Chiffon Cake, Finally!

Most of my friends and relatives know that I like to bake but I don't really like to eat cakes, or pies, or biscuits. I like to try out new recipes, test out my skills, and happy to see people around me enjoying the output. But there is one cake I do like and I will eat a couple pieces every time I buy them. It's the Chiffon Cake. It is very soft and light, not oily and I don't really feel stuffed after I ate it. I love them and I found out that Charlotte also likes Chiffon Cake. That makes me an excuse to try making it. Actually, I tried baking a Chiffon Cake many years back, when I was in my teen. But it was a total failure and I never touch on that recipe ever since.

I have been trying baking Chiffon Cake for the past few weeks and I had disasters that no one could imagine. I didn't come across any of the challenges mentioned in every recipe such as difficulty in removing the cake from the cake pan, egg whites not beaten to the right stage, cake did not rise properly and etc. What I had was my cake raised perfectly and I didn't have any trouble removing it from the pan because it fell off from the pan the moment I inverted it! So what I had from the last few attempts were all collapsed Chiffon Cakes that looked like this...although it all tasted great.

I asked the experts, I checked the recipe, I bought fresh ingredients, but nothing helps. Finally I was looking into my oven last night and I realized something. I realized that my baking tray was closer to the upper heat element of the oven than the lower ones. I recalled all my Chiffon Cakes had nice golden brown top but the bottom and sides looked "naked" when removed from the cake pan. Maybe the bottom wasn't completely baked and that's why it fell off the moment it was inverted. So I moved the baking tray to a level lower and tried baking another one. This time I tried the Orange Chiffon Cake recipe as I ran out of coconut milk (santan) for Pandan Chiffon Cake and I had no more bananas for Banana Chiffon Cake. I separate the egg yolks and eggs whites carefully and followed the recipe steps as much as possible. I want to rule out all the possibility of "is it something wrong with the ingredients I put, or is it my skill in making it".

And finally there is a decent looking Chiffon Cake from my oven...

And a happy customer...she's my biggest supporter afterall and she said "mommy, 你成功了!"

Next, I need to work on the skill removing the cake from the pan so that the side doesn't look so "cacat", haha!