Vanilla Bean Chiffon Cake

Officially declaring that I'm going on a diet. Gaining weight isn't such a good idea when you want to gain some of that lost confidence in life back.

Hello running! Byebye tummy!

On a side note, I'm honestly very touched by all the care and concern that my family and friends have shown for me during this period. Thinking about the little things they do makes me want to cry more than when I think about what I've lost. HA.

A relatively healthy bake to celebrate the self-declared-and-possibly-unsuccessful weight loss journey...Chiffon! Soft like pillows, and they literally melt in your mouth! A hot favorite among my mama and her auntie friends heehee.

Vanilla Bean Chiffon Cake (modified from Keiko Ishida's Okashi)
makes 4 10cm chiffon

Ingredients:
2 egg yolks
8g caster sugar
1/2 vanilla bean, split length wise and scraped for seeds (I use 1)
24g water
24g canola oil
32g cake flour

2 egg whites (weighed mine to be 81g)
36g caster sugar
4g corn flour

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 160°C. Sift flour twice
2. Place egg yolks and sugar in a bowl and beat well. Add water, canola oil, vanilla seeds and stir to incorporate. Add flour and mix well until the batter becomes sticky.
3. To make meringue, combine sugar and corn flour. Beat egg whites until foamy. Add half the sugar and continue beating for a few minutes, then add remaining sugar and beat until egg whites are glossy and stiff peaks form.
4. Add one-third of meringue into egg yolk mixture and fold in lightly, then add remaining meringue and fold to incorporate completely.
5. Pour batter into an ungreased chiffon cake tube pan. Bake for 20 mins.
6. When cake is done, remove from oven and turn it over, leaving it to cool.
7. Once cake has cooled completely, carefully run a knife or spatula around the sides of the cake to loosen it before inverting onto a wire rack.

Lemon Chiffon Cake

First of all I would like to thank Cosy Bake for giving me this award. Have received it before from Lena before, but this is like the Oscars, it's an honor to receive it more than once. Because of our participation in Chingay, Boyfriend and I were given 2 free tickets to go to the Flyer which expires in March. Since it's FOC and me being keen on a been-there-done-that kind of person, I was game. Alright, it had more to do with the fact that it was a freebie.

Bad ass luck. The day before our anticipated ride, I discovered that it's closed. Flyer's website claimed that it's closed for routine maintenance from 21 to 31 March. Sigh. I guess I had to postpone the idea of a perfect date being locked up in a capsule stranded in midair.

Guess what, today is National Lemon Chiffon Cake Day! A little celebration to offset the disappointment. A little lacking on the lemony fragrance, but still tangy enough. The usual cloud-like, melt in your mouth texture as per the chiffons I've made from this book. Have been chiffon-recipe hopping and I still find Keiko's recipes the most reliable and yields the lightest cakes. No wonder it's a popular book amongst home bakers.

Am submitting this entry to Aspiring Bakers #5: Fruity March (March 2011). Lemon Chiffon Cake (modified from Keiko Ishida's Okashi)
Ingredients:
90g cake flour
5 egg yolks
20g caster sugar
60g canola oil
50g water
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 lemon's zest

5 egg whites (weighed mine to be 194g)
90g caster sugar
10g corn flour

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 160°C. Sift flour twice
2. Place egg yolks and sugar in a bowl and beat well. Add water, canola oil, lemon juice and zest and stir to incorporate. Add flour and mix well until the batter becomes sticky.
3. To make meringue, combine sugar and corn flour. Beat egg whites until foamy. Add half the sugar and continue beating for a few minutes, then add remaining sugar and beat until egg whites are glossy and stiff peaks form.
4. Add one-third of meringue into egg yolk mixture and fold in lightly, then add remaining meringue and fold to incorporate completely.
5. Pour batter into an ungreased chiffon cake tube pan. Bake for 40 mins.
6. When cake is done, remove from oven and turn it over, leaving it to cool.
7. Once cake has cooled completely, carefully run a knife or spatula around the sides of the cake to loosen it before inverting onto a wire rack.

Coffee Chiffon Cake

I'm so going to dieeeee. Somehow all the recipes I've tried from Kevin Chai's book has failed so far...till now.

The failed chiffon...grrr...

Have seen other bloggers using his recipes and turning out fine. Seems like I'm the only one who kept tripping. Consulted ZY and we came to the conclusion - my eggs. My eggs are XXL in size thanks to my resourceful mom, each weighing from 65g to 75g. That explains why my chiffon cakes has been adhering to Newton's Law. Too much liquid.

