Chiffon Cake - Original Flavor (原味戚風蛋糕)

Have you ever been to a Chinese bakery where you see them selling those well-decorated birthday cakes? Have you ever tasted the cake texture, along with whipped cream and fruits? If you haven't, do yourself a favor. Make one. This chiffon cake is famous throughout the world because it's so delicious on its own, as well as with whipped cream and fruits or other flavors like jam, chocolate, etc. You will absolutely fall in love with its texture - soft, spongy, and fluffy. The rich egg smell is irresistible. In addition, the reason for why i was so interested in learning how to make it was because I wanted to make those awesome birthday cakes you see in bakeries for my family and friends. I recalled that we used to buy 3 cakes in February because me, my brother, and my mom's birthdays are all in February (what an coincident!). The funny thing is that my birthday and my mom's birthday are just 2 days apart. If she chose to born me on her birthday instead of delaying till the 25th, she'd have saved the money to buy an extra birthday cake for me every year. LOL 

Chiffon Cake - Original Flavor 原味戚風蛋糕:

Adapted from 飞雪无霜

Makes one 8" cake
Prep time: 20mins
Cook (bake) time: 1 hr

Ingredients

• 5 eggs
• white sugar 70g - separate into 50g and 20g
• 85g cake flour, sifted
• 50g vegetable oil
• 50g water
• 1g salt

Method

1. Separate egg yolk and egg white. Make sure the bowl holding the egg whites is clean and has no water or oil in it. This is a crucial step. Set the bowl with yolks in it aside. 

2. In the bowl with egg whites, use a electric hand mixer and beat the egg whites until bubbles form. Then add in the 50g sugar in three batches, about 1/3 a time. Beat until stiff peaks form. Set aside

• to make sure the egg whites have beaten till stiff peaks, turn the bowl over. If nothing comes down, then it's ready to rock n' roll. Refer to the pictures below to have a better idea of what stiff peak looks like :)

Second time adding sugar

third time adding sugar

soft peak (a bit more than you're in stiff peaks!)

what stiff peaks look like

3. Using the same electric mixer (you don't have to wash it if you don't want to), beat the egg yolks with water, 20g sugar, vegetable oil, and salt until well combined.

step 3

4. Add in the sifted cake flour into the egg yolk mixture and mix until just incorporated.

5. Preheat oven to 300F.

6. Spoon out 1/2 of the beaten egg whites and fold into the egg yolk mixture. Gently fold in the rest of the egg whites with a spatula, until just combined.

step 4 (upper two) and step 6 (bottom)

• note: a well folded batter should be very soft, well incorporated, and delicate. If the batter has chucks of egg whites or just doesn't look well incorporated, the cake will not rise.

what the batter should look like when it's well incorporated

7. Pour the batter into an 8" cake pan that has been oiled (or parchment paper).  Before putting into the oven, gently tap the cake pan on a surface. This allows the big air bubbles fade away so when the cake bakes, it will turn out evenly.

8" cake pan lined with parchment paper at the bottom

Gently tap the cake pan on a surface

8. First bake for 30 mins in 150C/300F, then switch to 170C/340F and bake for another 30mins.
9. Remove cake from oven and immediately invert it on a cooling rack to let it cool down completely.

*Please take this recipe and photos with FULL CREDIT!