When I went back to Malaysia last winter, my grandma taught me how to bake a chiffon cake and we ended up making at least three consecutively. With a gleam in her eyes, she told me baking chiffon cakes makes her very happy because they smell great and they used to rise to the top of the oven! At one point in her life, she baked more than a dozen everyday for my uncle's kopitiam or simply to give away to her friends and family. When I asked for the recipe, she could tell me from the top of her head!
Returning to Melbourne, I have used her original recipe a handful of times and they have all come out light and fluffy. This time I decided to tweak it slightly and the texture still comes out cloud like - this is what makes me happy.
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banana chiffon cake makes 1 x 22(d) x 11(h)cm chiffon cake
adapted from my grandma's recipe
On a quick note, I have noticed that my grandma's chiffon cake recipe contains more sugar compared to others, but we find the sweetness just right for our liking.
5 large egg whites
90g caster sugar
1 tsp cream of tartar, sifted
pinch of sea salt
5 large egg yolks
90g caster sugar
25ml rum
70g cooking oil
100ml coconut milk or milk
180g rice flour or plain flour, sifted
1 tsp (double action) baking powder, sifted
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda, sifted
2 bananas (approx. 170g), finely mashed
Preheat oven to 170 degrees celcius.
Whisk egg whites with one portion of sugar, cream of tartar and a pinch of salt until very stiff peaks form. Set aside.
Whisk egg yolks and the remaining sugar to combine. Add rum, cooking oil and (coconut) milk. Stir to combine. Fold in the flour, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda and stir to combine. Fold in mashed bananas.
Fold in 1/3 of the egg whites to loosen up the batter. Fold in the remaining egg whites. Pour batter into a chiffon cake tin.
Bake for approximately 35-40 minutes and check cake with a skewer before taking it out. Cool upside down for about 10-15 minutes before unmoulding it from the tin to cool further.
