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Black Sesame Chiffon Cake

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Ingredients

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Black Sesame Chiffon Cake:

  • ¾ cup + 2 Tbsp (100g) cake flour, sifted
  • 2 Tbsp (25g) neutral oil
  • ¼ cup + 1 Tbsp (75g) Kuki Pure Black Sesame Paste
  • 5 large eggs, separated & room temp [1]
  • ½ cup (115g) whole milk, room temp
  • ½ tsp salt
  • ½ tsp cream of tartar
  • 7 Tbsp (85g) granulated sugar

Whipped Cream: [2]

  • ¾ cup (170g) heavy cream, cold
  • 1 Tbsp (15g) sour cream, cold [3]
  • 1 ½ tsp vanilla paste or extract
  • pinch of salt

Decoration Ideas:

  • black sesame seeds
  • Kankitsu Labo Candied Yuzu Peel
  • dusting of confectioners’ sugar
  • edible flowers
  • sprinkles

Instructions

  1. For this cake, you will need a 9- or 10-inch, light-coloured tube pan. [4] DO NOT grease the pan or line it with parchment, as the cake batter needs to cling to the pan in order to properly rise.
  2. Move an oven rack to the lower third of your oven. Heat oven to 325°F.
  3. Stir black sesame paste well.
  4. In a large bowl, whisk together cake flour, oil, and black sesame paste.
  5. Whisk in egg yolks, milk, and salt. Set aside.
  6. Using a little bit of lemon juice or white vinegar, wipe down all tools that will touch the meringue. Your meringue will not set up properly if there is any residual grease or fat on your tools.
  7. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with whisk attachment, beat egg whites on medium-high speed until foamy. Mix in cream of tartar.
  8. With mixer running, gradually add sugar 1–2 tablespoons at a time, whisking for 1 minute after each addition. After all sugar has been added, beat on medium to medium-high until stiff, glossy peaks have formed. Whisk on low speed for one additional minute to remove any large air bubbles.
  9. With a large balloon whisk, gently fold one-third of meringue into black sesame batter. Add another one-third of meringue, carefully folding in with a silicone spatula. Fold in remaining third of meringue, taking care of incorporate all white streaks of meringue without deflating the batter.
  10. We want to avoid air bubbles in our fluffy chiffon cake, so we will be doing several things to remove bubbles before baking. First off, pour batter into tube pan from a height of 4–6 inches. Pour all batter into one spot without moving your bowl.
  11. Hold onto pan’s edges and centre cone, then give the pan a little shimmy and shake to evenly distribute the batter.
  12. Gently run a long skewer or cake tester in a zigzag through the batter to pop bubbles. Finally, holding onto the pan’s edges and centre cone, bang the pan on your counter 3–4 times to bring more bubbles to the surface.
  13. Bake for 38–43 minutes. Cake is done when a skewer inserted into the cake comes out clean.
    NOTE: If your cake has some cracks, that’s okay! The top of a chiffon cake becomes the bottom after it’s baked.
  14. Since a chiffon cake is rather tall and airy, it must cool upside-down, otherwise it will deflate and collapse.
  15. If your tube pan has feet: Gently turn pan upside-down. Place inverted pan on wire rack and allow cake to cool completely.
  16. If your tube pan does not have feet: Gently turn pan upside-down. Carefully insert the neck of a sturdy bottle into the pan’s centre ring, making sure that the cake is properly balanced. Allow cake to cool completely.
  17. While your cake is cooling, place metal mixing bowl and whisk attachment in freezer.
  18. Once cake is totally cool, turn pan right-side-up. Run a thin knife around the edge of the cake and centre cone to loosen cake from pan. Take your time so you don’t accidentally cut into the cake.
  19. Gently push up the base of the pan to remove cake from outer ring. Run a thin knife under the cake to release it from the base. Carefully invert base to remove cake.
  20. The bottom of the cake is now the top! Place cake on cake stand or serving platter.
  21. In the chilly bowl of a stand mixer fitted with cold whisk attachment, whip heavy cream, sour cream, vanilla paste, and salt until stiff peaks form.
  22. Pipe or spread whipped cream onto cake. Decorate however you like; we used black sesame seeds and Kankitsu Labo candied yuzu peels!

Notes

  1. Cold eggs are easier to separate, so separate ‘em as soon as you take ‘em out of the fridge.
  2. Personally, we LOVE how this cake is barely sweet, especially since that’s in line with the plethora of subtly sweet Japanese treats. If you’d like your dessert to be a wee bit sweeter, add in 1–2 tablespoons of granulated sugar while making the whipped cream.
  3. The extra fat and acid from the sour cream helps stabilize the whipped cream so that you can prepare this entire cake in advance. We made our cake on a Sunday afternoon and served it on Monday evening! But feel free to emit the sour cream if you’d prefer to make the whipped cream immediately prior to serving the cake.
  4. We used a Nordic Ware 2-piece angel food pan. It’s made of natural, uncoated aluminum, and it has footies—all of which is perfect for baking chiffon cakes!

Adapted from: What To Cook Today, Ms Shi & Mr He, and King Arthur Baking

Find it online: https://recipes.fikabrodbox.com/black-sesame-chiffon-cake/