Hojicha Chiffon cake ほうじ茶シフォンケーキ

Preparation

1. Separate the eggs into egg yolks and egg whites. Leave the egg yolks in room temperature and refrigerate the whites.
2. Start to preheat the oven to 356°F (180°C).
3. Sift the cake flour and set aside. *8 If you are making Matcha flavoured, substitute same amount for cake flour and sift together.
4. Brew a hojicha tea and cool it down. *9

Make Egg yolk batter

1. Place the egg yolks and caster sugar in a mixing bowl and mix them well until the sugar dissolves.
2. Add oil into the bowl a little bit at a time and mix well until egg yolk and oil emulsifies.
3. Pour the milk into the bowl and combine. * if you are making hojicha flavoured, substitute milk with brewed hojicha and pour the brewed hojicha tea into the bowl and mix.
4. Add the sifted flour into the bowl all at once and combine. Set it aside.

Make Meringue

1. Place the cold egg whites in a stand mixer's mixing bowl and beat with med-high speed.  
2. When it forms froth and becomes white in colour, add 15g of sugar and keep beating until it forms a fine froth.
3. Add another 15g sugar and keep beating.
4. When it becomes a fine consistency, add the last 15g of sugar and turn the stand mixers speed down to low and beat till it forms fine and soft peaks. Turn the stand mixer off.

Fold the egg yolk batter and the meringue

1. Add 1/3 of the meringue into the egg mixture and mix them together with a hand whisk.
2. Pour the mixture into the meringue bowl. Gently fold in the last third of the meringue using a spatula in order to retain the fine form as much as possible, lifting the batter from the bottom of the bowl until the colour of the batter is uniform.
3. Pour the batter into the chiffon cake tin. Drop the tin once onto the kitchen bench to remove the air.
4. Put the tin into the preheated oven and turn the temperature down to 338°F (170°C) and Bake it for 35 minutes. *10
5. After 35 minutes, test if the cake is done by inserting a skewer. If it comes out clean, turn the oven off and remove the tin out of the oven.
6. Turn the chiffon cake tin upside down and place it over the neck of a bottle to completely cool down. This prevents the chiffon cake from collapsing. *11
7. Run a thin knife around the tin to loosen the cake and remove the tin.
8. Place the cake on the cooling rack and dust with icing sugar.
9. Slice and serve with fresh cream and fruit of your choice.