Friday, July 11, 2014

hokkaido chiffon cupcakes with strawberry cream

Because of your support, this blog has been selected to be one of the finalists For the Best Cooking Blog in this year's Singapore Blog Awards!

Thank you so much for your support for the last year, and I have to be thick-skinned and ask you to cast me a vote by clicking on the badge below. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! :)

I confess.

I have never eaten a Hokkaido Chiffon cake before today.

Are you shocked?
Well, you see, a person who bakes as often as I do tends to be a scrooge when it comes to forking out money for cakes. I just cannot bring myself to pay for cakes when I know I can make them at a fraction of the price at home.

Call it occupational hazard if you like. :)

So I have heard of these cupcakes, and I have seen them in shops. But I have never made them. And since my mom and sister had taken the kids out, I thought it was a good time to finally make some cupcakes!

They are a bit troublesome to make - indeed in my opinion many Japanese cakes are kinda troublesome to make, but the process is not a difficult one. At the end of the day, you do end up with pretty impressive-looking cupcakes after all that effort!
Here's how to make these cupcakes!

First of all, I beat together egg yolks and sugar until the mixture became pale and fluffy. This may take a while, especially if you are using a hand-held mixer.
Into this, I added the oil, followed by the milk and vanilla extract.
Once the mixture was well-combined, I folded in the flour. I like to do this by hand.
In the meantime, I whisked the egg whites in a mixing bowl. Once the mixture was foamy, I added the cream of tartar.
I kept beating until the egg whites had reached the soft peak stage. For pictures and an explanation on how to tell the difference between soft and stiff peak, see here.

I added the sugar and continued whisking until I reached the stiff peak stage.
I took 1/3 of the egg white mixture, and mixed this into the egg yolk mixture. There is no need to be gentle here as we simply want to stablise the mixture.
Then I very gently folded the rest of the egg whites into the mixture.
I dished the batter into cupcake cases.

And baked them.
Once baked the cupcakes need to be cooled completely. They will deflate as they cool. Do not panic.

To make the filling, I first pureed the strawberries. This was set aside.
Then I whipped the cream with the sugar in a bowl that was set in an ice bath until the cream was stiff and firm.
The strawberry puree was folded into the whipped cream and piped into the cupcakes.
I placed a slice of strawberry on top and dusted with icing powder.
I must say.

They were pretty good.
After all that effort. I finished my cupcake in less than 5 minutes.

Well, it is a good thing I made quite a few!

I. Shall. Resist.

:)

RECIPE
Hokkaido chiffon cupcakes (Makes 12-14) 
Adapted from Mandysbakingdiary

Ingredients:
For the egg yolk mixture:
3 egg yolks
30g sugar
45g oil
65g plain flour
60ml milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Method:
1. Whisk egg yolks with sugar until pale and fluffy.
2. Add oil and whisk well.
3. Add in the milk and vanilla extract & whisk to combine.
4. Fold in the sifted flour gently.

For the egg white mixture:
3 egg whites
45g sugar
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar

Method:
1. In a separate bowl, whisk egg whites until frothy then add the cream of tartar.
2. Whisk to soft peak and add sugar gradually til you reach stiff peak.
3. Fold in 1/3 of the egg white mixture into the egg yolk mixture. Stir to combine.
4. Gently fold in the rest of the egg white mixture into the egg yolk batter so as not to deflate the batter.
5. Spoon into paper cases and bake in a preheated oven at 160°C for 25 mins.
6. Once baked remove from the oven and cool completely on a cooling rack.

Strawberry Cream (Makes enough to fill 12 cupcakes)
Adapted from nasilemaklover

Ingredients:
180g whipping cream
35g sugar
135g strawberry puree

Method:
1.  Beat whipping cream with sugar until firm and stiff over a bowl of iced water.
2. Add strawberry puree and mix well.
3. Pipe strawberry cream into cupcake and dust with icing sugar.

Note: Refrigerated before consuming.

I'm linking this post to  Bake Along and this week's theme is Chiffon Cakes jointly hosted by
Joyce of  Kitchen Flavours, Zoe of  Bake for Happy Kids and Lena of Frozen Wings


20 comments:

  1. Hi Diana,
    Congratulations for being one of the finalists for Best Cooking Blogs!
    Gorgeous chiffon cupcakes! After seeing yours and Zoe's Hokkaido Chiffon Cupcakes, I really feel like baking some. But firstly, I got to get the cupcake cases!
    Your cupcakes looks really yummy, and with the strawberries, sounds even yummier!
    Thank you for baking along with us!
    And good luck with the award!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you so much Joyce! I am sure your Hokkaido chiffon cupcakes will be delectable - you are such a good cook and baker!!!

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  2. Wow, Diana! I love your Hokkaido Chiffon Cupcakes! You know, I can eat 4 (ok, ok, 6) of these cuties in one go. hah...hah....hah....

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  3. Hi Diana,

    I have voted for you for The Singapore Best Cooking blog competition. Hope that you will win :D

    Your strawberry cream Hokkaido chiffon cupcakes look yummy. Sure that I can eat them a little faster than you :p 3 minutes per cake??? No worries :p

    Zoe

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you so much Zoe!!! If you can eat it in 3 minutes then I admit defeat liao! LOL!

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  4. Hi Diana, This is so pretty,very much like Japanese cakes.

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  5. Hi Diana, your strawberry cream Hokkaido Chiffon cupcakes really delicious ... guess I'm too late to ask a one !

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. hahaa, yes waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too late. All in our tummies already :P

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  6. Hi, Diana...first of all...congratulations...
    I love your strawberry version of Hokkaido chiffon cup cake...

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  7. Hi Diana, yummy strawberry cream ! I've just baked these Hokkaido Chiffon cupcakes yesterday for tea-break ... think I should make more like you ^-^!

    ReplyDelete
  8. wow, they look gorgeous..i saw zoe made the custard ones and strawberry is lovely too, i like. congratulations for being one of the finalists. i will try to go in and vote for you later. cheers!

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  9. Hi Diana,
    Wow! I love your strawberry whipped cream. It is simply the best! Yum!
    mui

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you Doreen. I am also thinking of the taste and smacking my lips!

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  10. looking for hokkaido's recipe and found this! Thankyou Diana, it look so yummy, I think I should try it soon.. this weekend, maybe? :)

    ReplyDelete