Donlim breadmaker chiffon cake 面包机戚风蛋糕

All this while, I have the impression that we can't bake chiffon cake or cotton sponge cake using a breadmaker due to the defaulted temperature preset by the breadmaker. But a client whom had bought a unit of breadmaker from me tried baking chiffon cake with it, using an extra cake pan inserted into the normal breadpan, and the cake turned out to be beautiful, soft and fluffy! I am very glad to have clients like these. Other than the chiffon cake, she has also been very adventurous in trying out and sharing new bread, cakes, jams recipes with me. 

To persue my quest of baking chiffon cake with my breadmaker, I spoke to my breadmaker supplier and checked if it is possible, and yes, he reverted that it is indeed possible. In fact, he even has the cake pan that fits in perfectly in the breadpan. I waited for the breadpan to arrive and have finally got to try it. 

It was a fluffy bake! If only you can have a whiff of the nice pandan aroma! 

Recipe for Breadmaker Pandan Chiffon Cake 
·         2 egg yolk 蛋黄·         1tbsp brown sugar 黄糖·         1.5tbsp grapeseed oil 葡萄籽油·         50g pandan juice (blended 8-10 pandan leaves with about 300ml water) 斑兰汁·         50g cake flour (superfine flour) 蛋糕粉/底筋面粉 
·         2 egg white 蛋白·         1.5tbsp brown sugar 黄糖·         1/8 tsp salt 盐

Sieve flour and set aside. Using an egg separator, separate egg white and yolk.
Using a handheld electric mixer, whish the egg white with salt until frothy, add in brown sugar, continue to beat at low to medium speed (about 2min) until it reaches stiff peak. Set aside. At the same time, turn on breadmaker, select mode no. 13 (bake), adjust time to 00:59, press START.
Combine pandan juice, oil and sugar with egg yolk. Beat until thoroughly combined. Add in sieved flour. Combine until thoroughly mixed.
Add in 1/3 of egg white meringue into egg yolk mix. Mix with a plastic spatula. Then add the batter into the remaining 2/3 egg white meringue. Mix until creamy. Line the bottom of cake pan with a carefully cut out round baking pan. Slowly pour in batter into cake mould. Lightly tap cake pan to remove trapped air.
Place cake pan into preheated breadpan. When time of baking reaches 59min, adjust TIME so that breadmaker continues to bake, making total bake time 1hr15min.
Remove cake pan, turn upside down to cool on cooling rack.

将面粉过筛。 鸡蛋用分蛋器把蛋白分开。蛋白及盐用电动搅拌机底速打至起泡，加入黄糖，渐渐加速至高速搅打大约2分钟，至到蛋白变硬。此时，将面包机插电，选择菜单13（烘烤），时间调到00:59分钟，按启动。将斑兰汁、油、黄糖一起加入蛋黄液中，用电动打蛋器搅拌均匀，加入过筛后的面粉，搅拌均匀。
将1/3 的蛋白加入搅拌好的蛋黄糊中， 用塑胶刮刀捞起底部的面糊倒回剩下的蛋白中翻拌至细腻浓稠 。蛋糕摸底部垫油纸，将蛋糕糊倒入，轻轻敲打把大泡震出来。将蛋糕桶放进面包桶内，开始烘烤，当烘烤完成59分钟，再继续调时间，以至总共烘烤时间为一小时15分钟。烤完，将蛋糕桶 翻转放在烤架冷却后用塑胶刮刀脱膜。

Donlim breadmaker is currently available for sale at Just Health at retail price RM380 (price includes the breadmaker, one breadpan and one cake pan), inclusive of one year warranty. For more information, please kindly refer here, alternatively you may contact me at 012 324 1816 for info. 

Chocolate hokkaido chiffon cupcake

This March is gonna be a very busy and packed month. Few days ago, my parents and sis were around in Sandakan to clear out our old house which we're ready to let go. It seemed impossible but we successfully cleared the house in a few days including majority of its furniture and electronics. Most of the items were discarded (sadly), some were transported to my place, out of those loots, I managed to complete my study room/ play area for the little fella, which I am very happy with. Balance of the items were given away free to friends. Now that my parents and sis have gone back to JB, I need to work my ass on the accounts of Just Health so I can submit to my accountant by the end of this month, and I still have an event to work on for this month, that event is happening in about 10 days and I still haven't done much about me. Arghhhhhh!! (Yes yes I am working on it now, while blogging). 

Despite all these, I am still cooking and baking for the little fella. I try my best to wake up at 6am every morning, so I have sufficient time to make him a snack and a lunch. 

This was something I have made two days back ~  very yummy chocolate hokkaido chiffon cupcakes which were our breakfast for two days. They kept very well in the fridge. On the third day, they are still edible, but they tend to be drier. 

