Orange Chiffon Cake

The soft, sweet, tangy and full of flavour cake will just blown everyone away. It is perfect for afternoon tea or party and it's cheap too.

Ingredients:

(A) Orange cake batter

225 grams Cake flour, sifted
250 grams Caster sugar
1 tbsp Baking powder
1/2 tsp Salt
1 tsp    Orange oil or orange essence (if you can't find it use vanilla instead)          
6 Egg yolk
2 tbsp  Orange zest
180 ml  Freshly squeezed orang juice (approx. 3 - 4 oranges)          
120 ml Vegetable oil (I use corn oil)

(B) Egg whites

7 Egg whites
50 grams Caster sugar
3/4 tsp Cream of tartar (or white vinegar)

How to do it?

Pre-heat oven to 170ºC. You will need a 10" tube pan (ungreased) for this recipe.

In a mixing bowl, combined flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Using a balloon whisk, whisk every to combine. After that, make a well in the centre. To the well, add in egg yolks, oil, orange juice, orange oil and orange zest. Beat with an electric hand mixer until smooth and combine. It should only take 1-2 minutes.

Using separate clean mixing bowl, beat the egg whites on low speed until it is foamy. Add in the cream of tartar and continue to beat until it form soft peaks. Gradually, add in the sugar slowly and beat until the sugar is dissolved and the egg whites formed stiff peaks.

Using a large spatula, fold in 1/3 of the egg whites into the orange batter to lighten the batter. Add in the remaining egg whites and fold gently. Do it gently if not your cake batter will deflate.

Pour the combined batter into the tube pan and bake for 50 - 60 minutes until the skewer comes out clean when inserted and the top of the cake springs back when lightly pressed. Invert the cake immediate once it is come out of the oven. Let the cake cooled completely before removing from the pan.

Notes:

To test whether the sugar has dissolved in your eggs whites, simple place a little egg whites on to your thumb and rub it against you index finger. It should not feel grainy. If it does, you might need to beat it for another moment.

Do not open your oven once the batter put in. Only open after at least 45 minutes.

Mix the batter as gently as possible so as not to deflate the air bubble inside the batter.