Totoro Bento & Steam Cake

A fire broke out in the unit above us just a few hours ago. Thank goodness it was confined to one room and the security guards managed to put out the fire before the firemen came. Nobody was hurt in the ordeal, but it was still quite frightening since it was so close to us.



I will continue posting my Halloween bentos next week. For today, let me share this Totoro bento first, as I want to update the Totoro steam cake recipe. Sorry for taking so long to update the recipe, I did see your requests, but I'm just awfully slow at blogging.


This Totoro bento is actually very easy to make. The brown portion is pork floss, the other ingredients used were rice, nori and pasta. I quite like how Totoro turned out, the pork floss makes him look quite fluffy.


I made these Totoro steam cakes for my boys' breakfast.


They are made using Morinaga pancake mix, same recipe as the previous few steam cakes I shared. If you do not have this pancake mix, you can click HERE to use this recipe instead. A reader shared with me that she used another pancake mix and it works too, so you might want to give that a try too.


My tummy is rumbling as I type out this post at midnight, no steam cakes at home now, but I do have lots of snacks hubby brought back from Japan, lol. Alright, have a good weekend, will be back to update my blog again next week. :)


Details for these steam cakes are in the recipe below.

TOTORO STEAM CAKE

Ingredients:
(makes 4-5 steam cakes)
150g Morinaga pancake mix
2 small eggs
30g sugar
45g milk
45g plain yoghurt
20g unsalted butter, melted
1 tbsp cocoa powder
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tbsp plain flour
1/2 tbsp cocoa powder

Method:

1. Whisk egg and sugar in mixing bowl.

2. Add in yoghurt and milk till well blended.

3. Stir in melted butter.

4. Sift in pancake mix, and baking powder and fold till well blended. Scoop out 1 tbsp of  plain dough to be used in step 6. Add in 1 tbsp of cocoa powder and mix well. Set aside 1 tbsp of the mixture and fill it in a pipping bag, you will need it for step 10 later.

5. Scoop 1 tbsp of batter from step 4, add 1/2 tbsp of dark cocoa powder, mix well. Spoon in pipping bag.

6. Using 1 tbsp of plain batter set aside from step 4, add in 1/2 tbsp of plain flour. Spoon in pipping bag.
7. Fill cupcake cups with remaining mixture, fill till around 70% full. Tap cups lightly to remove air bubbles.
8. Pipe on Totoro's details, start with the plain mixture, followed by the brown mixture. 

9. Steam cupcakes over preheated steamer on low heat for 12 minutes. When steaming, please cover pot lid with a cloth, to prevent water from dripping onto the cakes and spoiling the designs. 

10. Pipe out ears using brown batter from step 4. Pipe on a tray lined with baking paper, steam for around 3 minutes.

11. Make a cut with a knife on the cake, so that you can slot in the ears.

Where to get same or similar items used in today's post: