Chiffon everything!

I think that today’s post probably won’t be of much use to many of the readers out there. Reason being, the main ingredient used is durian. This fruit is not easily available in the west and probably quite expensive (if available). Named the King of Fruit, this spiky delicacy is something you either love or hate. The durians available this season are very good, sweet and rich in flavour. We have an overload of durians in our house the past few days so I decided to use some in a cake. Frankly, there is only this much durian you can eat before you fall sick. I put in a bit of thought as to the proportions of flour and liquid to use since this fruit is has a very strong and distinctive character of its own. I also used more egg white this time round so as to ensure that the cake remains light and airy. Sugar amount can be adjusted according to the sweetness of the durians. One word of warning, the smell of durians will permeate your whole house after baking. Hopefully, your neighbours are fine with that

Durian Chiffon Cake

6 egg yolk
8 egg whites
225g durian flesh, mashed
215g cake flour, sifted
2/3 cup & 3 tbsp caster sugar
1 tbsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla extract
80 ml vegetable oil or safflower oil
80ml milk
50ml water 
3/4 tsp cream of tartar

1. Mix together durian and the liquid ingredients. Preheat the oven to 175C (350F), with the rack in the center. Have a 10 inch (25 cm) two piece tube pan (ungreased) ready.

2. In the bowl of your electric mixer, fitted with the paddle attachment, whisk the flour, sugar (minus 3 tablespoons), baking powder, and salt.  Make a well in the center of the flour mixture and add the egg yolks, vanilla and the durian mixture. Beat about one minute or until smooth. Make sure there are no lumps of flour left unmixed.

3. Pour the batter into a large bowl. In a separate mixing bowl, with the mixer on whisk attachment beat the egg whites until foamy.  Add the cream of tartar and continue to beat until soft peaks form.  Gradually beat in the remaining 4 tablespoons of sugar and beat until stiff peaks form.  With a large rubber spatula,  stir in 1/3 of the egg whites to lighten the batten. Fold in the remaining egg whites (half portion at a time) into the batter (being careful not to deflate the batter). 

4. Pour the batter into the ungreased tube pan and bake for about 60 – 65 minutes, or until a wooden skewer inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.  Immediately upon removing the cake from the oven invert the pan and place on a bottle or flat surface so it is suspended over the counter.  Let the cake cool completely before removing from pan (about 1 1/2 – 2 hours). Serves 6 – 8.

100th post + belated blog birthday

100th post. Can’t believe that I have gone this far with my blog. I can still remember how excited I was when I got my oven at my new place. My growing collection of baking pans and moulds. My ready stocked pantry of eggs, butter, flour and chocolate. My first serious camera. Quite an achievement in a year. The first cake I made was banana cake. It was fool proof because the recipe simple calls for everything to be mixed together by hand. The result was okay, but I have since moved on to better banana bread recipes. This time, I decided to go back to basics and whip up another banana bread. The recipe is from one of my favourite sites Gourmet. Like most banana bread recipes, this one is easily done. I didn’t add any nuts this time as my mom ain’t a big fan. Also, I scaled the recipe up 50% because the first one I did was kind of small. We prefer our loaves big and tall I also added slices of banana on top they sank in during the baking and now it just looks like a pretty crack!

Banana Bread
(Adapted from Gourmet)

2/3 cup whole milk
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
2 ½ cups sifted cake flour (not self-rising; sift before measuring)
1 tsp baking powder
¾ tsp salt
½ tsp baking soda
½ cup unsalted butter, softened
2/3 cup sugar
2 large eggs
3 very ripe medium bananas

1. Put oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to 350ºF. Grease a 9- by 5-inch loaf pan and line bottom of pan with wax paper or parchment, then grease paper.

2. Mix together milk and lemon juice and let stand until milk curdles, about 1 minute.

3. Whisk together flour, baking powder, salt, and baking soda in a bowl.

4. Beat together butter and sugar in a large bowl with an electric mixer at high speed until pale and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating until combined, beat in bananas until combined. (Mixture will look curdled.)

5. Add flour mixture to banana mixture alternately with milk, mixing at low speed just until batter is smooth. Stir in walnuts. Pour into loaf pan and bake until a wooden pick or skewer inserted in center of bread comes out clean, about 1 hour.

6. Cool bread in pan on a rack 20 minutes, then invert bread onto rack. Remove paper and turn bread right side up on rack to cool completely.

A view of Perth