Today I baked some cupcakes for an uncle and aunt from Taiwan. The recipe makes 24 such cupcakes, so I decided to give some of them to other relatives. Since these chiffon cupcakes are sort of a new item in the local bakeries, my relatives were surprised and were happy when they saw the cakes, and I hope they really enjoyed them.
These cupcakes first caught my eyes when I visited JJ Bakery in Arcadia, California early this year. I bought one, and yes, it was quite delicious, but it was actually a simple dessert-little chiffon cupcakes with whipped cream fillings. I have made these a couple times since then, so I thought I'll make them today for the next featured item in my blog.
The same recipe also makes one 10-inch tube, or two 8-inch or 9-inch pans. Remember not to grease or line the cake pans for chiffon cakes, and you must let them cool upside down to prevent the cakes from collapsing, but cupcakes are fine cooling straight up on the racks.
HOKKAIDO CHIFFON CUPCAKES WITH WHIPPED CREAM FILLING (24 square cardboard cupcake cups)
Ingredients:
2 cups cake flour before sifting
1 cup sugar*
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
5 egg yolks
8 egg whites
1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar (or 1/2 teaspoon lemon juice or white vinegar)
Whipped Cream Filling:
2 cups whipping cream
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions:
1. Make sure everything is room temperature, especially eggs and milk. Preheat the oven at 450 F.
2. Shift the cake flour together with baking powder and salt into a large mixing bowl.
3. In a medium bowl, blend well milk, oil, vamilla extract and the 5 egg yolks. (I always try to eliminate utencils to wash, so I measure all these wet ingredients in a 2-cup measuring cup, and whip it in the cup until it emulsified like thin mayonaise.)
4. Add the egg yolk mixture to the dry ingredients, and beat it for about two minutes. (I do this by hand with a straight mixer.)
(The egg yolk mixture with the dry ingredients.)
5. Beat the egg whites with cream of tartar on high speed until foamy, then slowly add in sugar and continue to beat until stiff peak form. (Most recipes tell you to add most of the sugar to egg yolks, and only add a small amount to the egg whites, but some bloggers say that professional bakers do just the opposite. Huh! Trade secrete! I tried it today, and it worked really well!)
6. Fold the meringue into the yolk mixture in 3 parts. (Most recipes call for using the rubber spatula to fold it quickly and lightly, but I use the straight hand mixer. Be sure to fold it in from the bottom of the bowl as fast as possible.)
(Well blended chiffon cake batter)
7. Spoon into 24 cupcake cups evenly, give them a couple of big taps on the table to break the large air bubbles in the batter for finer texture of the cakes, and bake at 350 F for about 20 minutes. Tooth pick test for doneness. Remove from the oven, and cool on racks straight up.
(These are completely cooled cupcakes. Notice that they collapse a little. I cannot imagine using normal cupcake liners for baking these. By the way, they are too pale because I lowered the temperature to 325 F halfway through baking... Yeah, why did I do that? I remember the last time I baked them at 350 F all the way through, they came out a little too brown on the bottom.)
8. Measure the heavy cream, sugar and vanilla into the mixing bowl, mix on high speed until medium peak form.
9. Fit the piping bag with a narrow tip, and fill it with whipped cream. Pipe the cream into center of the cupcakes after they are completely cooled or refregerated. Dust with powdered sugar.
(The finished products.)
(Cut one up to show the filling inside.)
I like them not too sweet, light and delicate. They go very well with a cup of hot coffee and a notebook computer! :-)
* 1 cup of sugar makes the cakes not too sweet. If you prefer sweeter cakes, you may want to use up to 1 1/2 cup sugar instead, but in that case, you should add the extra amount of sugar to the dry ingredients, and beat well with the egg yolk mixture.
I did try it out. It turned out like the real deal (JJ style) :)
I used double layer parchment paper and made my own cups. Turned out decent. I will definitely make them again. Thanks for sharing!
I hope so too! Have fun!
Can i use superfine flour instead of cake flour?
Does that means the cake flour you use is 500g ? sugar 250g? milk 250ml?
This is only about water, and it's only roughly. 1cup of water = 250ml = 250g, but you can not say the same for flour and sugar, because their densities are not the same. For example, 1 cup of flour will be lighter than 1 cup of sugar.
Here is a conversion list of water, sugar and AP flour:
(liquid is measured in a wet measuring cup, the transparent glass or plastic cup, and powder is measured in a dry measuring cup, usually comes in a set of 1 cup, 1/2 cup, 1/3 cup and 1/4 cup)
water: 1 cup = 250 ml = 250g
sugar: 1 cup = 215g
AP flour: 1 cup = 125g
I hope this helps. Happy baking!
Mindi
Thanks so much. Cleared my confusion... I was using the measuring cup where it stated 1 cup = 250ml... and you are right, when I measured the flour.. it came out for be roughly 125g. Thanks dear!
Choy Yee
No, you don't need a muffin tin to hold it in. They are make of liminated card stock, so they can stand by themselves. I only line them up in a baking sheet, that's all, very convenient! Enjoy your baking!
Thank you very much for the recipe:)o
I baked this n my cake top become sticky n dense after cooling at room temperature, do you know why? Please help.
Many thanks
Audrey
Thanks alot for sharing such a beautiful recipe!
It was my very first time making this Hokkaido cake...and the feedback for the cakes using your recipe were really encouraging.