I've fallen deep into the nasty trap set by chiffon cakes. The problem with these guys is that they're so light and spongy, I daresay I can finish that whole cake in one sitting, no problemo. It's like chomping on poofs of clouds and by the time I realised, I've already had 3 massive slices today. This was my first time making chiffon cakes at home and I know it's going to become a regular in the house now. I've always loved getting them from bakeries, especially pandan ones- so aromatic with the prettiest tinge of green. But unfortunately pandan leaves aren't exactly easy to find in Australia so I opted for black sesame ones that I've been eyeing on for a long, long time. Black sesame is a common ingredient used in Japanese and Chinese desserts, alongside taro, green tea and red bean and I love them all to bits hehe. I've done my research and found that chiffon cakes can be pretty fussy and disastrous, with rising, collapsing, or shrinking problems. I was a little scared but decided to just go along with it, I mean the steps required didn't look all that daunting. So glad I did because these tasted terrific, like bakery standards, the texture was even better than some of the ones I've had in the past! Tear-away soft, moist and light, it's SO perfect with a cup of tea.
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| I LOVED folding in the egg whites into the egg yolk.flour mixture. It's so pretty seeing the swirls of colour blend together! |
I've adapted this recipe from two sources because I just couldn't decide on which to use. Although I was intrigued by the recipe that didn't require any oil, I just put some anyway, as a safeguard to ensure maximum moisture for the result. And I put a little baking powder, just a tad of the stuff to make it poof a bit better. I don't know what would've became of my chiffon cake if I hadn't put the oil or baking powder, but hey, it worked beautifully so I'm sticking to them now. I actually made the chiffon cake using 7 eggs to fit my 22cm mould but found it was way to full, mine bulged out and created an extra tall cake that was around 15cm tall! So I hope 6 eggs will do the trick next time, which is what I'm going to write down there.
It's certainly not the most pretty looking cake straight out of the oven but a little dusting of icing sugar would do the trick. I remembered I still had a container of dried rose petals and just sprinkled them on top of the cake without thinking much of it except for its visual appeal really, but surprisingly, the rose flavour came through and made a lovely complement to the cake with its sweet, floral scent. I'd add some rosewater next time to the batter, but that's all completely optional and you can keep it purely black sesame if you prefer it that way. And if you're new to making chiffon cakes and have no idea what I mean by inverting the cake on a bottle, just watch this video here.
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| Still looking a little homey? Spice it up with dried flower petals |





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