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Friday, March 28, 2008

Orange Chiffon Cake

Orange chiffon cake
Made this Orange Chiffon Cake last week for my helper, Grace, to share with her sisters on her off day. It's one of the ways of showing my appreciation for her hard work. To be very honest, she's not the best helper. There are times when she slacks (don't we all?), there are some corners of the house unswept. She scratches and abuses my non-stick pan. She forgets to check the pockets and the whole load of clothes have 'snowflakes' on them. There are times when she's more blur than sotong and times when I nearly lost my temper and patience with her. However, she loves my children and takes care of them really well. Compared to the previous helpers I had, she's so much better.

Being a full time working mom is not easy. My work requires me to clock long hours and on some occasions, I have to go to work even on weekends or Public holidays. When I was single, I wouldn't mind and was quite used to it. But with children, I do feel guilty not spending time with them. It is not to say that it is alright for my colleague who is single, to work on weekends or Public holidays. That would be unfair to her too. My point is; Grace made it possible for me to go to work with a peace of mind, knowing that the children are in good hands. She will help me check on Ah Girl's behaviour and alert me if she gets out of hand. Under her care, Ah Boy did not experience any colic, which I was very grateful for. We will talk about our marital problems and share our sorrows. She's family. She made it possible for me to pursue my interest in cooking/baking. Besides, whenever I try out something new, she is more excited about the outcome than me.

Grace prefers anything that is citrusy to chocolate, thus she requested an orange or lemon cake. This cake was well received and gone within minutes (not sure if she exaggerated). It's a very simple cake, nothing special but I would like to share it with you.

Orange Chiffon Cake
Ingredients
(A)

4 egg yolks
30g castor sugar
1/4 tsp salt
40g 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.

Happy baking~ それじゃ~~

19 comments:

Anonymous said...

i'm going to try this out later. can i check if the chiffon tin needs to be lined with baking paper at the base/side? i'm really bad at making chiffon cakes...hope i'll succeed with your recipe =) thanks for sharing! - cookingmonster

Rei said...

Hi, is this Tania? You do not need to line the cake tin at all. Although I do know some will line the base. Don't grease the tin too, the batter need to 'climb and cling' onto the tin to get the height. Be gentle when folding the whites and remember to get it to stiff peaks. Do try and keep me posted, k? :)

Anonymous said...

thanks for the quick response! ok, will heed your advice. will let you know again if it's a success or big flop =P - cookingmonster (TANIA)

KWF said...

rei, your chiffon looks so good! Chiffon is my "Si3 Xue4", can never get it done right with my oven. :(

Rei said...

WF, I am tempting you... you don't know meh? hiak hiak hiak~~ *run away and hide*

Unknown said...

Hi Rei
Nice cake you have! Your words are timely reminders. Hmm...I must learn from you, to appreciate my helper more.

Quinn said...

Hi there,
If I do not grease the sides and bottoms and do not line any of them, wouldn't the cake stick to the tin when I try to unmould them?
Also, how bout if I just line the bottom and sides without greasing for easy removal later?
If I do that. when I invert the cake to cool, then teh cake will drop out wouldn't it?
I'm sorry I'm really terrible when it comes to baking chiffon cake
Please advise, I'm drooling over the photos now....

Rei said...

Hi Quinn, thanks for dropping by! The idea of not greasing the tin is help the cake to rise to its height. Chiffon cake's flour/liquid ratio is about 2 : 3. If you grease the pan, the cake will collapse in its own weight. I don't see any problems in lining the bottom but would advise against lining the sides. Like you said, the cake will slip out of the pan. The way to remove the cake is to run a sharp knife along the sides. Some pointers to keep in mind for baking chiffon cakes.

1) Make sure the whites are whisked till stiff peak. Overturn the bowl and the whites doesn't slide off the bowl.

2) Fold 1/3 of whites to the yolk batter to 'lighten up' the batter. Then pour the yolk batter into the letover whites.

3) Fold carefully but decisively. Light-handed but quick. Do not press the batter.

4) Do not underbake the cake. The cake will collapse and will slide out of the tin when overturned.

