Orange Chiffon Cake

Many people have told me that chiffon cake is one of the easiest type of cake to bake. I on the other hand think otherwise. For chiffon cake, you need to beat the egg yolks and whites separately. You cannot overbeat the whites else it the cake will be hard and not airy. However, you cannot under beat the whites either. The recipe always says beat the egg whites till stiff but the problem I am always facing is how stiff is consider stiff? Is it stiff enough or needs further beating? I've only made a pandan chiffon cake before using Fern's mom's recipe. Of course her mom made it better than me but I was very satisfied with the outcome of my chiffon.

Today I've decided to try my hands on Orange Chiffon Cake. For this, I do not need to find pandan leaves & squeeze the juice out. Neither do I need to buy freshly grated coconut. The recipe was derived from Bakingmum. Apparently she adapted the recipe from Kevin Chai but made some modification to it. The result of my baking is that the cake was not soft and airy enough. It's still very soft but not to the extend that I would have liken it to be. I attribute it to the beating of the egg whites. I guess I've overbeat it. Nonetheless, the chiffon cake still tasted good and brought out a really nice orange aroma. Here's the recipe. The * shows the modification I've made.

Ingredients :

(Part A)

7 egg yolks

50g sugar *(I used 40g)

60ml orange juice (I used 80 ml)

½ tsp salt

1tsp orange flavour/compound

4 tbsp cooking oil *(I used corn oil)

2 tbsp grated orange zest

110g self-raising flour

Few drops of orange colouring *(I omitted this)

(Part B)

7 egg whites

130g sugar *(I reduced the sugar to 100g)

½ tsp cream of tartar

Method:

(Part A)

1. Mix egg yolks, sugar, salt, oil, orange zest, orange juice and colouring in a mixing bowl. Fold in sifted flour until a batter is formed.

(Part B)

1. Whisk egg white and cream of tartar until foamy. Add in sugar and continue to beat at high speed until peaks form.

2. Gently fold beaten egg white mixture into egg yolk mixture until well mixed. Pour into a 22 cm chiffon cake mould and bake in a preheated oven at 170C for 30 -40 minutes or until cooked.

3. Remove from oven and invert cake pan to cool.