The other day someone came up to me and asked “is chiffon cake very hard to make ahh?”
Hmmm… now how do I answer that?
Well, if you asked me, I would say “No, it’s not really hard to bake chiffon cake… but if you want to bake a good one, the secret lies in having a great workable recipe and knowing the right methods”! My friend – GFAD, gave me her recipe as she’s been baking chiffon cakes for ages & is quite a pro at it! I started experimenting on her recipe a couple of months ago and tweaked it to my preference. For example, I added a teeny weeny bit more sugar into it ๐
Whisking up the egg whites and using the right method of folding that into the cake batter is very important. It’s a delicate procedure and if you screw that up, you can be sure your chiffon cake will not rise nicely or may end up having a lot of large “air holes” in the texture.
I find that, personally, there are only 2 flavours of chiffon cake that work well with me – orange or pandan. I use fresh natural ingredients in my cakes like freshly-squeezed orange juice, freshly-scraped zest and freshly blended pandan juice. You can’t go wrong when using fresh natural ingredients, really … the aromas and flavours are incredible.
As there’s no preservative involved, the chiffon cake needs to be consumed as soon as possible – within the day or at most, the next day, without refrigeration. I wouldn’t advise refrigerating the cake as it tends to dry it out and the natural flavours and aroma are lost. Refrigerating it for a short while is OK, I guess. Unlike fruit cakes or other heavier cakes, chiffon cakes are meant to be eaten fresh ๐
Anyway, I never had that problem because the cake is always gone within the day, haha!
Brings back many memories of my childhood when my mom used to bake this for us kids. Yummiest shade of green – an afternoon delight! ๐
LFB: Hehe I know this is a very old-fashioned cake, but Old is Gold!
why u write about cake then you don’t let us try?! Your banana cake was superb.. let us try the chiffon! LOL ๐
I think my Angkoo Sifu would love for us to try her pandan chiffon cake – except her ravenous colleagues got to it first! *muahahaha*
LFB: Ya lor – how u know ahh? All gone already!
Ciki: All in good time, my dear ๐
Hardly a pro lah, dear PG. Still learning as I’m still experimenting with different recipes. I even saw one that requires whisking the yolk-mix over hot water for even more volume! And you know, there are so many variations of texture – from billowy soft-as-air to bouncy slightly-denser-but-still-soft, one flavor can produce so many different cakes! I love making chiffon cakes as they are so easy to whip up but the washing of the mould! Ugh!! ๐
Your texture looks fantastic! Looks really fine and soft. You’re right about the whites. Most people I know either over or under whisk the whites. Over-whisk, you have difficulty mixing the stiff whites with the yolk-mix and end up with streaks of white in the cake. Under-whisk, you don’t the get the volume and end up with a dense cake. Even worse, the cake may inflate when baking but deflates upon cooling and you find two distinct layers of cake with a dense one at the bottom of the cake.
I’m still trying to find one with the right number of eggs for my pan to produce a tall cake. Have a go at this: ( http://ieatishootipost.sg/2010/05/how-to-make-pandan-chiffon-cake-almost.html ) The 6yolk-9white recipe produced a fantastic cake which did not shrink at all. Unfortunately it is beyond my little handmixer (had difficulty whisking 9 whites), so I don’t think I will be doing it again unless I have a stand mixer.
GFAD: I’m sure everyone appreciates all your tips here – thank u! Soak the mould in water to soften the remnants, then it’s very easy to clean. You are so right – the eggwhites will make or break the cake, lol! Thanks for the link to the 6y-9w recipe but I like my present 5-egg recipe – it works like a dream. And no yolk or whites left over ๐ The height is just nice too, using a 22cm mould.
but but where is the recipe!?? was looking fwd to it!
Joe: Hehe, I can email u the recipe if u like… or u can try the one above linked by GFAD ๐
yummy! … so make sure you have one waiting when i land on apr 26 ๐
argh, i was so confident you had posted the recipe when i glanced at your blog post this afternoon, and got all the stuff, came home, opened your post, and ARGHHHH, no instructions at all! chis!