Cake isn’t something I associate with Thai cooking.

I was therefore pleasantly surprised to come across these colourful steamed cakes in a bakery one day.

Visually they remind me of steamed Chinese buns, due to those distinctive cracks in the top. This influenced my expectation of how they would taste.

I imagined something quite bread-like, but they were definitely all cake. The texture was very fine, light and spongy in a slightly dry way.

The taste was sweet and a little artificial, and the colour seemed to have no effect on flavour. Some icing would have perked them up a treat, but they were perfectly palatable in their plainness.