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Monday, March 10, 2008

Lemon Yoghurt Cranberries Chiffon Cake

I'm pretty sure few can resist the citrusy smell of lemons. I know I can't. So when I saw those yellow little dears sitting there, beckoning to me, it's hard to say no. I have read reviews on infusing yoghurt in cakes, I wanted to try it out myself. I do not like dense cakes, so I thought I will try it out using a chiffon cake recipe. I think 1 particular thing about chiffon cake besides the common egg white and folding in problem; is that you have to find the balance of the ingredients. As the yoghurt I bought was rather thick, I used the lemon juice to adjust the consistency.

Along the way, I remembered how good it tasted when I mixed yoghurt with cereal and cranberry. So, in goes the cranberries too. Hence, in 1 cake, I infused 3 flavours which I adore. The kitchen smelled lovely during baking. Below is the result of my experiment. I am extremely fortunate to get this right for my 1st attempt.

Lemon Yoghurt Cranberries Chiffon
Here today.. Gone tomorrow.. 1 slice is never enough.. eheheh... *secretly happy with myself*

On the side note; it does get on my nerves when people asked the obvious. When idiot husband got a whiff of the cake when it was in the oven baking, he asked, 'Are you baking something?'. When I took the cake out, invert it to cool, he asked, 'You bake cake ah?'. Even as he sliced the cake to eat, he dared ask, 'You bake one huh?'. For the 1st 2 questions, he only suffered my silence, I refused to entertain any silly questions. It's the 3rd that blew my fuse, 'No! It just suddenly appeared in the kitchen!'. #%^&@?!! Anyways, here's the recipe.

Lemon Yoghurt Cranberries Chiffon Cake
Ingredients
(A)
4 egg yolks
40g castor sugar
1/4 tsp salt
40g corn oil
120g plain yoghurt
2 tbsp lemon juice
80g dried cranberries (I used Craisins, Ocean Spray)
zest of 1 lemon

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

*Sift 2x

(C)
5 egg whites
50g 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 yoghurt, lemon zest and lemon juice. Stir well.

3) Fold in sifted flour, cranberries 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.

*Note : For convention oven, preheat and bake at 170 to 180 deg.C for 40 to 45mins.

**Note : Goes very well with a cup of Earl Grey or English Breakfast Tea.

Do give it a try. I promise it won't disappoint. ^_^

Happy baking~ and may you be spared of silly questions.
それじゃ~~

25 comments:

KWF said...

Rei, I was laughing away as I read your side notes!

anyway, lovely cake you've got there. I always love cranberry with yogurt, especially berry yogurt. But too bad, I won't have the guts to attempt this cake given my 3 prior failure in chiffon. :(

Yuri said...

Hey rei, beautiful chiffon cake! I haven't the guts to bake this yet after failing the cotton sponge cake. Not sure if I should go to Gina's chiffon class on 22 march as I'm not sure if I'm read to try chiffon yet. Btw, I like cranberries and yogurt, but I love blueberries and yogurt better :)

Rei said...

Hi WF, he can really get on my nerves sometimes. Maybe it's time to get yourself a new oven? I have 2 actually, my old 1 is very tiny can only bake 16 cookies at a time. The other 1 is 42L. Hint to your Anata lah. Ahahah.. :D

Hi Yuri, thanks for the compliment. You have to keep trying, don't give up. I didn't get my 1st chiffon cake right too. It's through practising. For me, I am able to visualise by reading the recipes and asking my mom or aunt (maybe bcoz I read manga too much). But if you need someone to diagnose your problem, I think it's best to go to Gina's class. Ask WF, she knows best. :)

regards
Rei

Amrita said...

Looks fantastic! Most chiffon cakes tend to be and even LOOK dry, but yours looks really really moist!

KWF said...

rei, I already have 2 ovens. One is a very small one which I use for cooking. The other one (20L) is given to me by my ex-colleagues. Am thinking whether to have a built-in oven if I renovate my kitchen later this year.

Yuri said...

Hey Rei, thanks for the encouragement. I think I will go for Gina's chiffon class on 22 mar. Saw her at kino just now. Btw, I tried your warabi mochi, no QQ at all *sob*

Rei said...

Thanks Amrita.. ^_^

Ahaha.. Yuri, no worries.. How come no QQ?? Never mind, if you confirm attend the class on 22 Mar, I pop by and pass you some before class. I live nearby there only, very convenient. you want.. you want?? on huh?? :D

Simonne said...

rei,
can i ask what size of tube pan u using?

I didn't know that chiffon cake need so much work on adjusting the baking temp and time..wow you got the patience!

Rei said...