Re-did the cake. Used less eggs this time round while maintaining the other ingredients' portion. Finally my chiffon cake finally hung onto the mold for its dear life, emerging tall and proud like a real man. The coffee is a little too acidic for my liking, but am relieved that I finally got my chiffon baking ego up and rolling again.

Guess I have to moderate my eggs for his future recipes. Have upped his ingredients ratio to suit my 21cm chiffon tin.

True blue chiffon, standing tall and proud

Coffee Chiffon Cake (adapted from Kevin Chai's Chiffon Cake Is Done)

Ingredients:
Egg Yolk Batter:
20ml (50ml) milk
1 (2) tbsp instant coffee powder
2 (4) egg yolks
20g (50g) caster sugar
20ml (50ml) cooking oil
40g self raising flour (100g top flour with 1 tsp baking powder)
(pinch of salt)

Egg Whites Foam:
2 (161g-4 egg whites) egg whites
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
50g (100g) caster sugar

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 170°C .
2. To make egg yolk batter, stir instant coffee powder with milk until melted. Combine with egg yolks, sugar, and oil in a mixing bowl. Fold in flour until batter is formed.
3. To make egg white foam, beat egg whites and cream of tartar until mixture forms soft peaks. Gradually add in sugar, beating at high speed until frothy and stiff peaks form.
4. Gently fold the beaten egg whites foam into egg yolks batter until blended.
5. Pour batter into ungreased 6" (16cm) tube pan. Bake for 30mins (40mins for 21cm) or until cooked.
6. Remove cake from oven, invert cake onto table until completely cooled.

Pandan Chiffon Cake II

My mom is the one who got me interested in food. During my childhood, I would sit in the kitchen and watch her prepare dinner. She never lets me help out with the food because she thinks I'll end up playing.

And she's right.

I would mess around with the unwashed dishes, adding salt and pepper to the dirty sink water as if I were cooking.

This is my second time baking from this book. I'm starting to doubt that the recipe ratio is kinda off for my 21cm chiffon tin. Both times yield dense though soft cakes. The batter seem a little too much for my tin as well, I figured that it had to be due to that. Upon checking with ZY, it seems like 6 egg-ed recipes should be meant for 23cm tins though the recipe book states 22cm. Looks like I've got to portion the recipe to 5 eggs to suit my tin the next time. Will give one of its recipes another shot soon.

One last chance for this book, hope it doesn't disappoint again.

Thankfully my mom actually likes the cake. Weird huh. She said the cake is very fragrant, she can smell the coconut milk and sweetness level is just right. And I presented the cake to her in the most unromantic way - unmold the cake when she passed by the kitchen and exclaimed, HAPPY BIRTHDAY! Proceeded to cut a slice of the cake and pops into her opened jaws. HAHAH

Pandan Chiffon Cake (adapted from Kevin Chai's Chiffon Cake Is Done)

Ingredients:

Egg Yolk Batter:
6 egg yolks
80g caster sugar
150g coconut milk
4 tbsp cooking oil (I use canola oil)
2 tbsp pandan juice (I use 1 1/2 tsp of panda essence & topped up the rest to make 2 tbsp water)
1/4 tsp pandan essence (see above)
1/4 tsp salt
1-2 drops green food colouring (skipped this)
140g plain flour

Egg Whites Foam:
6 egg whites
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
100g caster sugar

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 170°C .

2. To make egg yolk batter, combine egg yolks, sugar, coconut milk, pandan juice, pandan essence, salt, food colouring in a mixing bowl. Fold in flour until batter is formed.
3. To make egg white foam, beat egg whites and cream of tartar until mixture forms soft peaks. Gradually add in sugar, beating at high speed until frothy and stiff peaks form.
4. Gently fold the beaten egg whites foam into egg yolks batter until blended.
5. Pour batter into ungreased 9" (22cm) tube pan. Bake for 30 to 40 mins or until cooked.
6. Remove cake from oven, invert cake onto table until completely cooled.

Strawberry Chiffon Cake II

Today is the last day of Chinese New Year celebrations as well as the oriental Valentine's Day. I hope everyone had spent a lovely day earlier on with your loved ones including family and friends.

Sometimes my boyfriend can be really silly. He got flowers for me. Last week he texted me for my office address out of the blue. Being the oh-so-predictable him, I knew what he's up to. So I asked him why was he asking for it. He was like, just give it to me. So I got busy with work and stopped replying, he started spamming my phone with "Helloooooo".

