Japanese Dark Pearl Hokkaido Chiffon Cupcakes

To bake along theme Hokkaido chiffon cupcakes event with my cyber blogger pals, I've planned 2 flavours.  Here's the Lemon Curd HCC shared earlier.

Since we all so loved that very chocolatey chiffon cake I'd baked on my birthday .... yes that Japanese Dark Pearl Chiffon Cake (here)  .... hee ... hee ... Well, why not try it as Japanese Dark Pearl Hokkaido Chiffon Cupcake? With cream cheese filling.  I'm not sure if this filling will match well with this dark chocolate flavour ... let's see.

Using the same recipe (here)
Japanese Dark Pearl Hokkaido Chiffon Cupcake with Cream Cheese
Yields 10 depends on the size of cupcake liners.
Ingredients
For the batter
3 egg yolks
35g corn oil
60g milk
80g chocolate, chopped
35g cake flour
15g cocoa powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder

Meringue:
3 egg whites
45g caster sugar
1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar (or you may replace it with 1/2 teaspoon of lemon juice)

Method:
First melt chocolate over double boiler or microwave. Stir until smooth and set aside to cool.

* Dry ingredients : Combine and sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and baking soda. Set aside.

Preheat the oven at 160°C.
The temperature of the oven may vary, do adjust the temperature and timing to suit your oven.

In a clean mixing bowl, whisk the cold egg whites and cream of tartar till foamy using the electric mixer. Gradually add in caster sugar in 3 separate additions and beat till stiff peak, formed into a firm meringue. Transfer to a big bowl and chill in the fridge.

In the same bowl (wipe off the meringue with kitchen towel), beat the egg yolks lightly with a hand whisk. Next add the oil, milk and the slightly warm melted chocolate. Stir well.  Add the dry ingredients into the egg yolk mixture, mix till to a smooth & thick batter.

Gently fold 1/3 of the meringue into the batter mixture with a spatula. Gently fold the remaining meringue into the mixture in 2 batches until it looks evenly mixed (no streaks of meringue).

Scoop batter into pre-arranged cupcake liners to about ¾ full.

Bake at 160°C for about 30 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely.

While the cupcakes are cooling, prepare the cream cheese filling. I estimated the amount, used all for this batch. Should have made more so I could pipe nice & bigger swirls for the top.

Cream Cheese Frosting/Filling:
25g unsalted butter, softened
100g cream cheese, softened
80g icing sugar, sifted (add more if you preferred it sweeter)

Beat the butter and cream cheese until very smooth and creamy with electric mixer. Add the icing sugar and beat until fully incorporated and smooth.

Once the cupcakes are cooled, fill cream cheese in a piping bag fitted with a round nozzle.  Push the piping tip into the centre of the cupcake and pipe/squeeze some amount. Decorate the top to your desire.
Chill for a couple of hours before serving.

Ta dah ! Yes ! Presenting ... chocolatey, soft & moist Japanese Dark Pearl Hokkaido Chiffon Cupcake with Cream Cheese ^-^!
My big boy had two at one sitting (the 'models' after the photo shoot). He commented 'very very nice' :D

#Update : brought a few to office to treat my colleagues and they also commented very nice & delicious! ... happy ^-^!

Up ... up ! Jump ! ... onto the last wagon for this bake-along theme Hokkaido Chiffon Cupcakes.
~~~♡♡♡~~~
♡Have a great weekend♡

Linking this post to "Bake-Along #84"
Theme Hokkaido Chiffon Cupcakes
Hosted by Zoe from Bake for Happy Kids, Joyce from Kitchen Flavours and Lena from Frozen Wings.