the less moist side, so this is not super rich and is a bit crumbly – but as I said,    my mother told me it tasted like sugee cake from an old-school bakery. I’ll take that. If you want a    sugee cake that is richer and moister, you’re better off bribing a Eurasian friend for their Top Secret family recipe, handwritten in neat cursive in a tatty, held together with scotch tape notebook whose yellowing pages are stained with rempah fingerprints. A recipe where the proportion of egg yolks and butter to semolina flour/ all-purpose flour is higher than what’s stated below will result in a richer, moister cake (duh). 
• I used my stand-mixer, and both the paddle and whisk attachments. I think a hand-mixer would do the job ok (bonus if yours has a whisk attachment).
• I made 18 cupcakes and a six-inch cake with my first batch of batter (doubled), but if you clicked here from my Instagram, you will know that the six-inch cake sunk in the middle, probably because I opened the oven door one too many times to check on the cupcakes. And, I confess, also to check on the bread I was baking at the same time. Moral of the story, don’t try to bake too many things at one time when you’re trying out a recipe for the first time. I scooped out the middle and the rest of it had baked up nicely, so that was ok. 

RECIPE

Makes one 8-inch cake. I used a dark springform pan, 3 inches tall. Line the bottom of the pan with parchment paper, and grease the sides with a liberal amount of butter.

Baked for 1 hour or so at 160C without fan. 

p/s also my apologies, the formatting is terrible but I haven't been writing often enough to spend the time required to look up formatting on blogger, haha. 

Ingredients

About 170g semolina, err on the side of a bit more, e.g. 175-180g (original recipe called for 150g, but see step 1b)

200g butter (I used salted, because I use salted butter for all my baked goods)

1 tablespoon brandy

6 egg yolks

140g sugar (original recipe calls for 150g)

2 tablespoons vanilla

80g all-purpose flour

4 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

40g whole almonds (I used skin on)

3 egg whites

Method

1.   Toast the semolina. 

• (a) Spread semolina thinly on a baking tray lined with parchment paper. 180C oven, no fan. Give it 10 minutes, take out the baking tray and give it a good stir, then stick it in for another 5 minutes.
• (b) I found that the semolina reduced in volume by about 20g after baking – so you want to start with about 170g semolina at least, to get 150g toasted semolina. 

2.    Toast the almonds.

• (a) When you take the semolina out to give it a good stir, you can stick the almonds in. No need to line the baking tray.
• (b) Remove toasted almonds and toasted semolina when the semolina is done, i.e. after the full 15  minutes of toasting the semolina.

3. Let semolina and almonds cool. The semolina should cool pretty quick as you measure the butter.

4. Cream the butter and semolina, and add the tablespoon of brandy to the mix as you are finishing up the creaming to incorporate (see 4b below). 

• (a) This is where I found most recipes too vague – “mix” the semolina and butter? “Combine” the semolina and butter? Do I melt it or what??? But thankfully Jessica was able to give me some tips. 
• (b) It’s actually like creaming butter and sugar. USE YOUR STAND-MIXER’S PADDLE ATTACHMENT. The butter should be room temperature (I admit I don’t bother with letting it come to room temperature from frozen, but you definitely should especially if you are using a hand-mixer. It doesn’t matter so much with a stand-mixer because it’s powerful enough to get the butter creamed from a frozen-ish state (but recipe bloggers are frowning, I know)). Do not cream for more than 5-8 minutes or so. Err on the side of longer if your butter is in a frozen-ish state. 
• (c) But because no mixer is made equally, I will just say – DO NOT whip the butter and semolina to death i.e. it should NOT be too fluffy and pale. If it is, this means you have overwhipped the butter and your cake might not have enough structural integrity (fancy term. Also King Arthur Flour did a write-up on over-creaming butter and sugar and why you Should Not Do So. I think similar principles apply here).

5. Let the semolina-butter-brandy sit for about an hour. I left mine out on the counter and it was fine, it didn’t melt and was still quite fluffy after an hour, but my house is generally quite cool even when it’s boiling outside. You might want to stick your bowl in the fridge.

• (a) It did cross my mind that if the point of creaming the butter and semolina is to incorporate air into the mix, wouldn’t the air escape if I let it sit for a while? But what do I know?
• (b) Jessica says an hour should be sufficient, but I know some recipes say to stick it in the fridge overnight. There’s never enough space in my fridge, so I didn’t do this. 
• (c) In Andre’s version that he made with Hong Shin, Andre soaked the semolina overnight in cream (see the YouTube video and the comments). 

6. If you’re using a stand-mixer, transfer semolina-butter-brandy to a clean bowl, if you haven’t already done so. Add egg yolks and sugar to the bowl you creamed the semolina-butter-brandy in (or if you’re using a hand-mixer, just use another bowl). WHISK the egg yolks and sugar (i.e. use the whisk attachment) until you reach the RIBBON STAGE.

