Lemon Lavender Chiffon Cake

I am trying my best to use up the pack of dried lavender given to me by my cyberfriend vb, before it expires in a couple of months' time. I tried baking a lavender pound cake two weeks ago, but it didn't turn out well. The pound cake was a little dry...I suspect I have over baked it, so I won't be posting that recipe until I give it another attempt.

Here's another lavender cake I baked a few days ago, this time it's a lemon lavender chiffon cake.


I love taking pictures of a plain, whole chiffon cake...to me, it is the most photogenic 'model' I have 'worked with'. It looks good even without any frosting or decoration. Somehow, which ever angle I take, the images mostly turn out great. I like how gorgeous the golden crust looks from my view finder...and the hole in the centre, it creates a lot of 'depth' to it...a plain cake without the hole won't look as interesting.


Now, back to the making of this cake. I used a basic chiffon cake recipe and added in 1 teaspoon of dried lavender and some lemon zest. I didn't use too much lavender as I was concerned that the cake would smell like soap ;) Nevertheless, I would probably use up to two teaspoons the next time, as the scent from the lavender was too subtle, or it could be that I have already acquired the taste of lavender in my food :)


Once again, my oven was not performing well whenever I use it to bake a chiffon cake. Despite turning the knob to 190 degC to pre-heat the oven, it gradually dropped to 170 degC during the first 5~10mins, and then went down to 160 degC, refusing to budge even when i turned the knob up to 200 degC! The recommended temperature is 170 degC and so my cake was baked at 10 deg lower. Although it rose up quite high initially, it started to sink all the way down to the rim of the pan when the baking time was up :(


The cake was very very tender and soft. It was so delicate that I sub-consciously handled it with extra gentleness when slicing it. The texture is not as firm or 'springy' compared with the Earl Grey Chiffon cake I made previously. I much prefer that one, although this lavender version was pretty moist. I hope to try another flavour...green tea with red beans soon.


I have been tagged by CY over at Eat First, Diet Later. It's the '7 random facts about myself' meme. I am not sure whether you will find them interesting, but here's my list:

1. I have a driving license but I don't drive, or rather I CAN'T drive!
2. I write better in English but speak better Mandarin. Sometimes I will think in English but verbalise my thoughts in Mandarin, at other times I will think in Mandarin and write in English...isn't that confusing?!
3. I baked my first batch of brownies 8 years ago with a box of Pillsbury premix.
4. I have over 80 fridge magnets and my fridge is not that big ;')
5. I love to visit the Ikea store, I never leave the place without buying something.
6. The first time I stepped into an aircraft, I was on a flight to KL, Malaysia. I was fresh out from school and it was my first business trip, just a month into my first job. It was a Singapore Airlines flight...I guess I was rather excited during the entire 1 hr flight and yet I pretended to look cool ;)
7. Besides baking, I like to grow plants, although most of the time I ended up killing them. Currently, I have one young chili plant which I have grown from seeds, one sprig of rosemary grown from cuttings I brought all the way from the states, two lime seedlings, three pots of money plants, one aloe vera and two new pots of african violets.

I'm tagging the following 7 bloggers, I hope they have fun with this meme :D

1. Elinluv at Elinluv's Tibits Corner
2. Grace at Kitchen Corner
3. Jane at Passionate About Baking
4. MH at My Home Kitchen
5. Missy at Food Haven for the Obasans
6. Ovenhaven at Epicurean Escapism
7. Yuri at Yuri's Bake Journal

Here are the rules for tagging:
Link to my blog (tagger) on your blog.
Give seven facts about yourself.
Tag another seven bloggers by leaving a comment on their blogs and letting them know they were tagged and listing them (and their blogs) on your blog.



Lemon Lavender Chiffon Cake

Ingredients
(makes one 18cm cake)

Ingredients A:
3 egg yolks
20g caster sugar
60ml water
50ml vegetable oil
70g cake flour
3g baking powder
zest of 1 lemon (not included in the original recipe)
1 teaspoon of dried lavender (not included in the original recipe)

Ingredients B:
3 egg whites
40g caster sugar


Method:

1. Sieve flour, baking powder together, set aside.
2. Separate egg yolks/whites and bring to room temperature. (It is easier to separate eggs when they are cold.)
3. Place egg yolks in a mixing bowl, add in sugar, in 3 separate additions and with a manual whisk, whisk till the mixture becomes very sticky and turn pale. (Test by lifting the whisk, once the batter is able to leave a ribbon-like trail behind, you are done. Another way to gauge: your arm should be very tired by now.)
4. Drizzle in the water, whisking at the same time till the mixture is well combined. Repeat the same with the oil. Add in the lemon zest, mix well. Sieve over the flour mixture and whisk until flour mixture is fully incorporated into the batter.
5. In a clean, dry mixing bowl, beat egg whites with an electric mixer until mixture becomes frothy and foamy. Gradually beat in the sugar and beat on high speed until just before stiff peaks form* (after note: after several attempts at baking chiffon cakes, I learned that the whites should be beaten until just before stiff peaks form).
6. Add the beaten egg white into the egg yolk batter in 3 separate additions, each time folding gently with a spatula until just blended. Fold in the dried lavender.
7. Pour batter into a 18cm (7 inch) tube pan (do not grease the pan). Tap the pan lightly on a table top to get rid of any trapped air bubbles in the batter.
8. Bake in pre-heated oven at 170 degC for 35 ~ 40mins or until the cake surface turns golden brown, and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.
9. Remove from the oven and invert the pan immediately. Let cool completely before unmould. To remove the cake from the pan, run a thin-bladed knife around the inside of the pan and the center core. Release the cake and run the knife along the base of the pan to remove the cake. Dust with icing sugar if desired.

Recipe adapted from: 超爱精巧小甜点