Chiffon Cake Tips and Trouble

I took the opportunity of baking pandan chiffon cake to take a step by step picture for the process. I hope this will help those who are attempting to bake a chiffon cake for the first time. I will update this post again when I am ready for the problem part. Perhaps you would like to drop me a note about the problem you experienced during baking a chiffon cake. I will try my best to answer.

I am using this receipe. You will need 2 clean mixing bowls. Crack and separate the egg whites and egg yolks into respective bowls. You will find that chilled eggs are easier to separate than eggs at room temperature. However, during whisking, room temperature eggs will achieve stiff peak faster than chilled eggs.


1. Whisk 4 egg yolks with 30g of sugar till the sugar dissolves. The yolks will look pale.


2. Add corn oil, 40g.


3. Whisk to emulsify the yolk and oil.


4. Pour coconut milk and pandan juice mixture.


5. Whisk together.


6. Add sifted flour.


7. Stir well with whisk till there are no lumps. Take note and recognise the texture of the batter. It comes in handy when you want to substitute flavours. After adding flour, when you lift up the whisk, the marks will disappear in 3 counts. My handphone camera is too slow to capture this.


8. In another bowl, whisk the white till foamy.


9. Add sugar in 3 additions and whisk till soft peak. Notice the tip.


10. Add cream of tartar. It is a type of acid added to stabilise the whites.


11. Whisk the whites till stiff peak. Take note of the tip again, it shouldn't flop like the previous picture. The whites should look glossy, not foamy. If they look foamy and you see liquid at the bottom, you have overbeaten the whites. The egg whites have separated into protein and water.


12. The ultimate test of faith. Attempt at your own risk. If you have achieved stiff peak, the whites will not drop. From this step onwards, you will need to act fast. If the whites are left to stand, they will start to separate (lazy bums who dislikes standing) into water and protein.


13. Add a portion of whites (approx. by eye 1/3)


14. Fold in to lighten the yolk batter.


15. Pour in the yolk mixture into whites.


16. Fold in the batter in quick and swift strokes. Be light-handed. Be careful not to deflate the white. Slide the spatula into the bottom and scoop the whites up. This is the final battle batter.



17. If you are using a 4 yolks, 5 whites recipe and a 21cm tube pan like me, you can use the 2 dots at the side as a datum. The batter should fill up to the bottom of the 2 dots. Bang the pan on a flat surface to get rid of those big bubbles trapped in the batter during pouring. I did not take the picture of the cake in the oven because Ah Boy woke up for milk when the cake rise. If the folding is done correctly, the cake will rise to the same height as the centre tube. I need to tent the cake to avoid the top being burnt.


18. Overturn the pan to cool. Allow ample space below for air circulation.


19. The cake will deflate after cooling. The final height should be about the same as the tin or slightly more. Run a shape knife along the side of the pan and bottom to remove the cake.


20. Final product. Dig in.

Do not be afraid to attempt chiffon cakes. It is not as difficult as one would have thought. Once you grasp the basics, it is a breeze to make one. All you need is a little practise.

To be continued~~