Raisin Egg Cake {Chinese Bakery Style}

Instructions

Make Homemade Cake Flour In Advance:

• Homemade cake flour is easy to make using organic unbleached all-purpose flour. Simply steam the all-purpose flour in a bamboo steamer double layered with organic cheesecloth. Wait for it to cool and dry, then roll it into powder again and store it in an airtight large glass jar. Read here for a detailed guided recipe.

• If you decide to use homemade cake flour, do it a couple of days in advance.
  

Prepare the Cake Batter:

• Measure out and gather ingredients. A kitchen scale is a very handy tool if you cook/bake a lot.
• Separate egg whites from egg yolks. Place all the whites in a Stand Mixer bowl, along with 3 tsp white vinegar. Add the yolks to another large mixing bowl, along with avocado oil, milk, vanilla extract, citrus blossom super extract and apple cider vinegar.
  
• Sift the flour and salt and set it aside.
  
• Use an electric handheld mixer or whisk to whisk the egg yolks with the rest of the ingredients very well until fully blended. Set it aside to let the foam and bubbles settle.
  
• Turn the Stand Mixer to medium-high (e.g. 6 out of 10), and set a 6 minutes timer. Add sugar after 2 minutes along the whisking process. Carefully add the sugar slowly by sprinkling it into the Stand Mixer. Stop the mixer once the egg whites volume expands significantly and forms peaks and the peaks stay.
  
• Add the sifted flour/salt to the egg yolk mixture, add in batches and fold into the mixture. Do not stir, but use a fold motion. No need to be perfectly blended either at this point. It is more important not to over-work the flour, otherwise, it may get doughy.
  
• Add half of the whisked egg whites to the batter mixing bowl, using the fold motion. Remember not to stir, but only fold the meringue into the batter. A silicone spatula is a handy tool that does scraping. scooping and folding motion all in one.
  
• Pour the cake batter into the Stand Mixer, fold the rest of the meringue into the cake batter and then pour the cake batter back into the large mixer. Let the silicone spatula touch and scrape the bottom of the mixer and then flip so what is in the bottom is now on the top. Just be patient and continue to use this fold motion until the meringue is blended with the cake batter.
  
• Separate the raisins individually if they are sticking to each other and then just add them to the cake batter. No need to mix, as we don't want to over-work the batter. As you scoop out the batter just be mindful of picking up raisins evenly.
  

Bake the Raisin Egg Cupcake:

• Preheat the oven to 350 F (~177 C).
• Line the cupcake/muffin pan with a liner, and use a large spoon to scoop the batter and fill each opening almost to the top. Garnish with raw pumpkin seeds. This recipe makes 6 jumbo-sized cupcakes or a dozen regular-sized cupcakes.
• Add the cupcake pan to the oven, middle rack, and bake for 25 minutes. Then turn off the oven but leave the cupcakes in the oven for additional 10 minutes before removing them from the oven. The last 10 minutes will brown the cupcakes nicely.
• Enjoy a nutritiously yummy Chinese Bakery Style Raisin Egg Cake!