Orange and Passionfruit Chiffon

Ever since my last successful chiffon, I've been thinking of baking an Orange and Passionfruit chiffon. I don't know why I chose this combination, perhaps it's due to inspiration from Happy Homebaker's Mango and Passionfruit chiffon. I have always wanted to try an orange chiffon. I thought adding passionfruit is not a bad idea since passionfruit seems to blend in well with orange. I bought a bottle of passionfruit pulps last time when I bought some 爱玉 jelly, so I used it this round.

I recently read from Happy Homebaker that the egg white used in chiffon does not require to be stiff peak, soft peak can do the job too. This is really something very interesting to me. I have always thought that if we cannot achieve stiff peak, the chiffon is bound to fail, or at least that was what most people have been telling me. As a result, I always make sure my whites are beaten to very stiff stage, so much so that you'll have a little difficulty moving the whisk around. The disadvantage is, you'll have a harder time getting the white into the yolk batter evenly (which explains why my chiffons always ended up with white spots in them). This time round, I no longer whisk the whites till super stiff stage. I still achieve stiff peak. I guess I'll need a bit more courage to try baking one with soft peak. LOL......

The chiffon turns out well this time too, thankfully. There wasn't any cracks or volcano eruptions on top. Guess I'm finally beginning to understand my 20L oven a little.



However, my skills for removing the cake still need improvement. Tore the cake a little in the process of getting it off the pan. Too impatient, perhaps.



The texture is springy and moist, just like a sponge. The orange and passionfuit instill a nice fragrance into the cake. The kids, especially the girls, love the cake.





Orange and Passionfruit Chiffon

Ingredients
5 egg yolks
30g sugar
1/2 tsp salt
40g corn oil
70g passionfruit pulp
60g orange juice (from 1 orange)
Rinds from 1 orange

Sift together
130g cake flour
1.5 tsp baking powder

5 egg whites
50g sugar

Method
1. Cream egg yolk and sugar with a hand whisk until sugar dissolve. Add salt and mix well.
2. Add corn oil. Mix well.
3. Mix the passionfruit pulp with the orange juice and add it to the yolk batter. Mix well.
4. Add orange rinds and mix well.
5. Fold in sifted flour mixture with a hand whisk.
6. In a clean bowl, beat egg white till soft peak. Add in sugar in 2 additions and beat till stiff peak.
7. Add 1/3 of the egg white into the yolk mixture to soften it.
8. Fold in the remaining egg white in two rounds until well incorporated.
9. Pour into 21cm tube pan. Knock pan on table top to remove trapped bubbles.
10. Bake at 170C for 45-55 mins. Tent top if it gets too brown. (I bake for 55 mins. Adjust the timing according to your oven.)
11. Invert cake to cool once out of the oven.

Chiffon, I think I'm getting it

If you're a regular reader of my blog, you would know that I sucks at Chiffon cakes. I have never baked one that can be considered successful. All my earlier attempts either looked like volcano eruptions, or they would end up dropping out of the pan when inverted. On that few occasions where they are "eatable", they never achieve the classic brown look.

Mom has been requesting for a mango chiffon ever since I last made her a Yuzu chiffon. I felt bad having delay it for quite some time. So I decided to make her one last weekend. I adapted the recipe from one of my trusted chiffon recipe from Rei. This time round, I let the cake sit in the oven for a longer time, knowing that my oven always required longer time that what is specified in a recipe. I had to tent the cake towards the end to prevent the top from burning. I was very happy that the cake managed to stay in the pan throughout the whole cooling period.

There you go, my first ever browned Chiffon. :)


The texture was right, springy and moist.


One minus point though, the cake didn't smell or taste of mangoes. :( Next time I'll try adding some Jupe all natural Mango paste, as suggested by Gina.

