"The" Cake

Lot's of people tell me that it's not easy to bake a chiffon cake, in fact, it's "the"cake, that if you master, you could basically pass as a cake baker. I didn't took those saying seriously of course, what could be so difficult? Chiffon cake is just ordinary and cheap cake that you can easily buy from Aisan shop!! SO, i decided to give this cake a try, and search high and low in the internet for a good recipe, and finally, after reading extensively on how to succeed in chiffon cake baking, i'm ready to bake.
However, it's very diffrent when you experiance it first hand in baking this cake than you do the reading. My first chiffon rise beutifully in the oven, but when i took it out, it sank horribly!!
My second chiffon cake turn out nicely, and i faild to get it out!! SO, i blame the cake tin because i dun really have a chiffon cake tin. I'm desperate to find a chiffon tin and try again. SO, i bought it in e-bay, for about $15 dollar. at the mean time, i read again more information about chiffon cake baking, and i find out that the hardest part is actually the beating of the egg whites part. If you beat for too short, the cake will be desse, but if you beat for too long, it'll be tough and chewy, you have to beat it just right! ( ie: Stiff peak, but when you invert it on the hook, it'll still make a curve shaped). Another tip is also when you fold in the batter with the egg white, must be carefull to use a folding technique, so that the air in the egg white will not escape, resulting in a tough cake. If you can manage these 2, then you'll have soft, cottony chiffon cake, that rise beutifully.
2 weeks later, my chiffon cake tin arrive, and i can't wait till the next day to bake it, and this time, i really put more efford into beating my egg whites and folding the yolk to the white mixture. also, i put in extra patience for the cake to cool down before i loosen them out from the tin. Hence, my first chiffon cake was born at 12 am midnight!! yes, it was soft, cottony and rise so tall and proudly!

Pandan Chiffon Cake

Ingrediant:

• 100g cake flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1tbsp pandan paste
• 100ml coconut milk
• 4 egg yolks
• 50ml corn oil ( i use conola oil)
• 5 egg whites
• 1/4 tsp cream of tartar
• 100g castor sugar
• pinch of salt

Method:

1. Preheat oven at 170 degree celcious.
2. Combine egg yolks, 50g sugar, oil, pandan paste, salt, and coconut milk together. Whisk them up using a electric mixer until all incoporated.
3. Sift cake flour and baking powder for at least 3 times, and then fold them into the yolk mixture.
4. In a clean bowl, beat egg whites and cream of tartar on high speed until foamy, gradually add 50g of sugar, continue beating until stiff. To check if egg white is ready, take the hook of the mixture out and invert it, if the egg whites attach to the book form a curve loope, but not falling down, it's ready.
5. Add 1/3 of the white into the yolk, to loosed the yolk. then, gradually fold the rest of the egg white into the yolk mixture. Fold until just combine.
   
6. Pour the batter into the ungrease chiffon cake tin ( 18cm ), and bake for 1 hour.
   
7. invert the cake immediately and leave it to cool for at least 2 hour in winter, and more in warmer weather. ( in hot weather, it is best leave it overnight to cool down completly)
8. Run a knife around the edge of the cake tin to loosed it, the cake should fall away easily.
   

I'm very happy with the result of my chiffon cake.


Soft Cottony texture


It's also very fragrance because of the pandan! Yamm!!



The cake rise high and tall.