recipes: green tea and cacao nibs chiffon cake

Posted on December 22, 2013

Tall, fluffy, light and moist — words I would use to describe this matcha and cacao nibs chiffon cake. I made this for a recent Christmas potluck party, hoping that the red and green combination would pass off as something from a Christmas menu!

I’ve always enjoyed making chiffon cakes. Fast to make and always a joy to watch it rise in the oven. I’m glad I added the cacao nibs as it gave the cake more dimension and bite. I bought the bag of cocoa nibs during my recent trip to Paris and I’m glad I finally put it to good use!

There was a period of time when I was obsessed with making chiffon cakes. Since then, I’ve experimented with various flavours – Orange, Yuzu, Black Sesame, Chai, Earl Grey and Milk Tea. I’ll get down to blogging about them soon!

You can leave it plain as it is, or dress it up with a chocolate glaze and some fresh fruit. It’s entirely up to you!

I added a valrhona chocolate glaze for mine and topped it with some raspberries.

Matcha & Cacao Nibs Chiffon Cake (adapted from Okashi)

70g Plain flour
10g Green tea powder
5 Egg yolks
20g Caster sugar
70g Water
60g Canola oil or corn oil
4 tablespoons of cocoa nibs

Meringue

90g Caster sugar
10g Corn flour
5 Egg whites

Steps:

1. Preheat oven to 170°C

2. Sift flour and green tea powder together twice. Combine egg yolks and sugar in a bowl and mix well. Add water and corn oil and blend together. Add flour and green tea powder mixture and mix until batter becomes sticky. Add in the cacao nibs. Set aside.

3. Make meringue – Combine sugar and corn flour. Beat egg whites until foamy. Add half the sugar and flour mixture and continue beating for a few minutes, then add remaining sugar and flour mixture and beat until egg whites are glossy, with stiff peaks.

4. Add one third of meringue to egg yolk mixture and fold in lightly, then add remaining meringue and fold to incorporate completely.

5. Pour batter into a 20cm chiffon cake pan (there is no need to grease the pan!) Place in the oven and bake for 50 minutes.

6. When cake is done, remove from oven and turn the pan over. Let the cake cool in pan.

7. Be patient! Once cake has cooled completely, carefully run a knife or spatula around the sides of the cake to loosen it. It should fall off nicely.