Mom tested the cake. She actually preferred the last cake which was firmer (I think that cake dropped out of the pan during cooling, if I didn't remember wrongly). So next time I must underbake the chiffon if it is for her. ;)

Here's the recipe, for Pearlyn who's requested for it. Hope you have fun baking Chiffon over at England. :)

Mango Chiffon

Ingredients
5 egg yolks
30g sugar
1/2 tsp salt
50g corn oil
130g mango puree

Sift together
130g cake flour
1.5 tsp baking powder

5 egg whites
50g sugar

Method
1. Cream egg yolk and sugar with a hand whisk until sugar dissolve. Add salt and mix well.
2. Add corn oil. Mix well.
3. Add mango puree. Mix well.
4. Fold in sifted flour mixture with a hand whisk.
5. In a clean bowl, beat egg white till soft peak. Add in sugar in 2 additions and beat till stiff peak.
6. Add 1/3 of the egg white into the yolk mixture to soften it.
7. Fold in the remaining egg white in two rounds until well incorporated. I use a hand whisk initially and change to spatula in the last round to give the bottom a final fold.
8. Pour into 21cm tube pan. Knock pan on table top to remove trapped bubbles.
9. Bake at 170C for 45-55 mins. Tent top if it gets too brown. (I bake for about an hour. Adjust the timing according to your oven.)
10. Invert cake to cool once out of the oven.

All things yogurt

I always have problem catching up with my blog. The bakes to be blogged are always accumulating. I wonder how many food bloggers out there are facing the same problem as me. I bake before I could blog the earlier items.

I did three different items with yogurt last week. The first was another Yogurt Chiffon cake. This time I've paired it with Chempedak. This was a total failure, possibly one of the worst Chiffons I've baked this year. The cake didn't drop off the pan during cooling, but this was what I got.



And the result was a dense cake, of course. More of a "Chempedak cheesecake" kind of texture.



I realised yogurt tends to make my cakes dense. Or maybe I'm just bad at the Yogurt-Chiffon combination. All my past yogurt Chiffons didn't turn out well. I don't think I'll be trying this combination anymore, don't want to waste more ingredients.

It's been quite a while since I last made bread. Since I've got quite a fair bit of plain yogurt in my fridge and I didn't feel like making any more yogurt Chiffon, I turned to my tested Yogurt Bread recipe. I added in some Yuzu paste (I got mine from Kitchen Capers retail store at Geylang Bahru) to form a Yuzu Yogurt Bread. It was refreshing. The bread smelled great while baking in the oven. I knead this bread using my normal stand mixer at medium speed. Since it's not meant for heavy duty task, you'll have to make sure you stop the machine frequently to give the dough some turns and to prevent overheating the poor machine.



Yuzu Yogurt Bread

Ingredients
260g bread flour
15g sugar
3g salt
3g yeast
90g plain yogurt
60g fresh milk
15g egg
30g butter
2 tbsp Yuzu paste (about 40g)

Method
1. Mix all dry ingredients together.
2. Add in all wet ingredients except butter and knead to form a dough. Knead for a few minutes till you can stretch the dough a little.
3. Add in butter and knead till smooth and elastic.
4. Shape the dough into a ball. Cover the bowl with a damp cloth or cling-wrap and leave it to proof in a warm place till double its size (about 45 mins).
5. When proofing is completed, punch down the bread dough to release the air.
6. Divide the dough into 3 equal portions. Relax the dough for 10 mins. Roll and shape each portion into an oval log and placed them into a loaf pan.
7. Cover the loaf pan with a cling wrap and allow the dough to go for second proofing until it has reached 80% of the pan.
8. Cover the pan and bake in preheated oven at 170-180C for 50 minutes. My oven loses heat easily. So you may need to adjust the time according to your oven.
9. Remove bread from loaf pan immediately to cool completely.



The bread is soft and fragrant. Do give it a try. I think I'm still better at bread than cakes...lol...



The last yogurt item was some Yogurt Raisin mini cupcakes.





These were more for the kids as the two girls had excursions with the school last week. So I decided to bake these for them to bring as snacks and to finish up my tub of raisins. I had used berry yogurt for these little cuppies. It goes quite well with raisins.

Japanese Sweet Potato Chiffon Cupcakes

I first encountered Japanese Sweet Potato Cake from Rei's blog. I had the honour to try out the cake when Rei brought them to a gathering. It was yummy!

Recently I saw a Japanese lady making it in a YouTube video. At the recent Hokkaido fair, I bought a similar sweet potato custard dessert. That was yummy too, but the sweet potato layer was far too sweet for me.

I decided to try to pair this Japanese Sweet Potato Cake with Chiffon cake in one of my recent Chiffon cake practice. The kids were getting bored with the conventional tube shaped Chiffon, so I thought changing it into cuppies may spice things up a little. The little trick worked. They were happily eating the cuppies without associating them with Chiffon cakes.