It was a recipe adapted from my little favorite DIY, here. 

Ingredients A 

• 60g grapeseed oil
• 80g fresh milk
• 85g superfine flour
• 2tbsp cocoa powder 
• 5 egg yolks 
• 1tsp pure vanilla extract 

Ingredients B 

• 5 egg white 
• 80g brown sugar

Instructions: 

1. Combine oil and milk in a bowl. Place over a double boiler and cook with low heat, stir well. (I zap the combo in microwave for 40secs) 
2. Add egg yolk, mix with a whisk. Add in vanilla extract. 
3. Sift in flour and cocoa powder. Combine till smooth. Do not overmix. 
4. Using a hand electric mixer, whisk the egg white and add in sugar in three batches until stiff peak. 
5. Add 1/3 of egg white meringue into the egg yolk batter. Combine well. Fold in the remaining egg white meringue into the egg yolk mixture. 
6. Fill up 3/4 of the cupcake liner. Gently knock once or twice. Bake in preheat oven at 150degC for 23min. 
7. I let the cupcake lie on its side on a metal rack when cooking. You may also knock the cupcake on table top once before setting aside to cool. (Apparently this is a must to prevent the cupcakes from shrinking, I didnt do this and my cupcakes did shrink a little). 

Coffee chiffon cake (scalded dough/ cooked flour method)

Here's the lil' fella and my mom enjoying their chiffon cakes for breakfast. 

Yea, it's chiffon cake again. I love to bake and eat chiffon cakes. It's so light and feels much 'healthier'. It is still delicious even though I cut the sugar by quite a lot. And best of all, it's the only kind of cake that everyone in the family loves (even my MIL who doesn't eat cakes loves eating my chiffon cake) and it gets eaten up in a few hours, so I have no problem of leftover or food wastage. 

Even though this is called Coffee Chiffon Cake and made using the 3-in-1 instant coffee sachet, but it is not that intense in terms of its coffee flavor. Instead, the aroma of dark muscovado sugar 黑砂糖 is more pronounced. 

This is a recipe that I've been using a lot lately, just used the same recipe to bake Orange and Mango Chiffon few days ago. I like it cos it doesn't use a lot of egg (my hubby had been wondering why the eggs get used up so fast... :p) and it fits my 18cm chiffon tube pan just right. 

Here's the recipe, adapted from Happy Home Baker. 

Ingredients:(I used an 18cm chiffon pan)

4 egg yolks (medium)
2tbsp dark muscovado sugar
3tbsp rice bran oil
90g coffee made up with 3-in-1 coffee sachet
80g cake flour (I actually used 65g all purpose flour and 15g corn flour)

4 egg whites (medium)
3tbsp dark muscovado sugar


Instructions:

1. Sieve cake flour and set aside. 
2. Combine rice bran oil with coffee. Heat up to simmering in a pan. Remove from heat. Add in sifted flour. Add into egg yolk mix. Whisk to combine. Leave in fridge to chill. 
3. In a clean, dry mixing bowl, beat egg whites with a handheld electric mixer on low speed until mixture becomes frothy and foamy.  Add half of the sugar amount and turn to high speed and beat the mixture. Continue to add in the remaining sugar and beat until the egg whites reaches the soft peak stage.The soft peak stage is reached when the peaks of the whites curl over and droop slightly. The egg whites should appear smooth and glossy, and if you overturn the bowl, the egg white meringue doesn't drop.
4. Add the beaten egg whites into the egg yolk batter in 3 separate additions, each time folding gently with a spatula until just blended.
5. Pour batter into a 18cm tube pan (do not grease the pan). Tap the pan lightly on a table top to get rid of any trapped air bubbles in the batter.
6. Bake in pre-heated oven at 140 degC for 40 mins (every oven differs, my oven has been a very friendly one, after about 20min in the oven, I had to tent an alum foil loosely oven the chiffon to avoid the top from getting too brown), bake until a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out clean, when lightly pressed the cake will spring back. Invert the pan immediately and let cool completely before unmould (I usually wait for at least an hour before I unmould the cake from the pan).  

Here's a youtube video link on how I unmould the chiffon cake from its pan. This is the part I love the most about baking chiffon cake, aside than eating it. 

This post is linked to the event Little Thumbs Up (August 2014 Event: Flour) - organised by Zoe (Bake for Happy Kids) and Mui Mui (My Little Favourite DIY) and hosted by Diana from Domestic Goddess Wannabe.

Orange & mango chiffon cake

Somehow, today didn't feel like a Saturday. Time seems to fly by so quickly these days. I had a class at Just Health today to teach the new Donlim breadmaker clients on their new machines. After the class, I went home and baked my favorite 'tang mian' (scalded dough) chiffon cake so that mom can try it. Mom loved it. The lil' fella loved it too.

