How to Make Hong Kong Egg Cakes (鷄蛋仔)
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Hong Kong egg cakes are a popular street food in Hong Kong. I first came across these little egg cake as a child growing up in New York City’s Chinatown. From a tiny red stall on Mosco Street, Cecilia Tam churned out pan after pan of these perfectly fluffy and heavenly eggettes for over a decade. This recipe is as satisfying for me as the Cecilia Tam original.
(Also known as Hong Kong egg waffles, Hong Kong egg puffs, or Hong Kong eggettes.)
I’ve been reminiscing about my childhood in New York’s Chinatown where I attended Chinese school every weekend. After class, mom or dad would walk me over to Mosco Street, where Cecilia Tam (aka the Egg Cake Lady) labored in a tiny red corner stall, to buy a bag or two of her legendary Chinese egg puffs (aka eggettes) or 鷄蛋仔 – “gai daan jai” in Cantonese.
Her stall became so popular over the years that there were often more tourists than regulars waiting in line at this “hidden gem”, clutching their cameras and tour books. On weekends, the line would snake around the corner and the wait could be 10-20 minutes or longer.
Here little stall barely fit one person but on busy weekends she would squeeze in a helper to bag and man the extra burners.
Her egg cake mold was a simple metal contraption shaped like two identical tennis rackets and functioned like a square waffle maker but the indentations were egg shaped. And the batter contained eggs – hence why they are called egg waffles.
The egg waffle batter was a glorious golden color and she kept large jugs of it by her feet. She would brush each egg cake mold with oil, pour batter onto one mold, put the matching mold over the batter-filled one and quickly flip the pair so that the batter would fill the other mold and start expanding into perfect little round morsels.
I remember her easing the cakes out of the mold with a fork onto a round and scratched up stainless steel pan and how she would jab at the eggettes with steel tongs to separate them and place them into wax-paper bags. She had everything down to timing and order.
Weekends she was always slammed. Weekdays the wait would be nil or only 1-2 people. On slow days, she would have a few waxy bags of egg cakes already filled. They are best eaten hot off the stove so I always asked, and patiently waited, for fresh ones and she always obliged.
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With her increasing popularity, and inflation, the price of her egg cakes kept going up throughout the years. So we enjoyed them in less quantities, but we still enjoyed them as often.
At first, her Chinese eggettes were $1 for 20 egg puffs, then $1 for 18, then $1 for 15. Even when imitators popped up around Chinatown selling them at $1 for 20 when Cecilia had further reduced her offerings to $1 for 12, the impostors were not worth paying for the extra portions.
Once, pressed for time, we bought some Chinese egg cakes off a street vendor on Canal Street. They were so bland, so disappointing, I vowed I would never buy them from anyone again but from Cecilia, the one and only Egg Cake Lady.
As a kid, I had a special way of eating them. I would first bite off the crispy, crunchy perimeter of each puff and then pop the soft rounds into my mouth. They were perfect in every way – not too sweet, so light, so fluffy, and so worth every dollar.
She closed up shop more than a two decades ago but I have never stopped thinking about her egg cakes when I pass by her little corner where Mott Street meets Mosco.
Williams-Sonoma sold a Nordic Ware Egg Waffle Pan for a while and I was probably one of the first to buy it.
The store no longer stocks the pan but you can find a similar one on Amazon US here or search on Amazon UK here.
How to Make Hong Kong Egg Cakes
First make the batter. Then preheat your egg waffle pan.
It took some practice to get consistently crispy edges on my electric stovetop. Here’s what works for me:
- Pre-heat the pans for 5 minutes using heat level 4 (my stovetop has heat settings 0 to 6). So I used two burners to preheat both halves at the same time.
- Pour 2/3 cups batter into one of the egg waffle pans, swirl it around to fill some of the empty holes and then secure the other pan on top. Flip immediately.
- Reduce heat to level 3 immediately after pouring the batter and cook two minutes.
