Sweet Corn Chiffon Cake

Hee.. Baked something else today.. I'm back to the chiffon craze..



Yes, I baked a sweet corn chiffon cake today.. Easy peasy.. I got it done within 1.15 hr.. Not a time consuming bake.





The most important step in chiffon making.. Whipping of egg whites to stiff peaks.. Looks like whipped cream uh?



Anyway, one simple way to test if it's the stiff stage, simply overturn the whole bowl, and the white will not fall off..





Next, just stiff in some whites to lighten the yolk mixture, then subsequently fold in all of the whites.



End Result.... One word to sum it all up.... DISAPPOINTING...



So so disappointed with the appearance, as well as myself.. I was so impatient, I removed the cake after 20mins of cooling (Usually takes 1 hr), and I was chatting away while doing this, next thing i know, I drop the whole pan on the countertop, and flop the whole cake out..



Causing big wholes here and there.. Geeshh!!


Nevertheless, I still like this cake (tho it's ugly). Simply because it taste so heavenly!! I like the fragrance of the coconut, and the bites from the sweet corn.. Lovely!



One thing to rejoice about is that this time round, the browning is more even!



Sharing with you the recipe, adapted from Peng's Kitchen

Sweet Corn Chiffon Cake

Ingredients

• 6 egg yolks
• 250g creamy sweet corn
• 1/2 tsp vanilla essence
• 60ml corn oil
• 100g castor sugar
• 120g plain flour (I use a mixture of 55g cake flour, 65g self raising flour)
• 50g coconut powder
• 6 egg whites
• 1/2 tsp cream of tartar
  

Methods

1. Whisk egg yolk with 30g of sugar till pale and creamy.
2. Stir in oil, vanilla essence and sweet corn. Mix till well blended.
3. Stir in the sifted flour, and coconut powder and mix till well combined.
4. Beat egg whites with cream of tartar till frothy, then gradually beat in the remaining 70g sugar and beat till stiff peaks.
5. Gently fold in the whites to the yolk mixture.
6. Pour the batter into ungreased chiffon pan, and bake at 180C for 35min-45min.

Amendments made:

- Substitute part of the flour with self-raising flour. And I omited the baking powder.
- Add in another 4 tbsp of canned sweet corn.
- Mistaken 60ml of oil as 40ml, so in the end I only added in 40ml.

Lemon Yoghurt Cranberries Chiffon Cake

Yoghurt Lemon Cranberries Chiffon Cake.. Woah, what a long name! Hmm.. Guess in short, I'll name it, "The Celebratory Cake".

You guys might be thinking, why celebratory cake??

It's because, "thanks" to the outbreak of H1N1, my school (Nanyang Polytechnic) gets an extension of another week of holiday, which means I've an additional week to mug for my test-s! So that calls for the celebratory cake!

Hmm.. Seems like recently I've been clearing my "to-bake-list" (which is good!).

Anyway, even before I've a taste of this chiffon cake, I kind of like fall in love with the name, imagin the combination of Yoghurt + Lemon + Cranberries, sounds so refreshing right?! Ok, at least for me, I love anything that's fruity, and FLUFFY. Yes, FLUFFY is another distinct characteristic of chiffon cakes.

Woppes, and I almost forgot to mention that, this cake is quite moist as well! Which I think is good, imagin you've to stuff down a piece of cake that's so dry that you almost choke.. Not a good experience, I suppose.

Did not manage to get a nice even brown surface.. Sigh, maybe my chiffon pan is not season enough..

Maybe it's an indication that I should bake more often? Hiak Hiak Hiak!

I'm thankful that the cranberries floats around instead of sinking to the bottom.


Looks like a sponge! Reasonable height as well..

Hmm.. I think I got the trick to chiffon making.. *Happy Happy* Beating of whites... Folding.. etc etc...

Sharing with you the recipe, obtained from All That Matters, Thanks Rei!

