This tea cake recipe is simple and easy to do, and it has a light flavor and color. Because it’s steamed the cake is really nice and moist as well. I also decided to use a little bit of agave in this recipe to make it naturally sweet. The recipe itself isn’t too big either it makes a nice sized cake. It’s great for anybody out there who wants to experiment with moringa, but you don’t have an oven. This is also great for if you’re just looking to experiment with steamed cakes, and moringa. I would say that this recipe is beginner to intermediate, it’s not too hard especially if you’ve made steamed recipes before. If it’s your first time, making steamed recipes isn’t too hard, it’s just important to have the right set up for steaming.
Ingredients for the Tea Cake:
- 2 Room Temperature Eggs
- 2 ½ Tbsp. Oil, Melted Butter, or Ghee
- 2 ½Tbsp. Agave or Honey
- About a ¼ cup of yogurt
- ¼ cup Sugar
- 1 cup Flour
- 2 Tsp. Baking Powder
- 2 Tsp. Moringa Powder
Notes:
- I decided to add in a little bit of agave in this recipe to give it a nice naturally sweet flavor. If you want you can also use honey. If you don’t want to, or don’t have any, then you can use 2 1/2 Tbsp extra of sugar.
- You can increase or decrease the amount of sugar as well, according to your taste.
- As for the moringa, if you do want a stronger color, you can increase the amount but I wouldn’t suggest increasing the amount more than a teaspoon, otherwise the flavor will come out too much.
- I used a hand mixer for this recipe, because the recipe isn’t too big. You can also do this recipe by hand, it just might take a little longer.
- It’s not totally necessary to have room temperature eggs, especially in a basic recipe like this, but it’ll make it easier to mix, and also mix better and more evenly with the other ingredients.
- If you forgot to take your eggs out like I always do, just fill up a bowl with some warm water and put the eggs in, it works like magic!
- If you’re watching my old videos and see me doing the complete opposite of the things I mention here, please don’t mind it. I was young, and didn’t know the tips and tricks that I do now!
Directions for setting up your steaming area:
- First you want to find a large pot to use, and fill it up about halfway with water.
- Next you want to find some kind of stand or rack to use, I use one of the racks from this set on Amazon. If you don’t have a rack or stand to use, then use some other bowl or elevator. Then put in your cake pan. When I make steamed cakes, I don’t actually use a cake pan, but it’s probably the equivalent to a 9” cake pan.
- After that wrap a kitchen or tea towel around your pot lid, this is to prevent any condensation from dripping onto the cake and also to make a good seal for when we’re steaming the cake.
- Start heating up the water while you make the recipe, because you want to be putting the cake into already boiling water.
Directions for making the cake:
- Start by combining the dry ingredients (Flour, baking powder, and moringa) I would recommend sifting them together to avoid getting moringa lumps.
- For the wet ingredients, start by mixing together the eggs, and the agave or honey.
- Add in the sugar and the yogurt, mixing well in between.
- Then add in the dry ingredients. If you’re using a mixer, then make sure to do this on the lowest speed, you don’t want to over mix this part. The batter should look a nice light green.
- Then grease your cake pan, if you want you can use a parchment cake liner, but it’s optional.
- To make it easier, I would suggest putting the greased cake pan in the pot first, and then adding in the batter so that it’s easier.
- Then cover the pot, and steam the cake on medium heat for about 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the cake comes out clean. The cake should also look nice and risen.
- You can take the cake out of the cake pan, and decorate it however you like. I decided to make it simple and dust a bit of powdered sugar on.
Baking with Moringa:
You can change the amounts of the moringa in this recipe, but do consider the color that the moringa gives. I wouldn’t suggest lessening the amount of moringa in the recipe otherwise you might not see much color come through, and you can increase the amount to get more color but also keep in mind that you might taste the moringa as well, and I would say that moringa is an acquired taste. For a few of those reasons I would also recommend starting with a little bit, and experimenting from there. Also like I did in this recipe, I would always recommend sifting it with the dry ingredients because the last thing you want is a huge clump of moringa.
Where Can I Purchase Moringa?
I got my moringa powder from Amazon, you could probably also find it at Whole Foods Market, and Super Supplements.
Here is what I use for my moringa powder.