So on Valentine's Day, he insisted on meeting up despite we're fine to postpone the celebrations to the weekend. And he was so anxious that he kept texting me to see if the flowers have reached my office. Ahh well, so much for the surprise. He's such a silly donkey sometimes.

On a side note, carrying a bulky bouquet of flowers on public transport is pretty embarrassing.

Favorite white flowers!

and yes I'm a happy girl

Anyway, I've baked a chiffon cake to ease my baking craves. Not one of my best chiffon bakes, but I like how fruity the cake tastes due to the large quantity of fresh strawberries. It's relatively dense compared to the lighter cottony cakes I've baked due to the large ratio of flour, but still soft and gives the melt-in-your-mouth sensation. Looking forward to try out more recipes from this book.

Strawberry Chiffon Cake (adapted from Kevin Chai's Chiffon Cake Is Done)

Ingredients:

Egg Yolk Batter:
200g strawberries
6 egg yolks
50g caster sugar
60ml cooking oil
1 tbsp strawberry paste (I use 1/4 tsp strawberry emulco)
few drops pink colouring (skipped this)
120g plain flour

Egg Whites Foam:
6 egg whites
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
100g caster sugar

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 170°C .
2. Blend strawberries until puree.
2. To make egg yolk batter, combine strawberry puree with egg yolks, sugar, oil, strawberry paste and coloring in a mixing bowl. Fold in flour until batter is formed.
3. To make egg white foam, beat egg whites and cream of tartar until mixture forms soft peaks. Gradually add in sugar, beating at high speed until frothy and stiff peaks form.
4. Gently fold the beaten egg whites foam into egg yolks batter until blended.
5. Pour batter into ungreased 9" (22cm) tube pan. Bake for 30 to 40 mins (baked mine for 40 mins) or until cooked.
6. Remove cake from oven, invert cake onto table until completely cooled.

Oolong Tea Chiffon Cake

The start of 2011 has been mad busy for me. Spent the weekend at my crazy friends' chalet, drawing only 3 to 4 hours of sleep per night and had activities lined up back to back. Am also involved in Chingay practices as well since Chinese New Year is approaching. I'll try to sneak in a few pictures of the awesome floats in my next few posts. On top of that I have to work. But there's this intricate sense of satisfaction and happiness derived from being so busy and tired hehe :)

BBQ again~ Pigging out time :/

See what I mean by my friends are crazy

Did a stock take recently on my baking ingredients, discovered that I have a load of threatening-to-expire goods. Boooo. Bought a pack of tea early last year when I was figuring out how to make bubble milk tea at home, turns out that the Oolong tea bags were a little too light for my fancy, so they were chucked aside, long forgotten at the corner of the cabinet until recent discovery.

Adjusted the recipe to fit a 21cm pan. I've actually tried another Oolong Tea chiffon cake recipe before this one and it didn't turn out too well, so was kinda of discouraged. Fortunately, my chiffon cake didn't fall off the pan this time. The tea-ish taste is kinda lacking, but the cake carries a relatively higher water content than other chiffons that I've made, contributing to a moist yet fluffy texture.

Oolong Tea Chiffon Cake (adapted from Sarah Marx Feldner's A Cook’s Journey to Japan: Fish Tales and Rice Paddies, 100 Homestyle Recipes from Japanese Kitchens)

Ingredients:
3 (2) tbsp of loose leaf oolong tea, or 4 (3) tea bags), divided
160ml (112ml) water
4 (3) egg yolks
100g (70g) sugar (I use superfine)
65ml (45ml) vegetable oil
1/2 (1/3) tsp salt
140g (99g) cake flour

6 (4) egg whites
Pinch of salt
50g (35g) sugar (I use superfine)

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 160°C with the rack in the middle position.
2. Using a mortar and pestle or an electric coffee grinder, grind 1 tbsp of the loose leaf tea until fine. Set aside. If you’re using tea bags, skip this step.
3. Bring the water to a boil in a small saucepan. Add the remaining 2 tablespoons of loose leaf tea or, if using, the 4 tea bags. Cover and let steep according to packaged instructions, about 5 minutes. Strain if using loose leaf tea. Let cool to room temperature. If necessary, add additional water to measure 160 ml.
4. Whisk together the egg yolks, 100 g of the sugar, oil, salt, ground tea leaves and steeped tea in a large bowl.
5. Add the flour and gently whisk just until smooth. Set aside.
6. Beat the egg whites in another large bowl with an electric mixer on medium speed. When the whites become frothy, add the salt. When the whites begin to increase in volume and lose their opaqueness, gradually add the remaining 50 g sugar. Beat until whites are stiff and glossy, but not dry.
7. Fold ¼ of the whites into the egg yolk-tea mixture to loosen the batter, then gently fold in the remaining whites just until fully incorporated, being careful not to deflate.
8. Pour batter into an ungreased 25-cm (I use 21cm) tube pan with removable bottom. Gently run a knife or spatula through the batter to break up any large air pockets – be sure to reach the bottom.
9. Bake for 30-35 (29 for me) minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Let cool upside down – suspended over the neck of a wine bottle works best.
10. Once the cake is completely cooked, remove it from the pan by running a knife around the sides and carefully pushing the bottom out. To release the tube portion from the cake, carefully run a knife between the cake and bottom of the pan.