- Flip the egg waffle pan after two minutes
- Remove from heat and ease the eggettes off the pan using a wooden fork or silicone utensil (be careful as a plastic utensil will melt and a metal one will scracth the non-stick surface of the egg waffle pan).
Just before I pour the batter into the Nordic Ware egg waffle pan, I apply a thin layer of vegetable oil with a pastry brush.
UPDATE 5/25/2020: I now use cooking spray like PAM and lightly spray each side before pouring the batter. I had avoided doing this in the past because I read that cooking sprays cause oil build-up on non-stick surfaces that are impossible to wash off. After owning my pan for 15+ years, I was ready to test that theory out. For the last 5 batches, I have been using cooking spray and afterwards immediately soaking the pans in hot soapy water and washing them. The pan is easy to clean and no sticky residue. So far, so good!
But be sure to test out a small section of your pan first – I don’t want you to ruin yours!
So it would seem that for my oven, heating it at a higher temperature helped create the crispy crunchy edges that I love and then reducing the temperature down a notch prevented burning. You’ll have to experiment with your gas or electric oven to find the equivalent settings.
You can hear from my video below how crunchy these are on the edges. My kids and I cannot stop eating them:
The texture is perfect – crunchy around the edges and I love nibbling all the crispy bits that surround each puff before moving on to the soft middle – and with each bite, I am transported back in time, smiling at nostalgic memories.
I’m sure time erodes taste memories, but I really do feel that this recipe resembles what I remember from my childhood days.
If you own one of these pans, be sure to wash it when it’s submerged under water so that you don’t end up a soaking mess like I did and a soft-bristle brush like this Oxo one works great for getting out all the dried-up batter from the crevices.
If you enjoyed making this recipe, then also check out my tutorials for making Ramen Noodles (the no-knead easy way), Chinese egg noodles, and for making silky-smooth slurp-worthy Udon Noodles (using a non-traditional ingredient).
How to Make Your Chinese Egg Cakes Even Better!
Soon after buying the Nordic Ware egg waffle pan, I started experimenting with the batter. Initially, I made a batch of Chinese eggettes using fresh custard (made from milk and eggs). But the taste and consistency wasn’t right.
Now I use custard powder and just throw everything into my Kitchen Aid stand mixer, turn it on and voila! Batter done. No need to heat up milk nor temper eggs to make custard, etc., etc.
A few weeks back, I whipped up a couple batches to experiment with altering the ingredients and found that using either tapioca starch, potato starch, corn starch or custard powder worked just fine. However, using custard powder did give the eggettes a richer vanilla taste since custard powder is essentially vanilla-flavored corn starch.
For those experiments that didn’t use custard powder, I doubled the amount of vanilla extract (or essence) from one teaspoon to two teaspoons.
I think an essential ingredient for the batter to taste right is evaporated milk. I had never used evaporated milk before and I was curious to try the different brands. I decided to try a few of them…just for fun. And was glad that I did.
The best tasting batch I found was made using Rainbow “Gold.” I think it gave the eggettes a richer, fuller flavor. Even the label reads: “Richer and Creamier.” Unfortunately, Rainbow Gold is no longer available.
I tried omitting vegetable oil from the batter but that wasn’t a huge success as the final product came out too dry. So be sure not to leave out the oil.
I also made batches pitting vanilla extract versus vanilla essence. Perhaps it was all in my mind or I’m just biased in thinking that anything with alcohol tastes better because I thought the batch with vanilla extract tasted better than the one with vanilla essence. (Click here for alcohol-free vanilla extract.)
However, vanilla extract is not available in the UAE as it contains alcohol. I have a precious stash of two bottles that I hope will last me until the next out-of-town visitor arrives to replenish it.
I hope you found this post useful and that the future brings you lot of yummy little morsels of Hong Kong Egg Cakes!
Also check out my tutorials for making Ramen Noodles (the no-knead easy way), Chinese egg noodles, and for making silky-smooth slurp-worthy Udon Noodles (using a non-traditional ingredient).
