A Traditional Delicacy That Brings Back Memories: Paper Wrapped Chinese Sponge Cake 纸包蛋糕
This petite looking cup-shaped paper wrapped Chinese sponge cake is simply irresistible. Also known as 纸包蛋糕 or Paper Wrapped Cake, this cake is a classic sponge cake, most popular in Hong Kong. These cakes have a traditional look, just like the ones sold in the Asian-style bakery shops.
Soft, Fluffy and Filled With Eggy Goodness
These paper wrapped cakes have a traditional taste as well and the unmistakably eggy aroma of fresh eggs. It’s not greasy and not too dense. It is light, soft, pillowy and tastes absolutely delicious. Just perfect for tea-time or a whole day snack. Above all, these cakes are extremely easy to make.
Delicious and Super Easy To Make Too
Unlike most other cake recipes, this traditional sponge cake does not have any leavening such as baking powder. Hence it is suited for those who do not like leavening agent in their baking. Just make sure the eggs are well beaten and they will act as leavening for the cake batter to rise when baked in the oven. Also be sure not to mix too much when folding the whipped egg whites into the egg batter, as this will deflate bubbles from the eggs.
Gently transfer the cake batter into paper-lined muffin cups, fill till almost full and bake till the top turns golden brown. You will surely be pleasantly surprised when these cute cup-shaped soft and fluffy cakes are removed from the oven. Looking at these super soft and moist paper-wrapped chinese sponge cakes certainly brings back a lot of old taste and childhood memories.
As always, Enjoy!
Paper Wrapped Chinese Sponge Cake
Paper Wrapped Chinese Sponge Cake 纸包蛋糕
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Ingredients
- 5 eggs
- 50 grams butter, melted
- 60 ml milk, room temperature
- 100 grams all-purpose flour, sifted
- 80 grams sugar
- ¼ tsp Vanilla essence
First preheat oven to 180 degree C. Then line muffin pan with parchment paper.
Separate yolks and whites of eggs. Add vanilla into egg yolks and whisk till combined. Then set aside.
In a large measuring cup or bowl, combine melted butter and milk. Mix with a whisk. Then sieve in all-purpose flour. Continue to mix well.
Add in the egg yolk mixture. Mix again till smooth and set aside.
Next, beat egg whites in a clean mixing bowl with low speed until bubbles formed. Then, add sugar a little at a time (3 portions) and beat until stiff peaks formed.
Then lightly fold the beaten egg whites in 3 portions into the egg batter. Pour the combined batter into the lined muffin pan till 3/4 full.
Next, bake in the preheated oven for about 20 to 25 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Once cooked, remove from oven and cool on wire rack for 5 minutes. Lastly remove the baked sponge cake to cool completely on wire rack.
Serve these super soft and fluffy chinese sponge cake for afternoon tea or anytime you desire. SO ENJOY!
46 comments
Can you use paper muffin cups instead?
Should be able to use paper muffin cups but I have not tried. Do let me know how it turns out. Btw, some of the bakery stores do sell ready made wrapping paper cups as well. Thanks
Thank you for the recipe. The sponge cakes came out great. The idea is to make it for a family get-together. My parents ate them all before the family arrived.
Thanks for your feedback. Great to know your family enjoyed. Stay safe and take care as well.
Do you sift your eggs?
No, I didn’t sieve the eggs. Just separate the egg yolks from the whites.
Hi I would like to try your recipe can you please convert it into us for me please thank you
You can use the ingredient converter function in the recipe. Just click “US Customary” to get the converted units.
Looks so yummy,looks very much like those wrapped cup cakes on scotts road Singapour.I’ll try it soon.
Thanks for viewing. Do let me know how it turns out.
I would like to try this recipe, but I’m having trouble converting it to US measurements. When I click on the US Customary, it is still confusing. Can anyone tell me exactly what measurements they used for the butter, flour and sugar please?
I just made this tonight with one minor change because I didn’t have milk (substitute with heavy cream diluted in water) and it turned out beautiful! I did have to add a tiny amount of some cream of tartar (1/4 tsp) to my egg whites to get stiff peaks. I baked it in the muffin tin (20 minutes) and popover tin (23 minutes) and got that golden color . Thank you for sharing the recipe!
That’s great to know. Thanks for the feedback and sharing your work. Enjoy!
baked this and the eggy taste is great
Is the 180C using a convection or convention oven? Thank you for sharing this recipe! I’ve tried it a few times.
I use a convection oven. Thanks
Hi Angie,
I would like to try your recipe. Can you convert it to us metric?
Hi,
Can you convert gram to US metic? I would like to try out this recipe.
Thank you so much
You can try this:
https://www.thecalculatorsite.com/cooking/cups-grams.php
Hi Angie,
My the top of my cupcakes become very moist overnight, how do I prevent this from happening? Also, my cupcakes are quite light in colour compared to yours, how do you get that lovely orange tone?
Thank you!
Hi Rachel, this usually happen if you store the cakes in airtight containers before they are completely cooled,
causing some condensation to form. If your cakes are too light in colour, perhaps you have not bake long enough. Everyone’s oven
temperature is different.
When you whip the egg whites, do you whip them to soft peak or stiff peak stage? I saw in the recipe it says soft peaks, but in the video it says stiff peaks.