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

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

Milk Tea Chiffon Cake

I like playing around with chiffon cakes flavoring as they are really versatile. Since I have been craving for milk tea (Ice cream milk tea!!!) recently, milk tea it shall be! :P

Just a bit of reminiscing. When I first started dating my boyfriend, our group of friends visited KOI often. So soon after, he was craving for milk tea frequently. So being the new-girlfriend who wanted to impress her new date, I started making home made milk tea for him. Experimented with various combination to achieve the KOI milky consistency. So he was happily gulping down buckets and buckets of milk tea to find his waistline expanding. My boyfriend has pretty high self awareness of his physique, so he went on a milk tea ban and that was the end of my milk tea adventure.

Despite having baked chiffons for a good number of times, success is still not guaranteed =/ My chiffon fell off from its mould when I inverted it LOL That explains cake's cool Nike-like Let's-Do-It symbol rooftop. Second time it happened. May have to try baking it slightly longer than my usual 40 mins so that it'll cling to the sides more.

And it is not as light and fluffy as the usual bakes. Grrrrr... The milk tea taste isn't apparent as well. I've already used 2 tea bags to infuse the tea leaves flavor but guess there is a better method somewhere out there. Booo. Thankfully the cake is still pretty good on its own. It tastes like.........................a flavorless chiffon cake. HAHAH I'll definitely revisit this with an improvised version soon.

Milk Tea Chiffon Cake (modified from Keiko Ishida's Okashi)

Ingredients:
80g cake flour
5 egg yolks
20g caster sugar
70g concentrated milk tea (Measured out from 2 infused ceylon tea bags into 200ml of water + 20g creamer)
60g canola oil

5 egg whites (weighed mine to be 198g)
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 milk tea and canola oil 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

Strawberry Chiffon Cake

Was discussing with Bakertan how old folks like my mama and her friends always tell me how my pound/loaf cakes can be softer and fluffier. I've always thought I've done something wrong, that's why my cakes are dense. But nooooope. Was enlightened that those cakes are meant to be dense. Asian folks are used to cakes being light and fluffy, that's why their suggestions on how I can improve my dense cakes are well, to make them less dense.

That explains why I don't have to market my chiffon cakes too much for them to vanish from the kitchen table. They're everything mama-s prefer - soft, cottony texture, you can eat them even if you have no teeth!

Think I got kinda rusty in meringue beating and they got a little dry, means...more practice required teehee! Right, so I got lazy and used strawberry emulco instead of fresh strawberries. Can't help it, no fresh korean strawberries available currently. Waiting for next year Feb/Mar where their supplies will be abundant ya. Stay tune!

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

Ingredients:
80g cake flour
5 egg yolks
20g caster sugar
1 tsp strawberry emulco
70g water
60g canola oil

5 egg whites (weighed mine to be 198g)
90g caster sugar
10g corn flour

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 160°C
2. Sift flour and cocoa powder twice
3. Beat egg yolks and sugar until well mixed
4. Add strawberry emulco, water and canola oil 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

Orange Chiffon Cake

Hello this is my blog so I'm going to vomit emo all over like all depressing bloggers do.

It's just one of those crap shit week where everything goes wrong. Like some kid giving up his seat to you on the train because you look like you're pregnant, or your usually banana-like stools become hard as rocks and you start warming up the toiletbowl, or it was incredibly sunny the whole day and when you're about to leave the office it started raining cats and dogs, or stepping onto the weighing scale to find that you weigh as much as a fucking cow. Not like they happened to me, but imagine the lousy feeling of all that happening with multiplier effect ._.

So here's some cake.

I want to bake but I don't wanna eat my bakes. Chiffon cakes have always been my safest bet that someone else will finish it before I re-gain my appetite again Added some alcohol in for the kick and to make people drunk enough think that my cake tastes extra good.