• (a) This was also a step no one really bothered to explain in their recipes. Mrs Cecil’s sugee cake video tells you to beat the egg yolks and sugar until they are fluffy (or something). Which, ok, is kinda correct, but “ribbon stage” is a more commonly used term. It essentially means the stage where the egg yolk-sugar mixture is dropping off your whisk in “ribbons”, when you stop mixing. You can google videos of this.  
• (b) But note interpreting this step was pure guesswork, although to be fair the point of all these steps, after all, is to incorporate air into the batter for a cake that’s not too dense. 

7. Add vanilla extract to egg yolk-sugar mixture. Whisk to incorporate (I continued using the whisk attachment). 

• (a) Please don’t use Bake King brand imitation vanilla extract unless you really must. 

8. Add semolina butter to egg yolk-sugar-vanilla extra mixture. 

9. Sift the 80g all-purpose flour and 4 teaspoons baking powder (to avoid doubt, 80g is the unsifted weight of the flour) together. Add this to the mixture that resulted from step 8, together with a fat pinch of salt (I agared, since I used salted butter). You can continue using the whisk attachment to incorporate the flour, but since I am paranoid about you over-mixing the batter, better to just fold the flour in with a spatula. 

10. Remember the toasted almonds? Chop them in a food processor, then add to the batter. 

• (a) I went with around 25 pulses or so – you want a mix of bigger but not too big (I can also be vague) chopped pieces and finer almost almond flour like bits. You could also do this on a chopping board with a sharp knife, but I sliced into my left thumb chopping kale during Phase HA HA HA (was it only barely a month ago? What is time, in 2021?) and have been chary of chopping things ever since. Almonds have a tendency to bounce around when chopped, so definitely a no-go. 
• OR you could just buy ready chopped almonds, I won’t judge you. But then I don’t know about toasting chopped almonds (step 2), will they burn easily?

11. Whip the egg whites in a CLEAN, DRY bowl until the soft peak stage. 

• (a) I have a hand-mixer in addition to my stand-mixer, so I just used that. But if you are using your hand-mixer, please wash and dry the beaters before doing this. I’ve never tried, OBVIOUSLY, but every recipe blog I’ve ever read reminds me that my egg whites will not whip properly if my bowl and beaters are not squeaky clean. 

12. Fold the whipped egg whites into the batter. 

• (a) I did this in thirds, by hand, with a spatula. Do not use your mixer for this step. You want to be quick and thorough, and you don’t need to be TOO gentle with the egg whites. The key is to have a decisive folding motion and incorporate the egg whites into the batter quickly. 
• (b) Do not overmix – just repeat the folding motion until no streaks of egg white remain.

13. Scrape the batter into your prepared baking pan, bake cake. DO NOT OPEN THE OVEN DOOR UNTIL AT LEAST 50 MINUTES HAVE PASSED. If making cupcakes, I think this amount of batter makes about 12-18 cupcakes, depending on how full you fill the tin. I filled each hole slightly more than two-thirds, and they baked up to the top. Some also spilled over, but they were still good to eat. Check for cupcake doneness around 18-20 minutes in.

Parting comments

Decorate as you wish! I didn't make royal icing because I don't like icing (or frosting) (what is cake without icing/ frosting?) but I did put blue pea flowers on top (Popo brought some from her blue pea flower plant, all that were whole, she said).

  Crumb shot, after the blue pea flowers were plucked off the top of the cake and placed in water so Daniel could show the grandparents and uncles a "blue pea flower experiment" over Zoom (now everyone knows they turn water blue. "If you use hot water, they will release the blue more quickly!" said Popo. Did you know that?). Jessica also says the tunnels (holes) are because of air bubbles/ slightly too hot oven temp (I couldn't really hear her properly through her mask and the social distance ha ha).

#wfhdiaries: Days 33-37

When you can’t get your kids out of your hair:

Courtesy of the cover of The Economist, 30 April issue (The 90% economy)

This was actually Andrew’s class’ craft, 快乐的理发师 (Happy Hairdresser!), but Daniel asked to do one too. The boys’ end products are below. No prizes for guessing who created the above.

I see someone tried to wash the glue out of your hair. My, what large teeth you have!

Daniel’s class is embarking on learning 量词. To the question 小朋友们，你们家有几辆车呢？, I heard someone say FIVE! Daniel was momentarily flummoxed – I popped out of the study to check on him when I didn’t hear him joining in the chorus of responses, and came upon him staring at the screen askance. But Mummy, I have Lightning McQueen and Jackson Storm and all these other small cars, how do I count how many cars I have at home?

Jon also had some craft work. Imagine my ire when he realised he was supposed to contribute “L” instead of “A”. Waste rough paper only.

