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.

Baked Banana

When I first saw this recipe in Chef Gregoire Michaud's Never Skip Dessert last year, I had eagerly bookmarked it. I remember thinking to myself, this is like a creme brulee in a banana - as opposed to the banana in creme brulee which I had made before... :)  The clever quirkiness of this dish appeals to me and the recipe seems easy enough. Chef Michaud had included a Yuzu Thyme Ice Cream as a second component to this dish. I decided I can cut myself some slack and serve it with a store bought vanilla ice cream. Easy peasy, no?



But little had I expected to work through a whole bunch of bananas and still not get a decent shot at this.... Don't get me wrong, the preparation of the baked banana was simple enough and it tasted delicious with a crispy crust of caramelised sugar on top.
What stumped me was that wretched scoop of ice cream! Getting the ice cream to thaw to just the right texture to get a perfect quenelle proved to be especially tricky! By the time I got the ice cream to thaw / freeze right, the bananas had wilted out on me. Then, by the time I baked a second batch of bananas, the sky turned impossibly dark as stormy weather set in.... I had no choice but to do this again the next day and this time round, I decided to just skip the scoop of ice cream altogether.

This is a great great way to serve a tropical dessert. If you like bananas, the sweetness of the fruit pairs really well with the vanilla custard.
Be sure to use a ripe banana to ensure the best flavour and do not get alarmed when your banana turns black in the oven. I actually find it quite cool to plate a charcoal black banana.... :)

Baked Banana

Recipe : (from Never Skip Dessert by Gregoire Michaud)

3 pcs         Large curved bananas

150gm      Milk
150gm      Cream
40g           Sugar
1.5pc        Eggs
1 pc          Vanilla pod (scraped to get vanilla beans)

Method : 
1. Boil milk, cream, sugar and vanilla beans.
2. Strain this into eggs and mix well
3. Preheat oven to 190C.
4. Slice the banana length wise in half.
5. Remove the pulp from the banana. Chop up the pulp and lay a few pieces in the banana skin.
6. Place the banana on a baking tray and fill it with the custard cream.
7. Bake at 190C for 20mins.
8. Remove from oven and sprinkle with sugar. Using a blow torch, caramelise the sugar.