Black Glutinous Rice Chiffon Cake with Arabesque Motif

After my extended family tried my pulut hitam chiffon cake, I have a waiting list of people who want to eat the pulut hitam chiffon cake that I bake! This one is for my grandma who wanted two cakes so this is my first instalment. I don't have enough flour to bake another one at the moment. I have to thank my dad who helped me get more black glutinous rice flour since Bake King is not accessible to me.

I took the chance to practice piping designs on a cake. For my maiden attempt, I have chosen the arabesque motif.

The patterns are done using a mixture of royal icing sugar and snow powder dissolved in some water. My freehand piping is not perfect and I had to use a toothpick to clean up some mistakes but hopefully the final product is pretty enough to put a smile on grandma's face :).

Since I can't show you how a slice of this cake looks like, I shall just post a slice of the pulut hitam chiffon cake from my first attempt with zebra patterns inside and outside.

Feedback for this cake is it's really soft, moist and fragrant. Everyone loved the cake despite the slightly grainy texture. Full of bubur pulut hitam goodness but it's light, not too sweet and refreshing.

One thing to take note when using black glutinous rice flour is the cake batter will be runnier than cake batter made with cake flour. Therefore the flour:liquid ratio I used for this cake is higher than I normally do for other chiffon cakes.

I adapted the recipe from Ellena Guan.

Ingredients (for 17cm chiffon tin):
76g black glutinous rice flour (available at Bake King in Singapore)
3 egg yolks (65g eggs)
15g caster sugar
35g canola oil
70g coconut cream
1/6 tsp salt
1/3 tsp charcoal powder (optional)
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp pandan flavoring

4 egg whites
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
55g caster sugar

Steps:
1. Preheat the oven to 160 degrees Celsius. Line a 17cm chiffon cake tin with homemade cake strips. **(You may bake without using cake strips but reduce baking time by 5-10 minutes. I used cake strips to achieve a taller cake with less browning and cracking but care has to be taken not to underbake the cake.) Set the rack to second lowest position in the oven.

2. Prepare the egg yolk batter. Whisk egg yolks and sugar until pale and all sugar has dissolved. Add oil and whisk until well combined. Add coconut cream, vanilla extract and pandan flavoring and mix well. Gradually sift in black glutinous rice flour, charcoal powder and salt. Whisk until no trace of flour can be seen.

3. Prepare the meringue. In a clean metal bowl, use an electric mixer to beat egg whites until foamy. Add cream of tartar and beat until soft peaks form. Gradually add sugar and beat until stiff peaks form. You should be able to turn the bowl upside down and the merinuge won't fall out.

4. Gently but fold in the meringue one third at a time using a spatula.

5. Tap the mixing bowl a few times on the table then slowly pour the batter into the chiffon tin and run a chopstick around to pop any air bubbles.

6. Bake for 20 minutes, reduce the oven temperature to 150 degrees Celsius and bake for another 20 minutes. Reduce the temperature to 140 degrees Celsius and bake for 10-20 minutes or until the cake springs back when lightly pressed with a spatula.

7. Immediately invert to cool and carefully unmould using a spatula when completely cooled.

8. Decorate it as you wish or leave it plain. Refrigerate it before serving as a refreshing dessert. Best to consume it within three days.

So glad to be able to bake something that everyone enjoys :). If you manage to get your hands on some black glutinous rice flour, do give this simple bake a try!

I'm linking this post to Bake Along for this week's theme of Chiffon Cakes jointly hosted by Joyce of Kitchen Flavours, Zoe of Bake for Happy Kids and Lena of Frozen Wings.

With love,
Phay Shing