CAKES - Chiffon Cakes
Earl Grey Chiffon Cake
July 19, 2017
| Recipe by Bake with Paws
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I never thought Earl Grey Chiffon Cake can be so delicious. I have seen this tea cake recipe many times but never thought of trying it until one of my girlfriends said that she likes Earl Grey cake. I tried it for the first time and it is truly delicious. Everyone of our family love it too.

If you have any questions regarding this recipe or any other post, please leave me a comment in the “LEAVE A COMMENT” link and I will reply you as soon as possible. Do tag me on Instagram @Bakewithpaws if you attempt on this recipe.
How To Make Earl Grey Chiffon Cake
Yields: 1 Cake
INGREDIENTS:
3 tea bags of earl grey tea
160g all purposed flour
1 ¼ tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
5 egg yolks
20 g caster sugar
75g vegetable oil
125ml cooled earl grey tea (infuse 1 tea bags in 140ml hot water)
5 egg white
60g caster sugar
¼ tsp cream of tartar
Utensil: 20cm tube pan
METHOD:
- Preheat oven to 160C (top & bottom heat).
- Infuse 1 tea bag of earl grey with hot water. Set aside to cool.
- Blend earl grey tea leaves of 2 tea bags in the blender for few seconds.
- Sift flour and baking powder. Add salt and blended earl grey tea. Mix well and set aside.
- Beat the egg yolks, 20g sugar and vegetable oil with a hand whisk till sugar dissolves. Add in cooled earl grey tea and combine well.
- Add flour mixture in three batches into the egg yolk mixture. Mix well and set aside.
- Use a large clean bowl, making sure there’s no water, egg yolk or oil in it. Beat the egg whites with an electric mixer until bubbles form. Add the cream of tartar. After mixing well, add the 60 grams of sugar gradually until stiff peaks form.
- Spoon out 1/3 of the meringue and fold into the egg mixture. Lightly fold in the rest of the meringue with a spatula, until just combined.
- Pour into a 21cm tube cake pan and bake in preheated oven for about 60 to 70 minutes until a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out clean.
- Remove cake from the oven and invert the pan. Allow it to cool completely before removing from cake pan.
GENERAL NOTES
I would suggest you read the following notes especially if you are don't bake often.
MERINGUE
Meringue plays a very important role in Chiffon Cake. Over beating meringue may cause the cake to crack, while under beating will cause the cake to collapse or it may not rise much.
Use room temperature egg whites, this will yield more volume. Cold egg whites will not whip well. It is easier to separate your eggs when they are still cold, then leave the egg whites aside to come to room temperature.
Make sure your bowl is clean and there is no any trace of egg yolk or fat. Fat will interfere with the formation of meringue.
Use cream of tartar to stabilise the whipped meringue. Cream of tartar is acidic and can be replaced with lemon juice or white vinegar. The replacement ratio is 1:2. If your recipe asks for 1/4 tsp of cream of tartar, then replace with 1/2 tsp lemon juice.
Stages of Meringue:
Soft Peak – The meringue is soft and unable to hold its form, it will drip after you turn your whisk upside down. You will see the ribbon lines, but it disappears the moment you stop whisking.
Firm Peak – The peak will hold and fold back slightly when you turn your whisk upside down. The meringue is glossy and the ribbon lines stay. This is the stage we look for if you do not want your cake to crack.
Stiff Peak – The peak will hold straight and doesn’t fold back when you turn the whisk upside down. The meringue is very glossy and thick too. Most chiffon cake recipes will prescribe this stage but the cake will easily crack when baking. However, if you don’t mind the cake cracking then it is fine. It doesn’t affect how the cake tastes.
Over-beating – The meringue looks grainy, broken and dull. We do not want this stage in baking as you will not be able to fold it into the flour batter nicely.
OVEN TEMPERATURE AND BAKING TIME
Do note that the baking temperature and timing provided are what works for my oven and should also be regarded as a guide only. Every oven behaves a little differently, so please adjust accordingly for your oven.
It would be good to use an oven thermometer when baking. This will help you understand and know the actual temperature you are baking at. The actual temperature in the oven may not be the same as the oven’s setting. Leave the thermometer on the same rack where you place your baking.
I usually bake cakes with top and bottom heats setting. I don’t encourage baking cakes with fan-forced mode as this setting uses a fan to circulate the hot air for quick baking or cooking at high temperature and may result in cracks on the cake. However, if fan mode is used, it is recommended to reduce the temperature setting by about 20C if using a fan-forced mode.
WATER BATH vs DRY BAKE
For a water bath, the cake pan sits within another pan filled with a little water. Place the cake pan within a larger pan and pour hot water into the outer pan until it comes up to a level of 1.5cm – 2 cm. Place the whole thing in oven and bake.
The benefit of water bath is that it will moderate the baking temperature and prevent the cakes from cracking. The cake texture will be very moist too.
Chiffon cake baked without a water bath is more brown and crumbly. Some may prefer this texture. Please make your own choice between water bath or dry bake. This is a very individual personal preference.
Labels:
CAKES - Chiffon Cakes,
Hi Yeanley. I love the recipes on your blog. I have some queries. I have tried cotton sponges and castellas. Im eager to try chiffons. Should chiffons be dry baked as in pan in pan? Would water bath affect the texture?
ReplyDeleteHi Mary,
DeleteThank you for following my posts. Cake texture will be more moist with water bath. You can try to bake in chiffon tube tin with water bath too. Cheers :)
hi Yeanley, do you have any recipe which is meant for diabetes.
ReplyDeleteHi, thanks for visiting my blog. I am sorry I have not explored cake recipes for diabetes yet. You may want to google search if any.
DeleteCheers :)
Hi just tried this recipe for 5 eggs coz my pan is 22 cm. I baked 40 mins coz my stick came out clean.
ReplyDeleteHowever when I turned it over for cooling, the whole cake dropped out from the side pan. I didn’t grease it at all - any idea why ?
Hi, thanks for trying. May I know what type of tube pan that you used? If your pan is not a non-stick pan it should not came off. Try not to use non-stick pan.
DeleteCheers :)
Love many of your recipes and had great success with them! If I want to use the water bath method, do I use the same temperature and bake time? Do I need to invert the cake after it is taken out from the oven?
ReplyDeleteHi, thank you for trying my recipes and glad to hear that they worked for you.
DeleteMaybe around 150C - 160C should be ok. However, baking temperature and timing provided are what works for my oven and should also be regarded as a guide only. Every oven behaves a little differently, so please adjust accordingly for your oven.
Cheers and happy baking :)
Hi
ReplyDeleteI do not quite understand your recipe. The ingredients stated 25g & 70g sugar respectively. But in the method it states 20g & 60g. A little bit confusing here.
Hi there, thank you for your interest in this recipe and sorry for the confusion. I have reduced the sugar and I forgot to change in the ingredients section. However, please remain to 25g and 70g if you prefer the cake sweeter.
DeleteCheers and happy baking :)