Chiffon Cake
Ingredients:
8 large eggs at room temperature (if previously in fridge, allow them to "warm up")
7 oz castor sugar
7 oz self-raising flour, well-sifted
6 fluid oz orange juice (if orange cake) or coconut milk* (if coconut cake)
4 fluid oz corn oil or sunflower oil
1 tsp cream of tartar (from any supermarket)
pinch of salt, sifted in with the flour
Method:
1. Before you start, set up the middle shelf in the oven and set the oven to
150C. Preheated oven is critical!
2. Separate eggs into yolks and whites.
3. Egg yolks:
Use a large metal spoon and break up the yolks. Stir in all the sugar.
Mix well. Add flour in small quantities, alternating with the orange
juice/coconut milk. Add the oil last.Mix well.
4. Egg whites (use largest pudding bowl or deep salad bowl you have!):
Whisk using electric whisk. Start on level 1. After about 2 mins,increase
to level 2. After 3 mins, add the cream of tartar.
Continue whisking on level 3 for about 5 more minutes, until the white is
quite dry and stiff.
5. The most important bit:
combining the 2 mixture together: get this wrong and-no cake!
You have to mix the yolks into the whites (NOT THE OTHER WAY ROUND)
so this is what you do:
The yolk mixture should be quite runny.
Spoon a few spoonfuls at a time into the white mixture.
Then use a large metal spoon to fold the yolks into the white.
Continue until all the yolk mixture has been incorporated.
Ensure both yolk and white are well mixed but
DO NOT OVERDO IT!
You should now end up with a huge fluffy bowl of light yellow cake mixture.
6. Pour this mixture into the tube tin. It should be about two-thirds full.
7. Pop into oven, middle shelf. Bake for 1 hour and 10 mins.
DO NOT, WHATEVER YOU DO, OPEN THE OVEN DOOR!
8. After about 15mins, the cake would rise very quickly. Quite often,it rises
beyond the edge of the tin but
DO NOT PANIC - it settles down a bit in the second half of the baking time.
9. When cooked, take out of oven and turn tin upside down to cool the cake.
Leave for several hours until totally cooled.
*To make coconut milk, mix coconut powder with tepid water (just follow
instructions on pack) or use good quality tinned coconut milk.
