For quite some time, I had been producing failed chiffon cakes. Half of the time, they dropped out of the inverted chiffon tin during cooling. Half of the time, they didn't dropped out, but had sunken top after removed. I knew I had problem with the oven temperature. It was until I got my oven thermometer, the mystery was solved.
I think my oven is getting old. When I set the temperature at 170 deg C, it was lower than that. So now I bake my chiffon cakes at 180 deg C and extend the baking time 5 minutes longer to get the crust thicker. It works!
The rare occasion when I bake my cake and shoot my photo so early in the morning. The morning sun makes the cake so pretty! Look at the fluffy texture!
Pumpkin Chiffon Cake 南瓜戚风蛋糕
Ingredients (makes one 22cm chiffon tin, half the recipe for 16cm chiffon tin)
4 egg yolks
30g sugar
1/4 tsp salt
60g vegetable oil
60g coconut milk * (I use fresh milk)
80g pumpkin, diced, steamed and mashed
120g cake flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
some pumpkin seeds
4 egg whites
100g sugar
1/8 tsp cream of tartar (I omitted)
* You can replace coconut milk with milk + 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon or ground nutmeg
Method
1. Whisk egg yolks, sugar and salt until the sugar dissolves.
2. Gradually add in vegetable oil, followed by coconut milk. Add in mashed pumpkins, mix well.
3. Fold in sifted cake flour and baking powder until well-mixed. Set aside.
4. In another bowl, whisk egg whites and cream of tartar until foamy. Add in sugar gradually and continue whisking until stiff peak form.
5. Gently fold in the egg white into the egg yolk batter (in step 3) in 3 batches. Lastly, add in pumpkin seeds.
6. Pour the batter into an ungreased chiffon tin. Give the tin a few slight knocks on the tabletop to remove air bubbles. Bake in preheated oven at 170 deg C for 40 minutes.
7. Remove from oven and invert the tin immediately onto a cooling rack.
8. Unmould the cake only when it is completely cool.
Recipe adapted from: Fruity Cakes 鲜果蛋糕香 by Alex Goh