This is adapted from a chiffon cake recipe that I tried out sometime back, but this round, I turned it into a 'cooked dough' (tang mian) version. It turned out fantasticly soft, in fact, a little on the moist side. I actually love my chiffon to be a little moist, it seems to give that 'melt-in-your-mouth' sensation.

Here's the recipe, adapted from Happy Home Baker. 

Ingredients:(I used an 18cm chiffon pan)

4 egg yolks (medium)
2.5tbsp dark muscovado sugar
3tbsp rice bran oil
90g freshly squeezed orange juice
80g cake flour (I actually used 65g all purpose flour and 15g corn flour)

4 egg whites (medium)
3tbsp dark muscovado sugar

60g chopped mango


Instructions:

1. Sieve cake flour and set aside. 
2. Combine rice bran oil with freshly squeezed orange juice. Heat up to simmering in a pan. Remove from heat. Add in sifted flour. Add into egg yolk mix. Whisk to combine.
3. In a clean, dry mixing bowl, beat egg whites with a handheld electric mixer on low speed until mixture becomes frothy and foamy.  Add half of the sugar amount and turn to high speed and beat the mixture. Continue to add in the remaining sugar and beat until the egg whites reaches the soft peak stage.The soft peak stage is reached when the peaks of the whites curl over and droop slightly. The egg whites should appear smooth and glossy, and if you overturn the bowl, the egg white meringue doesn't drop.
4. Add the beaten egg whites into the egg yolk batter in 3 separate additions, each time folding gently with a spatula until just blended.
5. Add in the chopped mango.  
6. Pour batter into a 18cm tube pan (do not grease the pan). Tap the pan lightly on a table top to get rid of any trapped air bubbles in the batter.
7. Bake in pre-heated oven at 140 degC for 40 mins (every oven differs, my oven has been a very friendly one, after about 20min in the oven, I had to tent an alum foil loosely oven the chiffon to avoid the top from getting too brown), bake until a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out clean, when lightly pressed the cake will spring back. Invert the pan immediately and let cool completely before unmould (I usually wait for at least an hour before I unmould the cake from the pan).  

Yep, this is me letting my clients know why it is now more important to bake our own bread rather than buying from outside.

For enquiry related to the breadmaker that I sell at Just Health, please email justhealthsandakan@gmail.com

Durian chiffon cake

I have been MIA from my blog for a very long time. Feeling bad about it. Been travelling and my laptop failed on me. So all the nice buns and cakes I have done recently haven't been blogged nor recorded.

I did this durian chiffon cake last night and I told myself by hook or by crook I have to put it onto my blog. As you notice from the quality of the photo, yep.. photos were taken using my phone.

I have been a big fan of durian but I'm afraid of it.. eating it I meant. It's pretty hefty in terms of its sugar and cholesterol content. I was initially thinking to bake durian butter cake with it. But I didn't. Instead I baked a lighter and 'healthier' one.

This recipe was adapted from Fong's Kitchen (link is here http://fong-kitchen-journal.blogspot.com/2013/08/durian-chiffon-cooked-dough-method.html?m=1). I have always loved baking chiffon using the tang mian method. Love that it remains soft and fluffy.

Recipe
(chiffon pan size: 18cm)

(A):
30g butter (I omitted this and replaced with rice bran oil)
20g corn oil (I used rice bran oil)
70g milk
1/4 tsp salt

(B) Sift together:
90g plain flour
1/4 tsp baking powder

(C) Mix together:
4 yolks
100g durian puree (if durian flesh is too dry, add 1 to 2 tbsp milk)

(D):
5 egg whites (I only used 4 whites)
70g sugar (I cut down to 60g sugar)
1/4 tsp cream of tartar (I omitted this)

Method:
1) Combine (A) together in a small sauce pot and bring it to gentle simmer.  Once it starts to simmer, remove the pot from heat and stir in (B).  

2) Pour (C) into step 1 and mix till combined.  Set aside the batter.

3) Whisk (D) till peak form.  Fold the meringue into the prepared batter (fold 1/3 portion of the meringue at a time).  Pour the batter into an ungreased chiffon pan.

4) Bake in preheated oven at 170C for about 45 minutes (I baked mine at 140C for 35min in my Fotile oven).

Sent via Xiaomi

Mango yogurt chiffon cake with dried fig

It was our favorite day- Sunday again.

It's been a busy week for both myself and the lil' fella as we had lots of visitors from KL. He had lots of fun just playing and 'talking' with his friends (he called Goh Goh Jie Jie) and I brought them to all the places of interests in Sandakan. They left on Saturday. So this Sunday, we get to rest and recuperate. The lil' fella took a long deserved nap of about 3 hours. With that, I get to bake my favorite Sunday's bake - chiffon and prep his lunch.

