Chiffon Cakes - The Should and Shouldn't - Based on my numerous experiments

Just a blog post on something that I have learned lately..

Cold Eggs vs Room Temperature Eggs 
Cold eggs are really excellent for chiffons. Do not consider room temperature eggs if your eggs are not fresh and you are a beginner in handling egg whites. You will most likely get a better experience using cold eggs.

Cold eggs are good because:

• easy to separate egg yolk and egg white 
• egg whites are more stable and less chances of deflation 

They are not so good because: 

• it takes slightly longer to whisk them to the right stage 

....

Stiff Peak 

It is important not to over whisk your egg whites. I just learned that the best chiffon cake base is made from stiff peak egg whites. Why? 

Based on my n-th times of trials and experiments (yes I learned this lesson in the hard and expensive way), when the egg whites are at their stiff stage, they are: 

• drier 
• slightly more difficult to combine with the egg yolk batter but definitely possible (provided you didn't over whisk them into cotton stage egg whites)

It is important that they are dry and have less liquid (as compared to when they are at soft peaks. If you recipe's egg yolk batter is thick with less fluid consistency, then it is best to get it matched with stiff peak egg whites. If the egg yolk batter is watery, I still advise to use stiff peaks. Why?

The final cake batter needs to be as foamy as possible to be successful. This means that, less liquid is better. This does not mean reducing the liquid ingredients from your recipe. What you can do is whisk the egg whites to stiff stage so that it is drier, and when they combine with other ingredients, it gives a foamy and less-liquid consistency. 

If you have done chiffon cake before, you will know the different experiences of cake batter; sometimes watery and sometimes thick.. The key lies on the egg whites. 

However be careful, never ever whisk your egg whites to cotton stage. Then, the egg whites will lose its stretch, causing blots of egg whites to be seen in the cake. It is really ugly. Also, it is a sign that you fail at baking chiffon cakes. Experienced bakers can tell but maybe normal people won't notice much. Yet, these white spots can be really obvious to the eyes. Avoid that totally.

Stiff peaks mean short pointy tale with a slight curve. You are very close to cotton stage when the egg whites' tails are standing straight 90 degrees. To be safe, whisk till the stage I mentioned just now. Long curvy tails mean soft peaks by the way. 

Concave Bottom 

Have you ever experienced baking a cake with a concave bottom? This can be very frustrating if you are particular with perfection. I was and still am. So, I thought of many different methods to improve the way my cake turns out after baked. 

I read and read and made a lot of researches. The conclusion that I get:

Concave bottom is due to the water vapour soaked up by the baking paper at the bottom of the cake tin while your cake is still resting to cool completely (in the inverted manner). 

When I use the removable bottom cake tin of which I don't lie any paper at the bottom, the cake turns out perfectly flat on its bottom after it gets out from the mold. The problem ALWAYS happens when I use a regular cake tin whereby I have to put a piece of baking paper at the bottom. 

So the tips here; 

If you have to use a regular cake tin (though I really advise you to spend some money to invest on the removable bottom cake tin if you haven't got any), lie the baking paper as usual. Don't apply oil or grease. Chiffon hates that. It needs to climb. Just have the paper at the bottom so that you can get the cake out from the mold later. Two tips: 

1. Whisk egg whites to stiff peak. Make sure your cake batter is as dry as possible. The thicker the consistency, the better it will result later. 
2. The most important factor: After you get the cake out from the oven, let it rest in inverted manner on the cooling rack not more than 5 - 10 minutes. While it is still warm (obviously), remove the cake very carefully. Peel off the paper and let it cool completely. 

It is not that advisable to bake chiffon using the regular cake tin because: 

• Its bottom is not removable; you need to put a piece of paper at the bottom. The paper soaks water vapour. The cake needs to be inverted. Hence, the water vapour is trapped, causing the bottom of the cake to be damp. As a result, it makes a concave shape. 

I also tried experimenting before, removing the cake immediately after baked from the mold. The result is horrible because at that time, I still haven't learned the importance of stiff peak egg whites. Therefore, based on my experimenting results, I will tell you that both the 2 tips are equally important actually when you're using a normal cake tin. On the other hand, if you are using the removable bottom, there's still chances that you cake will not look that bad even if the batter is a little more liquid-fy as compared to the optimum cake batter consistency. 

All in all 

My advice to all chiffon amateurs:

• Use cold eggs. 
• Whisk till stiff peaks. 
• Careful with the combining process. 
• Use removable bottom cake tin.