Sorry for the confusion. The egg white should be beaten till stiff peak. Then gently fold into the egg batter. Thanks
Hi Angie, Thanks for this recipe. It tastes great but like the others, my cake sinks once they come out of the oven. I will try it again as my partner loves the taste. Can I ask a few questions to give me the best chance of success next time?
1. Does it matter when we mix the melted butter, milk and egg yolks, that they are at different temperature? Butter is warmer than room temp, milk and eggs are at room temp.
2. I saw your previous comment stating to use icing sugar instead of castor? Can I ask why? I’ve been using castor so far.
3. I cook this in a 20cm pan and I’ve tinkered the oven and times a number of times now. I thought in my last try, I got the temperature right because it rose beautifully in the oven, the top was not too dark and not too light and when I opened up the oven to test the middle it was cooked through first go. Unfortunately, it didn’t last very long and sunk when I left the oven door open for it to cool before transferring it across to a rack. You mentioned to tip the cake upside down….should I do this straight after its finished baking and onto the bench?
Sorry for the long message, but I really want to get this right. It’s a lovely tasting recipe! Thanks so much again!
Hi Tee,
1.yes, it is important to use room temperature eggs, butter and milk when baking. Batters made with room temperature ingredients are smooth and evenly incorporated, hence producing light, airy and evenly baked cakes.
2. Not sure what you mean by using icing sugar. This recipe uses castor sugar.
3. To prevent the cake from collapsing, the egg whites should be beaten to stiff peak form. When you fold the egg whites into the batter, do it lightly using a spatula. Do not beat or use an electric mixer for this and do not stir the mixture. This will prevent the cake from collapsing. Actually there is no need to tip the cake upside down. Just remove them to cool on wire rack. It’s only natural for these cup cakes to shrink a little when they are cooled down.
Hope this helps.
What kind of sugar is used? just regular granulated white sugar or the confection (powder) sugar? Thanks! I want to make this for my dad, I hope he likes it:)
Use fine sugar, also known as castor sugar for this recipe. Do not use powder sugar. Let me know how it turns out and hope your dad will like them. Enjoy cooking.
can i add baking powder to this to make sure it will rise?
Hi, there is no need to add baking powder. Just make sure the egg whites are beaten to the stiff peak form, and fold in lightly, then your cakes won’t collapse. Do not overmix, hence the batter will rise when baked in oven.Thanks
I baked my cakes until I inserted a toothpick and it came out clean but the cakes still came out a little dense on the inside. Any idea why?
Is the temperature of the oven hot enough? The cake if bakes too slowly will take longer time to set and may fall, causing a dense texture on the inside.
Is it possible to use this recipe to make a cake in 9inch pan?
Yes, you can as long as your cake pan is not too large. But you need to turn the cake upside down once they come out from the oven as this cake is very light and fluffy and they will easily shrink in the middle. Hope this helps to clarify. Enjoy!
Hi Angie once the cake finishes baking, do we take it out of the oven straight away and flip it upside down or should we give it some time to cool in the oven before doing so?
Just take it out from the oven when it is baked through to cool on wire rack.
Hi, I noticed in the youtube video, it mentions 120g of sugar but on the recipe ingredients and method page it only says 80g. I baked this two times and both times they were deflated and now I think I know why… it’s disappointing to use up ingredients and for it to not look like the ones you made. I put it in the middle oven rack as well but did not change the result. Thanks for sharing though, it does taste good but just really deflated.
Hi Ann, sorry for the inconvenience caused. Yes, the recipe calls for 80g sugar instead of 120g. There must have been an error when the Youtube video was uploaded then. Thanks again. Happy Baking.
Hi Angie, thankyou for the clarification, I will try to make this sponge cake again next time and see if it works better. The taste is definitely great just need to get it to be puffed up like the ones you made. Maybe I will try it at a slightly higher temperature or make sure to beat the egg whites to stiff peaks in a quicker time. Thanks again for the recipe!
Kind Regards,
Ann
Used this easy to follow recipe and had excellent results first time.
That’s great, enjoy!
My cakes keep deflating after coming out of the oven – any idea where I went wrong?
Cakes usually sink when the batter is not thoroughly cooked. Everyone’s oven is different so you may need to see what is the optimum baking time for your oven. Or perhaps the temperature is too high causing the cake to rise too rapidly, hence the deflate after that.Try inserting a toothpick in the centre of the cake and it should comes out clean if fully cooked.
Sometimes over beating the batter can cause the cake to collapse as you are incorporating too much air in it, hence the air will cause the collapse. Hope this helps. Enjoy
I tried this today. Taste is great but my parchment paper is too hard to push into the muffin liner. Any suggestion for the paper?
Try to use a thin parchment paper.You can use a smaller glass or cup to press down on the parchment paper to form a liner and keep its shape.Otherwise, I think you may want to try to shop for some ready muffin liners for this cake. ENJOY!
Nice recipe..
i tried to follow it exactly and think i did pretty good. but the cakes didnt rise.
right out of the oven they were denser than i was expecting, and after a couple hours thy have sank down…
the taste is just right though. and the color. but not the fluffiness. any advice on what i did wrong?
Everyone’s oven is different. Hence you need to find the optimum baking time for your oven. Usually cakes sink when the cake batter is not completely cooked. Try inserting a toothpick in the centre of the cake and it should comes out clean if the cake is done. Hope this helps. Enjoy!