Today I have decided to bake a mango yogurt chiffon with chopped dried fig. I love the way the figs give the extra bite and texture to this soft and fluffy chiffon. Figs are good sources of calcium and they aren't as sweet as raisins nor dried cranberries. I coated them with half teaspoon of cake flour, so that they will not all sink to the bottom of the cake when baking.

Here's the recipe, adapted from Happy Home Baker. 

Ingredients:(I used an 18cm chiffon pan)

4 egg yolks (medium)
2.5tbsp brown sugar
3tbsp rice bran oil
40g plain yoghurt
50g mango puree
1 teaspoon lemon juice
80g cake flour

4 egg whites (medium)
3tbsp brown sugar

60g chopped dried fig
1/2 tsp cake flour for dusting

Instructions:

1. Sieve cake flour and set aside. 
2. Chop dried figs into small cubes. Coat with flour and sieve to remove excess flour. Set aside.
3. Place egg yolks in a mixing bowl. With a manual hand whisk, whisk the yolks a little. Add in sugar and whisk to combine.
4. Add in rice bran oil gradually, whisk to combine. 
5. Combine mango puree, yoghurt and lemon juice. Add into egg yolk mix. Whisk to combine. Sieve over the flour and whisk till the flour is fully incorporated. Do not over mix. Set aside.
6. In a clean, dry mixing bowl, beat egg whites with a handheld electric mixer on low speed until mixture becomes frothy and foamy.  Add half of the sugar amount and turn to high speed and beat the mixture. Continue to add in the remaining sugar and beat until the egg whites reaches the soft peak stage.The soft peak stage is reached when the peaks of the whites curl over and droop slightly. The egg whites should appear smooth and glossy, and if you overturn the bowl, the egg white meringue doesn't drop.
7. Add the beaten egg whites into the egg yolk batter in 3 separate additions, each time folding gently with a spatula until just blended.
8. Add in the prepared dried fig. Fold in until just blended Do not over mix.
9. Pour batter into a 18cm tube pan (do not grease the pan). Tap the pan lightly on a table top to get rid of any trapped air bubbles in the batter.
10. Bake in pre-heated oven at 140 degC for 40 mins (every oven differs, my oven has been a very friendly one, after about 20min in the oven, I had to tent an alum foil loosely oven the chiffon to avoid the top from getting too brown), bake until a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out clean, when lightly pressed the cake will spring back. Invert the pan immediately and let cool completely before unmould (I usually wait for at least an hour before I unmould the cake from the pan).  

See the following video to check out how I unmould the chiffon from the pan (Pardon my lil' fella. He just got up from his nap and must be starving).

Japanese cotton cheese chiffon (very good)

I made a good cream cheese chiffon two days back, it was good, moist and fluffy. But I felt that the cheese flavor is too light. I wanted more to it. And I wanted to give it more tang. So I kinda modified the recipe and came out with this. This is superb!! Finger licking good. I baked it at night, when cooled, I left it in the fridge. The next morning, we had it for breakfast. It tastes just like the Japanese cotton cheesecake we buy from the café. The sweetness is just right. This was baked for my little fella and the family. But if you're baking it for guests or giving it away as gift, you may wanna up the sugar by half or 1 tablespoon.

P/S edited on 11/3/2015
I have made passion fruit chiffon cake by replacing 40g of fresh milk with passion fruit *its juice and its flesh and reduced the lemon juice from 2tsp to 1tsp. Ka cha ka cha.. this is the sound you'll hear when you're biting on the chiffon cake because of the seeds from the passion fruit. For my little fella, I gave him the slices that hasn't got the seeds. I think he may spit them out and refuses to eat the rest if he bites on the seeds. It was lovely. The way the creaminess from the cheese combo with the tang from the passion fruit made this a very nice, especially if stored in fridge and eaten the next day. 

Ingredients

• 50g vegetable oil (I used grapeseed oil)
• 110g cream cheese
• 40g fresh milk
• 5 egg yolks
• 1 whole egg
• 60g cake flour + 2tsp corn flour
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1.5tbsp brown sugar (or 2tbsp sugar if you're making this for guests)
• 2tsp apple cider vinegar (or lemon juice)