As you know, I made Taiwanese oyster meesua last week to celebrate the super nice thing that happened to Jon at work. But in the ultimate act of spousal betrayal, I procured all the key ingredients from Qoo10 (dried cuttlefish and frozen Korean oyster meat). Would you trust a company that suggests the perfect homecation would start with me unboxing a spin mop, and thereafter smiling beatifically as my helpful, well-behaved child and I undertook to mop the floor together?

Last week was super hectic at work, though I found it quite enjoyable, like old days. Because of it, I ended up having an unexpectedly heartfelt conversation on Saturday night with W, my old roommate, after I thought to tell her that I have over the years (and that is very many years, about 7 I would say) channeled the efficiency and focus she radiated the moment she barged into our room in the morning. I hated it at the time (of course), but I will always be grateful for the sense of discipline she helped instil through her exacting demands. The satisfaction and pride that the knowledge of a job well done brings cannot come about otherwise (though I can hear D snidely remark that it’s the competitiveness talking.)

But the week also reminded me, again, that it was right to have left so soon. I was snappier than usual with Jon and the boys, the fact of the matter being that when you’re both chionging, there just isn’t much, if anything, left for the kids or the household. The slack usually picked up by mothers is just left to… slack. And no matter what a wonderful learning experience! it is to realise that you cannot have or do it all blah blah blah [insert feel-good statements here], it’s just irritating AF when the slack is left to slack, like dishes being left too long in the sink, festering dirty laundry and tons of clean unfolded clothes, the eco-guilt of getting takeaway but really you cannot face cooking again….

The emails that need to be sent have been sent; no celebratory drinks by the river in these times (not that there were for a long time pre-CB anyway). These days the reward for the pleasant exhaustion is a book and a nap, maybe an episode of World of the Married...? I hope you are having a good public holiday.

#wfhdiaries Days 28-32

It dawned on me earlier this week that I am currently responsible for the boys’ vegetable intake. Prior to the CB I depended on childcare and to a lesser extent, grandmothers, to enforce vegetable consumption, so I knew the boys got at least one meal with vegetables a day. At home, Daniel kicks up a huge fuss if there is so much as a sliver of green in his food, and Andrew is at a stage where he just follows suit, so for most CB meals they’ve just eaten carbs and meat, and get their fibre from fruit and wholemeal bread. And, hopefully, Meiji biscuits (with oats – that’s the green coloured one). My mother is probably shaking her head as she reads this, but now she knows why we are all so vague in our responses during video calls. Are you eating vegetables? *giggles* *act cute* ok say bye to Popo.

The aforementioned epiphany struck when I realised that the big 32-pack box of Meiji biscuits with oats that I’d bought on Tuesday was more or less gone by Friday (each packet contains 7, I think Jon and I combined only ate 2 packets at the most, so by elimination you can guess where the others ended up). By Thursday, Daniel had already taken apart the box to make the beginnings of a “house” that has been torn down and is awaiting recycling.

M helpfully reminded me that there are “veggie” Meiji biscuits (tomato and assorted vegetables?), but I haven’t seen them anywhere recently; even the 32-pack boxes only made an appearance at my preferred NTUC on the day I purchased them. Perhaps other parents are facing the same dilemma as we are regarding vegetable consumption, though from what I can see on Instagram, it seems like everyone else’s pre-school children are more than thrilled to consume vegetables (but maybe those whose children are eating Meiji veggie biscuits in lieu of fresh vegetables aren’t posting about it, obviously not).

The theme of Daniel’s English/ Good Citizen class this past week was recycling. All well and good, but then 20 minutes before Andrew’s Chinese class a few days later I read the instructional email more closely (common theme, this. I confess to Nelsonian blindness on first readings) and realised that we needed two empty plastic drink bottles for the craft. We have not purchased drinks in plastic bottles for a very long time, and I wanted to tell laoshi that even if we had I’d have recycled them. Why isn't there a common theme across classes? So I ended up providing two take-out containers for the craft. Whatever floats your boat, right? 

Yes people it's a boat ok

Except that the boat also ended up getting taken apart before we could see whether it floated. Andrew’s English teacher has also sent me a message to ask me to send pictures or videos of Andrew’s “crafts” and any “work he has completed”. I sent her the  above photo of the boat, which she said she would forward to laoshi, and repeated her request, this time emphasising that she "needed" them, and adding cute thank-you stickers.

She can see the double blue ticks on that last smiling cat emoting a pink heart but I have not replied her. I suspect the stickers are her way of hiding how she really feels about the fact that I have allowed Andrew to, essentially, anyhow-ly with korkor, is my best friend! (Awwww.) After the Meiji biscuit with oats debacle, I realised that most afternoons Jon and I just ignore Them and really work, and we have no idea what They do. Or what Daniel does after Andrew finally deigns to nap (Mummy, I’m very tired, I want to lie down. *proceeds to moodily mooch at the window*). At least this past week we know he was consuming Meiji biscuits with oats.

