Keto Paper-wrapped Sponge Cake (Hong Kong style)

Have you ever had a 纸包蛋糕?  It’s basically a sponge cake but a tall cupcake one.  It was one of my favourite cakes to get from a Chinese bakery and a classic item (as in not fancy, hipster cakes you can now get from places like Breadtop).

The cool thing was they were tall and wrapped in ‘paper’.  And were soft and light and only slightly sweet.

I found a recipe for a paper sponge cake (when I was actually looking for a general sponge cake) and then thought to keto-fy it!

I also reduced the original recipe down as it wanted 5 eggs.  So then I thought I’d make 1/5th of the recipe with 1 egg… but thought it’s harder to get the quantities right (less tolerant) when it’s such small  numbers.  So increased that initial thought to 2 eggs’ worth of ingredients.  And because I use a digital scale I did things in grams rather than in cups and teaspoons.  Also it works better I believe for my substitutions.

For the substitutions I used almond flour (the Costco/Kirkland brand as it’s ‘super fine’) and unsweetened almond milk (as I may as well stay on theme here!) as well as an erythritol / stevia blend of sweetener (Sugarless).

I’m not 100% happy with it as it collapsed after cooling but it tastes so good and is so light and fluffy still I am posting it up.  If I manage to recreate it better next time I will update the recipe.  You want to try and eat it on the same day — I ended up giving a couple to my mum and a couple to my neighbours.

Enjoy your tea time!  (or coffee time or just morning breakfast).  And you know what?  It’s only 1 gram net carb per cupcake!  (if you use erythritol you can subtract the carbs that come from it…  I know right!)

Print Recipe

Paper Wrapped Chinese Hong Kong style Sponge Cake 纸包蛋糕

I made this recipe for 6 cupcakes as you want to eat them the same day of baking them.  And to me 6 are still needing to be handed out to family and friends!  Feel free to double the recipe as it suits.  I was using weights and not cups etc as I was adapting the recipe from an original one that made more... and I made 40% of the original recipe!  I don't do fractions well but percentages work better for me haha!

Prep Time25 mins

Cook Time20 mins

Total Time45 mins

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: Chinese

Keyword: cake, Chinese, dessert, Hong Kong

Servings: 6 cakes

Calories: 302kcal

Ingredients

• 2 eggs
• 20 g butter melted
• 24 g unsweetened almond or coconut milk
• 40 g almond flour fine ground
• 32 g of sweetener I used an erythritol and stevia mix - Sugarless Stevia Organic -- you may want to powder the sweetener for a more consistent result.
• 1/8 teaspoon of vanilla essence

Instructions

• First preheat oven to 180 degrees C / 350 degrees F. Then line a muffin tin with parchment paper.
• Separate yolks and whites of eggs of the 2 eggs. 
• Add 1/8 teaspoon vanilla into egg yolks and whisk till combined. Then set aside.
• In a large measuring cup or bowl, combine melted butter and milk. (I just measured out both the 20 g of butter and 24 g of milk into a microwaveable bowl and put it in the microwave to melt the butter into the almond milk). Mix with a whisk or egg beaters or hand mixer. 
• Sift in 40 g of almond flour. 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 the 32 g of sweetener a little at a time (3 lots) and beat until soft peaks formed.
• Then lightly fold the beaten egg whites in 3 portions into the egg batter. Pour the combined batter into the lined muffin cases / parchment paper cases till 3/4 full.
• Next, bake in the preheated oven for about 20 to 25 minutes. Once cooked, remove from oven and cool on wire rack. (I take them out of the muffin tin to cool on the rack)

Notes

Tip 1: you can use muffin/cupcake liners too but to get a more authentic look use parchment paper!

Tip 2: To line the muffin tin with parchment paper, cut squares of parchment paper about 2.5 times the diameter of the muffin hole. I just stacked all the parchment squares together and then used something that fit into the cavity (I had a jar that fit perfectly) and put it in to 'squish' the parchment paper down. Don't worry too much as later the mixture will push the parchment paper down into each muffin hole. You will see in my pic that it isn't perfect but does the job and I think is better than the muffin/cupcake liners!

Tip 3: As the butter and milk get whisked together, I just measured out both the butter and milk into a microwaveable bowl and put it in the microwave to melt the butter into the almond milk. 

Note: my sponge cakes didn't stay puffed up and collapsed down. I haven't worked out why yet but the taste is still great and very much like a Hong Kong style paper wrapped cake and still feels light and airy!