• 5 egg white
• 4tbsp brown sugar

Baked using an 18cm chiffon tube

1. In a bowl, dissolve cream cheese over a pot of boiling water. Add in milk and oil. Combine and make sure there are no lumps.
2. Sift in cake flour, corn flour and salt. Set aside to cool down.
3. Separate egg white and yolk in two separate bowls. Once the cream cheese mix has cooled down to a temperature that doesn't scald, add in the egg yolk one after one, and the whole egg. 
4. Mix with a plastic spatula, add in vinegar or lemon juice and this becomes the egg yolk batter. Sit aside for use later (may keep in fridge for better results).
5. In another bowl, beat egg white till foamy, add in sugar in 3 separate batches until stiff peak forms.
6. Scoop out 1/3 of the egg white peak and add into the egg yolk batter. When combined evenly, add it back to the remaining egg white peak. Combine evenly with a spatula.
7. Pour the chiffo batter into the chiffon tube pan, topped bake in a preheated oven at 150deg C for 40min. *I tented an aluminum foil over the top of chiffon at 20th min to avoid over browning of the top.
8. Invert cake to cool once out of the oven.

Cream cheese chiffon



Caught you! You little chiffon cake thief!!

Here's the cheekiliscious chiffon thief.

 





My little boy has this habit of grabbing a piece of my chiffon cake whenever I am still snapping photos of it. I used to stop him. But not anymore. I'm actually glad he loves my chiffon cake. It gives me great desire to bake more chiffon cakes for him. The other reason about chiffon cake is that I love to be able to remove it from the chiffon tin with my bare hands. It felt good to unmould a beautiful and almost perfect chiffon cake. 所谓的空手脱模，是非常有满足感的。 This recipe doesn't taste very heavy on the cheese, but it was very soft, moist and fluffy.

 

 

 

Ingredients

• 60g butter
• 80g cream cheese
• 60g fresh milk
• 5 egg yolks
• 1 whole egg
• 60g cake flour + 2tsp corn flour
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1tbsp brown sugar

 

• 5 egg white
• 4tbsp brown sugar

To create marble effect (Optional)

• 1tbsp cocoa powder
• 1tbsp hot water

Baked using an 18cm chiffon tube

 

1. In a bowl, dissolve cream cheese with butter over a pot of boiling water. Add in milk. Combine and make sure there are no lumps.
2. Sift in cake flour, corn flour and salt. Set aside to cool down.
3. Separate egg white and yolk in two separate bowls. Once the cream cheese mix has cooled down to a temperature that doesn't scald, add in the egg yolk one after one, and the whole egg. 
4. Mix with a plastic spatula and this becomes the egg yolk batter. Sit aside for use later (may keep in fridge for better results).
5. In another bowl, beat egg white till foamy, add in sugar in 3 separate batches until stiff peak forms.
6. Scoop out 1/3 of the egg white peak and add into the egg yolk batter. When combined evenly, add it back to the remaining egg white peak.
7. Combine cocoa powder with hot water. In another clean bowl, combine with about 2-3tbsp of batter.
8. Pour the white/ yellow batter into the chiffon tube pan, topped with cocoa batter and bake in a preheated oven at 150deg C for 40min. *I tented an aluminum foil over the top of chiffon at 20th min to avoid over browning of the top.
9. Invert cake to cool once out of the oven.

P/S: This recipe is quite a light one, most people won't be able to detect the cheese in it. I have later on modified this recipe by adding more cream cheese and replaced the butter with oil. Also added apple cider vinegar to it to up the tang. The modified recipe is shared here.

 

 

I'm submitting this post to  Little Thumbs Up organised by Zoe of Bake for Happy Kids and Doreen of My Little Favourite DIY and hosted by Tze of Awayofmind Bakery House.

 

My 1st chiffon: orange chiffon cake (tang mian)

I haven't done blogging and proper food photograph with my DSLR for very long. So I consider myself a noob still. And I have only started to watermark my photos a few months back. It takes time, but seeing all the others doing it, I'm sure it's needed. If you're reading this and have your view on this, do share with me :)

 

Now this is what happened. I did a 咸鱼宝 (salted fish bun) as inspired by the drama 食为奴 by TVB, some time back, and as usual, I shared about it on my blog, here. I was quite pleased with it, cos that was one of the very few times my hubby complimented that he liked it. He usually tells me that my food are bland :p  

 

This is my signature shot, I call it my signature shot, cos all of my closed up cross-section photos are held by my left hand as I capture it with my right hand. I can't handle my DSLR with my left hand.

 

 

 

The photo was featured in a local Malaysian magazine by the name of 号ｘｘ报，but they have PSed to remove my watermark and no credits was given back to my blog or the photographer. I am not too bothered about it, cos I'm not selling any of my photos, but I'm writing about it, cos I have been educating people that whenever we follow or copy someone's recipe, we should always always always give credit back to the originator, because the originator did take the extra efforts in making the food and capturing those good photos. Ok, that's lesson of today, shared.

