Chamomile Chiffon Cake

If you are not aware, I'm actually a fan of light, airy cakes like chiffon cakes, angel food cakes :) And each time when I feel my sweet tooth acting up, I'll want to make some chiffon cake as it is not too fattening since there is no butter used, very little sugar used, etc. Ok enough of excuses for wanting to eat cakes hehehe. I'm sure I'm not the only one ;)

I had been thinking about submitting a post for this month's Aspiring Bakers #30: it's Tea time! (April 2013) hosted by Food Playground and thought it was an interesting topic this month - tea. So I asked the BFF what type of tea she likes since she is more of a tea lover than I am and she said chamomile. Incidentally, I do have some chamomile teabags sitting at my kitchen counter. Sounds good right?

I came across a recipe for Berry Tea Chiffon Cake from Happy Flour so I'm going to re-state the recipe below with adaptations to suit this Chamomile Chiffon Cake.

Ingredients: 

Egg yolk mixture 3 Egg Yolks

15g Caster Sugar (i used fine sugar)

1/4tsp Salt

40g Veg Oil (i use Olive) canola oil

3 bags of Chamomile Tea

60g Hot Water

75g Cake Flour (i use Top Flour)

Egg white mixture
3 Egg Whites

65g Caster Sugar (i use 50g fine sugar)

1/4 tsp Cream of Tartar

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 170 degree celsius.
2. Sift cake flour and set aside.
3. Cut the tea bags, pour tea leaves into a cup.
4. Pour hot water into it and leave it aside to cool.
5. With a hand whisk, whisk egg yolk, salt and sugar together.
6. Add oil, tea together with the tea leaf residue and flour into the egg yolk batter.
7. Whisk until well combined. 
8. Use a cake mixer, whisk the egg whites and cream of tartar till frothy.
9. Gradually add in sugar and whisk till stiff peaks form.
10. Fold in a generous dollop of the meringue into the egg yolk mixture until well combined.
11. Then fold in the remaining meringue.
12. Pour batter into a 20cm tube pan, smooth the surface.
13. Place pan into a preheated oven and bake for 35-40mins.

My notes:

1. I realised that even in my 18cm chiffon pan, this cake is not totally risen like my usual chiffon cakes so in future, I will definitely double this recipe since my usual chiffon cake recipe will yield about 6 eggs. If you double the recipe, remember NOT to double the salt and cream of tartar portion.
2. For best results, use only a chiffon pan with 'legs'.
3. Do not smooth the surface by using your spatula but instead, hold the chiffon pan with both your hands and rattle in on your countertop in a circular motion to ensure that all the air bubbles are evenly distributed.
4. Bake for 40 minutes and you don't even need to use a cake tester.
5. Use your hands to unmould the chiffon cake is definitely better than risking your cake to cuts from your spatula.

Thank goodness I made it, well barely. It was fun. Since Mr G did mention that it is not as fluffy as my earlier Creamy Corn Chiffon cake, I deduced it to be the reason as my note 1. I will attempt this again soon, real soon.