Lemon Yoghurt Cranberries Chiffon Cakes

Ingredients

(A)
4 egg yolks
40g castor sugar
1/4 tsp salt (Added a pinch only)
40g cornoil
120g plain yoghurt
2 tbsp lemon juice
zest of 1 lemon
80g dried cranberries (Used only 65g)- Toss with 1 tsp cake flour

(B)
120g cake flour (I use a 130g mixture of top flour, and cake flour)
1/2 tbsp baking powder

(C)
5 egg whites (I used 6)
50g castor sugar
1/2 tsp cream of tartar

Methods

1. Whisk egg yolks with 40g castor sugar till creamy.
2. Mix in lemon zest, lemon juice, salt and oil. Mix till well blended.
3. Whisk in sifted flour, and flour coated cranberries- (A trick to prevent cranberries from sinking)
4. Beat egg whites and cream of tartar till frothy, then gradually add in sugar and beat till stiff peaks.
5. Stir in 2 tbsp of egg whites to lighten the yolk mixture.
6. In 3 batches, fold in the egg whites till well combined.
7. Pour mixture into chiffon pan and bake at 175C for 10minutes. Then lower the temperature to 160C for 20 minutes. Then lastly, 150C for 10minutes.
8. Remove cake from oven and overturn immediately till cooled.

By the way, this is the very very 1st time my chiffon cake surface have no cracks!!

This recipe is so worth to keep! And I'm sure I'll bake this over and over again!

Durian Chiffon Cake

Now I'm into the Chiffon craze.. Tho abit late.. Hehe..

I usually walk home (to and from school) instead of taking bus as I treat this as a form of exercise.. So on my way home today, I saw DURIANS! I've a reallly realllly soft spot for this thorny creamy fruit.. So almost immediately I stop and bought a box for $5, consider that as quite cheap as january is not the durian season..

I continue to think what can I do with this durian other than eating it down to my stomach.. So I thought of DURIAN CHIFFON!

I got the recipe from Aunty Yochana's bloggie.. I've it printed out and place it nicely into my file.. hehe!

See how tall this chiffon is..

I really like the golden brown colour on the surface of the cake.. Looks beautiful right? hehe

See the air-holes, and a whineey speck of egg whites.. Hehe.. Didn't fold it well..

DURIAN CHIFFON CAKE

Ingredients

6 egg yolks (use only 5)
150ml coconut milk (Replace with full cream evaporated milk)
4 tbsp corn oil (Use only 3tbsp)
Pinch of salt
150g durian puree
1/4 durian essence (omitted it)
50g caster sugar (use only 10g)
140g plain flour (use top flour)

6 egg whites
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
100g caster sugar (use only 80g)

Methods (base on how I did it)

1. Whisk egg yolk and sugar till light and creamy, and stir in the durian puree, evaporated milk, and oil and stir to mix.
2. Gently stir in the sifted flour and salt.
3. Whisk egg whites with caster sugar till foamy, then gradually add in caster in 3 batches, continue whisking at high speed till stiff peaks forms.
4. Gently fold in the egg whites (in 3 batches) into the yolk batter.
5. Pour batter into a 23cm chiffon tin and bake at 175C for 45mins (I use 50mins) or until cooked.
6. Remove cake from oven and invert pan immediately onto a wire rack and leave it to cool completely.
7. Remove cake from pan, and serve.

Personally I think that baking at 45mins is not sufficient as the skewer did not come out clean.. So I bake at 50mins.. However, I suggest to add addition 10g of flour as the cake surface is dry, but interior is slightly wet/moist..

Nevertheless, mom love this cake.. she rated it 8/10... However I suspect it's because she likes durian.. So for her, anything that goes with durian is good.. Haha! I wrote down in a short note from on the recipe, next time try pairing this cake up with durian mousse.. I think it will be heavenly! Hehe!

But I would say that this cake is quite sucessful! Will definitely try this again, when the durian season (June/July) approach! Hehe!

Happy Chinese New Year!

First and forth most, let me wish all the chinese (and of course non-chinese) a HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR!!



I spent my 2 days of holidays wisely and did not waste any seconds, hehe! Went to visit lots of relatives, and some of them I only meet them once a year, catch up with my cousins and chat with them through out the night.. Just like how we use to play together, so fun!



Well anyway, the day before the eve of CNY, I baked a orange chiffon cake for my mum, as she needs it for prayers.



I use to make lousy chiffon cakes, sometimes they shrinks, some are soggy and wet, some are dense and some are really tough and dry. I always thought that it might be due to overbaking, underbaked or incorrect folding technique.. but it never occurs to me that it's due to the usage of wrong chiffon pan..



I usually use those mini chiffon pans (from Daiso), so this time round, I use a chiffon tin pan (23cm), and boy, the outcome of the cake turns out to be fabulous! Absolutely soft, fluffy, spongy and not dry at all..



