Going Bananas!

This was the cake I mentioned I made last Saturday. After CNY, prayers, offerings and everything, my mom had lots of bananas left. So, she passed some to me. In return, I baked her a Banana Chiffon cake. Not too bad a deal ya.. :)

Prior to this, I have been experimenting with other Banana Chiffon reipes with my new oven. It has been rather frustrating as I couldn't get the right texture. I did not encounter any problem with Orange or Pandan Chiffon with my old conventional oven. But I have not tried baking a Banana Chiffon before. My first Banana Chiffon cake was too wet. I blamed myself being inexperienced with a convection oven.

After speaking to Gina (KC) on MSN, I got an idea how I should go about for the temperature control. After my 2nd attempt, it dawned to me that the recipe wasn't right. Thus, after much tweaking, I present you my 3rd attempt. Being very happy with the results, I went on to bake another. ^_^

A cross-section look of the cake. Fluffy~~


Ingredients
(A)
4 egg yolks
40g castor sugar
1/4 tsp salt
50g corn oil
130g mashed bananas

(B)
120g Cake flour
1/2 tbsp Baking powder
1/8 tsp Baking soda

*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 mashed bananas. 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. The surface will feel abit wet but it will be dry after exposing to the air.

*Note : You can replace corn oil with other odourless vegetable oil. Try not to use butter.

**Note : I am using a convection oven with fan which I cannot turn off. I didn't preheat the oven. If you are using a convention oven, it might be more straight forward. Try baking at 170 to 180 deg.C for 40 to 45mins, you will need to preheat the oven.

***Note : According to my mom, a good chiffon cake should spring back after cutting or pressing, moist but not wet.

Happy baking~ じゃね。