Hokkaido Chiffon Cupcakes ... 1st Attempt

Last week, while the entire family was going through throat infections and high fever from the strong bacteria that was going around the house and family, there were consolidations to it.

I posted Jaden's photos while he was admitted in hospital. When my friends saw the update, they were concern and posted several well wishes. Some of the friends called us.

Out of all these, I have my school ex-classmate who stayed in the same neighbourhood as us. She was baking Hokkaido cake and she sent half a dozen to my house for my family.

Honestly, I've heard, read and seen so much about this cake from Japan but I've never got my hand into it.

I tried the cake and hmmmmmm... it was yummy! The cake was light, not too sweet, had a very good texture and look pretty too.

Then, I read post by Quay Po Cook on her first attempt of this Hokkaido Cake. The recipes are simple and easy to prepare and the steps to make the cake is simple too.

I was in the mood to bake then. I wanted to put all these throat infection and high fever at the back of my mind and take life slow and easy.

I went to House of Ingredients (HOI) and bought these:

4.0 cm x 4.0 cm mini square paper cup, 50 pieces for RM4.50

According to the staff at HOI, these mini square paper cups were their new arrival. I think this mini cup is a good idea as it allows option to bake mini Hokkaido cake size, especially when we need to bake a lot for party or event.




5.0 cm x 5.0 cm square paper cup, 100 pieces for RM9.90

Blue for the 3 boys in the house, polka dots are for me.

Tip to pipe whipped cream into Hokkaido cake.

Unlike the normal tip for cake decoration, this tip for Hokkaido cake is longer to allow us to pipe whipped cream into the cake.

Whipped cream to fill the cup cake:

Ingredients:

• 1 cup heavy cream
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

Preparation:

• Whip cream until almost stiff. Add sugar and vanilla; beat until cream holds peaks.

  Cup Cakes Ingredients:

• 4 large egg yolks
• 70g Castor sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/3 cup (80 ml) full cream milk
• 1/4 cup (60 ml) vegetable oil/corn oil/canola oil

• 135g all-purpose flour/cake flour
• 1 tsp baking powder

• 6 large egg whites
• 50g Castor sugar

•  2 tbsp icing sugar for dusting

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180°C.

2. Place the egg yolks in a bowl and whisk them together with the 70g of sugar until yolks turn a pale yellow.

3. Add the vanilla extract, followed by the milk and oil. Whisk well to combine.

4. Sieve in the flour and baking powder and mix till all incorporated.

5. In another bowl, beat the egg whites on high for about 30 seconds until foamy, then add 50g of Castor sugar.

6. Beat the egg whites until firm peaks not stiff peaks.

7. Take a third of the egg whites and fold it into the egg yolk mixture to lighten it.

8. Continue folding in the remaining egg whites gently till you get a pale yellow batter.

9. Fill the cupcake liners until about 3/4 full. Bake the cupcakes for about 15 to 20 minutes, or until the tops turn a golden brown and a cake skewer comes out clean.

10. While the cupcakes are baking, prepare the whipped cream.

11. Once cupcakes are baked, let them cool completely on the wire rack.

12. Fill the piping bag with whipped cream and pipe into the cup cakes and put them in the fridge.

13. Dust the cupcakes with powdered sugar before serving.

The recipe is sufficient to bake 10 of these mini chiffon cakes

plus 8 of this normal size chiffon cakes

Overall, the cake tasted good, especially the whipped cream.

The one improvement required is the cake is not fluffy and light enough, resulting in difficulty to pipe whipped cream into a dense cake. I need to pay attention in beating the egg white.

I am determine to try again and make this chiffon cake better. It will be soon,