Recipe taken from My Kitchen Snippets. I reduced the fat used to 140g butter and 60g canola oil (instead of recipe saying  226g of butter), reduced the sugar to 150g as well (instead of originally 200gm)

raisin which has been left to soak in rum for few days is left to drain over a bowl, so that the rum could be mixed into the cake batter in earlier stage, and the raisin be mixed in towards the end.

butter, canola oil and sugar. Decreased the butter and add in oil to make a lighter cake.

eggs and orange zest added in

raisins mixed in with some flour so that it doesn’t sink to the bottom of the cake. Lastly. add the raisins into the batter.

looks nice 🙂

done, looks nice here 🙂

cross section, quite a nice cake with soft raisins and definite rum scent, will probably make this again perhaps in cupcake form

Recipe taken from nava-k. Made some modification as below

– Used 200g block of Emborg butter instead of 1 cup of butter(240g). I would not use Emborg butter anymore as this lemon cake turns out very milky although not added any milk, the only form of dairy is from butter

– Used 160 sugar instead of 225g

– should have used 3 large egg instead of 3 medium sized egg as the batter turn out looking quick thick

– used 2 tsp baking powder(following advice from Food52 of 1 cup flour to 1 tsp baking powder) instead of 1.5 tsp

flour(sifted), eggs, lemon juice, lemon rind, butter, sugar

beat butter and sugar till fluffy

add eggs one at a time and beat till fluffy

batter is quite thick as i used medium eggs instead of big ones

done

bottom up

Overall, i find the texture grainy and too milky taste, won’t make it again.

Made 2 banana cakes from 2 different recipe today, one of them is from masak-masak (a malaysia food blog) and the other from Food52.

From the photo in both websites, i am more inclined towards Food52’s recipe will produce a better banana cake as it looks more like banana cake i usually buy from market, brownish cake with black specks all over, masak-masak’s one seems denser with chunkier banana bits and lighter in colour.

But surprisingly, the one i made from masak-masak is identical to those i bought from market, it turn out brownish as if brown sugar was used, but i used only caster sugar, but it is a tad too salty with 1 teaspoon salt added, next time will reduce to half a teaspoon salt or resort to using the less salty sea salt instead of table salt. I reduced sugar to 12og from originally 6oz(170g). I used only 4 small bananas which weight in total 125 grams instead of 8oz(226 grams) specified.

As for Food52’s recipe, I don’t know if it is the egg size or the banana size, i had 2 attempts on Food52, the first turned out too dry and bread like, i can hardly mix the flour into the liquid mixture, and into the bin it goes. The second one, well, i was careful and put in only like half the flour, but also given the egg i used is small-ish, and i used 3 small bananas instead of 3 big ones specified in the recipe, but still can’t imagine how i am to mix all those flour in, perhaps have to used the largest egg available in supermarket, and also the larger bananas, but oh well, for now, i will stick to masak-masak’s recipe.

Banana bought 2 days ago and left to ripen further

4 bananas used for masak-masak’s (about 125 grams)

egg and sugar

mess on the table after putting the cake into the oven

Finished product, looks hard and tough, but later found out it is nice 🙂

bottom of cake

yummy, just a tad salty though

Below are using Food52’s recipe:

This is second attempt on Food52’s, the first one turn out doughy and hardly able to mix the flour into liquid.

Only 1 egg used in the recipe. Above are egg, 3 banana and sugar(around 100g sugar) since i know won’t be mixing in all the flour.

Still so much left over flour (total 2 cups ie 280g flour)

doesn’t look nice

bottom of cake

too sweet for me, i will give this a miss

First Attempt:

I am following hslingkitchen‘s recipe for chocolate chiffon.

Above is egg white+caster sugar on the left… i added extra 10g of oil by accident, original recipe only requires 30g of oil

3 egg white beaten till stiff peak; chocolate + flour etc mixture on the right. Having 2 Ikea mixing bowls come in handy for such recipe

looks fluffy

inverted on a white vinegar bottle after finished baking

urgh, turns out dense, rough and not nice.

