Green Tea Chiffon Cake

I adore green tea flavoured desserts. Whether it's ice-cream, macaroons or tiramisu, if you permeate the dessert with green tea, I will be drawn to it like a moth to a flame. When this chiffon cake recipe popped up on my Facebook stream, I bookmarked it for a free day. The "free day" came almost a year later, a week ago from today, when I finally realized I needed a break from my work, sleep, eat routine. 

As I have recently been abruptly thrust into the reality of a working life, I can now relate my posts to the working crowd. I completely understand that most people wouldn't drag themselves out of bed on a weekend to bake. If, however, you're a 9-6 (or later) worker bee and find yourself feeling a sudden, inexplicable urge to bake (or your girlfriend thinks it will make for a "fun" couple activity), one advantage of having this chiffon cake for breakfast is that it's full of matcha powder and therefore caffeine, which is bound to keep you up on lazy mornings on your way to work. 

Either way, it was incredibly satisfying to bake, but I think I will stick to more sedentary things like online shopping or vegetating in front of a tv screen next weekend. 

Sift matcha powder, cake flour and baking powder together 

Whisk 6 egg yolks together

Whisk egg yolks and matcha/flour mixture together until lusciously creamy

Whisk 6 egg whites in a clean, non-oily metal bowl at high speed with your mixer (trust me, doing this by hand is extremely exhausting) until stiff peaks form 

Stir in 1/3 of the fluffed up egg white into the creamy matcha mixture, then fold in the next 2/3. 

Pour everything into the chiffon pan!

Bake for 30 minutes at 170 degrees until toothpick comes out clean, then flip over to cool. DON'T rush to take it out of the pan! 

Voila! Yummiest, fluffiest, softest cake ever. 

GREEN TEA CHIFFON CAKE RECIPE 

Ingredients:

            6 egg yolks

            6 egg whites 

            1/2 cup sugar

            6 Tbsp. (80 ml) vegetable oil

            8 Tbsp. (120 ml) water

            150 g cake flour 

            2 heaping Tbsp. matcha powder (I bought mine at Liang Court's Meidi Ya) 

            1 tsp. baking powder

            Chiffon cake pan

Instructions:

1.     Preheat oven to 340F (170C).

2.     In a large bowl, whisk egg yolks and add 1/3 of the sugar. Then add oil and water and whisk all together till combined.

3.     Sift cake flour, matcha, and baking powder together and add to the egg yolk mixture in 3 separate times. Whisk until totally incorporated, making sure there are no lumps.

4.     Using a stand mixer, whip the egg whites on medium low speed (speed 4) till opaque and foamy and bubbly.

5.     Add 1/3 of the remaining sugar and continue whipping. After 30 seconds or so, increase the stand mixer speed to high (speed 10) and add the remaining sugar slowly in small increments until stiff peaks form. 

6.     To check on stiff peaks, pull up your whisk and see if you can make strong 'peak' that stays still without bending down.

7.     Add 1/3 of the beaten egg whites into the flour mixture using spatula until the mixture is homogeneous.

8.     Fold in the rest of the egg whites in 2-3 increments and mix gently but quickly until the mixture is homogeneous.

9.     Pour the mixture into the ungreased chiffon cake pan. Tap the pan a few times on the kitchen countertop to release the air bubbles.

10.  Bake for 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

11.  The cake must be cooled upside down; (I simply flipped the tin over on a plate) then leave until cake is completely cool before removing it from the pan.

12.  Use a thin sharp knife or thin spatula and run it around the cake.

13. Place the serving plate on top and flip over. The cake should pop out easily.