Coffee Chiffon Cake

I did it! I did it!! I did it!!!

Yeah, I finally made it. I have succeeded in making my very own chiffon cake! This, without having to half any recipe and without using a chiffon tin!

God knows how many eggs I have wasted in this little experiment of mine. I was successful once following the instructions found in Wendy's blog but I halved the recipe and used a 8" angel cake tin, so it kind of looked flat and since it was my first successful try then, I am not sure if I did it correctly.

Then I tried it again and failed. I tried another recipe and failed. Then I gave up. I think my egg white beating was to blame. If not, it must be my folding technique as I am not known to be gentle.

I was so disappointed in myself that Hubby borrowed an interesting book called "The Science of Cooking" and got me to read. It was a boring book... very technical and it couldn't tell me when is considered stiff peak form. However, it taught me a few things to note... my oven could be too hot. The air bubbles formed when beating egg whites should be small in order to be stable i.e. do it at low speed. Air bubbles if coated with something e.g flour will strengthen its structure and hold better. Oddly, the book also said that after it has been baked, dropping the cake tin from a height of about 30cm will help the cake hold its structure as the air bubbles will now change their forms. It did not mention about inverting the cake.

So this time round, I searched and found a smaller portion recipe from Small Small Baker which I tried to half once and didn't do so well the previous time. But I remembered the coffee flavor had me hooked and thinking about it for
a long time. And this time round, with the help of science, I did it!!!

As this is the very first time I am un-moulding from the tin and I had no serrated knife, I just used the normal cutlery that we have. Not fantastic and didn't do the cake justice as I kind of flatten it while cutting but good enough for me. Hee... I am so into chiffon cakes now.

Coffee Chiffon Cake

Ingredients (6-inch round tin with removable base)
2 egg yolks
20g caster sugar (I used only 10g)
1 tbsp instant coffee powder
20ml milk
20ml cooking oil
40g self-raising flour

2 egg whites
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
50g caster sugar (I used only 35g)
3g corn flour *my own addition with tips from Kitchen Corner's blog

Method

1. Preheat oven to 170 deg C.
2. Whisk egg yolks and sugar till pale and runny.
3. Stir instant coffee powder with milk until the coffee powder dissolves.
4. Add the coffee mixture and oil into the egg yolk batter. 
5. Sift flour into batter and whisk.
6. Beat egg whites till bubbly. Add cream of tartar and beat till foamy and soft peak stage.Gradually add in sugar and beat until stiff peaks form. Add cornflour and beat slightly. (Egg whites should not move when bowl is tilted or inverted)
7. Fold 1/3 beaten egg whites into egg yolk batter until blended i.e. no white streaks. Add the rest of egg whites into batter until blended.
8. Pour batter into ungreased 6-inch round tin. Have a few quick knocks with the tin against a table to level the batter and break surface bubbles.
9. Bake in preheated oven at 170 deg C for 30 mins. (I baked mine at 170 deg C for the 1st 10 minutes, then 160 deg C for 10 mins and 150 deg C for the next 5 mins as my oven is hotter than normal. The first 20mins I placed an aluminum foil over the cake and only remove it at the last 5 mins to brown it nicely.) 
10. Remove from oven and invert cake immediately until it is completely cool. (I removed it and dropped it at a height of around 30cm. The top kind of flattened and leveled off but did not shrink. Then I invert it to cool.)