My Kitchen Lab

In between my bread baking frenzy, I was pretty much involved in conducting experiments with chiffon cakes. It is a cinch to make a chiffon cake...everything can be done within 30mins, and that includes cleaning up. Unlike bread making, even if I ended up with a flat layer of foam board, I don't have to nurse my sore arms and shoulders for the next few days.

Chemistry happens to be my worst subject in school. Many a times, my experiments were not able to yield the desired outcome, even though I followed the steps closely. It is also not uncommon for me to break a test-tube or two, or destroy the test samples. Most of the time I ended up copying the test results from my friends (^^')

So, it is not a surprise when I failed miserably on my first attempted to make a matcha cranberries (my short-cut version of adzuki beans) chiffon. With the newly acquired knowledge that matcha powder tends to absorb moisture from batter (bakes made with matcha powder tends to be on the dry side), I added one extra tablespoon of water into the yolk batter. This small amount caused the batter to become so thin and runny that I had problem folding in the whites. It didn’t help that I beat the whites to stiff peaks, ie when the paddle of my handheld mixer was lifted up the peaks were pointing 90 degree upwards. Naturally, I deflated most of the whites, and the final batter was so thin that it only filled 50-60% of the tube pan. The cake did rise all the way to the brim during baking, but after it was cooled, it shrank at least an inch below the rim. The cake, although edible, didn’t taste good as I have added too much matcha powder, and I have to conclude that cranberries and matcha don't really go well hand in hand :(

Lessons learned: do not play around with the ingredient amount especially when you are making delicate cakes like a chiffon; when forcing a marriage between two different ingredients do not expect a fairy tale ending.

My second experiment with a nutella version needs further ‘analysis’, and probably requires another follow-up experiment before I could draw any meaningful conclusion :_(

My third experiment with a banana chiffon cake was a great success. Well, it is actually not an experiment since I followed the ingredient amount to a T. The only difference is the way I prepared the batter. I did not follow the instructions as stated in the cookbook. This time, I stick to my usual way of making a chiffon…steps that I am already familiar with. For example, the recipe recommends using a mixer to beat the yolks, I choose to do it with my manual whisk. It also recommends beating the whites before the yolks. This is something I won’t follow as I find it troublesome having to whisk the whites again just before mixing it into the yolk batter. Or rather, I worry I would over beat the whites. I didn't even heed the advice of using fresh eggs, even though I have learned that fresher eggs will produce meringue which is more stable. I left it to the cornstarch to work its wonders to stablise the egg whites.

Although the instruction says to beat the whites till stiff, I make it a point to stop whisking once it has reached the soft peak stage. The peaks curl and droop over when the paddle was lifted up. This really makes the folding later much easier. The only problem I faced was, I couldn’t tell whether those tiny lumps in the batter were the whites or were they the tiny chunks of banana (^^”)

The final batter was quite thick and it filled up 80% of the pan. The cake expanded quite nicely during baking, although I wished the batter could climb higher. It didn’t shrink much upon cooling and I was quite satisfied with the height of the cake.

This chiffon cake passed my taste test with flying colours. Besides being so light and tender, it was super moist! I must thank the person who first started baking with bananas! I attribute the flavourful and moist texture of this cake to the sweet, over-ripped bananas. Allow me to exaggerate…it was almost like eating a slice of ‘cloud’. I have bookmarked another 3 recipes from this book (戚风蛋糕秘法传授) and I can’t wait to try them, hopefully my next baking experiment will be as successful as this one. Wish me luck ☺



Banana Chiffon Cake

Ingredients:
(for 17cm or 7" tube pan)
(measurements in brackets are for 20cm or 8" tube pan)

40g  (70g)    egg yolks
20g  (30g)    water
40g  (70g)    vegetable oil
55g  (90g)    banana, mashed
55g  (90g)    cake flour
85g  (140g)  banana, diced
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract (optional)

110g (180g)  egg whites (cold from fridge)
55g    (90g)  caster sugar
5g     (10g)   corn flour

Method:

1. Sieve cake flour, set aside. Sieve corn flour, set aside. 
2. Place egg yolks, water, vegetable oil, vanilla extract (if using) and mashed banana in a mixing bowl. With a manual hand whisk, whisk the mixture to combine. Sieve over the cake flour and whisk till the flour is fully incorporated and the mixture becomes smooth and sticky. Add the diced bananas and mix to combine.
3. In a clean, dry mixing bowl, beat egg whites with an electric mixer on low speed until mixture becomes frothy and foamy. Turn to high speed and gradually beat in the sugar, 1 tablespoon at a time, add in the corn flour together with the last tablespoon of sugar. Beat until the egg whites reaches the soft peak stage.The soft peak stage is reached when the peaks of the whites curl over and droop slightly. The egg whites should appear smooth and glossy. (Do not over beat the whites still stiff, it is better to beat the whites still soft peaks for easy folding with the yolk batter.)
4. Add the beaten egg white into the egg yolk batter in 3 separate additions, each time folding gently with a spatula until just blended.
5. Pour batter into a 17cm 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.
6. Bake in pre-heated oven at 160 degC for 35 mins, (for 20cm pan bake for 50 mins) or until a skewer inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. (When lightly pressed the cake will spring back). Remove from the oven and drop the pan at a height of 20~30cm onto a table top. This action helps to keep the springy texture of the cake when it is left to cool.
7. Invert the pan immediately and 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.

Recipe source: adapted from 戚风蛋糕秘法传授 by Noriko Ozawa