The distribution of the air bubbles are very even and no lumps of egg whites could be seen! Previously, I was afraid that I might over-fold it, so I just fold for a short while so after baking, I could see lumps of eggs.



This time round I uses Florence's orange chiffon recipe, should give it a try as its really fragrant! Hehe!


Presenting to you my ORANGE CHIFFON CAKE!










ORANGE CHIFFON CAKE


Ingredients


115g cake flour
3/4 tsp baking powder
85ml warm orange juice
zest of an orange
60ml cornoil
1/2 tsp vanilla essence


5 egg yolks + 30g castor sugar + 1/4 tsp salt
5 egg whites + 50g castor sugar + 1/2 tsp cream of tartar


Methods

1. Sieve cake flour and baking powder.
2. Whisk egg yolk, sugar and salt till light and creamy, add in orange juice and oil, stir to mix.
3. Add in flour mixture and zest and mix lightly.
4. Beat egg whites and cream of tartar till frothy (big bubbles), and add in castor sugar in 2 batches. Beat till stiff peak (approx 8-10mins).
5. Gently fold in egg whites in 2 batches and bake in preheated 175C oven for 45mins.

Verdict from my family members is that the cake is very fragrant, and even better than those that sell from the cake shop! Hehee! (Hope they are not lying..)

This recipe is definitely a keeper! I've alr printed it out nice and slide into my recipe folder! Hehehe! I know for sure I'll bake this again real soon!

My Chocolate Chiffon Cake

After finishing my going-to-due report, I decided to reward myself by drowning myself in preparing cake batter, suffocate myself with the fragrance of freshly baked cakes.. Nah, don't worry! I'm not torturing myself, in fact, I enjoy these process!

Shall share with you the pictures of this lovely chiffon cake!


I took this picture when the cake is still in the oven doing sauna.. haha

A slice of cake

Looks abit dense, but trust me, this cake is soft, fluffy and nice!

I find that this arrangement looks like a face! Can you spot the eyes and the mouth (or rather beards)?

I bake the divided the chiffon into 3 smaller pans as I don't have the big chiffon pan, so I utilised the 2 mini chiffon pan from daiso.

Sharing with all of you, this recipe:

Chocolate Chiffon Cake

Ingredients

• 4 egg yolks
  40g cocoa powder (I use 20g hershey's, 20g Valrhora)
  130ml water
  130g sugar (I reduced to 85g)
  ¼ tsp salt (I add only a pinch)
  150g cake flour
  1 tsp baking powder
  85g corn oil
  
  4 egg whites
  90g sugar1/8 tsp cream of tartar

Methods

1. Sieve all dry ingredients together.
2. Add in the egg yolks, water and sugar into the dry ingredients and stir till smooth.
3. Add in corn oil and stir till smooth.
4. Beat egg whites with cream of tartar till frothy and pour in sugar in 3 batches and beat for about 2 minutes till stiff.
5. Gently fold in egg whites into the yolk mixture and pour into a 23-cm chiffon cake pan
6. Bake at 175oC for about 1 hour or until skewer comes out clean.
7. Invert chiffon cake immediately onto a wire rack and let it cool before removing it from pan.
8. Slice and serve.

I got the recipe from Here.

I didn't follow the recipe strictly, I add and minus base on my family preferences.. I add in a tsp of coffee granules (by dissolving it in the 130ml water). But I didn't notice the taste of coffee at all, I think next time I attempt this I will add in 1 tbsp, and a note to myself, I will add in some chocolate liquer into the batter on my next attempt!

By the way, I'm going to get myself a chiffon pan tml after school at phoon huat! Let's welcome more chiffon cakies!! Woo-Hoo!

I really enjoy and love chiffons to bits.. So nice and soft! And I find that stuffing myself silly with chiffon is much more guilt-free than cakes that uses butter, and my family all love chiffons!

School starts tml, and its back to the stressful, busy days.. Welcome reports and practicals!

I love my practical sessions, dealing with chemicals, viruses, bacteria and microbes.. But I totally hate reports that I'll have to pass up.. Imagin dealing with at least 4 (at least 4 pgs) reports per wk.. Gosh, don't wanna imagin that at all..

Alright, I'll have to chase away those negative thoughts and embrace myself to work harder!