I've made the sweet potato cake to be sweeter to go well with my not-so-sweet Chiffon cake. If you like it to be not as sweet, use Rei's recipe.

Japanese Sweet Potato Chiffon Cupcakes

Ingredients

Sweet Potato mixture
550g Japanese Sweet Potatoes
30g butter, soften (suggest to reduce it to 20g)
50ml whipping cream (suggest to reduce it to 40ml)
20g sugar
1 egg yolk

Chiffon Cake layer
(A)
2 egg yolks
15g sugar
20g corn oil
30g milk
40g sweet potato mixture (see below)

(B)
2 egg whites
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
25g sugar

(C)
60g cake flour
3/4 tsp baking powder

Method
For the sweet potato mixture,
1. Steam the sweet potato over medium high heat for about 25-30 mins till cooked. Peel off the skin and mash them up. Net weight of mashed sweet potato is about 470g.
2. Add the remaining ingredients for the sweet potato mixture into the mashed sweet potatoes. I run the mixture in a blender for a smoother finishing. Reserve 40g of the mixture for the Chiffon cake.

For the Chiffon cake,
1. Sift cake flour together with baking powder.
2. Whisk the egg yolk with sugar till sugar dissolves.
3. Add the corn oil, milk and sweet potato mixture to the yolk mixture and mix well.
4. In a separate clean bowl, beat the egg white with cream of tartar till soft peak.
5. Add sugar in 2 separate additions and beat till just initial stage of stiff peak.
6. Gently fold 1/3 of the egg white into the yolk batter. Mix well. Fold in the remaining egg white in 2 additions. Mix well each time.



To assemble,
1. Fill 1/3 of small paper cup with the sweet potato mixture. Smoothen the mixture with a teaspoon.
2. Fill the remaining paper cup with the Chiffon batter till 80% full. Gently bang the paper cups on the table top to get rid of any trapped bubbles.
3. Bake the cupcakes in preheated oven at 170°C for about 25 mins.
Note: My oven usually takes longer to bake the cake. So you may need to reduce your baking time according to your oven.

This cupcake is ideally served with a spoon so that you can scoop the Chiffon and sweet potato layers together. Enjoy! :)

Crazy over Chiffon

Finally I can access my PC! My monitor has been taking non-approved time off as and when it likes to. For the past 1 week or so, I have no access to my PC as the monitor just show me a blank white screen whenever I tried to turn it on. This is not the first time it happens and I anticipate it will not be the last. So here I am, with tonnes of backlogs to update since I've been churning out things from my kitchen for the past week. I hope I can complete my updates before the monitor takes its next long break again.

I finally understand why some of the bakers out there couldn't stop baking Chiffon cakes, especially if they've succeeded after many tries. Chiffon is very addictive to bake (and eat) indeed. It is light and not as oily and hence a "healthier" version of cake to feed into my ever expanding tummy.

Since I wasn't completely successful in Chiffon yet (it really very much depends on my luck), I continued to bake Chiffon in different flavours. The kids are obviously getting a bit tired of Chiffon. They used to be able to finish a 21cm Chiffon in 2 days, now it usually takes a few days. They didn't complain, just not as interested to eat mummy's cake. Sorry kids, practice makes perfect. So until your mummy gets it right confidently, you'll probably be seeing more versions of Chiffon on your dining table.

After my last failed Mango Yogurt Chiffon, I decided to try on a "normal" Chiffon. I chose to bake a Chocolate flavoured one this time. I did the cake twice, as I find the Chocolate flavour to be too mild in the first trial. I was hoping to achieve a real Chocolatey Chiffon.

I tried not to overbeat the egg whites. Not too sure if I've succeeded but this is how my egg white looks like.




I did a mistake for the first cake. I popped it into the oven and went to shower (bad move!), thinking it'll take at least 30 minutes to be baked. My oven ended up too hot. There was a hole in the cake near the tube of the pan.



Other than that, the cake looked better than my Mango Yogurt Chiffon. The holes were not as big and it was taller.




For my second attempt, I had used melted dark chocolate instead of cocoa powder. It tasted better, but still not what I deem as real chocolatey. Will continue to experiment more in future. Do you think the second cake looks better compared to my first?

Maybe that's the way it should be?

As mentioned in my last post, I suspect I could have over beaten my egg whites whenever I did my Chiffon cakes. I watched these videos from 周老師 yesterday. They are of great help.

