Passion Fruit Chiffon and Dark Sugar Wheat Germ Raisin Loaf

It seems like I am pretty much hooked on making chiffon cakes lately. Whenever I come across a fruit or even a drink, I would ask myself, "Can I use this to make chiffon cake??" Lol! Its funny how chiffon cakes have "evolved" from the typical Pandan and Orange flavors. I remember my mum would bake Pandan chiffon ever so often for us and it's always a favorite treat for me. ;) Nowadays, we see such exotic flavors popping out like dragon fruit, Ribehna and even savory cheese versions. I know it's already been attempted by some bloggers out there, but I decided to try my hand making an unusual chiffon flavor, Passion fruit. ;)Its' not the first time though for me to use passion fruit to bake. I am sure anyone that has tasted passion fruit before are possibly captivated by it's strong fragrant scent. :)

And did you know that fresh passion fruit is high in beta carotene, potassium, and dietary fiber. It's juice is a good source of ascorbic acid (vitamin C), and good for people who has High blood pressure. No wonder my mum has been asking me to eat them straight out from the fruit shell.

Since it is in season now...remember to go grab a few and savor the goodness of this fruit. ;) Back to the chiffon cake, it actually has a nice strong aroma of the fruit even though I only used the juice of 2 fruits for this 25 inch cake. :P And in order to show some "evidence" that I did use passion fruit, I added some seeds in the cake batter. No worries, the seeds are really small and totally edible...crunchy. ;)

Ingredients for Passion Fruit Chiffon Cake:
Egg Yolk Mixture:
4 egg yolks
115ml (juice of 2 passion fruit and top up with water if needed)
85 ml corn oil
80 g sugar
75g Cake flour
75g plain flour
3 g salt
1 tsp baking Powder

Egg White Mixture:
5 egg white
1/8 tsp. Cream of Tartar
90g sugar

Method:

• In a large mixing bowl, add in all of the egg yolk ingredients and mix well till everything is well incorporated and smooth.
  
• Preheat the oven to 175C.
  
• In another mixing bowl, add in all the egg white and cream of tartar and beat using a mixer at medium speed till foamy. Without stopping the mixer, gradually add in the sugar and beat till stiff peaks. One way to test if the white is ready, lift the bowl upside down and it won't fall, serious, not joking! ;D
• Gently fold a quarter portion of the white mixture into the yolk mixture till well combined. Then add the yolk mixture to the white mixture and gently fold everything together till all is incorporated.
  
• Pour the batter into a tube pan (no grease or non stick please) and place in the preheated oven to bake for 30 to 40 minutes. Tester comes out clean and it's ready.
• Remove from oven and immediately invert it to cool. Do not invert/ remove cake from pan until completely cooled.
  

The cake is light and soft, yet the flavor is strong and refreshingly good. ;) An unusual take in flavor but definitely a pleasant one. ;)

Making this chiffon has kind of reassured me to have the courage to attempt other more "exotic" flavors out there. :) Although I am aware that there are plenty of expert bakers out there with lots of new chiffon flavors, but I am still happy and excited with my chiffon. :) Hope you too can share this little joy and try this recipe out. :) One bite and you will be "floating" on fluffy soft chiffon cloud, lol! Enjoy!
The other bake I want to show you all is this Dark Sugar Wheat Germ Raisin Loaf. I actually made this 3 weeks ago for my family's breakfast. It was a new recipe I worked out adapting from one of the previous bread I made last year, Dark Sugar Whole Wheat Raisin Loaf. Have been wanting to try it out incorporating wheat germ into the bread, so here it is!

Ingredients for Dark Sugar Wheat Germ Loaf:
340g bread flour
84g whole wheat flour
34g wheat germ
50g dark brown sugar
4g instant active yeast
8g salt
30g unsalted butter, room temperature
294ml water

For the detail method, please refer to my Dark Sugar Whole wheat Raisin loaf.

If you noticed the sides of my loaf looks kind of "torn"...well, it's because I used olive oil to grease my bread tin instead of the usual butter. Wonder why it made the loaf stick to the tin?! But I learnt my lesson, will not try that again for sure. ;P

The bread still turned out great despite it's not so attractive exterior. :P My 2 kids didn't even noticed the goodness I added into the bread and they totally enjoyed the loaf, one slice after another. :)

Here is a shot of my daughter's hand holding a half eaten slice with a generous spread of cold butter over it. She made me took this picture saying "It is very nice." I guess she really did enjoyed the bread, lol! That's really heart warming for me... ;)

Hope you all will get in the kitchen today and make something for your love ones today...I know I will be later. ;) Take care & have a great week ahead you all! ;)

A Wonderful Mid-Autumn Festival to all, 中秋节快乐!

I just want to take this opportunity to wish all my family, friends, followers and readers, a peaceful and happy Mid-Autumn Festival. Although the weather at this moment is really bad (raining cats and dogs outside) over here in Singapore, but I do hope it doesn't dampen this lovely festive mood. Even though we don't get any public holiday for this festive occasion, I still have a warm feeling whenever it comes by. Reason being the belief of 嫦娥 reunite her husband 后羿 on this day and thus this legend lives on, influencing the people (at least me) that this day (八月十五) is a day to reunite, gather with your love ones. So I hope you will be with your love ones today, sharing some yummy food and mooncakes and gazing at the moon. ;)

This year I have settled with just making the same old spiral mooncakes which I made for the past 2 years. Due to time constraint and several events circling at around the same time, I didn't want to be too adventurous this year. But I did try my hands on making snow skin mooncakes this time....which is as far as I went. :P

I got the recipe from "Do What I Like", Florence's blog. I used some Disney characters moulds to make this and it turned out pretty good. :) However the skin didn't stay soft for 3 days like what Florence said, on the 3rd day it turned slightly dry and hard....but still edible. :P Anyway I am happy I gave this a try, because only practice then I can perfect it. :)

Last weekend, my family and I went to Clark Quay to get in the festive mood. We anticipated that it will be very crowded but we didn't mind because we knew that it will be fun watching the beautiful lanterns and some live performances. Here are some some interesting photos and video to show you which I took while I was there, watch on...

Check out this lantern. ;) This is actually given to my elder daughter by a Minister of Parliament, Dr Lily Neo during a live performance in Clark Quay. Very special...;)

I hope watching the photos & the fireworks will brighten you up! I know I did. ;)

BTW, don't forget to watch the moon tonight while you munch on those delicious mooncakes and sip on that cup of tea. I believe it will warm your heart just staring at the big round gorgeous moon. Doesn't it feel nice to know that we are all looking at the same moon? Sure makes me feel that the world is just that bit smaller. ;)

Happy Mid-Autumn Festival All, 中秋节快乐!