Tri-Flavoured Chiffon Cake 三味戚风蛋糕

Chiffon Cake, a light and airy cake which is popular among Asian. There are many different recipes and may be "rules" for baking a successful chiffon cake (which the cake sponge will not collapse or shrink a lot, once the cake is out from the oven). I used to adhere to my pandan chiffon cake recipe which I baked a lot recently for fundraiser.  

In this Tri-flavoured Chiffon Cake recipe, first rule is "you have to know your oven", yes, as simple as the rule yet very difficult for us baker to remember the fundamental baking rule. I placed an oven thermometer in my oven to monitor the actual temperature while baking the chiffon cake. 

In my recipe, I don't use cream-of tartar and baking powder. Beat the egg whites to the exact soft peak is very important. Combine the meringue into egg yolks mixture by using the correct folding technique is crucial for a successful chiffon cake. Yes, even I abide with the above rules I still encounter many times of unsuccessful bakes. We are human after all. ^^ There are many factors contributed to it, for instance, water in the mixing bowl, oily unclean cake pan., etc. 

(18cm chiffon cake pan)
Ingredients for egg yolk mixture:
4 egg yolks
20 g sugar
50 ml olive oil
50 ml thick coconut milk
90 g cake flour
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp strawberry essence
a drop of pink food colouring
1/2 tsp coffee emulco 
a drop of brown food colouring
a drop of pandan paste

Ingredients for meringue:
5 egg whites
50 g sugar
a pinch of salt

Method:

1. In a bowl, hand whisk egg yolks and sugar until the sugar dissolves and the egg yolks is light and pale. 

2. Add vanilla extract, olive oil and coconut milk. Mix well.

3. Sift in the cake flour in three batches, mix well.

4. Divide the batter into three equal portions with a spoon (I didn't weight my cake batter)

5. Add strawberry essence and a drop of pink food colouring to one portion of batter. Mix well.

6. In another portion of batter, add coffee emulco and a drop of brown food colouring. Mix well.

7. For the remaining batter, add a drop of pandan paste. Mix well.

8. In a clean KitchenAid mixing bowl, add egg whites and a pinch of salt. Mix with speed 4 for a while until bubbles form. Turn the mixing speed to 10, add in sugar in three batches. Beat the egg whites until soft peak stage. 

9. Scoop two heap tablespoons of meringue into each batter respectively. Stir well each batter to break down the mixture. Then divide the remaining meringue into three equal portions, gently fold in the meringue into each egg yolks batter.

10. Pour the batters into a chiffon pan layer by layer. Use a spatula to even out the surface of each layer. Gently tap the cake pan against the tabletop to remove trapped air bubbles.

11. Bake in preheated oven at 140~150C for 55 mins. or toothpick come out clean.

12. Once baked, remove the cake pan from oven, invert the cake pan to let it cool down completely. 

13. Dislodge the cake only when it is cool.