Chiffon Cake Part 1
Chiffon Cake Part 2
Chiffon Cake Part 3

Last night I couldn't contain my excitement after watching the videos, so I had to bake the same Chiffon cake again early this morning. This time round, I used speed 3 (instead of 4) of my mixer. After I had achieved the curved tip (which is supposedly soft peak), I took care to check every 1-2 minutes. Once the tip could stand without falling when the beaters were turned upwards, I went on for another few seconds, then stopped. The resulting egg white was softer than what I usually had. With the softer egg white, mixing it into the yolk batter was easier. I did not see as many specks of white in the batter as I mixed. HHB, if you're reading this, maybe that could be the reason too for your specks of white.

The cake rose higher in the oven even though the amount of batter looked the same as my previous rounds.


It looked ok too straight out of the oven.


But after it had cooled completely, it looked very much the same as my previous trial,


although when released from the pan, it looked so deceivingly perfect. I wonder if it's due to my oven being too hot.


The big holes are still there. I reckon they could be due to the mango pieces added?


So, you be my judge. Can this be considered a successful Chiffon? Or am I just being too picky? I don't know, but I have this bad habit of wanting things to be as perfect as possible.

For those who wish to try, here's the recipe. It's an almost fat-free cake as there is no oil/butter in the recipe. Maybe that's why it's not behaving as it should? Should you have a chance to try, please let me know whether you can get a nice cake.

Mango Yogurt Chiffon Cake (Adapted from Rei's Blueberry Yogurt Chiffon Cake)

Ingredients
(A)
40g Castor sugar
4 egg yolks
100g mango yogurt
80g fresh mango, diced into small pieces

(B) Mix together and sieved 2 times
120g cake flour
1.5 tsp baking powder

(C)
5 egg whites
1/2 tsp cream of tartar
40g sugar

Method
1. Whisk egg yolks and sugar till the sugar dissolves.
2. Add the mango yogurt and mango. Stir to mix well.
3. Stir in sifted flour mixture and mix well.
4. Using electric mixer, beat egg white and cream of tartar in another clean bowl till soft peak.
5. Add sugar in 3 separate additions and beat till just initial stage of stiff peak.
6. Gently fold 1/3 of the egg white into the yolk batter. Mix well.
7. Pour the yolk batter into the remaining egg white and fold in/mix till blended.
8. Pour the batter into a 21cm tube pan and smooth the batter evenly with a spatula. Bang the pan once to get rid of any trapped bubbles.
9. Bake in preheated oven at 180°C for 45-50 mins till the top is golden brown and a skewer inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.
Note: The temperature and time is for my oven. Other ovens may need only 35-40 mins.
10. Remove from the oven and invert the pan immediately. Cool the cake completely before unmoulding.

Chiffon Cake - Unsuccessful again :(

Sigh...sigh...sigh...

My Chiffon skill is obviously "not there" yet. I tried making a slightly different recipe yesterday. The cake ended up in my "not so perfect" category.



You might think the above looks nice, but this cake shrank miserably once out of the oven.



Although on the whole it tasted like a Chiffon, the top portion (the shrinking layer) tasted a little rubbery. There were big holes in the cake though I had given the pan a bang before sending it into the oven.



I suspect I could have over beaten the egg whites a little. Although it didn't separate into liquid, it was very stiff and a bit difficult to fold in. Maybe that explains why I always have little specks of white in the batter.

In 周老师's tips on Chiffon, she mentioned that

"用機器打時，同一盆裡每個地方的發泡程度會有不同，需要不時停下來以大橡皮刀將盆邊的蛋白刮下來，全體輕輕拌兩下，同時測試一下是否可以拉出不下垂的尖峰。如果下垂，當然還不夠，如果拉不出尖峰，那就打過頭了。"

Meaning, if you can't pull the egg white to achieve a tip, it has been over beaten. That could very possibly be my problem as I always have difficulty testing for stiff peak. There wasn't much of a peak to test with, mine was just a whole chunk of stiff egg white when I pull the beater up.

I'm going to try this same recipe again tomorrow, bearing in mind not to over beat the egg white. Stay tune for my update then.

The "myth" is broken

I was quite convinced that my past failures on Chiffon cakes were due to my oven. So I was quite prepared not to attempt Chiffon cakes again until I change to a "better" oven. But the oven is still very new and can last me at least another few years. So occasionally, my heart will still itch to give it a try.