 

Now, back to my first chiffon cake. I have not taken up the courage of baking a chiffon cake, even though I bake chiffon cupcakes all the time, cos I failed it big big time when I first tried it some time back. But the chiffon trend is always in-the-air, it never seem to subside, and a few of them have done this version and have great reviews over it, naming a few, Sonia, Bernice and Victoria. They are among the few bloggerchefs whom I admire and follow quite closely. I have done my first chiffon using the famous tang mian method which is supposed to yield even softer chiffon. I'm a big chiffon fan, I love chiffon cos it is soft and fluffy, like cotton candy, and it's not so sweet, and I always wonder, what's softer than something which is already so soft. So now I know. Tang mian method does produce a softer and moister chiffon, you wont need to dip it in your coffee or milo when eating it cos it's not that dry or throat-choking (which can be, for some store-bought chiffons).

 

The skin is a little on the thick side. I'll try a lower baking temp. next.

Despite of that, this is still a very soft one. See how it flops!

 

Here's the recipe for this orange chiffon cake using the tang mian method (adapted from here)

• 6 egg white* original recipe uses 5, but I have used 6, cos my eggs were small 
• 60g superfine flour
• 55g freshly squeezed orange juice
• 50g corn oil (I used rice bran oil)
• 60g brown sugar
• 1tsp. grated orange zest (for extra fragrance)

• 6 egg yolk
• 15g brown sugar (I reduced this from 20g to 15g)

Baked using a 21cm chiffon tube pan

 

1. Bring orange juice, oil and 15g sugar to a boil, while continuously stirring, in a shallow pan.
2. Remove pan from the heat once the liquid starts to boil. Hold the pan handle and swirl the boiled liquid mix for 100 rounds (to chill the liquid).
3. Pour sifted flour into the liquid mix and immediately mix to ensure the flour gets in contact with the heated liquid, this is the 'tang mian dough'.
4. Separate egg white and yolk in two separate bowls. Once the tang mian dough has cooled down to a temperature that doesn't scald, pour it into the beaten egg yolk.
5. Mix with a plastic spatula and this becomes the egg yolk batter. Sit aside for use later (may keep in fridge for better results).
6. In another bowl, beat egg white till foamy, add in sugar in 3 separate batches until stiff peak forms.
7. Scoop out 1/3 of the egg white peak and add into the egg yolk batter. When combined evenly, add it back to the remaining egg white peak. Mix in the grated orange zest.
8. Pour the batter into the chiffon tube pan and bake in a preheated oven at 160deg C for 50min.
9. Invert cake to cool once out of the oven.

*I baked mine at 170deg C for 45min, at about 20min into baking, the top has already browned and I had to tent an aluminium foil over the top to avoid over-burning, by doing this, I think I may have created a vast temperature drop (while having the oven door opened) which had caused the shrinkage.

**I did add a tbsp. cocoa powder into 2tbsp of final batter and created some marble-prints, but the amount was too little to be notable. Will try more next.  

 

Personal note: I should try it out at 160degC next.


UPDATED 4/4/2014

I did this chiffon again the very same day in the evening. It worked out by
*baking it at 155deg C for 40min
*egg white was beaten to the very stiff peak (beaten for about 4min)

I added about 2tbsp chopped cranberries to this recipe.

 

 

This post is linked to the event, Little Thumbs up organised by Bake For Happy Kids, and My Little Favourite DIY, hosted by Ann of Anncoo Journal at this post. 

 

 

 

 

 

Black sesame chiffon cupcakes with banana

It was my mom-in-law's birthday yesterday. Coincidentally, all of MIL's siblings were back to Sandakan for the QingMing festival (tomb-sweeping festival 清明节）and we were going out for a 'reunion' dinner. But my hubby only told me it was MIL's birthday in the afternoon. And he asked if we should get a cake. Yet both him and I knew very well that none present at the dinner would like any cakes from outside. They are all well over their 40s and are all very health and sugar-conscious and probably have stopped eating cakes sold outside for decades. I knew I had to bake something, but weren't sure what I should make cos of time constraint. Finally I decided to bake my favorite chiffon cupcake recipe, which I was very familiar with, but I was gonna double up the recipe and gonna add in black sesame as I felt it's a very 'healthy' ingredient. Hohooo... just right for the health conscious ones.. ay?

 

 

 

I was quite proud of myself that I baked them well and at the same time, I needed to make sure the little fella got his milk and took his late afternoon nap before we went out for dinner. All these were done in 20min when the chiffon cupcakes were baking in the oven. Just wondering if the 'pat on the shoulder' should be given to me, or to my little fella for being a good boy yesterday. Sometimes he takes at least a couple of hours before he finally give in to his nap.

