I Cook~I Bake~I Live: Chiffon Cakes

I have been baking alot of chiffon cakes lately. It was disastrous for the first few times, either it did not rise beautifully or it was too dense. I agree with the saying Practise makes Perfect.. I saw from Culinary Kitchenette and those oh-so-beautiful chiffon and I must get it right!

The balance batter which was baked in cup - don't you just love the cupcake liner?

I have since tried twice baking chiffon and the result was almost-perfect! The look, texture and taste..love it! From the same FB group page, the ladies unmould their chiffon using bare-hands, I googled on how to do it and gave it a try.. it was surprisingly easier and the cake has lesser crumbs.

I swear by the recipe from Kevin Chai but do note on the number of eggs use as well as the size of your tube pan. I will try out the recipe from the book I bought recently from Eslite Taipei *after I get them translated*.

The recipe below is for Orange Chiffon Cake but you can replace the orange with any liquid of your choice. I've tried it with Coffee and Pineapple as well. :)

Orange Chiffon Cake (Kevin Chai)

Egg Yolk batter
7 egg yolks (65g with shell)
50g sugar* (I reduced it to 30g as the oranges that I used are sweet enough)
60ml orange juice* (I increased this to 75ml to give it more taste)
1/2 tsp salt
2 tbsp orange rind
4 tbsp cooking oil (I used corn oil, canola is fine too)
1 tsp orange flavor (optional, which I omitted)
110g self-raising flour
Drops of orange coloring (optional, which I omitted)

Egg White mixture
7 egg whites
1/2 tsp cream of tartar (I reduced to 1/4 tsp)
130g sugar* (I reduced it to 80g)

How?
- Preheat your oven to 170 degree.
- In a clean bowl, combine egg yolk, sugar, salt, orange juice, cooking oil and orange rind.
- Add in self-raising flour and mix until batter is formed. Set aside.
- In another clean bowl (I use some vinegar to remove oil and other residue from the bowl), beat egg whites with cream of tartar until soft peak form.
- Add sugar gradually (while beating) and beat until almost still peak. I took about 3 minutes from the above step to reach this stage.
- Fold in 1/3 of the egg whites to the egg yolk batter. Follow by the next 1/3 of the egg white. Mix well at each addition until all egg whites are well combined.
- Pour mixture into a 20-inch tube pan. Give it a few knock against the countertop.
- Bake the chiffon cake for 45 minutes - 60 minutes or until the cake skewer comes out clean.