Hokkaido Banana Chiffon Cupcakes with Banana Cream Filling 北海道香蕉牛奶蛋糕

Remember how much we love our ultra soft and feather-light banana chiffon cake?

I can tell you that THESE banana chiffon cakes are even better!!!

These Hokkaido banana chiffon cupcakes are ultra soft, feather-light AND super-finely textured. Like most typical Hokkaido cupcakes, these banana cupcakes are extra delightful to enjoy because of their oozing cream filling. Best of all, I have made this cream filling with banana, vanilla and brown sugar and it is so so so yummy!!!

I can feel that my eyes were dilating when I had my first bite of these cupcakes. Instantly, I had a sudden surge in my confidence, being 100% sure that my husband and son will love these and they did! In fact, I'm loving the feeling of anticipating satisfying reactions from the man and the little man as I can't help watching them closely when they had their first bites of these cupcakes. I must be a psycho mum or something!!! Geez!

Hokkaido banana chiffon cupcakes with banana cream filling

To bake the cupcakes, these are what I did:

First, I combined these ingredients.

Next, I need to add in five egg yolks and so I'm using my Tovolo yolk out to separate the eggs.
Click this if you want to know how this super cool Tovolo yolk out works!  

My egg yolk mixture is now ready.

Just like what I normally do to mix a chiffon cake batter.

I love using my Tovolo cupcake batter scoop.
For this bake, I have used two scoops per baking cup.

I gave each of these a gentle tap to remove large bubbles and they are ready to bake!

While baking, I was making the banana cream filling.

I cooked the filling until it coated the back of my mixing spoon.
Yup! This is ready!

I'm curious again! This time, I left my cupcakes to cool by either 1) leave them in oven with door ajar for about 30 mins or 2) drop them from a 20-30 cm height immediately after baking.
The result is amazing!
The cake dropping method works so much better than leaving the cake to cool in the oven.

Next, I did these...

I can't wait! I have to try one NOW!!!

Gosh! I forgot to dust my cake with icing sugar...
After eating one (yes... this is the one), I reckon this cupcake is just perfect for what it is!!!
The natural sweetness of these banana cupcakes is detectable and extremely delightful :)

As this is such a fabulous recipe, I like to bake these Hokkaido (milk based) chiffon cupcakes along with Joyce from Kitchen Flavours and Lena from Frozen wings as part of our bake-along theme.

Here's the fabulous recipe that is mostly adapted from here

Makes 13 cupcakes

A
60g oil that is neutral tasting
40ml milk

B
40g banana smooth purée, not roughly mashed from 2/3 small ripen banana
5 egg yolk (from medium eggs, 60g each)

C
100g cake flour, preferably 7-8% protein and unbleached
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon

D
5 egg white
90g sugar (from medium eggs, 60g each)

E
To make banana cream filling:
1/4 cup (60ml) mashed banana, from 1 1/3 small or 1 medium ripen banana - the weight is not so critical
1/2 cup (120ml) cream
1/2 cup (120ml) milk
20g (2 tbsp) cornflour
50g light brown sugar - you can reduce this if you reckon that the banana that you used is very sweet
1/2 tsp vanilla paste or 1 tsp vanilla extract
a pinch of salt
Note: after using the filling to pipe the cakes, you will have about 1/4 cup as leftover.

To finish:
a few slices of banana to top
icing sugar to dust, optional but I think it is not necessary

Preheat oven to 140°C (preferably not fan forced, if not use 125°C fan forced). If you are using paper baking cups like the ones that I'm using, arrange them on baking tray. Otherwise, you can line baking cups in a muffin tin.

Combine ingredients A in heat proof mixing bowl. Place the mixing bowl on a double boiler and cook until mixture is lukewarm. Otherwise, mixture can microwave in high power for 30-40 secs.

Using a hand whisk, whisk in banana purée and egg yolks (ingredient B) one at a time. Sift in all ingredients C into the egg yolk mixture and fold until mixture is well combined.

Using an electric mixer with whisk attachment, beat egg white (from ingredient D) in low speed for 2-3 mins until foamy. Increase beating speed to medium high. While beating, add sugar gradually in about 3-4 batches and continue beat till stiff peaks form.

Fold egg white mixture into egg yolk mixture in 2-3 batches and do it very gently. When the mixture is well combined, fill batter into baking cups to about 3/4 full. Give the baking cups or your muffin tin a gentle tap to remove large bubbles in the batter.

Bake them at 140°C (or 125°C fan forced) for 20 mins at the middle rack. You can cover the cupcake very loosely with a foil (not touching the batter) or place a empty baking tray on a oven rack and place the rack in the position just above your cupcakes as a heat shield if your oven is too strong with its top heat. If you think that your oven temperature is well calibrated, you can choose to omit this step. Remove the foil or the "heat shield" and increase the temperature to 150°C (or 140°C fan forced) and continue to bake for another 15-20 mins, After removing the cupcakes from the oven, drop the cupcakes from a 20-30 cm height immediately after baking. Place the cupcakes on a wire rack and allow them to let cool completely.

To make banana cream filling:
Using a blender, blend all ingredients E until smooth and combined. Transfer cream mixture into a saucepan and cook the mixture with low heat and constant stirring until thicken and can coat the back of the mixing spoon. Do not boil or over-cook your mixture. Transfer filing into a bowl and cover the surfaces well with cling wrap - This will avoid a layer of skin forming. Chill for 1-2 hrs. Mix well to smoothen the mixture before transferring it into a piping bag. If mixture is too lumpy after cooling, you can process it until it is smooth enough for your use.

Pipe cream into cupcakes using a long narrow piping tip (like Wilton 230). Top the cupcakes with slices of banana and dust with icing sugar (optional). Serve at room temperature or chilled. All chilled or not chilled, with or without icing sugar are yummy!

Happy Baking
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Please note that the linky tool for bake-along is no longer available.