Christmas Cake Recipe – Japanese Cooking 101

Christmas Cake is a spherical layered cake, often a sponge cake, crammed with fruits, and frosted with whipped cream. The fluffy candy cake is cherished by all generations in Japan, and it has turn out to be an annual customized for the final a number of many years. Christmas truffles are seen all over the place in Japan in the course of the season, resembling at cake retailers, supermarkets, and comfort shops. It performs a major function in Japanese delicacies right now, despite the fact that it’s not a conventional Japanese candy.

The origin of Christmas cake in Japan will be traced again to the post-war period. Particularly, in the course of the Nineteen Fifties to the early Sixties, Christmas cake grew to become a widespread custom in Japan as a part of Christmas celebrations. Throughout this era, Christmas step by step started to permeate Japan as a business occasion. Influenced by American and European cultures, Christmas got here to be perceived as a big day to be spent with household and associates. On this context, truffles, specifically, grew to become an indispensable a part of celebrations and particular events, solidifying Christmas cake as an necessary part in Japanese tradition. The earliest Christmas truffles had been provided by pastry retailers and motels. Initially luxurious and costly, they step by step grew to become extra accessible to atypical households.

Within the early days, buttercream was generally used as a topping for Christmas truffles. Buttercream supplied a wealthy and flavorful style, giving the preliminary Christmas truffles an opulent impression. Nonetheless, as Christmas cake enjoyment unfold to atypical households, preferences in style and culinary tradition started to alter. As a result of heavy really feel of buttercream, there was an growing want for a lighter and brisker style. Consequently, whipped cream grew to become most popular because the topping for Christmas truffles, changing buttercream. Whipped cream, with its gentle and ethereal texture, enhances fruits and sponge truffles properly, making it significantly appropriate for Christmas truffles like Strawberry Shortcake. These days, whipped cream is broadly utilized in Christmas truffles, and its gentle taste has turn out to be an important aspect on Christmas tables. The Strawberry Shortcake additionally emerged as a consultant type of Christmas cake, with its purple and white shade scheme evoking a festive Christmas environment.

In the present day, many fancy cake retailers supply numerous elaborate Christmas truffles, and a few individuals reserve them months forward. However others desire less complicated and extra “conventional” truffles like ours. Many individuals even choose to bake their very own truffles at residence and luxuriate in adorning Christmas truffles as a household occasion. We flavored the whipped cream with chocolate since that’s one of the fashionable flavors in Japan, and you could wish to strive it. When you desire an everyday whipped cream model, try our Strawberry Shortcake recipe. Whipped cream truffles are very mushy, so it’s essential to sit back them properly to allow them to be sliced with out collapsing. We extremely suggest baking the truffles a day forward. Plan properly and provides your self sufficient time to assemble the cake and chill it within the fridge. As a substitute of pies and loaf truffles, strive Japanese Christmas Cake for this vacation. We promise you’ll prefer it!

Course: Dessert

Delicacies: Japanese

Key phrase: cake, chocolate, Christmas

Prepare dinner Time: 2 hours hours

Chilling Time: 5 hours hours

How you can make Japanese Christmas Cake

Print Recipe

Chocolate Chiffon Sponge Cake (7″ spherical cake)

• 40 ml oil
• 2 egg yolks
• 60 ml water
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 80 g cake flour
• 20 g cocoa powder unsweetened
• 100 g sugar divided
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 2 egg whites

Vanilla Syrup

• 80 ml water
• 65 g sugar
• 1/2 Tbsp vanilla extract

Chocolate Whipped Cream

• 200 g darkish chocolate
• 720 ml heavy cream
• 1/4 cup sugar

Making Chocolate Chiffon Sponge Cake

• Preheat the oven to 375°F (190°C). Place parchment paper rounds in 7-inch spherical cake pan. Sift collectively cake flour, cocoa, 1/3 cup of sugar, baking powder, and salt. Put aside.

• Whip oil and yolks in a bowl with an electrical mixer. Add water and vanilla, and stir. Mix the dry components into the egg yolk combination. Whip at excessive velocity for two minutes. Reserve.

• In a special bowl, whip egg whites to a foam. Step by step add the remaining sugar and whip till stiff peaks kind. Rigorously fold the meringue into the reserved batter. Pour the batter into the ready pan.

• Bake within the oven for 30-35 minutes. Take a look at for doneness by inserting a wood skewer in the course of the cake. Drop the pan from about 6″ (15 cm) excessive to launch steam from the cake. Enable it to chill barely, then unmold and let it cool utterly on a cooling rack.

Making Chocolate Whipped Cream

• Chop chocolate with a knife or use chocolate chips. Place the chopped chocolate in a bowl and soften it over simmering water. Let it to chill to room temperature. Add one-third of the heavy cream and whisk properly. As soon as they’re homogenized, add the remaining cream and begin whipping. Whip till medium stiff peaks kind.

Assembling the Cake

• Minimize half of strawberries into 1/4″ rounds. Take away moisture with a paper towel.

• Slice the Sponge Cake horizontally into three layers. Place the underside layer on a cake board on a turning cake desk.

• Brush the syrup onto the cake completely, unfold roughly 1/8 of the whipped cream, and organize half of the strawberry rounds on the cream. Add one other 1/8 of the cream and unfold evenly.

• Add one other layer of cake, press down evenly, brush with syrup, unfold extra whipped cream (one other 1/8), add the remaining strawberries, and unfold one other 1/8 of the cream.

• Place the final layer of the cake, press down evenly, and brush with syrup. Coat the cake with a minimal quantity of cream and refrigerate for 1 hour.

• Place one other 1/8 of the whipped cream in a piping bag with a selected piping tip and set it apart.

• Frost the whole cake with the remaining whipped cream. Beautify the cake with entire strawberries and the reserved cream by piping. Refrigerate the cake for a number of hours earlier than slicing.