New Year’s Chiffon Cake Gets Top Rating

By: Sarah

 

Time passes more quickly every year…Yes, another year is here, the year of the more gentle, tame, tender and kind, but very agile Rabbit! Gladys and Glenn opened their doors to friends to usher in the new year. The invitation included the New Year’s Eve Party offerings: Charcuterie, Wine, Black Eye Pea With Collard Green Soup (to die for), Lechon belly, Beef Steak, Pork (liempo) Adobo, Kaldereta, Pinakbet, Tortang Talong, Bilo-bilo, Kakanin and Grape Truffles. Now you can tell I’m in Texas (always big in Texas). Guests arrived at 7 pm and cocktails served, my favorite Riesling wine included. The appetizer corner included peeled chestnuts, toasts, pretzels, Brazilian pastillas with surprised grapes at center (fabulous) and I really loved the block of cream cheese with Red Pepper Jelly and Chili Fig Spread. What a wonderful get together! And then desserts were served, including my Yummy Chiffon Cake with Yema/Caramel Icing. Fr. Greg and the rest of the guests rated the cake “Summa Cum Laude”, wow, that’s a oneof- a-kind compliment. So I am sharing that recipe to you as our first recipe of 2023. Here’s wishing you a happy, healthy and prosperous 2023!

Light, fluffy, airy, melts in the mouth, less sweet and less dense…these are the very reasons why Chiffon Cakes are well loved and favorite cakes of our “kababayans”. Google Chiffon Cake recipes and you get served with easy and simple recipes for home bakers and also elaborate and complex versions for pro bakers. Versatile to any flavors for any occasions, marami na ang nagsulputan, consider: Buko Pandan Chiffon Cake, Matcha Chiffon Cake, Tiramisu Cake, Taiwanese Castella Cake and many more.

The basic ingredients in making this type of foam cakes are: cake flour, vegetable oil, separated egg yolks and egg whites, sugar, baking powder, water and vanilla. So simple, but to perfect this airy cake needs attention to details. Most beginners’ cakes result in cakes that shrink, deflate, and having difficulty releasing from baking pans. It used to be a hit or a miss, but today’s chiffon cakes recipes include expert tips and tricks. Let me give you a simplified Chiffon cake recipe and expound on the do’s and don’ts. You no longer need to buy that tube pan with center tube and raised feet to allow for upside down cooling. You can use any pans you have.

CHIFFON CAKE
(I placed numbers before each ingredient as guide for adding ingredients)
1 6 pcs large egg yolks
1 140 grams white sugar
1 100 ml vegetable/canola/corn oil (never use olive oil)
1 150 ml water or juice
1 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 225 grams cake flour
2 2 teaspoons baking powder
2 1 teaspoon iodized salt
3 8 pcs large egg whites
3 1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
3 150 grams white sugar

Preheat oven to 350 F.

In a large mixing bowl and using a wire whisk, a nice aluminum “palanggana” is Filipino bakers’ choice to use, combine all liquid ingredients (numbered 1) until smooth and well combined. With sifter, add the next dry ingredients over the liquid ingredients. Make sure no visible lumps of flour. Texture is flowy, not runny. If you only have all purpose flour, you need to add more water a teaspoon at a time to achieve that flowy texture. Now using your stand mixer and whisk attachment, beat egg whites and cream of tartar until large bubbles form. A third of the meringue is whisked into the yolk mixture to loosen. Then carefully fold in (don’t whisk so as not to deflate the meringue, do cut and fold technique), using a large rubber spatula, the rest of the meringue.

Pour in ungreased baking pans with parchment paper liner at the bottom only (the batter needs to adhere to the sides of the pan while rising). Bake until done or center is set and bounces back when pressed lightly and toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Baking time varies from 25 minutes to almost an hour. Invert the cake when it comes out from the oven to greased cooling rack, specially with tall cakes, to ensure cakes won’t shrink. If whole recipe is baked in multiple pans, you don’t need to invert the pans.

For icing: use your buttercream recipes or whipped cream after cakes are completely cooled.

Let’s all focused on our goals for 2023, but stay receptive and accepting with life’s challenges. Be fluid …open to change. It’s a new beginning, it’s a new year. Go, make your own story…you know my story ain’t your story. Live and let live. The start of another amazing year, overflowing with opportunities for growth and prosperity…Hello 2023!