Green Tea Chiffon Cake

I had decided to do a Green Tea Chiffon or Matcha Chiffon over the long weekend as Monday was a public holiday cos of Hari Raya; I have the book Okashi - sweet treats made with love by Keiko Ishida which has a wonderful recipe on "Green Tea Chiffon Cake"; and I came across a blog, Anncoo Journal, that had adapted the recipe from Okashi.

Below is the recipe from Okashi and I too had modified some ingredients and omitted and added some steps in the method:

70g Cake Flour

10g - 15g Green tea powder (I am using Ujinotsuyu Matcha powder - the best I reckoned and below is a photo of it.)

5 Egg yolks

20g Caster sugar 

70g Water

60g Vegetable Oil

Meringue

90g Caster sugar

10g Corn flour

5 Egg whites

Method:

• Preheat oven to 150C -160C (depends on your oven. I used 150C).
• Combined and sift cake flour and green tea powder together to form the dry mixture. Set aside. Combine egg yolks and sugar in a bowl and mix well. Add water and corn oil and blend together. Add the dry mixture and mix until batter becomes sticky. This will be batter A. Set aside.
• To make the meringue, combine sugar and corn flour. Set aside. Beat egg whites. When the whites become foamy, add half the sugar and corn flour mixture and continue beating for a  minute or two. Add the remaining sugar and flour mixture and beat egg whites until stiff peaks are formed.
• Add some meringue to A and fold in lightly, then add remaining meringue and fold to incorporate completely. However, try not to overmix it as this will result in a not-so-light and fluffy texture.
• Pour batter into an ungreased 20cm chiffon cake pan. Place in the oven and bake for about 40 minutes. I suggest you start watching your cake after 30 minutes.
• When cake is done, remove from oven and turn the pan over. Leave cake to cool in pan.
• Once cake has cooled completely, carefully run a knife around the sides of the cake to loosen it.

I must say the chiffon tasted great although I found it a tad sweet. Perhaps I should reduce the amount of caster sugar to 10g?

2012 National Day Macarons

In celebration of Singapore's 47th years of Independence, I decided to make these lovely Red & White Macarons with Chocolate Ganache as their fillings. I discovered by chance that some local stores were selling white coloring powder. Perfect for my white macarons. I had initially intended to use soft beige coloring.

                         

I trawled the internet to look for more macaron recipes. I have my own basic recipe for macaron shells but it is the different types of fillings that I am more interested in. 

Perhaps for those wanting to venture into the land of macarons, you may want to check this uk site -

http://www.macarons.org.uk. Absolutely interesting recipes to experiment with. 

For the chocolate ganache, I used Martha Stewart's Chocolate Ganache Frosting recipe but adapted it:
8oz good quality chocolate
200ml Thickened Cream (Heavy Cream is mentioned instead)
40ml Karo Corn Syrup

I chanced upon this glass jar in my pantry and thought it would be a great idea to store my macarons in it and present it as a wonderful gift. My macs were a hit, especially with my dear wife who devoured quite a number...

In the Pink with Macarons

I made them again. It is the fever. I made them just to arrange them for a photo shoot. I am thus perfecting my skills in making macarons and honing my skills on food photography.

I had intended to make Raspberry macarons. However, the raspberry powder I used on the macarons resulted in total disaster. So I decided to make plain pink ones and a thick layer of chocolate ganache to go with them.

There are so many recipes and videos on how to make macarons. Perhaps I should attempt the recipes mentioned and see how the macarons will turn out. 

A Pistachio MacArt

A piece of Pistachio Art

I just had to make Pistachios macarons. The recipe is again from Jill's book which I had mentioned in my previous blog.

Macarons left aside to 'set'

What you see here are the macarons from the third batch. The first batch, was to me, not perfect. When I piped them, they were a little too liquid. Into the bin they went. But the next two batches were successful. Noticed I sprinkled some coarsely crushed pistachio on a couple of macarons only? I was not sure if they would turn out right.

To attain the pistachio-green, I mixed yellow paste with dark green. I would recommend the above food colors which I had purchased online from the UK - Squire's Kitchen. I personally found them to be slightly thicker and richer in color than Wilton's. 

Pistachio macarons with dark chocolate ganache

I have included below the packet of baked pistachios which I bought from the local store. The nuts were great. I had some crushed into the ganache as well. I guess I should have been more adventurous to mix more in the ganache.

These are the plain ones and their pistachio-ness are found in the ganache only. They look and tasted great. If only my wife and boys would pop them into their mouths...

