Here's a good question for Lunar New Year from reader Beckys.
I saw the neatest recipe for Bolu Kukus - an Indonesian cupcake that is steamed. I cannot locate the special moulds anywhere. They look like individual muffin pans, but have holes in them. I loved the look of the cupcakes and am really dying to try them. Have you ever heard of them or know where I can find the moulds?
We went looking for these steamed cupcakes, and we quickly found this blog post at For the Love of Baking:
• Bolu Kukus Merged with Kue Mangkok
We discovered that Bolu Kukus cakes are light and airy, and they are baked in what looks like individual muffin tins perforated with small holes. You can see better photos of the moulds here:
• Bolu Kukus at Kitchn Cake
We also struck out on the search for these molds, however. We discovered a mention of them in the comments on the first post linked above; it seems that these are best brought back from Indonesia, if you have a friend or family member there.
We would also suggest searching out any Southeast Asian restaurants, shops, or bakeries you can find, and seeing if you can track these down locally.
If all that fails, it seems that you can also make these in regular muffin tins.
Any other tips for Beckys?
Related: Recipe: Kenny Lao's Rickshaw Dumplings
(Image: Flickr member p3nnylan3 licensed for use under Creative Commons)
© 2009 Apartment Therapy
I'd think you could drill some holes in a muffin tin pretty easily. Although I'm not really clear on how you fill up perforated muffin tins with batter.
view hyperRevue's profile
Scratch that last part. They're lined with cupcake cups.
view hyperRevue's profile
Might be tough to fit a muffin tin if you're trying to fit it in the usual stovetop steamer. I wonder if using perforated foil cupcake liners lined with the usual paper cupcake liners would work since they can hold their shape without using a muffin pan. Or maybe just use those paper nut cups--you can find them at Michael's. I've baked cupcakes in them without any problem.
view OneWallKitchen's profile
There's a photo here using individual cups. Maybe you could jimmy something up like that, like cut-up soda cans?
view OneWallKitchen's profile
These are simply beautiful - they look like blossoms.
view Pixie's profile
Awesome!
view sally599's profile
Try silicone individual muffin tins. It should be a lot easier to get holes in these puppies:
http://www.buy.com/retail/product.asp?sku=210559661&listingid=35696980&dcaid=17902
view caw261's profile
http://www.cooking.com/products/shprodde.asp?SKU=101499
Also try this popover pan...I would think that you could give it a shot w/o drilling holes. It's probably going to still get you a good result.
view caw261's profile
I'd suggest a hole punch plus silcone muffin liners. If that fails (metal may be key to proper steaming), then I'd go see what sorts of strainers and such my local resto supply store had, figuring that small metal cups with holes in them sound like the kind of thing you could find.
view angorian's profile
What about using those little ceramic tea strainers that sit in your teacup? They're inexpensive, they're multi-purpose, and they're easy to find.
I just saw them in the grocery store last night, and thought of this post.
view deliriumsama's profile
Well, the poster at the KitchenCake site thanks another site for her help. Going there : http://alleykitchen.blogspot.com/search/label/Bolu%20Kukus
Shows that SHE did not have tins with holes. So I don't think they're required. It's the recipe and method of steaming. Worth a shot! They're lovely to look at.
view frzndaqiri's profile
Not sure about Bolu Kukus, but when I make Puto (Filipino rice cake dessert), I use little silicone muffin liners and fill the liners while they're sitting in my steamer. It's important to get the small liners, as the large ones won't cook it properly.
While this method works for cooking the muffins, I doubt it would give the same "blooming" effect like the pictures above.
view BostonPinay's profile