Angel Chiffon Cake

Light as feather, soft as a whisper.... that's how I would imagine an Angel's kiss to be and that is exactly how this cake felt to me. I now wish that I had the sense to make this earlier. Thanks to the left over egg whites from my Mocha Kueh Lapis and to the fact that I could only spare 15mins to potter around in the kitchen, I decided to settle on this straight forward chiffon cake recipe.





The recipe uses only egg whites, a smidgen of salad oil (I used canola oil) and a light dose of powdered sugar to yield a cake that is so moist and tender with a hint of barely there sweetness. The subtle taste and the pale white colour of the fine pored cake evokes a sense of serenity and poise that is so synonymous with its name. I imagine this to be delicious with a dollop of whipped cream or a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

Another big plus for those who hate cleaning up after baking, this recipe is a breeze to clean for there is no oily, buttery, creamy mess. The meringue and the batter rinses out instantly with a tiny drop of washing detergent.

So have you been touched by the Angel yet?


Angel Chiffon Cake
Recipe (For a 17cm Chiffon Cake Mold)
40ml Salad Oil (Canola/ Grapeseed oil)
80ml Milk

70g All purpose flour ( I used top flour)
1/3tsp Salt
1/4tsp Vanilla extract

200g Egg white
70g Powdered sugar (Icing Sugar)

Method :
1. Preheat oven to 170C.
2. In a mixing bowl, mix oil and milk together with a hand whisk.
3. Sift flour and salt into (2) and mix well with hand whisk until a smooth paste is formed and no lumps are visible.
4. In another clean mixing bowl, add egg whites and powdered sugar. Mix with a mixer fitted with a balloon whisk until soft white peaks are formed.
5. Add 1/3 of meringue from (4) into (3) and mix well. Add the remaining meringue and fold to combine using a rubber spatula.
6. Pour batter into chiffon pan and bake at 170C for 40mins.
7. Remove cake from oven and cool by standing the pan upside down.

Blood Orange Chiffon Cake With Blood Orange Jelly

I was feeling ambitious when I finally managed to find some Blood Orange in Singapore. I dreamt about making one of those glorious Blood Orange desserts featured in Justin North's Becasse. Something gourmet enough to be served in a (dare I dream) hatted restaurant. Then, I dithered, procrastinated, went on to Korea for a business trip and by the time I got back, relented completely.
Not wanting to waste the hard to come by Blood Orange, I decided to revisit the Chiffon -my favourite cake genre. Chiffon, because it is light so I can dabble and serve it with a side accompaniment like a blood orange flavoured fresh cream or ice cream. In the end, I experimented with a Blood Orange Jelly.


The Blood Orange did not do much for the chiffon, not for the colour nor for the flavour. Although the juice is a dark bloody ruby red, it doesn't stain well (unlike the blueberries or the raspberries). The flavour is less vibrant than the normal orange, the zesty sprite very much mellowed by the slight bitterness of the blood orange. Hence I was glad that I had chosen to make a jelly with it - that at least allowed the true character of the fruit to manifest.


A couple more words about the Chiffon - I had said it before here and I will remain stubborn and maintain that I like my chiffon recipes, pure and simple - relying solely on a well beaten meringue sans leavening agents or stabilisers like cream of tartar. I went through the crazy phase of baking 1-2 chiffons every day just to practice and make sure that I get familiar with the right 'end point' for the meringue. A meringue that is a tad too stiff makes it difficult to fold evenly into the cake batter (symptoms include clumps of egg white spotting the cake) . On the other hand, a meringue that is too runny, would result in a sunken cake. The right consistency meringue (with a droopy peak) will deliver a cake that is fine, light and most important of all MOIST!
I am glad this cake turn out right and I have just reminded myself that I will have to do this often before I lose touch with it.

Recipe :
Chiffon
                                           17cm Pan         20cm Pan
Egg Yolk                             40g                  80g
Castor Sugar A                   40g                   80g
Salad Oil                             40ml                 80ml    (I use Canola Oil but corn oil, grapeseed oil are fine)
Top flour / All purpose         80g                  160g
Salt                                      1/8 tsp             1/4 tsp
Bld Orange Juice                  80ml                160ml  (you can replace with normal orange juice)
Grated orange peel               1/3 tsp             2/3 tsp
Contreau                              1 tbsp              2 tbsp
Egg white                             160g                280g
Sugar B                                30g                  60g

Method :
1. Preheat oven to 170C.
2. Using a hand whisk, beat egg yolk with 1/3 of Sugar A until sugar completely dissolves. Add the remaining sugar in 2 portions and whisk until dissolved and egg yolk mixture becomes smooth.
3. Add oil and beat well with hand whisk. Add orange juice, contreau and orange peel. Mix well to combine.
4. Add sifted flour and salt and mix well to get a smooth batter.
5. In a clean mixing bowl, beat egg white until slightly foamy. Add sugar B in 3 additions. Beat until meringue forms a soft peak. The peak should be droopy and not stiff and pointy.
6. Fold 1/4 of (5) into (4) and mix thoroughly to combine.
7. Fold the rest of the egg white gently into (6) until batter is well incorporated. Take care not to deflate meringue too much.
8. Pour (7) into a chiffon cake mold and bake at 170C for 35mins.
9. Remove cake from oven and invert the cake pan to cool. (i normally slot the chimney through the neck of a long slender wine bottle.)
10. Leave to cool over night before unmolding.