My baking procedure is as messed up. Forgotten to add the Grand Marnier till I start folding in the first batch of meringue. Added too much liquid to the batter and the cake refuses to stick and fell out from the molds. Epic fail for a chiffon cake which is supposed to be inverted after baking.

Nevertheless, they're still edible...I guess.
Orange Chiffon Cake (modified from Keiko Ishida's Okashi)
makes 6 10cm chiffon

Ingredients:
64g cake flour
4 egg yolks
16g caster sugar
75g orange juice, room temperature (to be reduced to 56g)
48g canola oil
2 tsp of Grand Marnier

4 egg whites
72g caster sugar
8g 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 and Grand Marnier 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 chiffon tins and bake for 22 mins
12. Invert the chiffon tin on a wire rack and let it cool for 2h before releasing the cake for serving

Mocha Chiffon Cake

I'm back from sunny Phuket! Lovely place packed with random cool people talking to you on the streets, asking where're you from. My first time there, and it's not going to be my last. The only crap that happened over there was my 2+year old canon camera took a dip in the Phuket sea. Being heavily reliant on my camera - I'm pretty much a trigger-happy kind of person on my camera - I was really disappointed. Good thing the SD card didn't give way so I managed to retained some pictures.

Last picture from my camera before taking a plunge into the sea -_-

Boy, I miss my oven LOL So it's going to be a stay home bake-athon for me this weekend. I'm sorry that I'm baking chiffon again as I don't have time to make notes of my baking books since my holiday so I'll just make do with a familiar recipe with minor adjustments.

Same good ol' light and cottony texture. I find that chiffon with cocoa tend to be more spongy, probably due to the higher protein content. And I like how lasting these cakes are. I placed one of them out in the open overnight and it remains fluffy and moist the next morning. I wouldn't call this a real mocha chiffon as there's no milk. Wonder if it's possible to sub water for milk in chiffon cakes. hmm.
Mocha Chiffon Cake (modified from Keiko Ishida's Okashi)
makes 3 10cm chiffon

Ingredients:
24g cake flour
8g natural cocoa powder
2 egg yolks
8g caster sugar
30g coffee, room temperature (3 tsp instant coffee for 1 cup)
24g canola oil

2 egg whites
36g caster sugar
4g corn flour

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 160°C
2. Sift flour and cocoa powder twice
3. Beat egg yolks and sugar until well mixed
4. Add coffee and canola oil 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 chiffon tins and bake for 22 mins
12. Invert the chiffon tin on a wire rack and let it cool for 2h before releasing the cake for serving

Pandan Chiffon Cake

This has been an eventful week for me. A car crash greeted us on Monday late night on PIE when my bf sent me home. We were involved in a 4-way car butt kissing accident - we were the 3rd car. Our car is basically like bacon between toast, thankfully we were not hurt. Poor dude was badly shaken though.

A little baking to calm my nerves. Bought 10cm mini chiffon tins as I thought they look really cute. I notice mini chiffon cakes in neighborhood bakeries and this chiffon specialty cake shop selling mini chiffons in interesting flavors along the new Raffles City B2 link to Suntec. Thought I'll just jump the wagon and join in the mini chiffon craze too.

I know, I know...I should have used pandan leaves and extract the juice out for au naturale goodness, but I'm lazy I didn't have the time to visit the market to grab some, so I settled for pandan paste.

Really pleased with the results. I would like to think I've mastered the art of meringue beating (and folding I hope?) as the chiffon cake was significantly softer and cottony than all my previous attempts, even though they were already considerably light and fluffy in texture already. Pandan flavor could be strong though, will add more the next time.

Pandan Chiffon Cake (modified from Keiko Ishida's Okashi)
makes 4 10cm chiffon

Ingredients:
32g cake flour
2 egg yolks
8g caster sugar
1/4 tsp pandan paste
28g water
24g canola oil

2 egg whites (weighed mine to be 84g)
36g caster sugar
4g corn flour

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 160°C
2. Sift flour twice
3. Beat egg yolks and sugar until well mixed
4. Add pandan paste, water and canola oil 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 chiffon tins and bake for 20 mins
12. Invert the chiffon tin on a wire rack and let it cool for 2h before releasing the cake for serving

Cranberry Yogurt Chiffon Cake

Pardon my recent chiffon craze, baking it is pretty addictive haha! Have a tub of yogurt threatening to expire, so had to make good use of it. This recipe carries more egg whites and almost twice the amount of cake flour than my usual one, so hesitated making it initially. But I guess baking is about trial and errors...