Instead of using black sesame powder (which you can obtain simply by grinding toasted black sesame seeds), I used a sachet black sesame cereal drink powder (see photo below). I made up the black sesame drink with a cup of warm water and chilled it slightly before using it in this recipe. This drink is made up of black soya, black sesame, black rice, walnut, blackcurrants, pine nuts, black mu-er 黑木耳 and 何首乌。 I felt that drinking this drink is better than drinking black sesame alone, cos there are a multitude of other antioxidants and nutrients available from other iron-rich grains, seeds and nuts. Black soya, black mu-er and 何首乌 are also great for hair health. I have also used it to bake soft and fluffy black sesame bun with sunflower seeds. 

Here's the recipe adapted from my favorite chiffon cupcake's recipe
(I doubled up the recipe, which made about 17 cupcakes)
*this recipe doesn't yield sweet cakes, if you like your cakes sweet sweet, do consider topping UP the sugar.

• 4 egg yolks
• 1tbsp molasses powder
• 50g grapeseed oil
• 2 ripe banana (when I doubled up the recipe, I only used 2.5 medium size banana) **
• 3tbsp black sesame cereal milk drink ** (I pureed the banana with the black sesame cereal drink)
• 80g sifted cake flour (I used superfine flour)
• 4 egg white
• 2-3 tbsp. molasses powder (when I doubled up the recipe, I only used 5tbsp)

Garnish: Raw untoasted organic almond

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 165deg C.
2. Whisk egg whites till they form soft peak. Gradually add in molasses while continuing to whisk. Keep whisking till egg whites just reach stiff peak.
3. In another bowl, whisk egg yolks and 1tbsp molasses till thick. Add in oil and black sesame cereal-banana mix. Whisk till combined. Sieve in cake flour. Whisk to combine.
4. Add egg whites to yolk batter in 3 batches. Fold till just evenly mixed.
5. Divide the batter between cupcake liners till about 70% full. Tap liner gently against worktop to level batter and get rid of air bubbles. Top with an almond for garnishing purpose.
6. Bake for 20min. Let cool and serve.

Personal note:

I baked these at 165deg C in my toaster oven for first 10min. Then turn down the temperature to 155deg C and baked for another 10min. Just like the owner of this recipe mentioned, cakes crack after first 10min. 

Chocolate hokkaido chiffon cupcakes

 

 

This is like my third time trying out these, I'm trying to make them 'near perfect' cos I'm gonna bake them for Isaac's birthday party in Sandakan. Isaac was my son's twin-friend, the use of 'was' cos they used to look very alike, but now that they have grown up, they don't look that alike anymore. But both of them still look adorable! I can't wait for the party.

 

The first time I made these, it was tasteless. I cut down the amount of sugar added, then I realized I was using molasses sugar (which only had half the level of sweetness the normal sugar). For this bake, I still felt it's quite bland when eaten on its own. But when I piped the cream in, it was just nice, the sweetness from the cream has balanced the cake out. I think I'm nearly there.

 

Here's the recipe, adapted from here

This recipe yields about 8-9cupcakes.

 



Ingredients:
3 egg yolk
20g molasses sugar
35ml grapeseed oil
60ml warmed chocolate milk (I used milo)
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
60g superfine flour
10g cocoa powder
1tsp chocolate emulco (I added this cos I wanted to give it a deep intense brown color)

3 egg white
 25g molasses sugar

1. Warm up the chocolate milk in a microwave for about 30sec to 1min.
2. Sift in flour and cocoa powder.
3. Beat together egg yolk, sugar and oil. Add in chocolate emulco and vanilla extract. Add into milk and flour mix.
4. In another bowl using another beater, beat egg white until it forms soft peak. Add in sugar. Beat until it forms stiff peak.
5. In three batches, add the egg white meringue into the egg yolk batter. Mix to combine.
6. Pour into cupcake liner. Tap a few times to remove trapped bubbles. Preheat oven to 170deg C. (I baked these at 165deg C for about 18min). Bake for about 20-25min.
7. Let cool before piping in the cream filling.


For filling:
1/2 cup of non-dairy whipping cream
Filtered juice from two blackberries, about 1tbsp (I wanted to give the cream a light purple/pink color)

1. Beat till firm (about 3-5min)
2. Scoop filling into a piping bag. Pipe into the cupcakes and decorate.

Green tea hokkaido chiffon cupcakes

This is my third time making chiffon cupcakes this week. Hahahaaa.. I get this kind of craze. When I'm into making something, I make them day in day out making sure I get them done perfectly. I made some really good pandan chiffon cupcakes using homegrown pandan leaves, but there's only one drawback to the recipe, the top part of the chiffon is ugly. It sank upon cooling. And I've heard from a friend who baked her Hokkaido cupcake using the 'tang mien' method and it is super soft and it doesn't sink. I'm not too sure if it will be any softer than my pandan chiffon recipe (cos I thought that's the best, anything softer than that would be tooo moist), but 'it doesn't sink??' let's find out then. I tried out this recipe by Catherine.