Blood Orange Jelly
1. Mix 8g of gelatine with 50ml of water.
2. Pulp blood orange fruit in a blender to get 250ml of liquid pulp.
3. Place (2) in a saucepan. Add 25g of sugar and 1 tsp of lemon juice. Heat until just before boiling. Add (1) and stir until fully dissolved.
4. Cool down and refrigerate to set.

Marron Chiffon Cake - 栗のシフォンケーキ

The Chiffon Cake is decidedly my favourite cake. I favour it because it is light, cottony and low fat. I believe there are many out there who like this cake for the same reason as I do. I am quite confident in whipping up a basic chiffon - the basic pandan chiffon, orange chiffon etc do not intimidate me. However, as with most meringue based confectionery, the chiffon can become fickle and delicate when you try to disturb it.

I strive to be adventurous when I cook/bake and with the chiffon, I always have to brace myself for failures when I try something new. I've had my fair share of frustrations when I tried to introduce fresh fruits into the recipe. Chocolate, too destabilise the egg white and I remember baking 3 chocolate chiffon cakes, one after another, before I managed to get an intact, chocolate rich airy chiffon cake.

It has been quite a while since I last baked a chiffon cake and it was only when I saw the can of Marron Puree which I had bought in Japan last year, that I was prompted to re-visit the chiffon cake again. One of my favourite chiffon cake recipe book is Chiffon Cake Special Recipe by Kozawa Noriko (小沢のり子) . There are 25 recipes in the book and non-of them are plain chiffon cake. The Marron Chiffon Cake tries to recreate the Mont Blanc using a chiffon cake base. Incorporated into the cake is a blend of Marron Puree, Marron Paste and cooked Chestnut. Noriko had frosted the chiffon with whipped cream before topping it off with Marron Puree whipped cream.  I have decided to do away with the frosting as I do not want to risk ruining the cake with my lousy frosting skills.

The challenge of introducing solids into a chiffon is ensuring the meringue stays stable -otherwise, it may give way to huge voids upon baking. I don't like to add baking powder or cream of tartar when I bake my chiffon - I have this TWISTED VIEW that using baking powder and cream of tartar in a chiffon cake is cheating... but that is just me, no offense intended. Call me a chiffon cake purist but that is how I like my chiffon cake - I like to stare intensely at the egg white while they are being whipped to the right stiffness. And because I like my chiffon cake to have a soft and moist texture, I need to be very careful not to beat the meringue into spiky stiffness. The meringue should be beaten to yield firm peaks - firm enough to support the weight of the bubble whisk but still yield a slightly droopy hook at the end of the peak - that is my end point cue.





This is my first attempt at the Marron Chiffon and apart from 2 visible small holes on the cake surface, I would say that this has been a successful attempt. I am a little suprised by the elegant taste that the Marron paste and puree have imparted to the cake - made all the more pleasant with the Marron puree cream. Also, I believe I can try to use more cooked chestnut bits to yield a more fulfilling bite next time.

My next chiffon cake challenge? I have not quite decided yet. 4 down (Blueberry, Murasaki Imo, Marron and Pumpkin) - 21 more to go.



Recipe

Meringue
Egg White 110g
Sugar 55g
Corn Startch 5g

Egg Yolk Base

Egg Yolk 40g
Water  50g
Canola Oil  40g
Marron Paste  35g
Marron Puree  35g
Flour  55g
Diced Cooked Chestnut  90g

Cream
Fresh cream   20g
Marron Puree 20g

Method  :

1. Preheat oven to 160C.

2.In a mixing bowl,  add egg yolk, water and oil. Beat mixture at low speed until foamy. Add in Marron paste and puree.  Add flour and continue beating at low speed until thick and gluey.Fold in diced marron.

3. In a seperate mixing bowl, whip egg white until foamy. Add the sugar and cornstarch mixture in 3 additions. Whip egg white until firm but not stiff. I generally whip the egg white until the tip of the foam would still droop a little. The foam should be able to support the weight of your bubble whip.

4. Add 1/3 of meringue into egg & flour batter. Fold well to mix.

5. Stir remaining meringue to ensure no separation. Add half of the remaining meringue into (4). Fold carefully to combine.

6. Add all remaining meringue to (5) and fold carefully to combine.

7. Pour into a 17cm chiffon pan. Bake at 160C for 15 mins.

8. Remove from oven and immediately invert chiffon pan to cool.

9. Cool down completely before removing cake from pan. Slice the cake and serve with whipped marron cream.