Banana chiffon

This recipe was again taken off my favourite chiffon goddess but for the first time ever, I'm disappointed. The cake came out so short! I think it has to do with the fact that she uses 6 rather than 7 eggs because her pan is 25" and she put in baking soda (not powder) As you can see from the picture, the cake rose to about 1 inch away from the top of my tin but when I initially poured in the batter, it came to less than half of my tin! I was quite shocked and disappointed. I think even if I put in 7 eggs, my tin will be able to handle it because it's 26" not 25" like hers. I looked at her other chiffons which used only 6 eggs for the 25" tin and realised that those had a lot more liquid e.g. milk added in. So the recipe below is proportionately adjusted for an additional egg in a 26" tin and should still work. Oh and another thing - it looks like 160 deg C is really the ideal temp for chiffons. No cracks and no overly brown top and edges! But this is a relatively drier recipe with less liquid in it so it may not work for recipes with more liquid e.g. milk or tea in them, and expanding the baking time would simply dry out the cake too much.

Also, I usually omit the cream of tartar because I realised that the meringue works just as well without but in this instance, since baking soda (not powder) was used, you need an acid to balance out and activate the alkali otherwise there will be a soapy taste. I didn't have cream of tartar but I read elsewhere that any acid e.g. lemon juice or white vinegar works just as well, so here, I substituted with an equal amount of apple cider vinegar.

No cracks!

Perfect flat cake! The middle dome sank just a little.

Source: http://thedomesticgoddesswannabe.com/2015/05/banana-chiffon-cake/

Ingredients

7 eggs, separated

30g (for yolk) + 105g (for whites) sugar - this is the full proportionate recipe amount but can be reduced depending on the sweetness of the bananas

70ml oil

210g banana, mashed

½ tsp vanilla

128g cake flour

¼ tsp baking soda

¼ tsp salt

¼ tsp apple cider vinegar

Method

1) In a very clean bowl, separate out the fridge cold eggs: the yolks from the whites. Set aside to come to room temp. Mash the banana with the salt.

2) Whisk the yolks with the sugar till paler, then add the oil and continue to whisk until paler yellow.

3) Add the mashed banana and vanilla and whisk until well incorporated. It might be a bit lumpy due to the mashed banana.

4) Sift in the baking powder and cake flour and fold carefully. Try not to over beat.

5) Whisk the egg whites and add in the sugar in 3 additions and the apple cider vinegar. Whisk until stiff peaks.

6) Dollop a third of the meringue into the yolk mixture and using the whisk, stir gently to incorporate. Repeat with a second third of the meringue but with more care. Lastly tip everything back into the bowl with the remaining third of meringue. This time, very carefully fold in using the whisk, rotating the bowl as you go. There should be no white streaks remaining.

7) Pour into the ungreased tin. Using a spatula, slash the batter to remove the big air bubbles, taking care to trace around the rim of the tin and also the one. At this point, I also push more batter outwards towards the rim to get a flatter cake as I notice it always tend to dome higher along the cone.

8) Bake at 160 deg C for 60 minutes.

9) Remove tin from the oven and immediately invert onto a tin can or something to elevate. Let it cool completely before carving out of the tin to unmould.