kinako banana chiffon cake sandwiches ／きな粉バナナシフォンサンド

Taking a short break from tarts! To be honest I could eat them every week for the rest of my life but I'm getting tired of making them. Good thing that I only bought two new tart pans. So until my interest in baking tarts is revived - I did promise myself that I would bake the whole book - I'll probably be churning out a few types of chiffon cake sandwiches (which I would likely tire of in three weeks hah). I've been wanting to make more of them ever since I made these matcha adzuki chiffon cake sandwiches because they allow so much room for creativity, not to mention are fun to assemble!

I absolutely adore the texture of the chiffon cake. It's a little on the dense side but super moist in return. I was disappointed that the flavour of the kinako didn't come through very strongly but I realised that the crust of the cake which is a little moister than the insides had a more apparent kinako taste. I figured that if I let the cake sandwiches chill in the fridge overnight after filling them with cream I might manage to draw more flavour out by letting the cakes absorb more moisture from the cream. And the cream would be a kinako honey one for more kinko oomph.

Unfortunately I don't think the chilling overnight step had much effect. In fact, chilling the cakes might have caused the flavours to be less pronounced instead so I would probably just brush them with some syrup next time and forget the refrigerating entirely.

Choosing a topping for the sandwiches took some time because I don't work with kinako often so nothing came to mind for a while. I decided on bananas in the end since kinako has a flavour reminiscent of peanut butter and peanut butter and bananas are like best friends yeah?

I had some trouble figuring out how to arrange the sliced bananas but after attempting a few patterns, arranging three slices in a straight line seems to be the most presentable option. It's a pity that the ridges of the cream get hidden this way though. I think I'll keep trying to find a way to style the sandwiches such that the toppings and cream are featured equally prominently.

(Whoops forgot to take another photo of the finished product.)

Kinako Banana Chiffon Cake Sandwiches ／きな粉バナナシフォンサンド
makes an 7 inch cake (10 to 12 sandwiches)

For the cake:
50g cake flour, sifted
5 egg yolks
20g brown sugar
60g water
60g oil
50g kinako
5 egg whites
90g sugar
10g corn flour

For the cream:
200ml cream
1 1/2 tbsp kinako
1 tbsp honey

For decoration:
sliced bananas

Make the cake: Preheat oven to 160C. Prepare a 7 inch tube pan.

Combine egg yolks and brown sugar in a bowl and mix well. Whisk in water and oil. Stir in flour then the kinko. Set aside.

Mix the sugar and corn flour together in a bowl. Whisk the egg whites until foamy. Add half of the flour-sugar mixture and continue beating for a few minutes. Add the remaining flour-sugar mixture and beat until egg whites are stiff.

Add 1/3 of the meringue into the egg yolk mixture and fold in lightly. Add the remaining meringue and fold to incorporate completely.

Pour batter into pan and bake for 40 to 50 minutes. When the cake is done, remove from oven and invert pan onto a cooling rack. Cool completely before slicing.

Make the cream: Combine the cream, kinako and honey in a bowl and whip until cream reaches medium-stiff peaks. Scrape cream into a piping bag fitted with a star tip.

Assemble the cake sandwiches: Slice the cooled cake into 10 to 12 portions depending on how thick you like your slice of cake to be. It's usually better to have thicker slices of cake as they're less likely to fall over under the weight of the cream and bananas. Make a slit slightly more than halfway down the center of each slice. Pipe in the cream and top with the sliced bananas. Serve immediately or if not, store in the fridge.