Weekend Baking Session # 4

Chiffon cake is my favourite type of cake. It is light, airy, spongy, soft and flavourful. It has a unique texture. To gain this texture, instead of butter, vegetable oil is used.

Traditionally, chiffon cakes are baked in tube pans but it can always be baked in round cake pans as well. As I do not have a tube pan, I too bake it in a round pan.

The rules when baking chiffon cake are, never grease the pan. Secondly, do not deflate the egg white when mixing, while it acts as an important leavening agent for the cake. Thirdly, after baking, immediately turn the pan up side down. The reason is to prevent the cake from shrinking and loosing it’s volume.

For this weekend, I choose to bake Coffee Chiffon Cake for the Weekend Baking Session as it is my favourite chiffon cake flavour. I have baked it many times. Even for our wedding anniversary last year, I baked and frosted a coffee chiffon cake. Hubby dear was very much impressed.

Coffee Chiffon Cake

What do we need:

A
1 cup cake flour or plain flour
1/4 cup sugar
3 egg yolks
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/3 cup milk
2 tbsp instant coffee powder or granules
1/4 tsp salt

B
3 egg whites
1/4 cup castor sugar
1/4 tsp cream of tartar

What do we do:

Sift the flour, baking powder and salt together.

Dissolve the coffee powder in the milk. Add the rest of ingredients A.

Beat egg whites and cream of tartar until foamy. Add sugar little by little and beat until stiff peaks form.

Fold 1/3 of the beaten egg white into the coffee mixture to lighten it. Then, pour the lightened coffee mixture into the remaining beaten egg white. Fold gently but quickly and thoroughly to combine both mixtures.

Pour the batter into an ungreased 8″ round cake pan. With a flat knife, quickly cut through the batter a few times to get rid of any very large air bubbles. Bake in a preheated oven at 175° C for about 30 minutes or until a skewer inserted comes out clean. Remove cake from oven and immediately invert the cake pan and let it cool.

When the cake is completely cool, run a knife or a thin spatula around the sides of pan to loosen the cake from the pan.

Can be eaten plain or frosted with favourite frosting as per desired.