Orange chiffon

Been some time since I've baked chiffons because the weather has just been crazy. However, to celebrate dad's birthday, I decided to bake one albeit 1 day late. When I started on his actual birthday, some of the yolk got into the egg white and had to be discarded. I didn't have enough eggs left to restart, so it had to be postponed to an afternoon later after a trip to the supermarket last evening.

I went back to the recipe by my favourite fail proof chiffon blogger. This is the most number of eggs used - 8 eggs (hence I ran out of eggs) but interestingly, she used 8 egg yolks and 7 egg whites and I hate leftover one or the other, what am I supposed do with a leftover yolk? The rest of her recipe sizes for small cake pans used equal number of yolks and whites, so I surmised that 7 whites was all her largest pan (25cm) could take. Since mine was 26 cm, I decided to go all the way and it proved to be a good decision. This is the fullest and biggest chiffon I've ever made!

Notice how tall it has risen compared to previous chiffon attempts

Also baked at the highest temp amongst all the past chiffons, 180 deg C. Hence the big crack?

The offset spatula leaves a shaggy finish but my knife was scraping OFF aluminium shavings from the side of the pan! :O

Recipe adapted from http://thedomesticgoddesswannabe.com/2014/11/orange-chiffon-cake/

to reduce sugar and increase the egg whites.

Ingredients

8 eggs

57g sugar (for the yolks)

68.5 ml freshly squeezed orange juice (about 1 orange; ¼ C)

½ tsp salt

68.5 ml oil (¼ C)

1.5 tbsp grated orange rind (about 3 oranges; I reduced from 2 tbsp as 1.5 was really good enough)

126g cake flour

140g sugar (for the whites; reduced from 148.5g)

Method

1) In a smaller bowl, whisk the eggs and sugar until pale and creamy.

2) Add the oil and whisk till pale. 

3) Add the salt and orange juice and whisk to incorporate. Add in the orange rind and whisk to incorporate.

4) Sift in the flour and carefully use the whisk to stir in until no lumps remain. Set aside.

5) In a big clean bowl, whisk the egg whites on low speed until foamy and opaque.

6) Add the sugar in 3 additions. Once all the sugar has been added, increase to high speed. Whisk till stiff peaks, stopping periodically after soft peaks to ensure that you don't over beat.

7) Add the meringue to the yolk mixture in 3 batches. The first batch, use it to loosen the yolk mixture. The second batch, carefully fold it in. For the final batch, pour back into the bowl with meringue and very carefully fold in until no white streaks remain.

8) From a height of 10cm, pour into the cake pan. Carefully flatten the top of the cake batter otherwise there will be burnt spots. Ensure that there is more of the batter on the outer than inner edge.

9) Use a spatula to trace around the outer and inner rims. This will burst big bubbles.

10) Bake at 180 deg C for 80 minutes (no grill). I reduced to 175 deg C after 30 minutes as it was browning too fast.

11) Around the 75 minute mark, use the skewer to check for doneness. It should come out clean. If ready, remove immediately and invert it onto a can for the cake to cool.

12) When it has completely cooled (I draped damp towels on it to speed up the cooling process. It still took 1 hour even with constant change of towels on an ambient 30 deg C day!) unmould by running an offset spatula around the edge. Remove the side of the pan and run the spatula under the bottom of the cake. Invert onto a plate (the bottom becomes the top of the cake).