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Hong Kong Egg Cakes (Gai Daan Jai – 鷄蛋仔)
INGREDIENTS
- 1 cup all-purpose flour (4 oz or 120 g)
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon tapioca starch (or corn starch)
- 1 tablespoon custard powder (optional)
- 2 eggs
- 2/3 cup sugar (4 oz or 120 g)
- 2 tablespoons evaporated milk
- 5 oz water
- 2 tablespoon vegetable oil
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract (or vanilla essence)
- more vegetable oil for brushing/spraying on the egg waffle pan
INSTRUCTIONS
- In a large bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, tapioca or corn starch, and optional custard powder with a spoon or fork. You can also sieve these dry ingredients but I didn’t bother.
- Add the eggs, sugar, vegetable oil, and vanilla extract/essence. Give it a whirl with an electric mixer (start at low speed so the flour doesn't erupt out of the bowl and increase to medium speed) or spatula. Alternatively, mix by hand with a wire whisk.
- Pour in the evaporated milk and water. Mix thoroughly.
- It may be slightly lumpy and this point and I found that letting it stand for an hour (whether in room temperature or fridge) helped dissolve the lumps.
- Set a wire rack on a baking sheet or large plate.
- Pre-heat each half of the Nordic Ware Egg Waffle Pan on separate burners over medium-high heat until hot. I pre-heated mine for 5 minutes.
- Lightly brush or spritz each pan with vegetable oil. Lower heat to medium.
- Pour ¾ cup of the batter into the middle of the egg waffle pan (if you pour too much, it will either leak out the side or prevent the waffle pan from closing tightly) and give the pan a quick swirl to distribute some of the batter to the outer holes.
- Immediately place the other side of the pan on top, flip the pan over and cook for 2 to 2.5 minutes.
- Flip again and cook for a further 2 to 2.5 minutes. Exact timing will depend on your stove and heat output.
- Open the pan and invert the eggettes onto the wire rack and let cool for a minute or so. I used a plastic fork to help loosen the egg cakes from the mold.
- Repeat with the remaining batter. Enjoy!
NOTES
.-Makes 2 cups of batter and 3 batches of eggettes.
NUTRITION
This post was originally posted on Jan. 22, 2012 and last updated on May 28, 2020.
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Very authentic and easy recipe to whip up. I have a non electric egg waffle maker and I put it over our gas stove. Had to calibrate the heat output and not burn. Still trying to get the right amount of batter and the swirling so the eggettes come out hollow in the middle—as I recall that’s how many HK egg waffle vendors made them. Thank you for sharing this recipe.
I am also still working on my swirling technique. Always a work in progress 🙂
I bought an electric egg waffle maker as something new to try at the beginning of quarantine. I’ve used this recipe many times since, it’s so good!! Thank you so much.
my son found this recipe and made them in our waffle iron. He misses Cecilia Tam’s egg cakes so much – we visited regularly and walking around with that little wax paper bag of heaven was a joy. This recipe is it! They don’t need any embellishment – eaten plain they gave us wonderful memories. We made them again in an abelskivver pan and they worked! But I’m going to get the Nordic ware bubble pan. These are going to be a regular on our dessert menu. Thank you!!!!!
I am so glad you loved this recipe! We also tried this in our regular waffle iron and it did come out tasty but I have to say that I prefer the Nordicware bubble pan for the nostalgia and also eating little eggettes is more fun than a big waffle 🙂
We’ve had these in Hong Kong and made them at home with an electric waffle iron. I tried this recipe because it only called for two eggs. The recipe I used to use called for six egg whites and 3 yolks. Plus you had to beat the egg whites.
This recipe is the best!!! I used half-and -half instead of evap milk. Used tapioca starch and vanilla pudding mix for the custard powder. It has the flavor of the original. The only issue we had was with our waffle iron–didn’t always brown evenly. But even the duds were delicious.
That looks amazing information. Thanks for sharing and love your site
Great recipe! They were yummy! I have a Nordic ware bubble waffle pan that I think I have finally figured out.