Tea Cup Steamed Ginger Coconut Cakes

This week at I Heart Cooking Clubs our theme is "Time for Tea" - creating Donna Hay recipes which are perfect to enjoy with a cup of tea, are inspired by tea drinking, or even use tea as an ingredient.

I have to say that Donna has literally dozens and dozens of recipes that would fit the bill, so narrowing the choice down was by far the hardest part of this challenge.

Leafing through my copy of "Dining" (which is now published as "Entertaining"), I came across these Tea Cup Steamed Coconut Cakes.  Donna prepared hers in little Chinese tea cups, but I chose to use a selection of these gorgeous little demi-tasse cups which used to belong to my mother.

I made a few minor changes to the recipe:  I replaced the 1/2 cup of white sugar and 1/4 cup of palm sugar called for in the original recipe with 1/2 cup of coconut sugar, and I added some ground ginger for a little extra flavour.

The coconut sugar brought beautiful caramel flavours to these little cakes, which were very easy to put together (even for a non-baker like me), and they made a delicious afternoon treat with a cup of jasmine tea.  I also loved that, by virtue of these little cakes being steamed, I didn't need to use the oven on a hot and sunny afternoon.

Tea Cup Steamed Ginger & Coconut Cakes Recipe

Adapted from recipe by Donna Hay

from Entertaining

Makes 6-8 (depending on size of your cups)

Click here for a printable copy of this recipe

4x free range eggs

1/2 cup coconut sugar

1-1/2 teaspoons ground ginger

1-1/4 cups self raising flour

3 tablespoons dessicated coconut

Place eggs and sugar in a medium sized bowl and, using an electric mixer, beat mixture until it is light and thick - about 8-10 minutes.

Gently fold the sifted flour and ginger, along with the coconut, into the mixture.

Spoon the mixture into lightly greased small tea cups, and place cups in a steamer over boiling water.

Cover and steam until the cakes are puffed and firm - 10-15 minutes depending on the size of your cups.

Serve with jasmine tea.

If you would like to get to know Donna Hay a little better, and to see all the fabulous tea-inspired dishes my friends have come up with, then do go visit I Heart Cooking Clubs and check out the links.

I will also be submitting this post to Sweet New Zealand.  Inspired by Alessandra Zecchini, Sweet New Zealand is an event for all Kiwi bloggers (whether living at home or abroad), or all foreign bloggers living in New Zealand, to link up their sweet treats.  This month, the event is also hosted by Alessandra.

I'll also be sharing this post this week at See Ya In the Gumbo hosted by the lovely Michelle at Ms. enPlace, Weekend Cooking hosted by Beth at Beth Fish Reads, at Cook your Books hosted by Joyce at Kitchen Flavours, and at Foodie Fridays hosted by Designs by Gollam.