The Boss in Our House

It's Father's Day today.  Happy Father's Day to all the wonderful dads out there!  Have you  pampered yours yet?  We decided to do it on a lighter note this year.  Here's the teaser that we made for the Dad in our house for the record :))

The 'boss' in our house was grinning from ear to ear when presented this to him.

Since he loves light and simple cakes, i decided not to go with heavy frosting but just to dust it with some icing sugar using homemade stencils.  I chose to make a chinese style sponge cake which was traditionally steamed but made popular recently in the blogsphere with a baked version. 

I love the taste of this cake, soft but slightly chewy and mildly sweet.  The dusting didn't impact its overall sweetness, fortunately. This cake is made using the egg separation method in the same manner chiffon cakes are.  My only fear for this type of cakes are cracks and true to murphy's law it did!  Not a big deal for this time since it was for the family, i turned the cake upside down and got a smooth top to continue with my plan for the decoration.  I will have to give it another try with a lower temperature to find the right temperature that will not be too hot and cause the cake to crack.

Recipe

Source: Baking Diary who adapted from Anncoo Journal

Ingredients

•  3 Egg whites
•  65g Icing sugar
•  3 Egg yolks
•  1 Whole Egg
•  50g Corn oil
•  65g Self raising flour
•  5g Cocoa powder + 1 tbsp hot water

Method

1. In a mixing bowl, mix egg yolks and whole egg together with a hand whisk. Add in corn oil and mix till combined. Sieve in self raising flour and mix well, set aside.
2. Whisk the egg whites to bubbly at medium speed and add icing sugar into it in 3 batches and whisk to stiff peaks.
3. Add one third of meringue to egg yolk mixture and fold well with a rubber spatula.  (I used the whisk)
4. Pour all the egg mixture into the meringue at low speed and mix well. (I used the whisk and spatula to mix)
5. Pour mixture into a 5 x 8 inch lined cake pan (or a 6 inch square cake pan), leaving 2 tablespoon of plain mixture and mix with the cocoa paste (I used a 6 inch round pan). 
6. Drizzle the cocoa mixture on top of the plain batter and use a skewer to draw lines or create your own pattern.
7. Bake in preheated oven at 170C for 35 minutes. (I baked mine at 160C for 35 mins)
8. Invert the cake immediately once cake is out of the oven. Leave to cool before cutting into slices.  

Note:

Do hop over to Jeannie's to check out her cake, hers look really pretty with the chocolate pattern and no cracks were visible (although she mentioned that there were).  She baked hers at 140C for 45 minutes.