Other than the 'tang mien' method, I also did two other methods which some facebookers from a baking FB group claimed that will help to prevent the cupcakes from sinking, i.e.

• let the cupcakes sleep on their sides once out of the oven (see photo)
• baked them with these temperatures for these durations (which doesn't worked very well for my small toaster oven, it was kinda too long which may burn the top and bottom)

100deg C for 10min

130deg C for 20min (I cut to 15min)

150deg C for 15min (1 cut to 10min)

160deg C for 5min (I didn't do this)

 

The sleeping beauties

Wow!! Seriously, it doesn't sink!!

 

 

As you can see from the photos, the cupcakes never sank. Hahaaa.. I should be glad, shouldn't I? But the problem now, is that I don't know which one of the three method helped to prevent it from sinking. Arghhh!!

 

But softness wise, this is okay, I still prefer my pandan version. It was much more fragrant and was equally soft, if not softer.

Very good soy-pandan chiffon cupcake

I had to title it this way. This is really good. Sometimes I think I get biased when typing while eating the cakes fresh out of the oven. Just like what the owner of this recipe said, once you've tasted pandan chiffon warm, you will never want the cold stuffs you always get anymore. I agree! This recipe is tooo good not to be given credit for. But please be warned, this very delicious tasting chiffon cupcake will crack. It will not give you a very good outlook, but it definitely tastes 100times better than its outlook. When you know how good it tastes, you won't be bothered of its look. I already finished eating one when I'm typing this line. But I cannot have a second one, cos I already had two orange chiffon cupcakes (which I baked yesterday) and I was already way over my quota.

 

Now, if you're too, like me, contemplating on whether if you should just try out half of this recipe? Please don't. Do the full recipe. I was contemplating, cos I, again, was trying to limit myself from getting sugar overload, but then I thought, it's alright, I can give some to Aunty Helen, my neighbor, whom the homegrown pandan leaves which I used in this recipe belongs to. The pandan plant was growing at the side of the fence parting our house compound, and it just decided to cross over to our place, and I seriously remembered Aunty Helen mentioned that we can use the pandan plant anytime (which my hubby never recalled) ... hmm.. anyway, when I started tearing off the liner of this cupcake, I knew I made the right decision of baking the full recipe. I don't think I will have extra for Aunty Helen anymore (ooppspss... let's hope she never reads my blog, fingers crossed) ;p

Here's the pandan (screwpine) leaves planted by Aunty Helen

 

 

我很丑。。可是， 我真的很

柔软。。。 Can you imagine how fluffy it is?

Here's the recipe (adapted from here)
This recipe yields 8 cupcakes in those Hokkaido cupcake liners

• 4 egg yolks
• 1tbsp molasses castor sugar (which I have blended to a very fine texture using molasses sugar)
• 50g grapeseed oil
• 70g green, mature pandan leaves (rinsed thoroughly and drained, then chopped to short sections)
• 75g fresh soy milk (unsweetened)

**pandan leaves are blitz with the soy milk, and squeezed through the cheesecloth to obtain about 65g green milk (there were more, I kept them for breadmaking the next day)

• pinch of salt
• 80g cake flour (I used top flour)
• 1/4 tsp baking powder

• 4 egg white
• 4 tbsp. molasses castor sugar

As you can see, I didn't use normal castor sugar, my castor sugar are made from molasses (which was a little too coarse, so I blitz them into fine powder texture). I love cooking and baking with molasses instead of white sugar. Molasses are not that sweet and they are less refined compared to white sugar.

I have adjusted the amount of sugar in this recipe. I find it just right. I don't like anything too sweet.

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 165deg C.
2. Whisk egg whites with pinch of salt till they form soft peak. Gradually add in 4tbsp of molasses while continuing to whisk. Keep whisking till egg whites just reach stiff peak.
3. In another bowl, whisk egg yolks and 1tbsp molasses till thick. Add in oil and green milk. Whisk till combined. Sieve in cake flour and baking powder. Whist to combine.
4. Add egg whites to yolk batter in 3 batches. Fold till just evenly mixed.
5. Divide the batter between 8 cupcake liner. Tap liner gently against worktop to level batter and get rid of air bubbles.
6. I baked these at 165deg C in my toaster oven for first 10min. Then turn down the temperature to 155deg C and baked for another 10min. Just like the owner of this recipe mentioned, cakes crack after first 10min.
7. Let cool and serve.

Note: My pandan chiffon isn't green in color, cos first, I used homemade pandan paste (not the artificial flavoring with coloring), secondly, I used molasses sugar in replacement of white castor sugar.