Matcha Chiffon Cake with Red Bean Paste

Are you sub-consciously taking your kids for granted? I hate to admit this but I think I am, especially towards DD1. Maybe because she's the eldest in the family, I expect her to be more sensible and independant. Since she started Primary 1 in January this year, I don't remember spending 30 mins of my time with her doing any school work. She was very much left on her own to finish up whatever school work she has, and packed her own bag and stationeries while I took care of the 2 younger ones.

I've been feeling very uptighted with schedules especially when DH is away much longer in this trip. Time factor is very important to me and I realised that whenever I'm home alone with the kids, I yelled and screamed alot as their dawdling really got onto my nerves. I need to be on time and do things fast, but the kids are always daydreaming and immersing in their own world and that usually drove me up the wall. But after reading nienie's blog, I was then brought to my senses, back to reality. I'm so sorry darlings, I'll make an effort to not scream and yell so much, and to spend more quality time with you instead of rushing through my chores and meals preparation, I promise.

Mom's birthday celebration last Friday was great! The siblings had loads of time catching up with each other while the kids were busy playing with the remote control car CL bought for DS2. I forgot to take pics of the other food contributed by my siblings as we were all too hungry then :P

I was trying to finish up my expiring matcha so I made a matcha chiffon cake. I was pleased to see what I've unmoulded, no cracks and tears :)

Layered the cake into 3 portions and sandwiched with red bean paste and whipped cream. I do not know how this will turn out but it's so common to pair off red bean with matcha and since I've got some frozen red bean paste, why not utilise them and clear some space? ;-) Good idea? Great idea? Best idea! (that's what my son will say! hahaha!)

Shaved some white chocolates and using my heart shaped cookie cutter, I sprinkled them carefully within the cutter. But when I removed the cutter, some bits of chocolate fell off and created a slight mess.

Tadar! The final cake with my simple decoration. Nothing fanciful but good enough for home consumption :P

The good thing about home-baked layered cake is we can reduce sweetness and use minimal frosting :-)


Matcha Chiffon Cake
Ingredients
(A)
4 egg yolks
30g castor sugar
pinch of salt

(B)
4oml corn oil
100ml warm water
4 tsp matcha (green tea powder)

(C)
100g cake flour
3/4 tsp baking powder
*sifted

(D)
4 egg whites
1/2 tsp cream of tartar
30g 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.
   Sieve in ingredients (C) and mix till no lumps.
3. 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.
4. Fold in 1/3 of the whites into the yolk mixture using a rubber spatula till incorporated.
5. Pour the mixture to the remaining egg whites and fold in gently till incorporated.
6. Pour the batter into a 8" round pan. Bang the pan on the table to get rid of bubbles.
7. Bake at pre-heated oven of 170 deg.C for 15mins.
8. Turn down the temperature to 160 deg.C and bake for another 30 mins.
9. Reduce the temperature to 150 deg.C and bake for a further 10 to 15mins to brown the surface.
10. Remove from the oven and invert the pan. Remove the cake from pan when it's completely cooled.
11. Layer into 3 layers and set aside for further use.

Frosting
Ingredients
(A)
250ml Dairy Whipping Cream
250g Red Bean Paste

(B)
200ml Dairy Whipping Cream
3 tsp Matcha (mixed with 3 tbsp of cream)
1 tbsp Icing Sugar

Method

1. Using an electric mixer, whip 300ml cream till soft peak forms. Fold in red bean paste. Chill for further use.
2. In a separate mixing bowl, whip 200ml cream, matcha/cream mixture and icing sugar till soft peak forms.

To assemble the cake

1. Place a layer of cake onto the cake board. Pour in 1/2 portion of cream with red bean paste. Spread the cream over the cake and covering near end of edge (about 1 cm away).
2. Layer with 2nd cake and repeat step 1.
3. Repeat with 3rd layer of cake and decorate with matcha frosting.