Almond Longan Chiffon Cake

Have been seeing Daring Bakers/Cooks off foodie websites like foodgawker.com, so am pretty excited to be submitting this post to Small Small Baker's Aspiring Bakers #1: Chiffon Cakes (Nov 2010)!

Baking chiffon really tests my patience. Have been lucky enough to have successful bakes when I first started out, until recently. I get funny shaped chiffons due them falling off the tin during cooling, they end up looking so funny that my mom and sister can't help but to laugh out loud when they see the odd looking chiffons. I'm going to call them my haha-chiffons, since they don't look tall and fluffy like good chiffons are, they serve the purpose of amusing people. Gonna consolidate a gallery of my haha-chiffons and baking bloopers when I find the time hurhur.

After a few consecutive fail chiffon bakes, finally got a proper one! Thankfully this one worked, else I'm going to be really demoralised. The usual light fluffy cottony texture wins hands down. Refreshing longan backed with an almond under-note. I have no problem distributing my calories, this one's pretty popular over here. On a side note, think I'll take a break from baking chiffons after this month, these cheeky temperamental bakes are a little too much for me to take.

Almond Longan Chiffon Cake (modified from Keiko Ishida's Okashi)

Ingredients:
80g cake flour
5 egg yolks
20g caster sugar
60g water
60g canola oil
1/2 tsp longan flavoring
1 tsp pure almond extract

180g egg whites (about 5 eggs, mine was 195g)
90g caster sugar
10g corn flour

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 160°C
2. Sift flour twice
3. Beat egg yolks and sugar until well mixed
4. Add water, canola oil, longan flavoring and almond extract to the yolk mixture and blend well
5. Add flour mixture to yolk mixture until the batter becomes sticky
6. Combine sugar and corn flour in a separate bowl
7. Beat egg whites until frothy and add half of the sugar mixture, and continue to beat
8. Slowly add in the rest of the sugar mixture and beat until egg white stiff peaks and is glossy but not dry
9. Add one third of the meringue into yolk mixture and fold in lightly
10. Pour in rest of the meringue and fold until well combined
11. Pour the batter into a 20-cm chiffon tin and bake for 40 mins
12. Invert the chiffon tin on a wire rack and let it cool for 2h before releasing the cake for serving