Hokkaido Chiffon Cupcakes with Philips AirFryer

*Scheduled post*

Hokkaido Chiffon Cupcakes 北海道戚风杯蛋糕

Obviously I've been missing in action from blogospheres for months due to my second pregnancy... And surprisingly my second girl in the tummy started triggering mommy to go back into kitchen for foodie experiments after the first trimester. She even 'urged' me to add some new tools and did I get this Philips HD9220/56 AirFryer with Rapid Air Technology during the special staff sales weeks ago at only RM699 (cheap right? =D)

So far I've experimented with chips, wedges and even dinner rolls (all succeeded but I was lazy to post). This round I am so eager to try baking the Hokkaido Chiffon Cupcakes. And I guess I'm the first one to do it with an airfryer, so it's solely trial and error haha~ I did a bit of adjustment on the temperature and baking time, basically lowering the temperature and also shortened the baking time (you can see from the pictures below to see the difference).

There are so many recipes available and shared around the blogospheres and on FB. You may Google it on your own as I didn't really follow exactly any one of them because I used Philips AirFryer instead of the conventional oven. Seriously I've never baked a cake using an oven before... but then at least I succeeded this first time baking mini chiffon cakes which can be considered soft and fluffy enough.

I didn't make the custard cream filling as well but just use some ready custard powder. No ready whipping cream available in my fridge so I just make use of whatever I can find in the kitchen. Indeed the taste was good after I chilled the cake overnight!


Recipe makes 12 mini cupcakes.

Ingredients:
For the cupcakes:
3 eggs, separated
50g caster sugar (separate into 2 portions of 25g each)
35g vegetable oil - I used canola oil
60g milk
70g cake flour, sifted

For the filling:
2 tablespoon of custard powder + 2 tablespoon of milk (mixed)
1 cup of milk
25g caster sugar

For finishing:
Fresh fruits (I use plum)
Icing sugar to dust

Tips: Make sure all your ingredients are at room temperature before you start.

Method (For the cupcakes):
1. Use hand whisk to whisk the egg yolks and sugar till pale in color. Whisk in canola oil and milk, mix well. Add sifted cake flour and whisk till the egg yolk mixture is smooth and well combined.
* I heated up the canola oil and milk before adding in to the mixture. Got the tips from Awayofmind Bakery House.

2. Instead of using the electronic mixer, I use hand whisk to whisk the egg whites and the sugar (I just come to realize that I lent my electronic mixer and yet to get it back.. ouch my hand!!). Whisk the egg whites until stiff peak.

3. Take 1/3 of the egg white mixture and add it to the egg yolk mixture. Mix until combined. 

4. Fold in the remaining egg white mixture to the egg yolk mixture. I did it in 3 rounds.

Method (For baking):
1. Preheat the Philips AirFryer at 170degC for 5 mins.
2. Fill up 3/4 of the cupcake linear. Bake in preheat oven at 170degC for 20 mins (I see some of the original recipe bake in 170degC for 20 mins, so I just tried if it works but it turned out to be overbaked...taste like normal cupcake which is harder in texture.)
3. The second batch I switched the setting to 150degC for 15 mins.
4. At 10 mins I started to monitor the cupcakes by sliding out the basket and check the appearance. I poked a chopstick into the middle to check. It seemed to be almost done at 12 mins! Somehow I lowered the temperature to 120degC and left them baking for another 3 mins until the timer is up.
5. Leave cake to cool down completely before piping in the filling.

Method (For the filling):
1. I used ready custard powder and follow the instructions to make the mixture.
2. Heat 1 cup of milk and add 25g of caster sugar. Bring to boil.

3. Lower the heat to medium, then add in the custard mixture and stir till it thickens.

4. Set aside and let it cool down before fill up to the pipe.

Finally....

Make a hole on the cupcake (I already poked a hole when checking them out in the oven) and pipe in the custard filling. Last but not least, dust them with icing sugar and garnish with fruit (I used plum).

Chill in the fridge (I chilled overnight) and ready to serve!!

Tadaaa~ My first attempt of chiffon cakes. Although I know that they're not the softest nor fluffiest but still they taste great!!

Chilled Hokkaido Chiffon Cupcakes ready to serve~

Happy trying if you have a Philips AirFryer too!