Hokkaido Chiffon Cupcakes

If you have fetish eaters like I do, putting together dishes they would not frown and make faces at is an absolute challenge. During this fasting month, the challenge can drive you up the wall. So in order to not go any more crazy than I already am, I resorted to seeking help from Uncle Google – in more specific the food blogs.

Just imagine, at lunch break mem-browse blogs yang penuh dengan gambar-gambar food yang tak terkata yummyliciousnya. Tergugat iman? Maunya tak!! But tak de lah sampai nak berbuka pulak kann. Just enough to stimulate the mind into figuring out what to cook later.

Anyway, one day when browsing for pasta recipes guess where it brought me? Yup, I landed at some blogs which had cakes of various shapes, colors and flavours. Ohhh...dugaan sesangat!

My baking...well it's mediocre lah. Just suka-suka whenever I feel like it. Obviously my baking akan ikut mood; if jiwa kacau, I'd bake more frequent. Kalau keadaan kehidupan macam relax and selesa je, tak de nya kisah nak mengguli-uli tepung and butter tu. And because baking ni tak serious, ada masanya yang diadun tu menjadi cantik. And ada masanya ia akan terus masuk dalam dustbin. I wish one day to be able to bake macarons like the Kitchen Guardian. When that happens, I think I should jejak qaseh dengan my cikgu Homescience dulu and tell her “hey maam...look, I didn't turn out to be so bad lah”. Considering dulu she pernah kata if I failed my exams, I should just kawin je (ohhh sampai hati cikgu...saya ni bercita-cita tinggi, cikgu....and how could you not see that??) Tapi mana boleh durhaka pada guru kan? Nanti tak berkat ilmu and macam tak sincere pulak bila tiap-tiap tahun nak bagi hadiah during Teacher's Day celebration.

Anyway, back to the story of fetish eaters. I Googled pasta and it brought me to cakes. Ciss tak baik betul Uncle Google ni. So dipendekkan cerita dalam the many cake sites, I found one recipe that I thought was pretty simple and manageable. And because it was something that has something to do with Japan, lagilah it got my attention. Anything to do with Japan or Korea would definitely interests the J-pop and K-pop junkie in the house (read: NISSA lah who else!)

The cake is called Hokkaido Chiffon Cake (original recipe here). Nama glam lah kan. But seriously speaking, it's pretty easy to make. So sebenarnya bukan lah I pandai sangat nak buat. Cuma pandai follow instructions yang diberikan lah kot. Jadi friends who were so quick at complimenting my “ke-terrer-an” at baking, thanks, thanks, and thanks again. Tapi sebenarnya, you all semua pun boleh nak try out this cake ya :)

So to friends who have asked for the recipe, here goes..... Try ya jangan tak try coz these snowy, soft and spongy babes are really nice :)

Hokkaido Lemon Chiffon Cupcake

(I tweaked it by adding lemon rind to give a bit of flavour)

Ingredients

3 egg yolks, at room temperature
20g caster sugar
35g corn oil
60g full cream milk
70g cake flour, sifted
1 teaspoon lemon rind (if u like a more lemony cake, u can add more)
3 egg whites, at room temperature
25g caster sugar
1 tsp cream of tartar

Cream Cheese Filling 

(recipe actually suggested something with custard and whipping cream, but I improvised)

2 tablespoons butter
4 tablespoons cream cheese
4 tablespoons icing sugar (use more if you like it sweet)
1 teaspoon cream
4 tablespoons plain yogurt
Icing sugar, for dusting

Method

1.Pre-heat oven to 180°C.

2. Remove eggs from fridge 30 minutes before you start, and separate the egg yolks and whites and place in separate bowls covering them in cling film until ready. Arrange paper liners on a muffin tray.

3. Using an electric whisk, beat the egg yolk and sugar until pale yellow in colour. Add in oil and milk, and mix well. Add lemon rind. Add the cake flour and combine.

4. In a separate bowl (make sure bowl and whisk are very clean and free of oil or else the eggs whites will not rise), use an electric whisk to beat the egg white until foamy and then add cream of tartar and beat until soft peaks are formed. Gradually add the sugar, and continue to beat til stiff peaks.

5. With a spatula, gently fold 1/3 of egg white into the egg yolk batter.

6. Fold in the balance egg white until well-combined.

7. Fill the pre-arranged paper liners to about 3/4 full.

8. Bake for 20 - 30 minutes until a skewer inserted comes out clean. Do not overbake or else texture of the cake won't be as light. Remove from oven and allow to cool completely on a wire rack.

9. Using an electric whisk, beat butter till it's fluffy.

10. Add in cream cheese, sugar, plain yogurt and cream. Whip everything until it turns light and creamy. Use a chopstick to make a hole in the middle of the cake. Pipe cream into the cooled cupcake and dust with icing sugar.


Recipe makes about 10 cupcakes if you use the squarish paper cups.
I must say they go very well with a cup of hot coffee or hot milo at iftar :-)

Sent via Kay's Berry