Green Tea Chiffon Cake with Azuki Bean

This is a very light cake and not so fattening. The union of green tea flavour and sweetened azuki is delicious. Azuki is a reddish brown type of bean. Canned sweetened azuki can be bought in Japanese stores. Otherwise, you can boil some red beans and cook it in sugar syrup. 

For beginners, you might find it a bit complicated because the mixing method is different. Don't worry. Take it as a challenge. Chiffon cake is the first type of cake I learned to bake. As they say, practice makes perfect.

Green Tea Chiffon Cake with Azuki Bean
Ingredients:
A.
250 g cake flour
200 g white sugar
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 Tbsp green tea powder *

(*can be omitted and replaced with vanilla essence, which makes it a basic vanilla chiffon cake)

B.
125 ml oil
7 egg yolks
190 ml water

C.
8 eggwhites
1/2 tsp cream of tartar
125 g sugar

D.
1 can sweetened azuki
600 ml thickened cream or all purpose cream
3-4 Tbsp icing sugar
1-2 tsp green tea powder
chocolate bar, for garnish

Procedure:
1. Preheat oven to 350 F or 170 deg C.
2. Mix dry ingredients in a bowl  (A); Use a whisk until green tea powder is incorporated well.
3. Make a well and add all ingredients in set B.
4. Using a wire whisk, blend until lump free.
5. On a separate mixing bowl, add egg whites and cream of tartar.

6. Beat at medium high speed and gradually add sugar. Beat until it forms into stiff peaks. (It will look shiny at this stage. It is perfectly fine to stop once in a while and check whether it forms into peaks. Lift the beater and check if peaks are forming. Another test, tilt your bowl, the egg whites shouldn't slide. Careful not to over beat because it will liquefy again.) 

Beating egg whites.

7. Gently fold batter into the egg whites. For first timers, you may want to follow these steps: 

• Get 1/3 of the beaten egg whites and slightly mix into the batter. (This is being done to prevent all the batter from settling down at the bottom of the egg whites. Remember, the batter is heavier than the egg whites.)
• Now pour the batter into the egg whites and gently cut and fold. You can use a rubber spatula or scraper. Mix until blended together. Do not over mix for it may deflate the bubbles in your egg whites. 

8. Pour in ungreased pan and bake for 45 to 60 minutes or until done. (I normally put baking paper at the bottom for convenience. Never put paper on the sides of the baking pan, otherwise, your cake will have a funny shape. It will form a waistline on the sides or the cake will look like a tree trunk.)

9. Invert the pan immediately in a cooling rack after taking the cake out of the oven. Cool completely before removing from the pan. A metal spatula can be glided lightly to loosen the sides of the cake. It is best to chill the cake before finishing with cream.

10. To finish cake:

      A. Prepare the green tea cream

• Set aside 1/4 c of cream and dissolve the green tea powder.
• Pour the green tea cream into the rest of the cream in a bowl and whip until stiff peaks (Do not over beat, you might end up having butter).
• Add icing sugar and mix.

      B. Assembly

• Slice the cake in half to create two layers.
• Get small amount of whipped green tea cream and mix the azuki.
• Spread it into the cake evenly. Put the other half cake on top.
• Cover the entire cake with whipped green tea cream by using a metal spatula.
• Finish with grated chocolate bar and dust with green tea powder.

Notes on beating egg whites:

• It is best to use a stainless or glass bowl, which is clean and oil streak free. Never use a plastic bowl for egg whites don't beat well or an aluminum bowl, your egg whites will turn grey in color.
• Egg whites don't whip best if cold. Make sure it is in room temperature and there are no traces of yolks in your egg whites.
• Cream of tartar is egg white stabilizer. In its absence, few drops of lemon juice will do.

Happy Baking!