a breakthrough!

I have always heard about how difficult is to bake a chiffon and have to agree it isn't easy at all! This is actually my second attempt at a chiffon cake. I tried a pandan chiffon cake just yesterday and it was a total flop. The possible disasters just kinda happened all in one attempt. The sides caved in, making it look like some "hour glass" cake, the bottom was wet and oily, liquid oozed out while it was cooling, it shranked like crazy after i got it out other oven and sigh..it was SO disappointing i didn't even bother to try taking pictures.

No high hopes today, just hoping it holds it structure, no caving in and no rapid shrinking. Thought of making a orange chiffon instead as i didn't wanna go through the trouble of preparing the pandan juice and ended up with a cake in the bin. A slight accident still happened while unmoulding the cake. I forgot to loosen the middle core and eagerly loosened the bottom and the bottom (which is now the top) kinda got teared off. I managed the picture when i carefully removed the torn portion and placed it over the "crater".

I would definitely have to work on it and improve. The texture of the cake is great and so is the flavour =) subtle yet present and gives of a light refreshing taste. Definitely very citrus-y!

However, much have to be done in perfecting it's outlook and making sure this wasn't a i-just-got-lucky attempt =p

Got the recipe from Rei who provided a SUPER good and detailed write up on chiffon cakes and trouble-shooting chiffon-related problems.

Orange Chiffon Cake

Ingredients

(A)
4 egg yolks
30g castor sugar
1/4 tsp salt40g corn oil
140g orange juice
Zest of 1 orange

(B)
120g Cake flour
1/2 tbsp Baking powder

*Sift 2x

(C)
5 egg whites
40g castor sugar
1/2 tsp Cream of Tartar

Method

1) In a bowl, using hand whisk, whisk yolks and sugar till sugar dissolves.
2) Add oil and salt, whisk and add orange juice and zest. Stir well.
3) Fold in sifted flour and mix well.
4) In another bowl, using an electric mixer, beat till the whites are frothy. Add in Cream of Tartar and beat till soft peaks.
5) Add in sugar gradually and beat till stiff peaks.
6) Fold in 1/3 of the whites into the yolk mixture using a rubber spatula till incorporated.
7) Pour the mixture to the remaining egg whites and fold in gently till incorporated.
8) Pour the batter into a 21cm chiffon tube pan. Bang the pan on the table to get rid of bubbles.
9) Oil a piece of aluminium foil and cover the pan loosely. Bake at 170 deg.C for 10mins.
10) Turn down the temperature to 160 deg.C and bake for 10mins. Lift up the foil to check the surface of cake, bake for another 10mins.
11) Insert a skewer to check if cake is done. Remove the foil and reduce the temperature to 150 deg.C and bake for a further 5 to 10mins to brown the surface.
12) Remove from the oven and invert the pan. Remove the cake from pan when it's completely cooled.

adapted from Rei

*Rei mentioned that she's using an oven which the fan cannot be turned off. I did not follow her baking instructions/timing. I baked at 170C for 50 min.
*i did not check the doneness with a skewer. (for the fear that open and closing the oven causes large temperature fluctuations.

Do take a look at Rei's entries on chiffon tips they're really good!