HTH. Do try out and let me know. All the best! :)

Anonymous said...

Wow chiffon cake very chim. Got a mix feeling as to trying to bake one myself - to try or not. With your sharing i'm so tempted to give it a shot. Definitely you're very encouraging

Anonymous said...

Hi Rei, in your earlier comment you mentioned that the egg yolk batter is poured to the leftover egg white - 1. Will this deflate the egg white? I have always read that we should add heavier batter to the egg white not the other way round so I have never tried adding the yolk mixture to the whites. But if this method will help me produce successful chiffon I will have no fear! 2. When you pour the yolk mixture to the egg white, will using whisk to stir to combine the mixture affect the texture of cake, rather than the "fold" method? I find "folding" is an elusive description. Do you think you could kindly, when have free time, record the method of folding egg white into the batter and post on your blog? I have no doubt many, many, many inexperience bakers would appreciate as this is the single major killer part for newbies in the world of baking. A lot of time it's not that the recipe doesn't work but the method used. If one could master the beating of egg white to the right consistency and folding of mixtures I'm sure many of us out there would minimise the waste of ingredients and also our dear family members who have no choice but to lovingly swallow our end product despite the imminent massive weight gain in short span of time due to our persistent trial and error attempts! Haha :-) I think if I write more I could produce a novel liao. In anyway, thanks for your time and thank you for such a wonderful blog you have :-) Best regards, Chris

Rei said...

Chris : Thank you for visiting and your compliments. About your comments about pouring the yolk batter into the remaining egg whites, no, it will not deflate the egg whites too much. Remember, you have already lightened the yolk batter with 1/3 of the egg whites. :D

About folding, I have mentioned in here http://allthatmatters2rei.blogspot.com/2008/07/chiffon-cake-tips-and-trouble-ii.html. The action is slipping your spatula to the bottom of the bowl and scooping the whites up and turn your spatula as you go along. I hold my spatula like '-' (blade horizontal), and cut through the batter while I mix. I hope you know what I mean. As for the video, I'll need to find time and my helper to help me film it. Ahaha. Meanwhile, good luck on your trials!

Anonymous said...

Hello Rei!
The write-up on chiffon cake tips you have posted had put many famous baking book authors out there in the market to shame, lots of shame. None of them had done this for their readers who part with their money to buy their book.
Thank you Rei for your generosity, for your precious time to post this useful information, available free to all baking enthusiasts like me. You have revived my confidence in trying out chiffon cake again! Thank you again! Will still look forward to the video one fine day :-) Best rgds, Chris

Rei said...

Chris : Many thanks to your compliments, I'm really flattered. I had my fair share of chiffon cakes that were unsuccessful so I thought it would be good if the tips helped.

Unknown said...

hi - i wonder if i can replace cake flour with self raising flour?? I have attempted once, but failed. it deflated as soon as i pulled it out of the oven..

Rei said...

Joyce : It is alright to use self raising flour, just omit the baking powder. I use self raising flour for chiffon cakes when I run out of cake flour. There are couple of reasons why the cake deflates. Please see the tips I have put up. :)

Anonymous said...

Hi, I am new in baking. Have not made any Chiffon cakes before. Would like to try to bake this orange chiffon cake. Just wonder the sugar under Ingredients (A) is only 30g. Will the cake be sweet enough? Waiting for your reply. Thanks, Lam

Anonymous said...

Hi Rei,

I made this yesterday and followed exactly the same as the recipe. Everything was fine, just the matter that the cake didn't turn out as soft as expected. Any idea what's the possible reason of it?

Anonymous said...

hello just new to ur site..I love ur site because its very very informnativE!! can u share with me the recipe for plain chiffon cake? u know i had a terible experience with baking chiffon.i failed when i bake on round/square pan. do help me on how to with using round n square not tube pan because i use to bake bday cakes..thank u so much and waiting for ur reply..

Anonymous said...

hello may I ask what kind of oven did u used because why put aluminum foil on top?for me,my oven is gas range..does it need to put aluminum foil?
and how many grams of sugar to increase because i want sweet chiffon.thank u and waiting for ur respond..