I have been trying a lot of different recipes and fine tune my technique in order to bake a soft and fluffy Chiffon Cake. It takes me about 2 years to master this cake. Although I have failed a lot of times, my passion towards baking will never die. I would say baking Chiffon Cake needs some luck. Today, you may bake it successful but the next day you may fail even though you are using the same recipe. Below are some notes that may help you master in Chiffon Cake.
I would say, having a perfect stiff egg white is the secret of baking this cake. Without a perfect stiff egg white, you will never get the soft texture of Chiffon Cake. The eggs need to be at room temperature so they will reach their full volume when beaten. Always use fresh egg as it is much easier to beat. Adding a little cream of tartar helps with us, although you can leave it out. Cream of tartar is used to give stiffness to the egg whites, so that the cake will not collapse easily. Not to forget to use a very clean mixing bowl to ensure egg whites can be whisked up easily until very stiff.
Another important ingredient in the cake is the oil. The presence of oil and coconut milk in the recipe will give a moist texture to the cake. Coconut milk used in the recipe will further enhance the taste of the cake. You may substitute with soya, however the taste will never be the same as compare with coconut milk. As for the oil, you can use any flavourless oil; vegetable, canola, corn or even sunflower oil.
To make the cake healthier, it is highly encourage to use home made pandan juice than using green coloring and pandan essence. With the help of a blender, extracting pandan juice from the plant is much easier. I would normally stored the pandan juice for overnight before using. On the next day, a layer of concentrated pandan residue will settle at the bottom. I will normally use that layer as it has a stronger taste.
It is important that the batter is baked in an ungreased tube pan which allows the batter to cling to the sides of the pan as it bakes. The tube in the center of the pan lets the hot air circulate so the heat can reach the center of the bake and not over bake the cake. The cake needs to be turned upside down immediately upon removing it from the oven as this keeps from shrinking and losing its volume.
Hopefully you will also succeed with the baking!
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Ingredients A
100g cake flour
1 tsp baking powder
5 medium eggs yolks
40g castor sugar
1/4 tsp salt
30ml oil
60ml coconut juice
50ml concentrated pandan juice
1/2 tsp pandan essence (optional)
Ingredients B
5 medium egg whites
1/2 tsp cream of tartar
40g castor sugar
1. Preheat the oven to 150'C and have ready a 22cm ungreased chiffon cake tin.
2. Sieve cake flour and baking powder together. Put aside.
3. Whisk egg yolks and castor sugar together until the batter is pale yellow. Add in the salt, oil, coconut juice, pandan juice and pandan essence together. Stir in one direction until smooth and well-combined. Mix this mixture into the flour.
4. Beat until smooth (about one minute). Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed.
5. You may filter the batter if there are a lot of lumps.
6. In the other bowl, put in egg whites and cream of tartar into a clean mixing bowl. Use high speed to whisk until frothy. Add in sugar slowly. Continue to whisk until stiff but not dry. (Please refer to the video "
How to whip egg white")
7. Gently fold the stiff egg whites (in three additions) into cake batter just blended (being careful not to deflate the batter). (Please refer to the video "
How to fold egg white")
8. Pour the batter into a 22cm ungreased chiffon cake pan and bake at 150'C for about 30 minutes until lightly brown. Change to 180'C and continue to bake until 100% cooked and golden brown.
9. Remove from oven, invert (turn upside down) and leave to cool completely before removing cake from the tin.
