Chestnut Chiffon Cake

You might be frighten by these alien. It might gives you an uncomfortable feeling. Don't worry it's not worm or insect or rope. My other half thought it's noodles at his first sight. There are non of them. It's just a chestnut cream that was decorated from piping bag.

Well, if you've seen this from the front page of a chiffon recipe book with this similar picture and this is the recipe book that I've been reading 戚枫蛋糕秘方传授. I think the taste of this chiffon might not be so popular, unlike chocolate, coffee or banana chiffon.

The sponge texture is really light, soft and fluffy whereas the taste is not very sweet as I pureed some unsweetened peeled chestnut which I bought from DAISO and mix it with the canned chestnut paste. The topping of the chestnut cream enhance the flavour that is just nice to eat with a bite of sponge and some cream. If you like it, you'll ask for more, but if you don't, you don't even feel to have a second bite. A piece is definitely not enough for me as its lightness really fascinated me.

Recipe:
Egg white mixture:

110g egg whites

55g sugar

5g corn flour

Egg yolk mixture:

40g egg yolks

50g water

40g vegetable oil

50g passion fruit

55g plain flour

35g unsweetened chestnut, blend into puree

35g chestnut paste in can

90g unsweetened whole chestnut, halves

Decoration:

250ml whipping cream

60g unsweetened chestnut, blend into puree

60g chestnut paste in can

30g milk

few unsweetened whole chestnut, halves

How I made it:

1. Mix all the egg yolks mixture except flour. When everything well combined then add in sifted flour. Mix everything well combine and no lumps left. The mixture would be quite thick and smooth.
2. Beat the egg whites in a clean large bowl until peak foam. Gradually add in sugar, one tablespoon at a time. Then finally add in corn flour. Make sure the corn flour mix well in the egg mixture. The egg whites mixture should be peak foam, smooth and shiny.
3. Gently fold in 1/3 of the egg whites mixture into the egg yolks mixture. When everything well combine then gently fold in the 1/2 of the remaining egg whites mixture. Lastly, fold in the remaining egg whites mixture. (Note: This stage took some times and patient and practice. Make sure all the egg whites mixture well combine with the egg yolks mixture without breaking the egg whites. Little egg whites left will cause a big hole in the cake during baking. And, over mixing will cause it hardly rise during the baking.)
4. Fold in the unsweetened whole chestnut.
5. Pour the well mix mixture into a 17cm chiffon cake tin and bake at a 160'C preheated oven for 40 minutes. After baked, let the baked cake turn upside down for cooling. Cling wrap the entire chiffon cake with the tin and refrigerated for over night. This will make the texture much nicer.
6. Unmold the chiffon cake. Whip the cream until thicken. In another bowl, mix the pureed unsweetened whole chestnut, chestnut paste and warm milk until smooth. Fold in 25g of the whipped cream until well mix. Place this chestnut cream into a piping bag.
7. Spread the chiffon cake with whipping cream then pipe out the chestnut cream on top of the cake and place a few chunky chestnut for garnishment.
8. Keep the cake in the fridge it could last for 4 days.

Strawberries

Being a yard less urbanite is fine in the winter (who wants to shovel snow). But I always feel cheated by the concrete come spring.  I grew up with a garden that attracted bees, fireflies, and humming birds. Fortunately, I inherited a plot in a community garden in May. Eager to partake in spring planting rituals, I bought seedlings for the rich, Who-filled soil. Tomatoes, bell peppers, basil, thyme, sage, dill, parsley, and hot peppers, at the insistence of my Indian mom, all found a place in the small plot.  

I felt content with my garden until I noticed a small patch of lime green plants in a neighboring plot. The deeply grooved leaves, which sat close to the ground, looked familiar. Strawberry plants! Why wasn't I trying to beckon summer's first fruit? A week later, white petaled flowers with  yellow centers graced the stems. I knew the blossoms would turn into glossy red berries - more fragrant and flavorful than the super-sized varieties shipped from California. Fearful of my weakness for their juicy flesh, I scheduled a trip to the farmer's market. 

June strawberries satisfy all the senses, whether dressed up (with cream or chocolate) or eaten right off the stem. In addition, they provide a healthy dose of dietary fiber, thanks to the tiny seeds polk-a-doting the outer flesh, and vitamin C. The one drawback: this exquisite fruit lingers around for about month. So don't waste time coveting your neighbor's patch. Visit your local farmer's market this week or schedule a trip to the closest U-Pick farm!

Fig & Brown Sugar Cake

I bought a pack of organic dried fig from Cold Storage long time ago, due to my sickness, concert and so on, the dried fig has been hibernating in the fridge for sometime. I think I've to use it before it goes expired. This fig and brown sugar cake recipe from the book of "Luscious Healthy Desserts 搞纤低卡烘培" taste quite special for me.

This cake is light and the sweetness from the dried fig is quite special. I reduced some sugar from the cake recipe as I find the fig is very sweet. The cake suppose to be spread with whipped cream but I don't have whipping cream on hand so I decided to make some buttercream to go with it. I think the cake would be much softer and lighter if I rolled it with whipped cream. The method of this recipe is quite similar to chiffon cake unlike some swiss roll recipe which is beat the whole eggs until fluffy then add add the flour. Anyway, it's not very difficult to make and I would like try to replace the fig to prunes, cherry or other dried fruits on my next attempt.

I tried a mango yogurt ice cream recipe from Small Small Baker and it's fantastic! It's very smooth and refreshing, and just so great to have a few scoops in this hot weather.

After my the first attempt on the potato buns for hotdog, I tried to make it again filled with some azuki redbean. Again, it's still not nicely shaped but the bun really soft like the one I bought from the stall.

Recipe for Fig & Brown Sugar Cake @ 60cm x 39cm baking pan.

(I used 2/5 from the below recipe to fit my smaller baking pan @ 27.5cm x 34.5cm)

(A) 150g dried fig / 20g sugar / 60g water / 20g honey / 80g rum
(B) 180g egg yolks / 100g water / 11og dark brown sugar / 150g olive oil / 30g rum / 210g plain flour
(C) 370g egg whites / 140g sugar (I used half of the sugar only) / 15g corn flour
(D) some whipping cream or butter cream (1/2 cup icing sugar / 1/2 cup butter / 1/2 tsp vanilla extract / 1/2 to 1 tbsp milk)

Methods:

1. Cook ingredients (A) at low heat until the fig soften and flavored. Chopped it into big chunk.
2. Mix water, oil and brown sugar, bring the bowl on the hob at low heat keep stirring until the brown sugar melted.
3. Mix in the egg yolks and rum then the plain flour. Add in the softened fig.
4. In another bowl, whisk ingredients (C) until soft peak then fold half of the egg whites into the fig mixture until combine. Add the remaining egg whites into the mixture until everything well incorporated.
5. Pour into a baking pan and bake for 15 minutes at 190'C preheated oven.
6. Let the cake cool down before spreading the butter cream or whipping cream and roll up into a swiss roll.