Osmanthus Chiffon Cake - 桂花戚风蛋糕

秋词

桂花飘又来到这小小的园里，
苦的心肠，死的灵魂也有沉醉意
谁的青春谁不怜惜，苦恼又谁人替
往日的欢乐，甜蜜的笑语都永远没有归期.........



The video embedded above has the lyrics of the main ingredient of this recipe - Osmanthus flower. It is alright if you have never heard of this song before... in fact you should feel glad because if the tune doesn't sound familiar to you, you are probably born 20-30 years after me... haha. This song was one of the top hits of my time.

Well, back to the cake. The texture is soft and fluffy, with a slight hint of the taste of the flowers. The osmanthus is not a common ingredient and I think you will be pleasantly surprised at the fragrance of your chiffon cake.

Recipe:  Adapted from famous cuisine issue no.83 (2014)

Ingredients A:
2 tbsp of dried Osmanthus
80 ml hot water
1 tbsp oligose  (I replaced with brown sugar)
120 g egg yolk
35 g cane sugar
1/3 tsp salt
160g low protein flour
1 tsp baking powder
70g grapeseed oil ( I replaced with sunflower seed oil)

Ingredients B:
240g egg white
150g cane sugar
1 tsp fruit vinegar ( I replaced with lemon juice)

Method:

1) Add hot water into osmantus.  Leave to cool.
2) Combine sugar and egg yolk, beat till foamy.  Add osmanthus tea (with flower), flour and baking powder, salt , mix till well combined.  Pour in oil and mix well.
3) In a grease free mixing bowl, beat egg white and sugar, lemon juice till stiff peaks form but not dry.  Add in mixture (2) in 2 to 3 batches.
4) Pour batter into an 8" chiffon cake pan and bake in a preheated oven at 180 deg C for 50 minutes until cooked. Remove from the oven and invert baking pan immediately. Let it cools completely, use a plastic knife to run  around the side of the baking pan. Take out the cake and place on a plate, Cut and serve.