for the love of baking

I guess you are already used to my long silence.

If you are still reading and keep coming back to check on this humble blog, I thank you :D

I have no excuse for my tardiness. Except for having volunteered to look after a sick toddler who was down with hand foot and mouth disease for a week, the last 21 days flew past without me knowing that I didn't bake a single thing. I thought I have lost interest in baking, or rather, lost any interest in food per se. I have not been blog hopping and am terribly guilty of not even leaving any words of encouragements and support on those rare occasions when I visit my regular food bloggers. My apologies.

Why, I asked myself? Could it be my allergic rhinitis (aka sinus problem) which keeps haunting me since the beginning of the year? I keep sneezing the first thing in the morning...even when I was brushing my teeth! I am ultra sensitive to dust, even flipping a book from the library will send me sneezing away. My nasal will get all blocked whenever I turn on the air-conditioner in the room. Many weeks have past with me waking up in the middle of the night fumbling for tissue papers. I believe my bad habit of stuffing tissue into my nostrils have made them bigger than ten cent coins! My condition only improved if I take medication...ie anti-histamine and nasal spray. Once I stop, the problem will come back...*sigh*. My elder child went through the same thing since he was a baby. It took him many years before his health improved. He grew up taking medicine more than candies and ice cream. I wonder how long I'll have to battle with this illness?

Lately, instead of reading cookbooks and playing around with flour and eggs, I found myself reading novels, watching Korean dramas and movies, online. I feel shy to admit, but I think besides allergic rhinitis I am suffering from love sickness (*^^*) as my better half has been away for the longest time. I know I should spend my time on more worthy stuff yet it soothes me whenever I immerse myself in the storyline, especially love stories in Korean drama, haha!

Well, I guess these are the reasons that kept me away from my oven. The one good thing for not indulging in any baking frenzy is that, I have actually lost some weight. I managed to shed a few pounds without having to do any exercises. So, imagine, how much damage had done to my body in the past when I was baking almost every other day?!

Yet, I couldn't help but to bake something this week. My baking passion is not all gone :)

I have lined up a list of chiffon recipes to try, and I picked this Cranberry Yoghurt Chiffon cake since I have all the necessary ingredients on hand. This is nothing new as many bloggers have already tried it. I was interested in this recipe as it calls for yoghurt, something new to me, when it comes to baking a chiffon cake. I was curious whether yoghurt will work its wonder by making a chiffon cake very moist and tender as good as when it is used in other cakes.

I made it a point to read the fine prints in the cookbook, and did the right thing to chop the dried cranberries into smaller pieces and diligently coated them with some flour, to prevent them from sinking into the bottom of the cake. Well, although most of the cranberries were well distributed in the cake, quite a number still sank to the bottom. So, I ended up with a polka-dot cake ;)

I don't really know whether yoghurt has contributed to the soft and tender texture of this cake. It is just like any other chiffon cake I have made. However, I find the taste really interesting. The sweetness of the crumb is just right, but when the tangy dried cranberries hit your palate, it will sure wake up all your nerves ;) Great choice to have it for breakfast! This recipe is something worth trying, that is, if you have not done it before.

I have already lined up my next to-dos...orange chiffon, orange pound cake, black sesame chiffon, lemon pound cake and even a sakura chiffon cake. I guess I will put the extra pounds back once I am back to my baking mood!

Cranberry Yoghurt Chiffon Cake

Ingredients:
(for 17cm tube pan)

3 egg yolks (use large eggs)
25g caster sugar
40ml vegetable oil
80g plain yoghurt
1 teaspoon lemon juice
80g cake flour

4 egg whites (use large eggs)
55g caster sugar

60g dried cranberries
some cake flour for dusting

Method:

Sieve flour and set aside.

Chop dried cranberries into smaller pieces. Coat with flour and sieve to remove excess flour. Set aside.

Place egg yolks in a mixing bowl. With a manual hand whisk, whisk the yolks a little. Add in sugar and whisk to combine.

Add in vegetable oil gradually, whisk to combine.

Add in yoghurt and lemon juice. Whisk to combine. Sieve over the flour and whisk till the flour is fully incorporated. Do not over mix. Set aside.

In a clean, dry mixing bowl, beat egg whites with a handheld electric mixer on low speed until mixture becomes frothy and foamy. Add half of the sugar amount and turn to high speed and beat the mixture. Continue to add in the remaining sugar and beat until the egg whites reaches the soft peak stage.The soft peak stage is reached when the peaks of the whites curl over and droop slightly. The egg whites should appear smooth and glossy. (Do not over beat the whites still stiff, it is better to beat the whites still soft peaks for easy folding with the yolk batter.)

Add the beaten egg whites into the egg yolk batter in 3 separate additions, each time folding gently with a spatula until just blended.

Add in the prepared dried cranberries. Fold in until just blended Do not over mix.

Pour batter into a 17cm tube pan (do not grease the pan). Tap the pan lightly on a table top to get rid of any trapped air bubbles in the batter.

Bake in pre-heated oven at 180 degC for 30 mins, or until a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out clean, when lightly pressed the cake will spring back. Invert the pan immediately and let cool completely before unmould. To remove the cake from the pan, run a thin-bladed knife around the inside of the pan and the center core. Release the cake and run the knife along the base of the pan to remove the cake.