Second Attempt:

After the unsuccessful first attempt, time to follow the recipe exactly and make this a success. This time recipe taken from dailydelicious, The photo in the blog sure show a moist chiffon.  This time i have more time at hand baking on a Saturday morning instead of weekday night. Remember mum said chiffon recipe with comparatively more egg white than egg yolk will yields better and softer chiffon, so i think i will stick to this recipe from daily delicious instead of the previous one.

I reduced the sugar to 145g instead of 170g specified in the recipe

6 small egg white instead of 5 large egg white

4 small egg yolk instead of 3 large egg yolk

same method as previous: one bowl for egg white, the other for chocolate + flour etc mixture

mix in one third of the egg white into chocolate mixture to lighten the batter before folding in rest of egg white.

folding in gently, but ensuring all egg white are mixed in, else the finished products will have unsightly small pockets of egg white.

all mixed

this time baking in a springform pan as mentioned in this recipe

finished product, looks nice

mistakes start here, i unmold the cake straight away after taking out from oven. Chiffon should always left to cool inverted before removing it from mold, else it will collapse and becomes dense cake instead of light chiffon

continued to remove the bottom lined baking paper

looks nice at the point, the cake is still very warm at this point

Alas the second attempt is a failure as well, this is what happens when the weight of the cake especially middle part collapse and becomes very dense, and no longer light, the side of the cake is slightly better.

Third Attempt:

The third attempt should be my last try, using same recipe as in the second attempt(from dailydelicious). This time i bought large eggs, and followed exactly the recipe’s(3 egg yolk and 5 egg white). I baked it at 175 for 35 minutes(with the later baking stage lowered to around 160C), all the time keeping an eye on the cake as i am not following the temperature/timing in the recipe, but my mum’s(170-175C for 35 minutes). After the first 2 tries, pretty convince the extra 10g of oil on first try is not the reason it turned out to be a dense cake. Success!

Below are my two must notes for a successful chiffon making.

1) (most important) Chiffon cake must be inverted immediately after taking it out from oven and must be cooled inverted(2 hours to be safe)  before removing it from the mold. This is to ensure it will not collapse and become a dense cake, case in point happened on 1st and 2nd attempt.

2) Also very important, do not open the oven too long that the cake collapse even when still being baked in the oven, case in point my first and second try, both cake “shrunk”/collapsed even in the oven after i did the toothpick test. For the 3rd attempt, i didn’t do the toothpick test at all.

I find the temperature is pretty forgiving, it  can range from 150 Celcius to 175 celcius. I find maintaining 175 Celcius for 35 minutes baking can burn the top of chiffon, so 175 Celcius for initial 15mins perhaps and 160 Celcius for the remaining 20 minutes could be doable, will put it to test. While some recipe specifies 150 Celcius, i couldn’t be bothered for now to have this low temperature and having to wait for it to finished baking for a longer time 😛

Venture into this recipe: Yoghurt cake with skepticism, the ingredients looks simple and pretty much anticipate it to be a simple plain cake, recipe taken from The Kitchn. Although even the famous french blogger Clotilde from Chocolate & Zucchini wrote a post on how wonderful yogurt cake is and how easy it is to make it that it is often the first cake French kids learn to make. My hopes still aren’t high, i am thinking it will resemble a plain sponge, maybe a good sponge, but still a plain one as there is no distinct flavouring, mainly yogurt and some ground nutmeg. But i am surprised at how lovely it taste especially on the next day when the crusty top has soften, and can really taste the soft texture of this cake, a good cake without strong buttery/milky taste of butter cake, as it is made with olive oil. Yum~ A keeper.

Above is wet ingredients

370g container of Sunglo yogurt (recipe calls for about 360g, so i didn’t scrape the yogurt container clean…)

140g olive oil (i used extra virgin olive oil which is the only type available at home)

190g sugar (as usual, i use less sugar, recipe originally calls for about 230g)

350g flour

i used very little freshly ground nutmeg due to not knowing whether it will be overpowering (can use more next time)

Pour into spring form pan or any type of pan with bottom lined with baking paper and side slightly greased

Doesn’t look pretty, still not knowing how wonderful this cake taste 😛

Put on rack for cooling

Nice caramelized colour, i find this cake tasted ok when warm, best eaten when completely cool or even the next day. The texture remain soft and yummy on the next day.