Soy Milk Chiffon Cake (Re-Post)

A reader experienced some problem with this recipe I posted so I wanted to do some experiment with it. I have been rather busy with work so thanks for bearing with me. It is quite difficult to explain without pictures so I decided not to reply via comments.

The original recipe which I posted earlier is as below.

Soy Milk Chiffon Cake (Yolk Free)
Ingredients
(A)
180g Unsweetened Soy Milk (I used Sobe)
30g Fine Sugar
1/4 tsp Salt
50g Corn Oil
1/2 Tsp Vanilla Essence

(B)
110g Cake flour
40g Soy Flour
1/2 tbsp Baking powder

*Sift

(C)
5 Egg Whites
50g Fine Sugar
1/2 Ttsp Cream of Tartar

Method
1) In a bowl, using hand whisk, whisk (A) till incorporated.

2) Add (B) and mix well.

3) In another bowl, using an electric mixer, beat till the whites are frothy. Add in Cream of Tartar and beat till soft peaks. Add in sugar gradually and beat till stiff peaks.

4) Fold in 1/3 of the whites into the mixture using a rubber spatula till incorporated. Pour the mixture to the remaining egg whites and fold in gently till incorporated.

5)Pour into a 21 cm chiffon tube pan. Level the batter with a spatula. Bang the pan on the table to get rid of bubbles.

6) Oil a piece of aluminium foil and cover the pan loosely. Bake at 170 deg.C for 10mins.

7) Turn down the temperature to 160 deg.C and bake for 20mins.

8) Reduce the temperature to 150 deg.C and bake for 10mins. Insert a skewer to check if the cake is done. Remove the foil and bake for another 5 to 10mins to brown the surface.

9) Remove from the oven and invert the pan. Remove the cake from pan when it's completely cooled.

*Note : Mixture (A) will be heavier than your regular egg yolk batter. This is normal due to the extra soy flour used.

**Note : Perhaps I should just replace some of the cake flour with soy flour (toying with idea of 90g cake flour and 30g soy flour) to get a lighter cake. Disregard the yolks entirely and stick to 140g of soy milk.

Below are the correspondence between Hwee Choon and me.

*Quote*
Anonymous said...
Hi Rei

I tried to follow your recipe today but unfortunately the cake turned out to be too dry.

It was already too dry when i tried to mix Group A and Group B ingredients together, even when I have added 200g of Soy Milk instead of 180g. I tried adding another 30g of soy milk but the cake turned out to be too dry. The only difference from your recipe is that I used 150g of cake flour instead of 110g of cake flour and 40g of soy flour.

Also I noticed there is also a harden layer at the top of the cake which I have nvr come across when i bake other favour chiffon cake.

Appreciate if you can advise.

Thanks
Hwee Choon

April 7, 2010 12:04 AM

Rei said...
Hi Hwee Choon, first I need to determine if you are the recipe without egg yolk or with egg yolks. Next, when I tweaked the recipe, I have taken soy flour's water absorption into consideration. Thus, amount of soy flour should not be substituted directly with cake flour. Should you use 150g of cake flour, you would need an additional egg to support the cake structure. Substituting egg yolk can be quite tricky as it contains water and fats.

I would like to know if you have added corn oil on top of the 230g of soy milk. Assuming you added these 2 liquids, your hydration ratio is about 53.6%, which will result in a very moist cake. It shouldn't be dry.

The top layer you were refering to is after being inverted?

April 7, 2010 9:29 AM

Anonymous said...
HI Rei

Thanks for the quick response.

Initially For group A, I used 200g soy milk, 30g castor sugar, 50g corn oil and 1/2 tsp vanilla essence. For group B, I used 150g Cake flour and 1/2tbsp baking powder. No yolk was used. When I added the flour into group A, the consistency of the patter was very "solid" as in it's not as liquid as the patter I always have when baking chiffon cake. And I dont think it's possible to fold in the egg white to the mixture. So I added in another 30g of soy milk.

230g of soy milk is excluding the 50g of corn oil.

The top layer is before the cake is being inverted as in the side that is direct contact with the heat and not the cake pan.

April 8, 2010 2:03 AM

Anonymous said...
Hi Rei

By the way, I did not say that 230gm of soy milk is too dry. What I meant was, your recipe of 180gm of soy milk is too dry after adding the flour. And if I read correctly, your recipe did not include any egg yolks and I did not mention that I added any egg yolks.

Hope this is clear for you.

Thanks and regard
Hwee Choon
*Unquote*

Experiment 1
As mentioned in my comments, I do not encourage direct subsitution of soy flour with cake flour. The water absorption between the 2 flours is different. Below is how the batter would look like based on Hwee Choon's direct substitution. 150g cake flour + 180g soy milk + 50g oil.


















It is slightly thicker than the normal chiffon cake yolk batter, which was mentioned in my earlier post. But it doesn't look solid to me. Hydration ratio is 65.22%

Experiment 2
Soy milk was increased to 200g. Oil remains at 50g. Batter looks smoother, presents ribbon stage when whisk is lfted. Hydration ratio is 60%



















Experiment 3
Soy milk was incresed to 230g and oil remains at 50g. Batter falls easily from whisk. Hydration ratio is 53.57%


















I would suggest that the hydration ratio stays within the 60 to 68 percentage. Too much liquid might hinder the cake from rising as the cake cannot support its own structure.

2 Years

It's been 2 years of blogging. Beginning of this year, I made plans to organise a luck draw for the readers. However, due to several unexpected turn of events, I had to shelf the idea. It's way past anniversary now but, who cares? Ahah~~ I will make the announcement once I am ready. It is my way of saying thank-you to the readers, especially those who bothered to come back for updates.

Beginning of Year 2010, I didn't have time to reflect, no time to make any resolutions. But looking back, 2009 had been a good year though not all smooth sailing. I was doing some spring cleaning of my draft folder and found a few drafts with pictures uploaded but no words. I may have long forgotten how I felt after I finished decorating the cake but each picture brings back bits and pieces of memory. I compiled them together and post them here. And thank you all mommies for placing orders with me again this year.

Kingfisher

This is a much delayed post. I had planned to post it last December but was too caught up with things that it got lost in the draft folder. Every once in a while, a special request will come up that you don't have the heart to say no to it. This cake was it. I'm not exactly a bird loving person. I'm actually a cat person. I don't mind mice, snakes or dogs. In fact I love big dogs. I once wanted to adopt a Malamute but I didn't have enough space for him to run around. Mice are rather smart and I find snakes intriguing. Cats, I love them for their grace and independence. Okay, I digressed. As you might have noticed, most of my cakes were for kids, well, except for mahjong cakes. After doing some repetitive work, I welcome a break from it.























This cake was for a bird watching hubby from a loving wife. The reason I did not delete this post as I would love to share the beauty of this bird captured by his excellent photography. She needed a small cake as her hubby wasn't a cake person. I usually don't accept orders under 1 kg but I was really interested when she mentioned 'Kingfisher'. When I received the picture, I was mesmerised by its beauty. If only I could capture half of its glory on the cake. My camera phone couldn't capture the 'feathers' and the shimmer on its head. I was kind of frustrated from trying and finally gave up. Maybe I should take up photography lessons.

Meantime, enjoy the work of nature.