Last week I decided to try my luck again. This time, I chose one of Rei's recipe to experiment since she's got great success in Chiffon cakes and I deem her as one of the Chiffon gurus. I modified from her Banana Chiffon Cake into a Strawberry Chiffon as I've got 3 boxes of strawberries sitting in the fridge. This is what I get, a pretty pink fellow.



This wasn't totally successful as the cake dropped out of the pan after inverting the pan. Although I've used the same pan size (21cm) as Rei, the cake did not rise over the rim. It was in fact a little below the rim.



The batter could not reach the datum. I must have overfold the white a little and deflated it partially. I'm still quite bad at this. Despite it being a not-so-perfect cake, the texture seemed right, springy and airy.



So the following day, I decided to make a second attempt, in attempt to correct the mistakes earlier. The batter still couldn't reach the datum.



And the final height of the cake is only slightly higher than my first version.



I had reminded myself to let the cake bake longer since the first one was underbaked (which was why it dropped out of the pan). It took my oven around 50 minutes before I decided to remove the cake for cooling. After I inverted the pan, I kept peeping to see if the cake was going to drop. This time round it stayed in the pan obediently throughout the entire cooling process.

I wasn't very good at removing the cake, or maybe it was still a little underbaked. It wasn't as brown as some other Chiffons I've seen. Actually, apart from the cake dropping out of the pan, I actually prefer the color of the first cake to this. It has a nice sweet pink tone.



Texture wise is similar to my earlier attempt.



So I guess I can finally announce I have made a successful Chiffon?

Strawberry Chiffon Cake

Ingredients
(A)
50g Castor sugar
4 egg yolks
130g strawberry puree
50g corn oil
4-5 drops of pink color (I use Rose Pink)

(B) Mix together and sieved 2 times
120g cake flour
1.5 tsp baking powder

(C)
5 egg whites
1/2 tsp cream of tartar
40g sugar

Method
1. Whisk egg yolks and sugar till the sugar dissolves.
2. Add the strawberry puree, oil and coloring. Stir to mix well.
3. Stir in sifted flour mixture and mix well.
4. Using electric mixer, beat egg white in another clean bowl till frothy and foamy. Add in cream of tartar and beat till soft peak.
5. Gradually add in sugar and beat till stiff peak.
6. Gently fold the egg white into the yolk batter in 3 separate additions till blended.
7. Pour the batter into a 21cm tube pan and smooth the batter evenly with a spatula. Bang the pan once to get rid of any trapped bubbles.
8. Bake in preheated oven at 180°C for 45-50 mins till the top is golden brown and a skewer inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.
Note: The temperature and time is for my oven. Other ovens may need only 35-40 mins.
9. Remove from the oven and invert the pan immediately. Cool the cake completely before unmoulding.


Besides Chiffon cake, these are a few other items I've churned out last week.

Bacon Sausage Roll


Pizza


Sushi (Mayo egg and crabstick with lychee)


Enjoy!

Chiffon Cake Attempt 2 @ 2009

I've just finished baking another Chiffon Cake. You know, sometimes you've just got that die-hard desire to do something, especially when you didn't get it right.

If you're hoping to see some success story, you'll be disappointed. I still couldn't get it right. Sigh! Is Chiffon really not meant for me?

Ok, enough groaning and moaning. This is the proportion of ingredients I've used. Maybe some gurus can help me decipher the problem.

120g plain flour
1.5 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
4 egg yolks
60g oil
100g water
1.5 tbsp Black Sesame powder

4 egg whites
1/2 tsp cream of tartar
120g sugar

I read Rei's tips on Chiffon Cake before I started. Based on my understanding, the above proportion should yield a 75% hydration. Is that too high?

These are the few problems with my cake.

Top cracked


The cake started cracking while in the oven. I baked it at 170°C. Seems to be an indication to me that the oven is too hot.

Cake slipped off the pan and sunk in after the pan was overturned


Analysing the tips, there is a possibility that
- the cake was under baked and/or
- the oven temperature was too high

Specks of white in the cake


Again one of my usual problems that I've yet to overcome even after a year.

Despite it being a failed product, I must say the cake is really eatable, luckily. It is very soft (compared to the last attempt) and not dry at all. Even the kids love it.

I'll probably try it again later.


Mood: disappointed