Jon recently got through an intense period at work (well he’s still working intensely but the previous intensity was for a different reason) and so I felt more expansive this past week about the food we ordered. I went out on a limb and decided to try Artichoke’s Vietnamese deli set. It wasn’t mind-blowing, maybe because it was takeaway, but what it had going for it was that it was thoughtful and comforting. I appreciated how much they stuffed into the hoagie, and what they stuffed into the hoagie – the large, thinly-sliced pickles were a nice touch, just like how you would make them at home.

It was also the first time EVER that we tried anything from Artichoke (children, etc.). In fact I got lost searching for it, although we used to walk along that stretch of road back in uni when it was nice to stay out late and just walk around. We always called that yellow building the faux church.

I also took the plunge and ordered The Secret Mermaid’s all-day drink set. This was my third drink delivery from them during the CB (fourth if you count the drinks I sent to R). This CB is unleashing my inner alcoholic, except that I pass from the pleasant buzz to grumpy sleepyhead stage in less than half-an-hour, so perhaps it’s a bit of a waste. The drinks are excellent though, and they don’t stinge on the alcohol.

Frankly, I don’t think many of us will be going back to work in our respective offices any time soon (even after the CB is over) so for your reference, I leave you with a list of the best places we’ve dapao-ed or ordered take-out from this CB. Largely for the Clementi/Dover/Holland/West Coast area (one cannot cook all the time. Really. I love cooking but ---):

1. Nude Seafood (I drove down to collect it). Yes, it really is as good as it looks on your friend’s IG stories.
2. La Pizzaiola (Sime Darby). Currently 1-for-1. We usually order the four cheese pizza and spaghetti bolognese, and we finish it all in one meal. #carbs4lyfe
3. Blk 19A Dover Crescent kuey chap. The uncle collecting money and taking your order is grumpy AF but don’t be deterred. Order extra duck, you won’t regret it. The gravy is divine. Also at this coffeeshop: the best ice lemon tea in Singapore (price and taste wise, ask for siu dai, bring your own container), the shao la I ate a lot of when I was pregnant and therefore cannot eat so much of now.
4. 365youreverydayfood (Science Park).
5. Sunset Railway Café (down the row from Daily Scoop Sunset Way). Won’t deny it, we’re supporting the gentrification of our neighbourhood.
6. Sushi Tei. Nothing like a Rainbow Roll, no mayo.

#wfhdiaries Days 24-27

It has been a while since we’ve done any activity that required either Jon or me (usually me) to be the designated driver (“Designated Driver”). Not that we undertook many activities that required a Designated Driver before all this circuit breaking took place, especially after the boys came along. Jon used to say that he could probably still drive better than me even after he’d had a few drinks, not that this theory was or ever will be tested. It wasn’t that long ago I was sitting in the bowels of the TP building, signing minutes. The fate of a man, the power of a pen, and all that.

But far more important and enduring than the Designated Driver is the designated dishwasher (“Designated Dishwasher") (surprise, also me!). So imagine my consternation when Andrew sidled up and had the gall to solemnly inform me that I had to wash dishes like Papa, you know?, as he rubbed the palms of his hands together in imitation of Jon’s dishwashing. I suppose it has increased 100% compared to pre-circuit breaking days (1 to 2 represents a 100% increase), but the fact remains that as the Designated Dishwasher, even if I wash my hands off the dishes, I will still be washing my hands off the dishes. Instead, my nod to the customary Mother’s Day household chore concession was to only mop 2/3 of the house. Not that the last 1/3 mopped itself as part of the customary Mother’s Day do-goodery by one’s husband and children.

This past week, mothers all around Singapore were given the privilege of making a Mother’s Day craft with their child as part of HBL. Daniel, of course, interpreted Mother’s Day craft to mean that his mother should be the one assisting him in its creation, despite my pointing out to him that what this really meant was that his father should be doing so. But I got my own back when Teacher P asked what have we planned to do for mummy for Mother’s Day this weekend? by gleefully informing the assembled six and almost-six year olds and their accompanying parents (almost all fathers) that whatever we were doing, it would involve A L C O H O L. I kid, I kid, though I’ve probably had more cocktails in the past 3 weeks than in the past six years, thanks to delivery services and the fact that there is no need for a Designated Driver.

Teacher P replied Chloe, I thought Daniel was supposed to be making the flowers?  

I slunk off, properly chastened. But once the Zoom meeting ended, I finished the craft. Might as well make it pretty.

This morning, I got to enjoy almost 3 hours ALONE with a run and my favourite ice lemon tea because everyone else slept in (Jon splurged on aircon). Not a bad start to Mother’s Day at all.