Hokkaido Chiffon Cakes with Munch Ministry

While I love to cook, I rarely bake.

When I cook, I sieve through a stack of recipes, scrutinise the ingredients and method, and try to figure out what works and what doesn't. Then I'd put something together, usually a mish-mash of the different recipes, throw in some of my favourite ingredients -- I have a tendency to add mushrooms or cherry tomatoes to everything -- and then taste and adjust everything as I go along. That's the way I operate. But I know that when it comes to baking, I just can't do that. As a friend who is an excellent baker herself said recently, "Baking is precise." It certainly is, and precise, I am not.

Besides, my husband is rather wary of all the baking equipment I would want NEED if I was to bake!

But that doesn't mean I don't harbour dreams of churning out homebaked treats from my kitchen. So when the Singapore Mom Bloggers (SMB) organised a baking session with Munch Ministry recently in celebration of their first anniversary, I seized the opportunity and put myself on the list. I've been interested for a while in Munch Ministry's very popular baking classes but never had the chance to attend one. To be able to participate in a class as well as meet some of the Moms I've been interacting with online? I knew it would be a good morning.

Oh, and did I mention that we would be making Hokkaido Chiffon Cakes? Yum.

Our Hokkaido Chiffon Cakes!

It's one thing to read a recipe, but it's quite something else to attend a class and have a recipe demonstrated for you. Our instructors for the day were Pauline and Louisa, and they patiently took us through the recipe, step by step.

Baking with Munch Ministry!

Incidentally, did you know that the Hokkaido Chiffon Cake is not from Hokkaido? Pauline shared that it apparently takes its name from the fact that it was originally made with Hokkaido milk. (We used regular full-cream milk for our cakes but they still turned out delicious!)

Pauline prepping the egg yolk mixture.

I am quite a class junkie, so I can tell you that the best part about attending a session are the tips you get to pick up. That day, I learnt that all the ingredients had to be at room temperature or the cakes would not rise properly. Also when separating the egg white, ensure that you use a bowl that is free from traces of oil. In this regard, a metal bowl is better than a plastic one as plastic tends to retain an oily residue. I can tell you that it's quite a nightmare when your egg whites don't stiffen!

We watched as best we could before it was our turn to try our hand at it. It was the first time I was meeting the lovely Rachel, who was my partner for the morning, but we easily hit it off and quickly got down to work.

Rachel whisking together the egg yolk mixture. This was hard work and she did it really quickly!

Ladies who whisk -- Evelyn, Pamela and Jasmine show us how it is done.

After beating the egg whites into soft peaks, here I am combining the egg whites with the egg yolk mixture. Gingerly.

Egg yolk and egg white mostly incorporated!

After diving the batter into cupcake portions, we popped them in the oven, and when they were ready, took them out to cool. This was the result! In case you're wondering, they ARE supposed to sink like that, so that they create the holes to be filled with yummy cream. For this reason, this is a very forgiving cake to make. 

While we waited for our freshly baked cakes to cool, Louisa showed us how to for and custard-cream for the cakes.

Whizzing up the cream and custard. These mixers make baking such a breeze!

Our 师父 Louisa showing how the cream is to be piped.

My turn! I must admit that poking the nozzle into the cakes and filling them up with cream was a lot of fun!

Rachel and I with our completed batch go cupcakes! Yeah!

The cakes were, as promised, delicious. I'm glad I glad a couple for myself before I brought them home because the kids just cleaned them out! I'm looking forward to making these again -- and attending baking classes with Munch Ministry when the opportunity arises!

Now to convince my husband that I really should be getting that Kitchenaid...