hokkaido chiffon cupcakes (⌒.−)＝★

i have been thinking of baking the Hokkaido Chiffon Cupcakes for a while but have been putting this off … because.. because i couldn’t find any strawberries in Beijing … and my maid finally managed to grab 3 boxes as she had to pre-order…. of course, they didn’t taste good… sour…. ヽ(´～｀；）.. oh well, the chinese said strawberries are not in season so…. anyways…

Recipe adapted from Dreamers Loft (makes 9 cupcakes)

Ingredients

Directions

– Preheat oven to 175℃
– In a bowl, whisk egg yolks with salt. Then add oil, milk and vanilla extract, whisk till well-blended
– Fold in flour mixture and set aside
– In another bowl, beat egg whites , sugar and cream of tartar to stiff peak
– Scoop 1/3 of the egg white mixture to the yolk batter, fold well, then pour batter back to the remaining egg whites. Fold lightly till well-mixed
– Fill baking cases with about 30-32g of batter. Bake for 20 mins, then leave to cool
– In a separate bowl, mix milk, instant custard powder, vanilla paste and icing sugar till mixture is smooth
– Pour in whipping cream and beat till the thickness desired
– Using a piping tip, insert tip into the cake and pipe for 5 seconds. 3 to 4 seconds if you prefer less cream
– Sieve snow powder on top (optional) and chill cake before serving

Personal notes:

– i hand whisked the egg yolks with salt and then added the oil. Both of these are well incorporated before adding milk and vanilla extract
– i suggest adding the icing sugar (probably a bit more ~ maybe 65-70g) if you like the cream to be sweeter
– the cupcakes will sink a little when removed from oven so i piped cream into the cupcakes till they puffed up again
– i used the remaining whipping cream (a carton of whipping cream being 200ml, so i had 65ml remaining), added 8g icing sugar and whipped till very stick peak. I then used 2 spoons to shape the olive-shaped whipped cream that is used to top the cupcake
– i mixed 1/2 tsp cocoa powder with 1/2 icing sugar, and sifted this on top of the whipped cream and cupcake

this cupcake is indeed very soft… i will use this as a base again ✖‿✖

Pollution index: 14 (excellent.. and hope Beijing continues this way)