tea trio chiffon cakes

I love baking, but I’m not very good at it. Most of the time the end products will taste better than they look, so please believe me when I say these chiffon cakes were wonderful!

I’ve been on a bit of a tea kick lately, as evidenced by the last few posts, so I decided to incorporate various flavours into a pillow-soft cake. A chiffon cake recipe seemed perfect for the job, and after scouring the net for some recipes, I came across Tham Jiak’s recipe for green tea chiffon cake. I simply replaced the green tea with earl grey tea and loose earl grey tea leaves to sprinkle into the mixture, and for subsequent batches, experimented with osmanthus green tea and ceylon tea with dried rosebuds!

The earl grey chiffon was simply made with brewed tea and loose tea leaves sprinkled into the mixture, and the other two followed a pretty similar method. I had some osmanthus green tea bags (TenRen, excellent Taiwanese tea company), as well as some loose dried osmanthus flowers. For the last one, I used loose ceylon tea leaves and crushed the pink leaves from some dried rosebud tea. The osmanthus and rose petals made for some pretty decorations on top of the cakes! But the ceylon tea and rose version was the least successful, because (1) I must have somehow measured out the tea wrong, so the end batter was too liquid, resulting in a too-moist cake, and (2) I couldn’t think of any way to invert my tins to allow the cake to cool without squashing the tops flat, so I left it as is – and as expected, they collapsed and have a dip in the middle!

Out of the three cakes I made, my favourite is still the earl grey version. The other two were too subtle, so I may have to make adjustments to the quantities of tea I use next time. I was afraid of going overboard with the osmanthus, but turns out that I could have been a lot more heavy-handed with the delicate golden flowers. Nevertheless, the aroma came through, if not a bit too lightly. The ceylon tea with rosebuds was very nice but I didn’t add enough of the ceylon, because I didn’t want it to overpower the rose! It was really fragrant and not too floral (which I hate – why would you want to eat a soap-flavoured cake?), and again, I think it was only let down by its over-moist texture.

I really like chiffon cake because it’s so light and airy (there’s no butter involved), and you definitely don’t feel bloated after eating an entire one (err… which may be what I did after they came out of the oven…). It’s also a really great base for incorporating any flavour you want. Now that I’ve made these chiffon cakes, my next mission will be to create tea macarons. Mmm, osmanthus-scented macarons? I can imagine that would be divine. But that shall have to wait, for I’d need a million more implements and I really shouldn’t be cluttering up my parents’ tiny kitchen with more frivolous bakers’ “essentials”!

The recipe for earl grey chiffon lies under the entry cut.

Earl Grey Chiffon Cake

INGREDIENTS

• 5 tbsp hot water, for brewing the tea
• 1 earl grey tea bag
• 100g cake flour (or substitute with well-sifted self-raising flour)
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 45g caster sugar
• 2 tsp loose earl grey tea leaves
• 4 medium egg yolks
• 3 tbsp oil (normally, vegetable oil, but I used olive)

• 4 medium egg whites
• 50g caster sugar

1. Preheat your oven to 170C/325F/gas 3.
2. Meanwhile, brew your earl grey tea in a small cup with the hot water. Steep for at least 10 minutes. Leave aside.
3. Sift the flour, baking powder, and baking soda into a bowl. Add the sugar and stir in the loose tea leaves.
4. In a separate bowl, beat the eggs until pale and smooth, then beat in the oil and the earl grey tea until well combined.
5. Pour the egg mixture into the flour and mix well.
6. In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites until foamy, then gradually add the sugar and whip at high speed until stiff peaks form.
7. Fold one-third of the egg whites into your tea batter to lighten it, then pour back into the bowl of egg whites. Gently fold the whites and batter together until just combined.
8. Pour into a chiffon cake tin and rap the tin on the work surface to get rid of any air bubbles. Bake in the oven for 35-45 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the cake comes out clean.
9. Immediately after taking the cake out of the oven, invert the pan and allow the cake to cool completely before running a knife around the edge of the tin and turning the cake out. This is important because if left standing the right way around, the cake will collapse! A good way to invert your pan without squashing the cake if it’s risen above the mould is to stand the tin over a bottleneck.

My chiffon cake tin was so small there was no bottleneck small enough to keep the cake standing inverted without it deforming. Le sigh.