Happy Lunar New Year! Orange Chiffon Cake

Happy Lunar New Year and Happy Birthday to all! Hope everyone had a good reunion with your family and friends over the CNY holidays. Today is the 7th day of the Lunar New Year known as 人日 and we celebrate everyone's birthday! Have you tossed the raw fish salad today to celebrate?

Here's wishing everyone good health and happiness in the new year.

Sorry for missing 2 weeks of posts as I was busy baking CNY cookies. A very big thank you to friends for their overwhelming support.

Today, I am sharing the Orange Chiffon Cake recipe which is light, fluffy and citrus in flavour.

Orange Chiffon Cake (23cm Chiffon pan)

6 eggs (separated)
100ml vegetable oil
160g caster/fine sugar
200g cake flour
150ml freshly squeezed orange juice
zest of 2 oranges
2 tsp baking powder

1) Pre-heat oven at 170 deg C
2) Hand whisk the egg yolks together with 80g sugar till thick
3) Add the vegetable oil and mix well.
4) Add the orange juice and orange zest and mix well.
5) Sieve the cake flour together with baking powder and fold into the egg yolk mixture.
6) In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites with a mixer till frothy and add in 80g sugar slowly and continue beating till just before stiff peaks form.

7) Fold in the egg white mixture into the egg yolk mixture in 3 batches.
8) Pour the batter into a chiffon cake pan (no need to grease or line)
9) Tap the cake pan on the table a few times to remove the bubbles.

10) Bake in the oven for 50-55 mins till it's cooked.
11) Invert the cake pan immediately and leave the cake to cool in the upside down position.
12) Remove the cake carefully once the cake is cool.

Serve the cake with some tea and I guarantee you won't be able to stop at one slice!

Bangkok Part 3 and Chicken Bak Kwa with cognac

This is the last part of my Bangkok trip. We took the sky train to Mo Chit station and reached Chucktuchack weekend market at 9am to avoid the crowd and the heat. I wanted to get some aromatherapy diffuser and managed to find the shop selling Yu products without having to search around. 2 of friends recommended the brand and told me that it's only available at the weekend market or Pratunum. The diffusers cost 250baht each or 700 baht for 3! Half the price of the cheaper brands in Singapore and about 20% cheaper than those sold in Siam Square area. I got 3 diffusers and 3 refills.

We saw some stalls selling food and sat down for breakfast. Fried rice and my favourite Thai omelette! The fried rice was a tad sweet. Mum kept looking at the next table who brought their own little tubs of chilli but due to language problems, we couldn't find out where to get those chilli. Next I went to the crockery section and was so tempted to buy so many stuff but I had to restrain myself. as they were heavy stuff to lug back. Mum bought some cushion covers and tissue covers as gifts for her friends. We left at 11am as we had to check out of the hotel at noon. While looking for the escalator to the sky train platform, I found the Jelly Bunny shop inside Mo Chit station. I first found this brand in 2012 and love their jelly shoes. They finally opened a shop here in Singapore. As we were rushing for time, I just showed the sales lady photos of 2 designs and bought those. We checked out of our hotel and had lunch at Som Tam again at the request of Mum. This concludes my trip to Bangkok.
My loot from Chucktuchack market:

I have seen recipes for homemade Bak Kwa (Dried Barbeque Meat) for a few years but have not gotten round to trying it out. After finishing my stash of Lim Chee Guan Bak Kwa within 3 days, I decided to make my own instead of going to the city to buy more. It was actually quite easy to make the bak kwa, just marinate the meat overnight, bake and grill for less than half hour and you will have tasty bak kaw. I tried making the Bak Kwa twice so far; the first time using Nasi Lemak Lover's recipe and store bought minced chicken and the 2nd time using Everyone Eats well in Flander's recipe and chicken thigh meat with the addition of Cognac. The bak kwa turned out a little too tough the first time round and the taste a little off due to the Hua Tiao wine. I tried again the next day using chicken thigh meat which had more fats and the taste turn out very tasty and fragrant. My mum reached for a 2nd piece when I asked her for her feedback :) Action speaks louder than words.

Homemade Chicken Bak Kwa(adapted from here)
450g chicken thigh meat
100g sugar
1/2 tbsp fish sauce
1tbsp light soya sauce
1tsp kecap manis
1/2tbsp cognac
1tbsp oyster sauce
2 tbsp honey
1/8tsp five spice powder
1/2 tsp salt
a dash of pepper

1) Mince the chicken thigh meat in a food processor or chopper
2) Add all the seasoning and stir the meat till gluey (so that the meat will stick together)

3) Leave the minced chicken to marinate for 6-8 hours or overnight in the fridge
4) Line a cookie tray and spread the marinated meat with a rubber spatula as thinly as possible.

5) Bake the meat for 15 mins at 160 deg C. It will look like a big piece of cooked minced meat.
6) Cut up the meat into 9 pieces and change the greaseproof paper under the meat.

7) Brush some vegetable oil and diluted honey on the meat and grill the meat till brown on each side, about 10 mins on each side.

Yummy chicken bak kwa, all for less than S$10!

I toasted 2 slices of bread lightly and made a bak kwa sandwich the next day for breakfast.

All the bak kwa is gone by the next day when my mum and a friend dropped by.

I am submitting this post to "My Treasured Recipes #5 - Chinese New Year Goodies (Jan/Feb)" hosted my Miss B of Everyone Eats Well in Flanders and co-hosted by Charmaine of Mimi Bakery House