Sunday 19 March 2006

Weekend Baking Session # 4

Chiffon cake is my favourite type of cake. It is light, airy, spongy, soft and flavourful. It has a unique texture. To gain this texture, instead of butter, vegetable oil is used.

Traditionally, chiffon cakes are baked in tube pans but it can always be baked in round cake pans as well. As I do not have a tube pan, I too bake it in a round pan.

The rules when baking chiffon cake are, never grease the pan. Secondly, do not deflate the egg white when mixing, while it acts as an important leavening agent for the cake. Thirdly, after baking, immediately turn the pan up side down. The reason is to prevent the cake from shrinking and loosing it's volume.

For this weekend, I choose to bake Coffee Chiffon Cake for the Weekend Baking Session as it is my favourite chiffon cake flavour. I have baked it many times. Even for our wedding anniversary last year, I baked and frosted a coffee chiffon cake. Hubby dear was very much impressed.

Coffee Chiffon Cake

What do we need:



A
1 cup cake flour or plain flour
1/4 cup sugar
3 egg yolks
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/3 cup milk
2 tbsp instant coffee powder or granules
1/4 tsp salt


B
3 egg whites
1/4 cup castor sugar
1/4 tsp cream of tartar

What do we do:

Sift the flour, baking powder and salt together.

Dissolve the coffee powder in the milk. Add the rest of ingredients A.

Beat egg whites and cream of tartar until foamy. Add sugar little by little and beat until stiff peaks form.


Fold 1/3 of the beaten egg white into the coffee mixture to lighten it. Then, pour the lightened coffee mixture into the remaining beaten egg white. Fold gently but quickly and thoroughly to combine both mixtures.

Pour the batter into an ungreased 8" round cake pan. With a flat knife, quickly cut through the batter a few times to get rid of any very large air bubbles. Bake in a preheated oven at 175° C for about 30 minutes or until a skewer inserted comes out clean. Remove cake from oven and immediately invert the cake pan and let it cool.

When the cake is completely cool, run a knife or a thin spatula around the sides of pan to loosen the cake from the pan.






Can be eaten plain or frosted with favourite frosting as per desired.

24 comments:

Kay said...

Pushpa, Are these the same as Angel food cake? Those are light and fluffy as well and dont use butter.

Can't wait to see a picture. :)

Kitchenmate said...

Pushpa: It looks yummy, and i am drooling:)
I like the way you clearly expain the do"s. Thanks to you. Hope to try it sometime.

Menu Today said...

Pushpa,Your baking session are very good and useful.

Sarah said...

it looks soooo yummy.. waiting for the lent to be over to makkan telur!!!

Unknown said...

Kay: Well, both angel food cake & chiffon cake r from the same category tat is they r foam cakes but the difference between them is:

Angel Food Cake
Does not have fat.
Contents: Egg white, flour & sugar.

Chiffon Cake
Fat from egg yolks & oil.
Contents: Egg white, egg yolk, flour, sugar & oil.

Hope that helps.

Karthi: Thank u very much. Hope that u'll try it.

Menu today: Many thanx. Glad that it serves the purpose.

immigrant in canada: Thanx. Fuyooo!! u mean they banned eggs in Canada izzit? Kesian hehehehe

santhi: Thank y very much. Ur making me blush :)

Anonymous said...

i tried it this morning and i can attest that it taste soooo good! :)

Mrs. B

sailu said...

Pictures are lovely,Pushpa.Will try this recipe.

Kay said...

Thanks Pushpa for explaining it very well! :)

Unknown said...

Eva: Merci vielmal

Sailu: Thank u. Let me know how u like it.

Kay: My pleasure :)

Shammi said...

woweee, that cake looks gorgeous!

Vineela said...

Hi,
U r cake looks awesome.
i feel to eat by seeing pic itself.Hope to try atleast once.
vineela

Unknown said...

Shammi: Welcome to my blog & thanx for the compliment, mate.

Vineela: Than u & I hope tat u'll try it.

Peony said...

Sorry for being inquisitive, but the pic show 3 egg yolks, so are you using 3 yolks or 2 yolks as stated in your recipe ?

Unknown said...

Peony: OMG!!!! aiyooo thank u so much ah aunty. Wonder how could I not notice it for more than a week. eeeeeeeee. Now corrected. *muak*

Peony said...

i shd thank u cos was quite 'sick' of pandan chiffon cakes, so wanted to try something diff. but just like to confirm with u before baking as chiffon cake r so 'fussy'.

Tazz said...

Pus, can this be used as a base for chilled cake?

Unknown said...

Peony: Welcome and thnax to u too. Btw, u have now reminded me of pandan chiffon cake. Been such a long time sice I baked it.

Eve: Sure, u can use it. I have used plain/vanilla chiffon cakes to make mousse cakes and fruit flans.

Anonymous said...

Hello Pusiva! it is me tunasushi!

I made your coffee chiffon today and encountered some problems.........it was a bit dense, and the cake ended up falling out of the pan before it could completely cool! ha!!! Any suggestions??

Unknown said...

Tunasushi: Welcome to the blog. I´m very glad tat u´ve tried the cake but sad tat it didn´t turn out as how itz support to b.

When the cake is dense, the possiblities r tat the egg whites were not stiffly beaten or the liquid amount increased. Did u follow the recipe correctly? Coz I have been using the same basic chiffon cake recipe all the while & never encountered any problem. I hope tat u´ll try again & let me know of the outcome. All the best to u :)

Anonymous said...

I used the same amt of liquid...maybe it was the eggs I suppose. But is there a reason it shrank and just fell out of the tin? Also, it had no sweet taste at all

Unknown said...

Amrita: Hmmmm........ not sweet enuf?? :( Did u use 1/2 cup of sugar? 1/4 cup mix with the coffee mixture & another 1/4 cup with the egg whites.

I have baked the same recipe many times without fail. Just to be very very sure, I baked again now. Posted the pic above. Do u notice a new pic of a whole cake? How does the cake look like? I gave away half of the cake to a friend & asked her opinion. According to her, itz all ok, including the sweetness.

I´m still wondering wat went wrong with ur cake. Did u invert the cake immediately after removing from the oven?

Was the eggs at room temperature?
Was the mixing bowl grease free?
Did u beat them to stiff peaks?
Did u do the mixing without deflating the egg whites?

Something has got to be wrong there. I really want to help u get the best result Amrita.

Mahek said...

can you pls tell me what cream of tartar is?
i dont think this is available in india.

Unknown said...

Mahek- Cream of tartar is used to stabilize egg whites, increasing their heat tolerance and volume. I am not very sure of ity avalability in India. Anyway, u culd substitute it with a few drops of lemon juice that has bout quite the similar acidic factor.

Sihi said...

Pushpa, I 've been on the look out for a recipe to make chiffon cake for a while now. I'm for sure trying out your recipe. It looks simply yum!! You have an amazing blog girl!

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...