Chiffon Cakes

I have been baking alot of chiffon cakes lately. It was disastrous for the first few times, either it did not rise beautifully or it was too dense. I agree with the saying Practise makes Perfect.. I saw from Culinary Kitchenette and those oh-so-beautiful chiffon and I must get it right!

The balance batter which was baked in cup - don't you just love the cupcake liner?

I have since tried twice baking chiffon and the result was almost-perfect! The look, texture and taste..love it! From the same FB group page, the ladies unmould their chiffon using bare-hands, I googled on how to do it and gave it a try.. it was surprisingly easier and the cake has lesser crumbs.



I swear by the recipe from Kevin Chai but do note on the number of eggs use as well as the size of your tube pan. I will try out the recipe from the book I bought recently from Eslite Taipei *after I get them translated*.

The recipe below is for Orange Chiffon Cake but you can replace the orange with any liquid of your choice. I've tried it with Coffee and Pineapple as well. :)

Orange Chiffon Cake (Kevin Chai)

Egg Yolk batter
7 egg yolks (65g with shell)
50g sugar* (I reduced it to 30g as the oranges that I used are sweet enough)
60ml orange juice* (I increased this to 75ml to give it more taste)
1/2 tsp salt
2 tbsp orange rind
4 tbsp cooking oil (I used corn oil, canola is fine too)
1 tsp orange flavor (optional, which I omitted)
110g self-raising flour
Drops of orange coloring (optional, which I omitted)

 Egg White mixture
7 egg whites
1/2 tsp cream of tartar (I reduced to 1/4 tsp)
130g sugar* (I reduced it to 80g)

How?
- Preheat your oven to 170 degree.
- In a clean bowl, combine egg yolk, sugar, salt, orange juice, cooking oil and orange rind.
- Add in self-raising flour and mix until batter is formed. Set aside.
- In another clean bowl (I use some vinegar to remove oil and other residue from the bowl), beat egg whites with cream of tartar until soft peak form.
- Add sugar gradually (while beating) and beat until almost still peak. I took about 3 minutes from the above step to reach this stage.
- Fold in 1/3 of the egg whites to the egg yolk batter. Follow by the next 1/3 of the egg white. Mix well at each addition until all egg whites are well combined.
- Pour mixture into a 20-inch tube pan. Give it a few knock against the countertop.
- Bake the chiffon cake for 45 minutes - 60 minutes or until the cake skewer comes out clean.

Passionfruit Chiffon - look at how short and dense the cake was (FAIL!)

This looks promising but see next picture below - it collapsed as well.

Coffee Chiffon

Marble Chiffon - the very first chiffon that I unmould by hand

The latest bake - Pineapple Chiffon Cake

CNY Bakes - Kue Nastar & Rose Pineapple tarts

What an overdue post! Chinese New Year will end tomorrow and boy this is the most eventful month by far and how I wish it was a different February all together. Kieran is having fever AGAIN! 3rd time in 3 weeks...argh

I made a total of 4 batches of pineapple tarts and this year I was feeling adventurous so I decided to do away with usual round pineapple tarts but tried Kue Nastar instead. Kue Nastar is the same term for pineapple tarts but more commonly known in Indonesia. The difference? Melt in your mouth rolled pastry. :)

I sourced for a new recipe online and decided to try this particular one that only use 4 ingredients and best of all, it's creaming method so no more hassle of rubbing butter with flour. Teehee

Thanks Sonia from Nasi Lemak Lover for the wonderful recipe. This is also the year when I went to Tanjong Katong Complex, Ailin Bakery to buy their Sarawak Pineapple paste..indeed it is very very nice. I would not discount the possibility of me baking a few more batches of this pineapple tarts!

I rolled them into 1/2 size of a ping pong ball

Kue Nastar (adapted from Sonia of Nasi Lemak Lover)

350g butter (I used Lurpak or Golden Churn)

100g condensed milk

510g all-purpose flour/plain flour

2 egg yolks

How?

- Cream butter and condensed milk until it is fluffy and light in color (about 3 - 5 minutes)

- Add in egg yolks one at a time and beat until just combine.

- Lastly, add in flour and mix it thoroughly. The dough should not be sticky.

- Using cookie press, pipe out strips of dough on baking sheet.

- Place pineapple paste and roll it gently.

- Brush with egg yolk (I use 2 egg yolk with small amount of condensed milk and water)

- Bake at preheated oven of 180C for 18 minutes

Besides Kue Nastar, I used the above dough for enclosed version and using a crimper, made it into rose-shaped pinapple tarts. The most beautiful I've made so far and I am very very pleased with the result. Who know, I may decide to sell my bakes next year. Stay tune!

CNY - Massive photos update

Technically CNY isn't over but everyone is back to their daily routine - work, school and the stress that came with it.
CNY came too fast this year and I wasn't entirely prepared. To make it worse the boys fell sick one day apart from each other. Imagine we drove from Singapore to Klang with 2 whiny and needy boys that refuse to nap! We survived but the next few days were nightmare and it hit me why I will never be a stay-home mom - my boys drive me nuts!!! Haha

 My sick boys

Our routine every year is the same.. Slacking at Grandma's house while the uncles and aunties played gin rummy. By late noon we would leave and go home to stuff ourselves silly with CNY goodies.
Day 2 highlight will be Grandpa's birthday and he's 88 years old! Still going strong and may he stay strong and healthy.. We did not head over to gramp's place this year because Kieran was not well and he was very very cranky. He rested and he took a 3-hr nap! It was blissful during that period. Haha

 

HUAT AH!!