Chinese Paper Wrapped Cupcakes

Chinese Paper-Wrapped Cupcake without a Sponge cake emulsifier.

Chinese Paper-Wrapped Cupcake with Emulsifier

Cupcake without emulsifier

Cupcake with emulsifier

 



The cupcakes I get from the Chinese bakery are a cross between a really light and airy sponge cake and a cake. Most of the recipes I have tried online give almost the same flavor as the ones I normally buy but not the texture or height. I finally gave up on my quest, mainly because my daughter's grandmother, who is Chinese was starting to laugh at my failed attempts. She went and bought me cupcakes to make up for not getting it right.
      Now, have you ever had one of those "Duh" moments? You know, you are working on getting something done or right and you finally notice the answer is right in front of you the whole time? Well, when I got the cupcakes from the bakery again and started looking at the ingredients on the label, there was not any mention of milk or butter. There was Vegetable Oil and other names I didn't quite get. I figured out those are from using an emulsifier and so I ordered a sponge cake emulsifier from Ebay. Being from the US that is the only place I could get a hold of some. I made the cupcakes both ways to see if it really made a difference and it does in texture and size but not really in taste. The cupcake on the left was the one done without the emulsifier and the right , with.
    Below I will give the recipe and in case you are like me and cannot get a hold of the cupcake molds I have some pictures showing how I set up the cups.

This is what I use to make the cups.

The spice bottle just gives the cup some weight and helps it from crushing in all the time.

My paper once it is wrapped around the cup. The spice bottle helps keep the cup from crushing in.

Paper wrapped cup placed into another cup.

Cups pushed together.

Finished Cups

  The items used to put the cups together are: Parchment Paper, 9 oz paper Cups ( No they will not burn or smoke, just make sure to take them out of the pan right after cooking, scissors,I use a heavy spice jar just to stabilize the cup and help push it firmly into another cup, and the pliers I use to get the cups apart because I sometimes get them stuck. Pliers make it much easier to pull the cups apart then trying to use my nails. Also, if you want your cupcakes to balloon out at the top then make sure your paper is bent out some. When you push the cups together you can fold the parchment over the lip of the bottom cup. Once you separate them you can straighten it back out but there will be more of a curve and your cupcake will balloon more then just going straight up. I had some left over cups that I folded the parchment down on and wanted to use them. All of the cupcakes from those cups looked like huge ice cream cones when baked.

Chocolate Chiffon Cake. Needs the chocolate mouse from the cake recipe to be good in my opinion.

Now, for the recipe I based it off of a magazine I have had since 2003. It is a collection of recipes sent in for Taste Of Home Chocolate Lover's Edition, Pg2 52 it is actually a chiffon cake, but I changed it a lot. Although, I did try making the cupcakes out of the written recipe before messing with it. I don't think I like them in chocolate form.

Here is my revamp for the Chinese Cupcakes without using the emulsifier because getting it is expensive and almost impossible here in the US.

Paper-Wrapped Cupcakes
Makes Approx 9
Oven 325  F  21-24 min


Ingredients:
2 Cups Sifted Flour
1 1/2 Cup Sugar
1 TBS Baking Powder
1 tsp Salt
1/2 Cup Vegetable Oil
7 Large Eggs Separated
3/4 Cup Cold Water
2 tsp Vanilla paste/ Vanilla Extract
(vanilla paste just shows the black flecks couldn't taste a difference between the two in this recipe.)
1/2 tsp Cream of Tartar

Directions:

1) In a large bowl sift together , flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt
2) Slightly beat your egg yolks
3) Make a well in your flour mixture and pour in, vegetable oil, egg yolks, cold water and vanilla
4) In a separate bowl beat egg whites with cream of tartar until you see stiff peaks, Do not over whip.
5) Fold egg whites into your flour/egg yolk batter.
6) Fill cups 80% full and place in oven. I set my cups in cupcake trays and go every other spot because the paper seems so bulky. Again do not let the cups sit in the trays to cool down. I know the cups I was using have a then film of wax on them and letting them sit the first time, left rings of wax on my tray. The wax washes off but I would rather not deal with it. It doesn't happen now that I take them out right away.
   When pouring the batter into your cups, be careful not to get batter on the parchment. It will burn, if you look at the pictures I have posted here, you will see that I managed to hit the paper a few times.


Good luck with these if you decide to try them. I hope you enjoy them as much as we have. I am no longer getting laughed at, so I am taking this recipe as a successful one.