Green Tea Chiffon Cake

my first ever chiffon cake! i took the original recipe off from florence's Do What I Like.

baked this for papa since he hasn't had much of an appetite the past week. so i was hoping this would tempt his taste buds a little.

i wasn't really sure when to stop beating the egg whites. so when i first saw signs of stiff peaks i stopped immediately! haha was afraid that i would over-whip and the cake wouldn't turn out good.

stiff peaks

green tea powder dissolved in warm water

cooling the cake!

but somehow i still couldn't get the height that florence achieved. i guess i had over-mixed the egg whites and yolk mixture. yupp the cake sank a little while cooling :(

oh and i boiled some red beans with rock sugar which i added into the batter as well. but as you can see they all sank to the bottom of the tube pan. remember to soak the red beans beforehand else you'll have to wait a long time for them to cook!


nevertheless, it tasted good:) very soft and the texture was good. kept well till the next day too! this recipe is worth a try!

Here goes the recipe with some modifications, adapted from Do What I Like...

Ingredients: (22cm tube pan)
(A)
4 egg yolks
20g castor sugar
pinch of salt
1 1/2 tbsp honey

(B)
4 tbsp corn oil
80ml warm water + 3 tsp green tea powder
3 tsp rum

(C)
100g top flour
3/4 tsp baking powder

(D)
4 egg whites
1/2 tsp cream of tartar
35g castor sugar

(E)
A handful of cooked red beans, softened.

Method:
1. Cream ingredients (A) with hand whisk till sugar dissolved.
2. Add in ingredients (B) in the respective order and mix well before adding the next item.
3. Sieve in ingredients (C) and mix till no lumps.
4. Beat egg whites with electric beater till frothy, sprinkle in the cream of tartar. Beat till white in colour and add in sugar by thirds. Egg white should be beaten till stiff peaks are formed.
5. Put half portion of egg white into yolk mixture and mix it with a hand whisk in 6 strokes.
6. Pour yolk mixture and into the rest of the egg white and mix well with hand whisk.
7. Put batter into a chiffon cake pan, adding (E) last. Bang the pan on a hard surface several times to release the bubbles and bake at 170C - 180C for 35 -45 minutes or till cooked.
8. When the cake is cooked, remove from oven and give it another bang on a hard surface to loosen the cake texture then invert cooked cake to cool for 15 - 20 minutes. Remove cake from cake pan and leave aside to cool completely.

Note:
**Be careful not to over-whip the egg whites.
**Use minimal number of strokes when incorporating egg yolk mixture into egg whites. And do this gently!
** With that you should be able to get a nice, well risen cake :)