As it has much flour, the cake is denser. Though moist enough because of the yogurt, I still prefer my chiffon cake less than airy. I'm not sure how that big air pocket came about and my cranberries all sank to the bottom of the pan. Think I'll just sprinkle them on top of the batter the next time, hopefully the latter has enough time to cook so that the cranberries can scatter more evenly in the batter. The lemon fragrance didn't come out as much either. Booooooooo... I'm sticking to my old chiffon recipe.

Cranberry Yogurt Chiffon Cake (modified from Junko Fukuda's Chiffon Cake Book)

Ingredients:
5 egg yolks
40g caster sugar
61g canola oil
2 tsp fresh lemon juice
130g plain yogurt
130g cake flour, sifted twice

6 egg whites (weighed mine to be 258g)
90g caster sugar

95g dried cranberries, coated in plain flour

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 180°C
2. Whisk together yolks, caster sugar and canola oil until sugar is completed dissolved and mixture is pale yellow and sticky
3. Add lemon juice and yogurt into yolk mixture and mix well
4. Add flour and combine well. Set aside for later use.
5. Beat egg whites until frothy and gradually add in sugar and whip till stiff peaks
8. Add one third of the meringue into yolk mixture and fold in lightly
9. Pour in rest of the yolk mixture and fold until well combined
10. Add in flour coated cranberries into batter and gently fold until berries are just evenly scattered throughout the batter
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

Chocolate Chiffon Cake

After my previous chiffon cake attempt, am really excited to try out new flavors! Did chocolate this time. I like the ratio of cocoa powder to cake flour, I can smell the chocolatey goodness when I eat the cake. Still the same cottony, soft texture, but I'm not sure why it is not as melt-in-your-mouth as my first matcha chiffon. Not sure if it's the ingredients or something I've done differently this time.

Was also careful not to overbeat my meringue this time. The folding in is a bitch though. Still have not mastered it fully as I still see a few white specks here and there if I look really closely. Or maybe I did not beat my egg whites evenly, which I think is most likely the case xD On close inspection of the airholes, the bottom have less air bubbles, wonder if it's supposed to be like that heh heh

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

Ingredients:
50g cake flour
30g cocoa powder
5 egg yolks
20g caster sugar
70g water
60g canola oil

5 egg whites (weighed mine to be 215g)
90g caster sugar (can add more for sweet tooths)
10g corn flour

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 160°C
2. Sift flour and cocoa powder twice
3. Beat egg yolks and sugar until well mixed
4. Add water and canola oil 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 yolk mixture and fold until well combined (I did not follow this and pour yolk mixture into meringue for folding instead)
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

Matcha Chiffon Cake

First try at making chiffon cake. Bought Keiko Ishida's Okashi and have yet to try out the recipes despite reading it religiously. Have good quality matcha powder that's expiring in September, so I picked this recipe. I didn't know you need to invert the pan for cooling so that the cake wouldn't sink. Was snapping pictures of the cake when I took it out from the oven. Mom saw me and screamed, Invert the pan...NOW!!!! The sinking starts the moment the pan is out from the oven, she says.

Really impressed with the texture. It is soft and cottony, gives the almost-melt-in-your-mouth kind of texture. The right amount of sweetness coupled with green tea fragrance. The only thing I'm disappointed is, I was overzealous in the meringue beating, resulting in curding. Now I know when to stop beating. Thankfully no one notices the extra white specks of meringue in the cake when they eat it, or maybe they're just polite hahahhh

My guinea pigs happened to be a pretty big sample size of aunties including my mom and her work place buddies, bf's mom and her mahjong kakis. Everyone loves it. I guess aunties really like chiffon cakes heehee. Gonna venture and try out all sorts of flavors!

Matcha Chiffon Cake (adapted from Keiko Ishida's Okashi)

Ingredients:
70g cake flour
10g matcha powder
5 egg yolks
20g caster sugar
70g water
60g canola oil

180g egg whites (abt 5 eggs)
90g caster sugar
10g corn flour

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 160°C
2. Sift flour and matcha powder twice
3. Beat egg yolks and sugar until well mixed
4. Add water and canola oil 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 yolk mixture and fold until well combined (I did not follow this and pour yolk mixture into meringue for folding instead)
11. Pour the batter into a 20-cm chiffon tin and bake for 40-50 mins
12. Invert (NOWW!!) the chiffon tin on a wire rack and let it cool for 2h before releasing the cake for serving