They Are Our Family Too

Green Tea chiffon  

I have planned to bake this and give to a church friend who has kindly given me a bottle of pickled vegetables. I did not do a good job of unmoulding and it looked so unpresentable that I decided not to give away. The recipe is from Okashi by Keiko Ishida. Due to my laziness to do less washing up, I did not separate ingredients and weigh individually. I just put a mixing bowl on a scale and add ingredients after each mixing and blending. I added too much oil after blending egg yolks and sugar together and there was no way I could remove the excess, but to increase the quantity. I doubled the recipe and because my oven is too small for 2 pans, the excess batter was baked in these rectangular cupcake cases.
The chiffon turned out so soft and fluffy and I love the colour and taste of green tea. It is very important to add good Japanese matcha powder. The cake was sliced and given to two other friends.

Dusted with snow powder

Ingredients

70g pastry flour
10g green tea powder
5 egg yolk
20g superfine sugar
70g water
60g canola oil

Meringue
180g egg whites
90g superfine sugar
10g rice flour or corn flour


Method

1. Preheat oven to 160C.
2. Sift flour and green tea powder twice. Combine egg yolks and sugar in a bowl and mix well. Add water and canola oil and blend together. Add flour and green tea powder mixture and mix until batter becomes sticky. Set aside.
3. Make meringue. Combine sugar and rice or corn flour. Beat egg whites until foamy. Add half of sugar and flour mixture and continue beating for a few minutes, then add remaining sugar and flour mixture and beat until egg whites are glossy, with stiff peaks.
4. Add one third of meringue into egg yolk mixture and fold in lightly, then add remaining meringue and fold to incorporate completely.
5. Pour batter into an ungreased 20 cm cake tube pan. Bake for 40-50 minutes. When cake is done, remove from oven and turn it over, leaving it to cool.
6. Once cake has cooled completely, carefully run a knife or spatula around the sides of the cake to loosen it before inverting onto a wire rack.

Optional
Green Tea Cream
250g whipping cream
7g green tea powder
11/2 tbsp superfine sugar

Combine ingredients in a clean bowl. Place bowl over another one filled with ice cubes and water. Using an electric mixer, whip cream on medium speed until stiff peaks form but cream is still smooth. Do not over-whip or the cream will become grainy and separate to form butter.

Cover chiffon cake with green tea cream using a spatula and a decorative turntable, and slice into even pieces before serving.



Family Night

This Friday is our Sunday school Family Night. Family Night is held once very 2 months. We invite families of our unchurched Sunday school children to church to bond with them and also to introduce the Word of God to them. I have 10 children in my Sunday school class and out of the 10, 2 are unchurched and from the neighborhood.  Some of these children have been with us since kindergarten and over the years we have invited their family to our church anniversary dinners, Christmas eve singing, Church family Day outings and Sunday school Family Night. We also visited them during Chinese New Year.
On our first Family Night last April, we read Psalm 23. Psalm 23 was chosen because it is one of the most popular Psalm and many of them have heard of it but do not know the meaning, especially the first verse'The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want'.
Family Night ususally starts off with dinner, catered and sometimes cooked by me and a few teachers, follows by devotion and a craft or game session. The night ends with birthday celebration of children having birthdays during the month and next.