Scroll to the bottom of the page for "PRINT RECIPE" ⬇

Purple Sweet Potato Ogura Cake!

I used the Banana Ogura Cake Recipe I posted before and substituted banana with sweet potato. The result is an unusual coloured but delicious sweet potato cake. The Banana Ogura Cake recipe is adapted from Jeannie Tay.

If you have any questions regarding this recipe or any other post, please leave me a comment in the “LEAVE A COMMENT” link and I will reply you as soon as possible. Do tag me on Instagram @Bakewithpaws if you attempt on this recipe.

How To Make Purple Sweet Potato Ogura Cake

Yields: 1 cake

INGREDIENTS:

5 egg yolks + 1 whole egg

60g corn oil

150g steamed mashed purple sweet potato

80g Cake flour or all purpose flour

1/4 tsp Salt

5 Egg whites

1/4 tsp Cream of tartar

70g Sugar

Utensil :

7″ square or 8″ round pan, greased the sides and line the bottom. Wrap the pan with aluminium foil so that the water doesn’t get into the pan if spring form pan is used.

METHOD:

Use hand whisk egg yolks, 1 whole egg and corn oil until frothy then add mashed sweet potato and mix well.
Sift in the flour and salt and mix again until well combined. Set aside while you prepare the meringue.Using an electric mixer, whisk egg white, cream of tartar and castor sugar until firm peaks formed (firm peaks is between soft peaks and stiff peaks).
Mix 1/3 of meringue with yolk batter with a hand whisk. Add another 1/3 portion and fold gently with the whisk. Then pour in balance of meringue. Fold gently using a spatula until no more streaks of meringue can be seen.Pour batter into prepared pan and tap pan lightly to remove air bubbles.
Bake in a water bath for 70 minutes at 160°C.
Remove from the oven and drop the pan at a height of 10 cm onto a table top. This will prevent cake from sinking.
Unmold as soon as you can. To remove the cake from the pan, run a thin-bladed knife around the inside of the pan and invert the cake on non stick baking paper. Peel off baking paper from the base and re-invert onto a rack to cool.

GENERAL NOTES

I would suggest you read the following notes especially if you are don't bake often.

MERINGUE

Meringue plays a very important role in Chiffon Cake. Over beating meringue may cause the cake to crack, while under beating will cause the cake to collapse or it may not rise much.

Use room temperature egg whites, this will yield more volume. Cold egg whites will not whip well. It is easier to separate your eggs when they are still cold, then leave the egg whites aside to come to room temperature.

Make sure your bowl is clean and there is no any trace of egg yolk or fat. Fat will interfere with the formation of meringue.

Use cream of tartar to stabilise the whipped meringue. Cream of tartar is acidic and can be replaced with lemon juice or white vinegar. The replacement ratio is 1:2. If your recipe asks for 1/4 tsp of cream of tartar, then replace with 1/2 tsp lemon juice.

Sources from here, here and here

Stages of Meringue:

Soft Peak – The meringue is soft and unable to hold its form, it will drip after you turn your whisk upside down. You will see the ribbon lines, but it disappears the moment you stop whisking.

Firm Peak – The peak will hold and fold back slightly when you turn your whisk upside down. The meringue is glossy and the ribbon lines stay. This is the stage we look for if you do not want your cake to crack.

Stiff Peak – The peak will hold straight and doesn’t fold back when you turn the whisk upside down. The meringue is very glossy and thick too. Most chiffon cake recipes will prescribe this stage but the cake will easily crack when baking. However, if you don’t mind the cake cracking then it is fine. It doesn’t affect how the cake tastes.

Over-beating – The meringue looks grainy, broken and dull. We do not want this stage in baking as you will not be able to fold it into the flour batter nicely.

OVEN TEMPERATURE AND BAKING TIME

Do note that the baking temperature and timing provided are what works for my oven and should also be regarded as a guide only. Every oven behaves a little differently, so please adjust accordingly for your oven.

It would be good to use an oven thermometer when baking. This will help you understand and know the actual temperature you are baking at. The actual temperature in the oven may not be the same as the oven’s setting. Leave the thermometer on the same rack where you place your baking.

I usually bake cakes with top and bottom heats setting. I don’t encourage baking cakes with fan-forced mode as this setting uses a fan to circulate the hot air for quick baking or cooking at high temperature and may result in cracks on the cake. However, if fan mode is used, it is recommended to reduce the temperature setting by about 20C if using a fan-forced mode.

WATER BATH vs DRY BAKE

For a water bath, the cake pan sits within another pan filled with a little water. Place the cake pan within a larger pan and pour hot water into the outer pan until it comes up to a level of 1.5cm – 2 cm. Place the whole thing in oven and bake.

The benefit of water bath is that it will moderate the baking temperature and prevent the cakes from cracking. The cake texture will be very moist too.

Chiffon cake baked without a water bath is more brown and crumbly. Some may prefer this texture. Please make your own choice between water bath or dry bake. This is a very individual personal preference.