Orange Chiffon Cake II

Bookstores are like my new hangout. Poor boyfriend has to stand with me, entertaining himself for the first half an hour by looking at pictures on the cover pages, then start groaning that I'm walking in circles around the same bookshelves hehe.

So recently on one of these eventful Fridays, I saw this lady meticulously checking out then finally pulled out one of the baking books I owned and decided to make it her own. I made a casual remark, 'I have that book, the brownies is good.' Her eyes lit up and she was like, 'Really?! Are they the fudgy or cakey kind?' Then we started chatting about our favorite books, like how Dorie Greenspan's one is good, and how every cake from Rose Levy Beranbaum turns out fabulous. She recommended me a few books which I had already coincidentally chucked them in my Amazon.com wishlist. Now I'm so getting them. And I told her Sur La Table's The Art & Soul of Baking is one of the two favorite baking books (The other one being Dorie Greenspan's Baking: From My Home to Yours), and she swiftly took that book off the shelf and told me she's getting it because she trusts me. Before she left, she passed me a couple of 25% discounts off books. Wow. What an awesome lady.

Heh heh. Enough of the chattering, was too excited about the encounter. Anyway, wasn't too happy with my first attempt of orange chiffon cake, so decided to give it another shot. Added a bit more flour to give it more structure, feels like buying more insurance in this case haha.

Thankfully the cake turns out well. No falling off the tin (yay!...and finally) and the incredible thing is, I inverted it and left it uncovered for >12h in the kitchen as I had to rush out for my company's D&D, and by the time I reached home at 3am, it was still moist and fluffy! The orange taste is subtle though, barely noticeable if I did not mention that it's supposedly an orange chiffon cake. Since I can't add more juice to it, orange zest it shall be. More orange zest...more!!

Am submitting my second chiffon entry to Small Small Baker's Aspiring Bakers #1: Chiffon Cakes (Nov 2010). :)

Orange Chiffon Cake (modified from Keiko Ishida's Okashi)

Ingredients:
90g cake flour
5 egg yolks
20g caster sugar
70g orange juice, room temperature (I squeezed fresh orange juice)
50g canola oil
1 tsp of Grand Marnier
orange zest

180g egg whites (mine was 214g)
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 orange juice, canola oil, Grand Marnier and orange zest 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 mixture and fold until well combined
11. Pour the batter into 20cm chiffon tin and bake for 40-50 mins
12. Invert the chiffon tin on a wire rack and let it cool for 2h before releasing the cake for serving