Chocolate Macarons au cafe-creme

Perfect shot of my two perfect macarons

It has been a while. I decided over the weekend to try my luck on making Macarons again. By now, we all know how 'difficult' it is to make them. Sometimes you succeed, sometimes you fail.

Given the many macaron recipes I have, I zoomed into Jill Colonna's recipe in Mad About Macarons. I am still fascinated by the macarons one can make from her recipes. So far, they have worked for me.

Drizzled with Valhorna White Chocolate

I referred to the Dark Chocolate Macarons recipe to make the shells but used the recipe from Coffee Macarons to make the cafe-creme. In fact, I adapted the cafe-creme by leaving out the butter. It still tasted heavenly. However, I learned that the next time I do a cafe-creme, I should follow her recipe and stick to two tablespoons of coffee powder. I had added close to three tablespoons with the intent of creating a more flavorful and stronger coffee taste. It was bitter. But I want to believe that the sweetness in the shells balanced the taste.

To make the macarons less boring, I drizzled melted Valhorna white chocolate over the smooth brown tops.

I must admit that I am pretty pleased with my macarons. They looked and tasted good. And yes, I will attempt to make macarons in the next couple of weeks.

Martha Stewart's Orange Chiffon Cake

I had decided to bake another Orange Chiffon cake but this time, without the cranberries (see my post on Orange Chiffon). I was basically inspired to try out the recipes from my new book - Martha's American Food. It is Stewart's latest book and my very thoughtful wife bought it and presented it to me as a birthday gift. Imagine how thrilled I was and by the way, this is not the first cook/baking book she had bought for me. 

The photos of the chiffon cake was another push factor that made me want to try out the recipe. But as usual, I adapt recipes for reasons like availability of ingredients or to use up the remaining flour or oil in this case. So I conveniently replaced the plain flour with cake flour and the safflower oil with vegetable oil. 

I do not intend to post the recipe here for copyright issues but if you would like to have it, do drop me a comment. But at this juncture, I should say I was a little apprehensive when the recipe calls for cold water to be added. The result was:

Orange Chiffon Cake with powdered sugar

The cake was fabulous as seen above. Height wise, it was perfect. I dusted powdered sugar to add a little sweetness to the cake. To replicate the cakes shown in book, I served my slices with the recommended whipped cream and candied orange zest. 

With whipped cream, candied zest and mini choco chips

I decided to add color too by placing some Hersey's mini chocolate chips at the sides. Honestly (I mentioned about adapting recipes above), I had forgotten to throw in the mini chips into the batter before baking. I would then be able to call it my Orange Choco Chip Chiffon Cake. But viola, I had the perfect Orange Chiffon cake! 

Soya Bean Chiffon Cake

Yes, I finally found the time and purpose to post something on my blog (which I had neglected for quite some time). I have been baking and this time it is back to making that perfect chiffon. I believe I have mastered the art of making that soft and fluffy cake. As such, I am venturing into different 'flavours' of chiffon. 

I have heard, seen, read and been introduced to Okashi Treats by Keiko Ishida before. However, what made me an instant fan of Keiko was when my aunt gave us a cake she had baked using one of the recipes from the book.

I instantly took to the Matcha and Soya Bean Chiffon cake recipes. I did the former and it turned out excellent. Baked two more times and each time, the perfect matcha cake was produced! I proudly showed my family how my chiffon was uncannily similar in color and texture to the photo in the book. I will post that matcha chiffon one of these days...

The chiffon above is the soya bean version ie before putting on the whipped cream. I was pretty excited to try something different and goggled to find out how I am able to get the soya bean powder. Having returned from a holiday (again) in the Land of The Rising Sun - this time Osaka, Nara and Kyoto, I was interested in all things Japanese. So I visited Meidiya at Liang Court and I must say I was extremely pleased to find kinako or soya bean powder.

I always face the issue of creaming my cakes. I attempted a few times and each time, I am dissatisfied with how they turned out. What the heck! But taste wise, I should say, it is an acquired one. The fragrance of the soya bean powder is just right and any diabetic patient will appreciate and be able to enjoy a slice. I must say, it was a success and I would bake it again since I have a packet and a half of soya bean powder left in my pantry.

I was fortunate to get Keiko's book from the library. But the recipe can be obtained from another blogger's post here - My Baking Cottage, I chanced upon Aimei's blog and thus must acknowledge her here.

So good luck to all those who wish to attempt the Soya Bean Chiffon. By the way, if someone could tell me how I can make my whipped cream stiffer and last longer when it is out of the fridge, please let me know...