Cranberry Mixed Tea Chiffon

Hahaha FINALLY! I did a successful chiffon cake after numerous of not up-to-standard chiffons. Chiffon should be light, soft, fluffy, airy, raise tall and pretty! This is the cake where I labelled is heavily technique-required and every little step is important to contribute to the success. And special thanks to Molly for showing me how to do it, only then I realized where I did wrong even after much reading up and watching Youtube demo cannot beat a live demo.

 

  

Recipe modified from http://munchministry.com/recipe/cranberry-mixed-tea-chiffon

Ingredients
(A)
6 egg yolks
30g caster sugar
1/2tsp salt
80g veg oil (I use corn oil)
6 bags Lipton Cranberry Raspberry & Strawberry Tea Bag
120g hot water
150g cake flour
3/4 baking powder

(B)
6 egg whites
130g caster sugar
1/2tsp cream of tartar


(C)
60-70g dried cranberries (mix with some flour and sift away excess flour)

Methods
1. Preheat oven to 140-150 degree Celsius using top & bottom heat with fan mode.
2. Sift flour and baking powder, set aside.
3. Cut the tea bags, pour tea leaf into a cup. Pour hot water into it and leave it aside to cool.
4. With a hand whisk, whisk egg yolk, salt and sugar together.
5. Add oil, tea together with the tea leaf residue and flour into the egg yolk batter.
6. Whisk until well combined.
7. Use a mixer, whisk the egg whites and cream of tartar till frothy.
8. Gradually add in sugar and whisk till close to stiff peaks form.You will know when your beater attachment form a Hook shape (refer to photo below).
9. Add in 1/2 of the meringue into the egg yolk mixture and gently mix until combined.
10.Then fold in the rest of the meringue in lightly until well combined.
11. Lastly fold in the cranberry.
12.Pour batter into a tube pan (I used 21cm size), smooth the surface. Lift the tube pan, hold it firmly and give 2-3 bangs on the table to release the trapped bubbles inside the batter.
13.Place pan at the lowest oven rack and bake for 55-60mins.
14.Remove from oven, invert cake onto table top and leave it cool completely.
15.Unmould cake from pan either using the press method or knife. I prefer the 1st method which will give the cake a pretty surface.

Notes

1. When separately the egg yolks and whites, have to make sure that the whites are not stained with any trace of yolks, water and oil. In the presence of any of these 3, the whites will not be able to whisk to close to stiff peak. 

2. Always use a big spatula and a wide mixing bowl when folding in the whites, it helps greatly to fold in effortlessly. When you fold, always fold in the same direction and shift the bowl a little as you go along.

3. To obtain the correct texture for the MERINGUE:

• Under-whisk the meringue will look runny. When you hold the beater attachment, the meringue will drip and not staying still. In this case, whisk further and monitor.
• Close to stiff peak form is when you use the beater attachment and scoop up a small part of meringue it will form a HOOK shape. The remaining meringue inside the mixing bowl will also form a HOOK tip. Refer to photo below. This texture will not drip, the hook stays and when you invert the bowl the meringue should stay in place. It shouldn't flow. Stop the whisking now, this is the correct texture that you want for folding.
• Over-whisk will lead the meringue to stiff peak whereby the meringue will clot to the attachment beater. At this stage, the meringue is too stiff and you will face difficulties in folding into the yolk batter. I tried this before and I took very long to fold in the stiff hard meringue, in the end the meringue was deflated till to over-folding and of course my chiffon flopped.