Hi sukkimi, I am using a 21cm tube pan. I am experimenting with a new oven, that's why I adjusted the temperature so. It worked for me but every oven varies. When I used my other conventional oven, it's more straight forward. It's not that I'm patient. On the contrary, I am a very impatient person. But I just can't stand my efforts to go to waste during the final stage. Ahahah.. :D

Carrie said...

Hi Rei,

Is it ok that I whip the egg whites with same amount of icing sugar instead of caster sugar? Will it affect the texture of this chiffon cake? Please advice, thanks!


Cheerios,
Carrie

Rei said...

Carrie : Hi, using same amount of icing sugar will be slightly less sweet. However, it is to be noted that icing sugar has cornstarch added to it. Cornstarch can help abosrb and hold liquid content. Some recipes actually added cornstarch to stabilise the cake. I have not used icing sugar with chiffon cake recipes so I am unable to advise you of the texture.

Carrie said...

Oic.. Okie, thanks Rei, I will definitely try this recipe as soon as i got the ingredients ready, thankies!!

Cheerios,
Carrie

Blessed Homemaker said...

I just finished baking this. I like the sweet and sourish taste of the cake but all my cranberries sank to the bottom (ie top when inverted) :(

Will update pics in my blog.

Anonymous said...

Hi Rei

Your chiffon cakes look so nice! would like to try this one, but have a couple of questions, first, i am using a 20 cm tube pan. is that okay? also, i noticed you usually use 5 egg white and 4 yolks. may i know what is the size of egg you used and what do u do with the one extra yolk? another thing, do u happen to know what causes the chiffon cake to be dry in texture? tks
octopusmum

Blessed Homemaker said...

Hi Rei,
I baked this again using strawberry yogurt instead. It's a success! Thanks again for sharing this wonderful recipe! It's a keeper!

Rei said...

Reena : Glad you liked it. It's my favourite too!

Octopusmum : For a 20cm tube pan, you can just use 4 egg whites. The eggs I use is usually 60g with shell.

For the leftover yolk, I add about 1-1/2tsp water to it and freeze it. Comes in handy when you need egg wash. Sometimes when I make ice cream, I will freeze the extra egg whites to be used for chiffon cakes later.

When the cake texture is dry, you might want to check the ratio of flour and liquid. If it is 1 : 1, usually the cake texture is drier and sturdier. Please go through my tips post for clearer explanation.

Anonymous said...

Hi Rei

thks for the reply:) if i use 4 egg white, does it mean i have to use 3 egg yolk for a 20 cm pan? also, for a 21 cm pan, if i use eggs that are 70 g with shell, can i use 4 egg yolk and 4 whites and same qty for all other ingredients to make this cake? tks octopusmum

Rei said...

Octopusmum : You can just use 4 yolks and 4 whites. Weight of the eggs will not be a big issue.

Blessed Homemaker said...

octopusmum
I use the extra yolk to wash my hair :P

Rei,
I made this again! Can you believe I made this 3 times within 2 weeks?! I'm addicted to this cake! Bwahahaha..!! Thanks again for this wonderful recipe! I'm so in love with it!

Anonymous said...

HI Rei

going to attempt this cake, tomorrow, finally... would like to ask, should the yoghurt be at room temp? also, where did you buy the crasins from oceanspray? i went to ntuc and cold storage but couldn;t find this brand, ended up buying the Harvest brand from NTUC. need to soak the cranberries in the yoghurt first?
thks
regards
octopusmum

Rei said...

Octopusmum : Oh dear, am terribly sorry for the late reply. Yoghurt temperature didn't matter much and there is no need to soak the cranberries first unless they are very dry.

Anonymous said...

HI Rei

no worries:) i did the opposite ie soaked the cranberries in the yoghurt at room temp... btw, may i know what is the texture of this cake? mine turned out to be rather dry. is it supposed to be like that? also, i added a little bit more lemon juice (think about 0.5 teaspoon more) and found it a bit too sourish...will stick to the qty in the recipe if i make it again..
regards
octopusmum

Carrie said...

Hi Rei,

I've tried this recipe today! Indeed it taste awesome! I particularly like the refreshing fragrant of the lemon!

Tho I made quite a bit of changes, but I still manage to yield a moist, fluffy yummy cake!

Changes Made:
- 6 egg whites
- 135g flour(s) (Top flour + cake flour
- 1 tsp lemon paste

Thanks for sharing!


Cheerios!

Anonymous said...

hihi, first thanks for sharing. May I ask if the coventional oven is the same as those home build in oven? If yes, should I just baked them at 170-180 degree for 40-45 min without having to adjust the temperature mention??

Ean said...

I have problem to control my oven temperature, can i just stick it to 160degree for the whole baking ? for my oven it is always too hot, so to bake cake normally i only turn on the bottom electric bar and not for the top one.