Perfect Ultra Soft Orange Chiffon Cake

Is this orange chiffon cake too good to be true?

Gosh! I have to pinch myself when I cut the first slice of this cake.

It is made with NO cream of tartar, baking powder or any cake raising agents and cake stabiliser!

Yet, it shrinks very minimally.

And, it is so soft and cottony!!!

It is simply PERFECT!!!

Perfect Ultra Soft Orange Chiffon Cake

How did I create this cake?

All based on my ultra-soft-chiffon-cake theories!!! LOL!

Ultra-soft-chiffon-cake theories? They are mentioned before at here if you are interested.

Knowing that I can't overload the liquidy orange juice into this cake, I have chosen to bake the cake with a balance amount of egg yolks and whites from the same number of eggs and at the same time, reducing the amount of gluten by having 40g cornflour in 120g total flour used.

And YES... I have achieved the cut off point of applying my theories and yielded this PERFECT ultra soft orange chiffon cake! Yippee!

It's a perfect cake with its fine cottony soft texture and so I can't say that I don't love it!!! I love it but I must say that the fine cottony cake is not as ultimately moist as these previous chiffon cakes that I have baked at here, here, here and here... because 1) my previous chiffon cakes at at here, here, here and here are baked with extra egg whites and boldly loaded with liquid ingredients. 2) orange juice is acidic and this means that the acidity in the cake batter will make the egg proteins in the chiffon cake set faster and firmer than usual. So you know... Chiffon cake that is structurally stable and beautiful like this tends to be a little less moister. Hmmm... Sometimes, we just can't have the best of the both worlds.

Love love love this cottony soft orange chiffon cake!!!

Pinch! Pinch! Pinch!
I can't believe that every bit of this cake is so perfect!!!

Want more ultra soft chiffon cake like this? I will have many newly-derived ultra soft chiffon cake recipes to share in the near future and so please stay tune! I promise that all my chiffon cakes are specifically created with lots of loves and thoughts... LOL! And I hope that you will like them. To get the latest updates of my bakes, you can follow me at either my Facebook at here or here or my Instagram @zoebakeforhappykids.

Here's a video showing how I baked this lovely cake and I hope that you will also bake and love this cake as much as I do. If you want to know more chiffon cake baking tips, please read here.

Update on 5/10/2017: It's ok to have some cracks on this cake!!! Please do not bake this cake with too low oven temperature or a tray of boiling water. Detailed explanation is at here. 

Here's the recipe.

IMPORTANT: Please use the exact weight and make sure that all ingredients are at room temperature.

Makes one tall and perfect 8-inch (20 cm) chiffon cake

For the egg yolks mixture:
90g egg yolks (about 6)
45g neutral tasting vegetable oil
90g orange juice
2 tbsp orange zest, finely grated
80g all purpose flour
40g corn flour
1/4 tsp salt

For the egg white mixture:
210g egg whites (about 6)
100g caster sugar

Preheat oven to 160°C/320ºF.

For the egg yolk mixture:
Using a hand whisk, combine egg yolks and oil in a large mixing bowl until combined and slightly pale. Whisk in orange juice and orange zest. Sift in both flours and salt and whisk gently until the batter is smooth and combined.

For the egg white mixture:
Using an electric mixer with a whisk attachment, beat egg whites in the lowest speed for at least 10 mins to stabilise the mixture. Increase beating speed to the next higher speed. While beating, add sugar gradually. Increase beating speed to another higher speed and continue to beat until stiff peaks form. The meringue should be very smooth with tiny bubbles. Do not over-beat the mixture.

Using a hand whisk or a spatula, gently fold in the egg whites to the egg yolks mixture in 3-4 batches. It is ok to mix the 1st batch of egg white more vigorously into the egg yolk mixture but the subsequent portions must be folded in very gently. Make sure that most of the white is not visible after folding.

Pour batter into an un-greased 20 cm chiffon tube pan. Give the pan a gentle tap. Bake at 160°C for 55 mins or until it is thoroughly baked. IMPORTANT: This cake has to be baked for at least 50 mins in total. If the top of the cake is turning golden brown too quickly, cover it very loosely with a piece of foil at the last 15-20 mins of bake.

After baking, drop the cake from a 20-30 cm height immediately onto your tabletop to minimise shrinkage. Then, invert the cake immediately to cool on a wire rack. Allow the cake to cool completely in the pan before removing it from the pan. Important: Do not unmould the cake by pressing it! To unmould, please use a blunt thin plastic spatula or knife to run along the cake's edges and gently push the cake out from the pan.The cake is fragile and so it is easier to slice with a serrated knife. Enjoy!

Happy Baking

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