Lemongrass Cake 香茅蛋糕

I have bookmarked this Vanilla Sponge Cake for a long time, but didn't have the chance to bake it. So I finally found an excuse to bake it in a special flavour. I planned it in such a way that both the cake and the cream will have the same flavour. Therefore, I used frosty whip to frost the cake as I can add whatever flavour to it.

I decided on...Lemongrass. It's not the usual flavour for cakes, but I thought it might be refreshing in this weather. I was thinking, if I was going to use frosty whip, I might as well make something special because I can use lemongrass juice to mix. Steady right? The cake turned out to be really nice. The cake sponge was was light and fluffy, though not much of a lemongrass taste while the whipped cream has a mild refreshing lemongrass taste which was not overpowering. Everyone who tried it agreed it was really nice. My family members polished off their cake slice even though they complaint they were very full after the dinner.

Recipe for Lemongrass Cake
(Makes a 6" round, at least 4" tall cake)

Lemongrass Sponge Cake, modified from Sonia's Vanilla Sponge Cake.
Ingredients:
3 Egg yolks
15g Caster sugar
55g Lemongrass juice*
1 tsp Ground lemongrass (optional)
40g Corn oil
80g Top flour, sifted

3 Egg whites
55g Caster sugar
1 tsp Lemon juice (or 1/4tsp cream of Tartar)

Method:
1. Prepare one 6” round cake tin with removal base.
2. Add in sugar into egg yolks, immediately lightly whisk the egg yolks and sugar till light (Try to whisk immediately once sugar is added into egg yolks, egg will cover the sugar and turned hard if sit there for too long).
3. Add in corn oil, mix well. Then add in lemongrass water, stir well to combine.
4. Sift in flour and ground lemongrass, stir till well combine.
5. Whisk egg whites till foamy, then add in lemon juice, gradually add in sugar and continue beating until approaching stiff peaks (meringue stand straight up with a little curve at the tip) or till stiff peaks (this stage is a bit difficult to fold with egg yolk mixture)
6. Take 1/3 of meringue and use a hand whisk to mix well with egg yolk batter.
7. Fold in 1/3 of meringue and use a silicone spatula, gently fold with egg yolk batter till slightly combined. Fold in the balance meringue and gently fold till well combined.
8. Pour into round cake tin, bake at pre-heated oven at 140C (no fan) for 25mins at low rack, then increase to 160C (fan forced) for another 30- 35mins. (Mine is fan oven, so I baked it at 130C for 25mins, followed by 160C for 30mins. Realised 160C too hot and cracked the top.)
9. Once baked, turn your chiffon tin upside down and cool completely before remove from the tin.

Lemongrass Juice
2 stalks Lemongrass, chopped and pound gently (use the whole stalk)
400g Tap water

Method:
1. Boil the lemongrass with water in a pot.
2. Let it cool completely before storing it in the fridge. Preferably overnight.

Lemongrass Whipped Cream
150g Frosty Whip
300g Lemongrass juice
1 Lemon zest

Method:
1. Mix all together and whipped till stiff.

Assembly:
1. Cut the sponge cake into four layers.
2. Place a cake layer on the cake tray.
3. Spread with whipped cream.
4. Repeat #2 & #3 until the last layer.
5. Frost the sides, and top layer.
6. Pipe roses or any designs of your preference.
7. Sprinkle lemon zest on top.
8. Refrigerate till cold before serving.


Note:

• Use the whole lemongrass. Two stalks should be more than enough. If you prefer stronger taste, then add one more stalk. After boiling, let it seep till cool. Then drain out the juice and keep it in the fridge.
• I baked the cake one day before. The lemongrass juice was also prepared one day before so that I can store them in the fridge to keep cold for frosty whip.
• You may drink the remaining lemongrass juice. Good to keep out mosquitoes. :)
• The lemongrass juice in the cake sponge was too mild. In fact, it was almost not there. You may replace it with vanilla extract instead.
• I took the cake out of the fridge and served immediately. The cake sponge was light and fluffy. The whipped cream was smooth and melts in the mouth easily.

My personal take on the frosty whip. As it was the first time I was using it, it sounds easy to just add cold water to whip it. Good thing about this is that you can add any cold liquid. For example, cold chocolate milk will give you chocolate whipped cream, cold strawberry milk will result in strawberry whipped cream. Sounds good right? That was why I was prompted to use lemongrass juice instead of the normal flavour.

I realised that it "melted" quite easily. Probably the lemongrass juice was not able to withhold the coldness. Almost three quarter into my piping, I realised the patterns were not distinct. It could be due to (1) the frosty whip ratio to liquid was lower, (2) liquid wasn't cold enough to sustain the state. I put it into the fridge for a couple of minutes before taking out to pipe again.

Frosty whip tasted sweet on its own, so no additional sugar required. To me, it tasted more like non-diary cream, which I don't really fancy. However, after refrigerating the finished frosted lemongrass cake, the lemongrass whipped cream tasted really nice. It's the kind of taste that you know it's there, but it does not overwhelmed you. I will use frosty whip if I want exotic flavours' whipped cream. If not, I'll prefer to use diary cream.