Matcha Chiffon Cake

     















It has been a long time since I last make a chiffon cake and since I have matcha powder on hand, decided to try a matcha chiffon cake for something different.

Couple of boo boos happened while I was making this cake. Firstly, the matcha powder couldn't dissolve homogeneously in the batter! That is why there were green specks all scattered around the cake after its cooked. Was it because I used tap water instead of warm water stated in the recipe? Is tap water = warm water?

And what could be worse than thinking you've adjusted the oven to the required temperature but you actually didn't! I checked on the oven temperature dial and swear its at 170C. I happily put the cake pan into oven only to discover after 20min that the top of the cake has cracked so badly that it seems a volcanic eruption happened right there in my cake pan! To my dismay, the temperature dial reads 190C instead of 170C! Parallax error? I don't know. I quickly readjusted the temperature and can only hope that my cake will be ok.

Luckily, the cake turns out ok, other than the green specks from the undissolved matcha powder and the badly cracked surface. Gotta be more careful next time!

Ingredients

(A)
4 egg yolks

30g castor sugar

pinch of salt

(B)

4 tbsp warm corn oil

80ml warm water

3 1/2 tsp matcha (I used 2 1/2 tsp)

(C)

100g cake flour

3/4 tsp baking powder

*sifted

(D)

4 egg whites

1/2 tsp cream of tartar

40g castor sugar

Method

1. Cream ingredients (A) with hand whisk till sugar dissolved.
2. Add in ingredients (B) in the respective order and mix well before adding the next item.
3. Sieve in ingredients (C) and mix till no lumps.
4. Beat egg whites with electric beater till frothy, sprinkle in the cream of tartar. Beat till white in colour and add in sugar by thirds. Egg white should be beaten till stiff peaks are formed.
5. Put half portion of egg white into yolk mixture and mix it with a hand whisk.
6. Pour yolk mixture into the rest of the egg white and mix well with hand whisk.
7. Put batter into a chiffon cake pan, bang the pan on a hard surface several times to release the bubbles and bake at 170C - 180C for 35 -45 minutes or till cooked.
8. When the cake is cooked, remove from oven and give it another bang on a hard surface to loosen the cake texture then invert cooked cake on a wire rack to cool for 15 - 20 minutes. Remove cake from cake pan and leave aside to cool completely.