Black Sesame Chiffon Cake with Condensed Milk Whipped Cream and Raspberries
Love chiffon.
Love Black Sesame!
I transformed my favourite Chiffon recipe into a Black Sesame Chiffon recipe that is so tasty that it ought to be illegal. The chiffon can be eaten straight out of hand or you can gild the lily with Whipped Cream sweetened with Condensed Milk. Add ruby-red raspberries and you have a dessert that your guests will rave about.
Black sesame has long been touted in Chinese ancient medicine as a perfect food for child-bearing women (for ease of childbirth), for a healthy scalp, to prevent premature white hair and to clarify the complexion. It is purported to even help with constipation, lactation, chronic rhinitis and eyesight.
No doubt.
I don’t really care about all these things health attributes my momma told me about as much as the fact that black sesame rocks for flavour. It is nutty and fragrant and makes all your desserts look Goth.
You need to grind your black sesame seeds very finely and perhaps sift it to ensure the particles are fine enough. Otherwise, you will encounter big chunks of sesame that will sink to the bottom of your tube pan like mine did. The effect was kind of streusel-like, which wasn’t all so bad. However, it wasn’t what I was gunning for. I think that a food processor would not grind the sesame fine enough. I used my high-speed Bullet. You might use a spice grinder or clean coffee grinder. Just ensure you grind in small batches and stop before you create sesame paste.
I insist you make this Whipped Cream sweetened with a touch of Condensed Milk. It is to die for. You will find that one dollop is not enough. You will inevitably do what I just did here and pile it on until you can’t see cake anymore. It’s not about how it looks…it’s all about yum-factor!
Wobbly tender, nutty cake topped with cool sweet whipped cream and punctuated with tart ruby berries make for a fine summer dessert!
CAKEBRAIN’S BLACK SESAME CHIFFON
(adapted and extremely modified from Cooks Illustrated)
(I insist you weigh your dry ingredients as I won’t be responsible for overly dry or wet chiffons if you don’t!)
- 300 g white granulated sugar
- 151 g cake flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup black sesame seeds [please check freshness by sniffing]
- 7 large eggs, room temperature
- 1/2 cup grapeseed oil
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 1 tablespoon roasted sesame oil
- 1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
- 3/4 cup water
- Using a Bullet, a spice grinder or a clean coffee grinder, finely grind the black sesame in small batches. Sift out large chunks. You can re-grind those large chunks again until everything is powdery fine. Caution: do not overwork into sesame paste.
- Adjust rack to lower-middle position and heat oven to 325 degrees F. Whisk sugar, flour, baking powder, salt and ground black sesame into a large bowl. Whisk in two whole eggs, five egg yolks (reserve the whites), the water, oil, extract and sesame oil until batter is smooth.
- Pour reserved 5 egg whites into a standing mixer bowl; beat at low speed with the whisk attachment until foamy, about 1 minute. Add cream of tartar, gradually increase speed to medium-high, then beat whites until very thick and stiff, just short of dry approximately 7-8 minutes. With a large balloon whisk, fold whites into the batter, gently incorporating blobs of white that resist blending.
- Pour batter into ungreased large tube pan (9-inch diameter, 16 cup capacity).
- Bake cake until wire cake tester inserted in centre comes out clean, 55-65 minutes. Immediately turn cake upside down to cool. Invert pan over bottle of funnel if you don’t have prongs for elevating cake. Let completely cool, about 2 hours.
- Run frosting spatula or thin knife around pan’s circumference between cake and pan wall, pressing against the pan.
- Accompany large slices of the Sesame Chiffon by gilding each just before serving with a large dollop of Condensed Milk Whipped Cream (recipe below) and fresh raspberries.
- Chiffon can be wrapped in plastic and stored at room temp 2 days or refrigerated 4 days.
CONDENSED MILK WHIPPED CREAM
- 11/2 cup heavy whipping cream, cold
- 1 tablespoon condensed milk
- Pour whipping cream into stand mixer bowl and whisk until soft peaks form.
- Drizzle in the condensed milk and whip further until the whipping cream holds medium peaks.
