Lemon Chiffon Cake（柠檬口味戚風蛋糕 / 柠檬口味雪芳蛋糕）

I was really busy for the past few days :(  but I need to bring a supper for sharing after church meeting last Saturday. Since I haven't gotten much time to think, I decided to bake a lemon chiffon cake, i.e. one of my all time favourite since I have some free lemon from my friends' tree!  

Okay, let's talk about the processes!!

Get ready 2 mixing bowl and the following ingredients...

(A) 6 egg yolks, 75g cooking oil, 90g fresh milk, 109 or 110g cake flour or low protein flour (低粉/低筋面粉), about 4 tbsp fresh lemon juice, 1 tsp lemon rind, AND 3-4 drops of lemon essence if you wish (optional).

(B) 6 egg whites, 0.5 tsp cream of tartar, about 140g - 150g icing sugar (yes, I use icing sugar...)

(Note: you need more icing sugar than the original flavour as the lemon juice will reduce the sweetness of the cake very much. I have tried putting around 125g icing sugar, but I just felt not sweet enough. Just needed a little more. Hence, I suggest 140g - 150g icing sugar will be great. However, if you know that the lemon juice you have is really sour, I would think 150g icing sugar will be better. If not, you can adjust by adding slightly more than the recipe after tasting a little of the (almost ready) meringue.)

** Use large eggs. However, if the eggs are medium large, then add 1 extra egg to the recipe. Meaning, the recipe becomes 7 egg yolks and 7 egg whites.

Steps for egg yolks batter (A)...
- Combine egg yolks with oil. Mix well.
- Add in fresh milk. Stir well.
- Sift in flour. Stir until smooth (well combined). 

- Add in the lemon juice, the lemon rind and the optional lemon essence. (Note: You can omit lemon essence it you don't want to.) Mix well.
* Put aside the egg yolks batter and let it rest.

While the egg yolk batter is resting, let's move on to work on ingredient (B) ie the egg whites...

Steps:-

- Combine egg whites and cream of tartar and whisk with high speed until just frothy. Note: Must do it in one direction only! (- Add in 1/3 of icing sugar. Continue to whisk with high speed until well mixed (doesn't take long)
- Quickly add in another 1/3 of icing sugar and continue to whisk with high speed until combined.
- Add in the balance icing sugar and continue to whisk evenly until stiff (ie the meringue can form a small peak like the 4th quarter photo below) and will not fall off the mixing bowl when inverted...

(Note: To test whether the meringue is ready, you need to test few spot of the meringue eg. the middle, the left, the right, the north and the south. It is ready for next step if each part tested gave the same peak  pointy look like the 4th quarter photo below.)

Final steps:

- Put 1/3 egg whites meringue into the egg yoke batter. Fold gently with spatula to combine the meringue with egg yolk batter. Gently... Don't rush.

- Then pour this batter into the balance egg whites meringue. Fold gently until just combine. Remember: Don't over do it. Otherwise, you will deflate the meringue...

- Pour the ready batter into an ungreased 22-25cm chiffon cake baking tin

- Pat gently around the baking tin to remove the air / small bubbles that were captured during whisking

- Bake in preheated oven at 160 degree C for about 55min until cooked and light golden brown. (Tip: use a tooth pick to test whether it is cooked)

- Remove from oven. Quickly pat GENTLY around the baking tin and invert it immediately to let it cool. (Note: I find that pat gently around the baking tin before inverting works for me. If you live in countries where there are 4 seasons weather, I suggest you need to do this essential step. During my inital learning, my chiffon cake somehow sank regardless of how well and how pretty the cake came out from oven. However, after discovering this tips, my chiffon cake seems to look okay everytime I bake. No more sinking cake after cooling! Yes!)

- Be patient. Let it cool down completely before removing from the baking tin and cutting to serve.

*I find that this is the best way to cool my chiffon cake. :)