Salted Egg Cake
Salted egg has seen its fair share of fanfare in Asia. From burgers to pasta, croissants to cream puffs, lava buns to chip flavouring, the mania around salted egg has only grown in the past few year. And if you’ve been to Changi airport in Singapore, you’ll know the crowd-crushing craze that is salted egg fish skin chips. (Yes, it’s a mouthful to say, but you won’t be saying much when you’re munching on these after braving the queues)
While at first, salted egg might seem like a food fad, unlike other fads though, the hype around salted egg feels different. Because unlike rainbow unicorn cakes and kale smoothies, salted egg isn’t a new invention. It’s been around for over a thousand years, a preserved food that persevered through time, and this recent buzz around it is just a fresh chapter in its steady rise to culinary stardom.
And to have found a salted egg recipe on an international food site just goes to prove this point! It really made me so happy when I spied this recipe for a salted egg pound cake on Food52’s site, developed by Coral Lee. Honestly, I was so stoked and surprised to see salted egg being represented on American soil. And it made me wonder, hmm, maybe this could be the next chapter in the salted egg saga—a simple pound cake gilded by salted egg.
It’s simple, sure, but that just speaks volumes about how salted egg can elevate even the most straightforward of dishes. And I could continue to wax lyrical about the power of salted egg—and I did on episode 4 of my Take a Bao podcast, on the history and culture of salted egg!—but for this cake, Coral puts it best when describing her recipe:
“Here, cured egg yolks provide a rich saltiness that heightens the sweetness—and deepens the savoriness—of pound cake. The sugar migrates pan-ward, creating a crisp, lacquered crust that yields to a tight crumb. Look out for stray bits of salty egg yolk; if you are like me, you’ll pick them out, and feed them to the person you love.”
Rich saltiness. Heightened sweetness. A lacquered crust. Feeding loved ones. That is the power of salted egg.
Salted Egg Pound Cake
based on Coral Lee’s recipe on Food52
makes 1 cake
Ingredients
350g all-purpose flour
8g (2 tsp) baking powder
10g (2 tsp) salt
350g caster sugar
4 eggs
4 salted egg yolks
460g unsalted butter
Directions
Melt the butter in a pot or a microwave, and set it aside. In a bowl, sift the all-purpose flour, baking powder, and salt together.
In a stand mixer with the whisk attachment, whip up the whole eggs (not salted egg yolks) and caster sugar until it turns fluffy and has doubled in volume. This will take 3-5 minutes on a medium-high speed. Then, mash up your salted egg yolks and add it in. (It’s okay if the salted egg yolk isn’t mashed till completely smooth, it’ll add some texture to the end product!). Next, stream in the melted butter and whisk it for another 2 minutes. (It’s okay if the butter is still warm, as long as it isn’t scalding.) Then, fold in the dry ingredients in 2-3 incorporations. Don’t overmix the batter; once you don’t see any streaks of flour remaining, it’s done.
Heat the oven to 165°C (convection oven). Prepare a cake tin or a bundt pan and grease it lightly. Then, pour the cake batter into the cake tin. Give it a few taps on your tabletop to release any trapped air bubbles. Then, bake it in the oven for around 1 hour and 15 minutes, or until a cake tester poked into it comes out clean. When done, let the cake cool on the wire rack for 10 minutes before unmolding.
Eat cake!