Strawberry Chiffon Cake II

Today is the last day of Chinese New Year celebrations as well as the oriental Valentine's Day. I hope everyone had spent a lovely day earlier on with your loved ones including family and friends.

Sometimes my boyfriend can be really silly. He got flowers for me. Last week he texted me for my office address out of the blue. Being the oh-so-predictable him, I knew what he's up to. So I asked him why was he asking for it. He was like, just give it to me. So I got busy with work and stopped replying, he started spamming my phone with "Helloooooo".

So on Valentine's Day, he insisted on meeting up despite we're fine to postpone the celebrations to the weekend. And he was so anxious that he kept texting me to see if the flowers have reached my office. Ahh well, so much for the surprise. He's such a silly donkey sometimes.

On a side note, carrying a bulky bouquet of flowers on public transport is pretty embarrassing.

Favorite white flowers!

and yes I'm a happy girl

Anyway, I've baked a chiffon cake to ease my baking craves. Not one of my best chiffon bakes, but I like how fruity the cake tastes due to the large quantity of fresh strawberries. It's relatively dense compared to the lighter cottony cakes I've baked due to the large ratio of flour, but still soft and gives the melt-in-your-mouth sensation. Looking forward to try out more recipes from this book.

Strawberry Chiffon Cake (adapted from Kevin Chai's Chiffon Cake Is Done)

Ingredients:

Egg Yolk Batter:
200g strawberries
6 egg yolks
50g caster sugar
60ml cooking oil
1 tbsp strawberry paste (I use 1/4 tsp strawberry emulco)
few drops pink colouring (skipped this)
120g plain flour

Egg Whites Foam:
6 egg whites
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
100g caster sugar

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 170°C .
2. Blend strawberries until puree.
2. To make egg yolk batter, combine strawberry puree with egg yolks, sugar, oil, strawberry paste and coloring in a mixing bowl. Fold in flour until batter is formed.
3. To make egg white foam, beat egg whites and cream of tartar until mixture forms soft peaks. Gradually add in sugar, beating at high speed until frothy and stiff peaks form.
4. Gently fold the beaten egg whites foam into egg yolks batter until blended.
5. Pour batter into ungreased 9" (22cm) tube pan. Bake for 30 to 40 mins (baked mine for 40 mins) or until cooked.
6. Remove cake from oven, invert cake onto table until completely cooled.