Yuzu tea (honey citron) chiffon cake

In my recent trip to Taiwan (updates to come when I stop procrastinating when to upload the photos!), I visited the Eslite bookstore, which is one of the largest retail bookstore chain in Taiwan. I managed to buy three books (all in Chinese - HA!). I was actually tempted to get more, before I remembered that I had limited luggage space, and books aren't exactly the lightest of things...

Anyway, all three books were food-related (what's new?), with one being a bento-related book, another being a french patisserie book, and a third, a book on chiffon cakes. I decided to try my hand at baking something from my new books after returning to Singapore - so here it is.

Yuzu tea (honey citron) chiffon cake

I had a brand new bottle of yuzu tea mixture. I love that stuff! I get it from the Korean grocery store near my place and I brew a hot cuppa of it whenever I feel a cold coming on. And it works every single time - I've not gotten a full blown cold for quite some time.

My Sis' latest addiction is the new Marigold's Peel Fresh Yuzu Juice Drink. With our hot local weather, it is certainly a refreshing drink to have on hand. It tastes pretty similar to the hot yuzu tea mixture drink I can make with the yuzu tea mixture, but it is just a little bit sweeter than I like (sometimes I dilute the bottled beverage with a little water). When I read the recipe for the chiffon cake, I decided to replace the water with some of the yuzu juice drink. The original recipe called for water and fresh yuzu juice, but since I didn't have the luck to have fresh yuzu on hand, I decided that the bottled beverage should work better than plain ol' water. Rights?

The resulting chiffon cake was quite soft and fluffy, with a subtle citrus note to it. I liked the small pops of citrus every time I bit into a citrus chunk (from the yuzu tea mixture). Before serving, I diluted a few additional spoonfuls of yuzu tea mixture with some water and heated it in the microwave for a few seconds and spread it atop the chiffon cake. Yums! Additional citrus flavour. I like.

Yuzu tea (honey citron) chiffon cake (adapted from 好吃戚風蛋糕輕鬆上手)
(makes three mini 4" chiffon cakes or one 8" chiffon cake)
5 egg yolks
50g yuzu tea mixture
80 ml (1/3 cup) neutral tasting oil (I used olive oil)
80ml (1/3 cup) bottled yuzu drink juice (or 70ml water and 10ml fresh yuzu juice)
130g AP flour, sifted
7 egg whites
95g sugar

Preheat oven to 180C.
Combine the egg yolks and yuzu tea mixture in a bowl, beat with an electric mixer till thick.
Add the olive oil and yuzu drink juice (or water and fresh yuzu juice) and whisk to combine.
Add the flour, whisk to combine.
In a separate clean bowl, using an electric beater, beat the egg whites. When it is at foamy stage, gradually add in the sugar, with the beaters mixing constantly. Whip till stiff peaks to form meringue stage.
Fold in the egg whites in three batches into the egg yolks mixture.
Pour into chiffon molds and bake for 30 - 40 minutes (depending on mold size). Remove from oven. Invert immediately and leave to cool completely before removing from mold.