i bought a tub of cassis puree almost a year ago and it was basically left untouched. frankly there really aren't many dessert recipes that use cassis so when i saw this from hidemi sugino's book, i jumped at the chance.
apart from matcha, goma black sesame would perhaps be my 2nd most favorite japanese-inspired flavor. having made a few chiffon cakes now (rose, pistachio raspberry, matcha, purple sweet potato), i can't believe i waited so long to make a black sesame one coz this is by far, in my opinion, the best chiffon cake i've made.
in terms of recipe, this is rather different from the others i've come across. it doesn't contain any oil, just water. the black sesame paste i used was also somewhat dry but the cake was anything but. texture-wise this one is smooth and more compact, very much like a japanese souffle cheesecake but i love it that way. some chiffon cakes can taste really foamy and you can actually hear bubbles bursting when you bite into it. the black sesame aroma was light but i could taste it, tho' i wouldn't say no to a stronger black sesame taste. i totally dig the color too, a very cool greyish black. when mixing the batter the color was a very light grey, who would hv thought it would turn so dark after baking? i thought it was a very pretty hue!
and this is a pack of ground black sesame seeds from daiso which i added into the cake. aroma's quite good and saves me the trouble of grinding my own. seriously, i swear daiso sells everything! new surprises every visit, i always look forward to shopping there. anyway i'm gonna make either yuzu or royal milk tea chiffon nx time!
i wouldn't actually hv thought of making my own vanilla sugar since i feel that using new pods for this is just too extravagant. old ones hv all gone into my homemade vanilla extract so there wasn't any opportunity to make this until i found some unused ones in my fridge. due to my carelessness i had forgotten to wrap them tightly so they had dried out, which is just perfect for the task if you ask me!
