Blueberries Yoghurt Chiffon Cake

My mom gave me some dried blueberries a couple of weeks back. I intended to make bread with them but IH kept buying loaves after loaves of bread to my annoyance. Sometimes, he would buy another loaf when he just went through half loaf of the previous purchase. Then he will start with the new loaf when the previous one left with 3 or 4 slices. I really wanted to do this;

Gina posted her chiffon cake trial with dried blueberries on the forum. She did not use any leavening agent, oil or Cream of Tartar to stabilise the egg white. Her recipe depends solely on the egg whites to leaven the cake. Her idea is to create a low fat and chemical free cake, healthier cake so to speak. To achieve this, you need to know how to whisk the egg whites properly and fold them quickly and properly. However, in place of Cream of Tartar, you can substitute with 1 to 2 teaspoon of lemon juice. Cream of Tartar is a type of acid, so using lemon juice works fine too. In my trial, I omitted the oil and substituted milk with yoghurt for its flavour. I also used fresh blueberries, blended with the yoghurt.

A reader left a comment, questioning about how I calculated the liquid content. To simplify things, please note that the weight of the eggs are not taken into the calculations. For the 4 yolks and 5 whites recipe, the liquid calculated is 140g of juice/milk/yoghurt/etc., + 40g oil = 180g. So now you know how I played around with the formula. This is my modification of Gina's recipe.

Bluberries Yoghurt Chiffon Cake
Ingredients
(A)
4 Egg Yolks
30g Fine Sugar
1/4 Tsp Salt

(B)
80g Fresh Blueberries
80g Plain Yoghurt (I used Marigold's)

*Blended

80g Dried Blueberries

*Soak in the yoghurt mixture to plump up

(C)
120g Cake flour
1/2 tbsp Baking powder

*Sift 2x

(D)
5 egg whites
40g castor sugar
1/2 tsp Cream of Tartar

Method
1) In a bowl, using hand whisk, whisk yolks and sugar till sugar dissolves.

2) Add oil and salt, whisk and add in yoghurt mixture and dried blueberries. Stir well.

3) Fold in sifted flour and mix well.

4) In another bowl, using an electric mixer, beat till the whites are frothy. Add in sugar gradually and beat till soft peaks.

5) Add in Cream of Tartar and beat till stiff peaks.

6) Fold in 1/3 of the whites into the yolk mixture using a rubber spatula till incorporated.

7) Pour the mixture to the remaining egg whites and fold in gently till incorporated.

8) Pour the batter into a 21cm chiffon tube pan. Bang the pan on the table to get rid of bubbles.

9) Oil a piece of aluminium foil and cover the pan loosely. Bake at 170 deg.C for 10mins.

10) Turn down the temperature to 160 deg.C and bake for 20mins.

11) Reduce the temperature to 150 deg.C and bake for 10mins. Insert a skewer to check if the cake is done. Remove the foil and bake for another 5 to 10mins to brown the surface.

12) Remove from the oven and invert the pan. Run a sharp knife along the edges to remove the cake from pan when it's completely cooled.

*Note : After blending the fresh berries and yoghurt, the colour was a vibrant purple. However, after adding into the yolk mixture and oxidation, it turned into a ghastly hue of grey. I think purple + yellow won't give you a nice colour. A fellow forumer suggested adding lemon juice to it. Maybe I will try that out in my next trial.


















This picture was taken at my residence. You can see that the colour is not that pretty.

Previously a reader asked for the picture of my tented cake, so here it is. Sometimes the foil will 'fly' when the fan blows. (Sorry about the reflection, I had to use flash for the cake to be visible.)




Had to remove the foil for browning. Remove the foil in the oven. Do not take out the cake from the oven to remove (I had the help of a pair of long bamboo chopsticks; those used for deep frying). I 'disturbed' the top part of the cake. Some batter got stuck there.




Continue baking till browned.




Hmm... if not for the peeling off part, any chance of not having a cracked surface?




Side view of the cake. Noticed that it shrunk quite abit, but still tall.



I made this cake in a smaller tin, 16 cm. This is what happens when I did not tent the cake. Looks like 'Huat Kueh'. I still need to fine-tune the recipe for this cake size as I have excess batter. Chiffon cakes can also be baked in those small cups. You do not have to overturn them to cool as they are small, they cool relatively fast in those cups.


















I realised that as I get more mature (sounded better than old), I am becoming to be like my mom. She likes to keep things and store them up. Me too, I still have 4 punnets of fresh blueberries stashed in my freezer. Hee~~

じゃね～～