Saturday, November 20, 2010

Strawberry Chiffon Cake

It's official, i am now addicted to Chiffon Cake!

Chiffon Cake seems to be 'out of fashion' these days. The Pandan flavour is the most popular type in Malaysia but having read a Japanese Chiffon Cakwe recipe book last year really opoened my eyes to the variety of Chiffon Cake.

Made this Strawberry flavour Chiffon Cake for the first time. Other than the light and soft texture of Chiffon cake, it carries a very subtle strawberry flavour. Next would be a banana chiffon cake and then maybe orange flavour.








Recipe

A. Egg yolk batter
4 egg yolks
3/4 cup strawberry puree
65g corn oil or olive oil
80g sugar
1 tsp of baking powder
115g cake flour
1/3 tsp salt

B. Egg white mixture
5 egg whites
1/2 tsp cream of tartar
60g sugar

* Optional:
1/2 tsp of strawberry essence
red colouring

Instructions:
1. Preheat oven to 345 F. Make sure the rake is in the centre of oven.
2. Combine egg yolks and sugar, beat until well combined (it should look pale yellow)
3. Stir in strawberry puree, oil and strswberry essence (if using)and till well combined.
4. Sift dry ingredients *cake flour, baking powder and salt) into the egg yolk mixture and beat until well combined, add colouring now if desired.
5. In a separate mixing bowl, sprinkle cream of tartar over egg whites and neat till small bubbles form. gradually add sugar and beat until stiff peak forms (to test when it is ready, the egg white meringue would hold and not drop when mixing bowl is turned upside down).
6. scoop 1/3 egg white mixture into egg yolk batter and using a whish, fold into the egg uolk mixture until combined. DO NOT over do it.
7. Put remaining egg white mixture into egg yolk batter and again fold using a whisk until combined but DO NOT overdo as you want to keep the air pockets.
8. Pour into ungreased 20cm tube pan. Give the pan a few bang to get ride of big air bubbles, you can also use a chopstick to swirl the batter.
9. Bake for 30 min, then turn doen heat to approx 320F and bake for another 20 min or until cooked (test with a skewer).
10. Once cooked, removed from oven and IMMEDIATELY invert pan upside down onto heatproof funnel or bottle. Let it cool completely (about 2 hours, depending on weather) before loosening side of cake with knife or long, metal spatula; remove from pan.

Girls Cooking Party - Gourmet Salad

Green Papaya Salad


The quarterly girls cooking party is on again, with the perfect weather for our theme - Gourmet Salad. The bar has increased since the previous challenge, and everyone seems to put in more thoughts and efforts into this.

No one actually made any common salad such as ceasar salad or coleslaw, which is good to see. Out of the two I have short listed (Japanese and Thai), I finally decided on the Thai Green Papaya Salad. I like the hot/sour/sweet taste and also thought this would be refeshing for warmer weather. Never bought and seen a green papaya before but nowadays the Chinese grocery store is so well stocked, it wasn't difficult to source this. At $8.99 per Kg, I suspect it is imported.

Other salads brought by the girls include mouth watering salads such as 'Chicken Rissoles with Beetroot Relish and Warm Potato Salad', 'Thai Beef Salad', 'Warm salad of Kipfler potato, cabbage and bacon', 'Thai Cold Noodle Salad', 'Szechuan Ma La 麻辣 tofu', 'Coronation Chicken Salad', a sweet salad 'Sweet Salad - Orange marinated with lime juice and honey, topped with shaved chocolates and coconut' and also some Sri Lankan treats - Milk Toffees. Now I have more ideas for salad now for this coming summer!

Thai Beef Salad (prepared by Christie)

The winning dish - Chicken Rissoles with Beetroot Relish and Warm Potato Salad', a Masterchef recipe

Sweet Salad - Orange marinated with lime juice and honey, topped with shaved chocolates and coconut - prepared by Esther.

Szechuan "Ma Lak" (麻辣 — "numb and spicy") shreded tofu prepared by Sarah Lim

Coronation Chicken Salad prepared by Tania, ingredients include chicken in creamy curry sauce, walnuts, grapes topped with alfalfa sprouts

Thai cold noodle salad - glassnoodles, chienses mushroom, fungus, apples, pork slices, shredded carrots and topped with nuts, served with speciallyh made fish sauce - created by Nga.

Milk Tofee - Sri Lankan treats made by Suleka

My Green Papaya Salad