ANOTHER FINALLY!!!
This is THE gula Melaka chiffon cake that make me go "WOW!"...
This is the SOFTEST Gula Melaka Chiffon Cake that I have ever baked!
This is the gula Melaka chiffon cake that is fully loaded with gula Melaka! Yet, it doesn't contain too much sugar and won't taste too sweet.
This is the ULTRA SOFT gula Melaka chiffon cake that is baked with NO cream of tartar, baking powder or any cake raising agents so that it is ultimately moist, tender and cottony soft! It is NOT steam-baked with a tray of boiling water in the oven. Yet, it is uniformly risen with a perfectly baked flavoursome gula Melaka cake crust.
This is the must-bake recipe if you are a chiffon cake enthusiast or a fan of any gula Melaka food.
Do you want to know more about this cake and the recipe?
I FOUND IT!!!
This is THE Ultra Soft Gula Melaka Chiffon Cake!
For those who don't know, gula Melaka is a sugar that is commonly used in Southeast Asia for our desserts. According to Wikipedia, it is made by extracting the sap from the budding flowers of a coconut palm. The sap is boiled to thicken, leaving a sticky sugar that is whipped and poured into tube containers to solidify.
Are you are a chiffon cake enthusiast or a fan of any gula Melaka food?
Have you tried baking any gula Melaka chiffon cake recipe? Have you noticed that it is difficult to bake an uniformly risen fully loaded gula Melaka chiffon cake with LESS SUGAR and NO cake RAISING AGENTS?
If you have tried baking any gula Melaka chiffon cake, you might notice that a real good gula Melaka chiffon cake that is made with a good amount of gula Melaka will have a problem of not having enough caster sugar to beat a decent egg white mixture. Simply because the cake will be too sweet if it is over-loaded with both gula Melaka and caster sugar! To tackle this, baking powder is added to bake the pandan gula Melaka chiffon cake recipe at here in order for the cake to rise a little better. Therefore, it is a good cake but it won't be ultra soft like the non-cake-raising-agent chiffon cakes that I have baked at here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here.
Then, I had an idea!!!
Remember I was using the Swiss meringue method to beat my egg white mixture with an alternative sugar and it works! And I have discovered the SOFTEST Maple Syrup Chiffon Cake at here!!!
So, does this mean that I can beat my egg white mixture with gula Melaka? YES YES YES!!! It works!!!
However, I have to say that this method doesn't work for ALL chiffon cake recipes and SOME alternative sugars! The Swiss meringue method will cook and cause the meringue to be firmer than usual, resulting the cake has to be baked with more liquid ingredients than usual.
Based on many chiffon cakes that I have baked earlier, I have noticed that different ingredients can be very different! Most substitutions and modifications are NOT straightforward and easy! Please understand that any changes or substitutions can change the fiddly soft chiffon cakes very dramatically. For instance, although this gula Melaka chiffon and the maple syrup chiffon cake at here use the same Swiss meringue mixing technique and are about 80% similar, the softness and texture of these cakes are actually quite different! And I would say that the gula Melaka chiffon cake with a firmer crust is structurally more stable and won't shrink much after cooling whereas the maple syrup chiffon cake is more tender and softer but will shrink slightly after cooling. Nevertheless, both are ultra soft enough and delicious!
Hence, please do not ask me if you can substitute any ingredient with another ingredient. If I have tried any substitution with this recipe, I will mention it eventually. If I don't, I can't guarantee that the proposed substitution will work. As always, I'm a honest person and I prefer any substitutions to be truly tested and tasted before I will say YES that it will work...
So in this case... THIS IS THE ULTRA SOFT gula Melaka chiffon cake that has truly worked! YAY!!!
I just have this good feeling that this cake is going awesome!
Sorry to my pandan gula Melaka chiffon cake recipe at here!
This is now THE BEST Ultra Soft Gula Melaka Chiffon Cake that I have baked!!!
I'm sold!!!
This cake is so soft even with the perfectly baked yummy crust!
And it is so soft and moist even on the 3rd day of bake!
I'll show you how to bake this cake... Watch this video.
I promise that I will share more recipes in the future... If you are after ultra soft chiffon cake recipes like this, you can follow me at either my Facebook at here or here or my Instagram @zoebakeforhappykids.
Here's my recipe with helpful baking tips and explanations.
IMPORTANT: Please use the exact weight and make sure that all ingredients are at room temperature.
Makes one tall and perfect 8-inch (20 cm) chiffon cake
For the gula Melaka syrup:
60g gula Melaka, roughly chopped
50g coconut milk, preferably the light one with 13% fat
2 pandan leaves, roughly shredded and knotted
Place all gula Melaka syrup ingredients in a saucepan and cook over low heat until gula melaka is melted. Remove from heat. Discard the pandan leaves and allow the syrup to cool completely at room temperature.
Baking tip: 1) Please do not skip this step or substitute the syrup with other ingredient. The purpose of adding this gula Melaka syrup is to enhance the fragrance of the cake with a hint of pandan. 2) It is always better to cook slightly more syrup than not having enough later. And you should have about 2 tbsp leftover syrup after using 50g to bake the cake and you might want to enjoy the cake with the syrup later.
For the egg white mixture:
240g egg whites (about 7)
60g gula Melaka, roughly chopped
30g caster sugar
Baking tip: Please do not omit the addition of sugar as it is required to boost the sugar content of the added gula Melaka
For the egg yolk mixture:
90g egg yolk (about 5-6)
30g neutral tasting vegetable oil
50g gula Melaka syrup, see above
120g coconut milk, fat reduced with 13% fat
120g cake flour with 8% protein
1/2 tsp salt
Baking tip: Please check the nutrition content of the coconut milk that you are using. If the fat reduced coconut milk with 13% fat is unavailable, you can use 60g regular coconut milk with 24% fat plus 60g coconut water.
Preheat oven to 160°C with top and bottom heating. Please do not use fan forced heating!
For the egg white mixture:
Combine egg whites, gula Melaka and caster sugar in a large mixing heat proof bowl and place the bowl over a pot of simmering hot water. Use a hand whisk to whisk lightly while the mixture is heated to 65-68°C (not more than 70°C). Mixture should look pale, foamy and slightly thickened.
Remove mixture from the heat and transfer mixture into a mixing bowl of an electric mixer. Using an electric mixer with a whisk attachment, beat egg whites in the lowest speed for at least 10 mins to stabilise the mixture.
While the mixture is beating, prepare and whisk egg yolk mixture.
For the egg yolk mixture:
Using a hand whisk, whisk egg yolks and oil in a large mixing bowl until mixture is combined. Then, whisk in gula Melaka syrup and coconut milk until combined. Sift in flour and salt and whisk gently until the batter is smooth and combined. Set aside.
Back to the beating of egg white mixture:
Increase beating speed to two higher speed and continue to beat until stiff peaks form. Do not use too high beating speed. Do not over-beat the mixture.
Baking tip: Like all well-beaten meringues, it should be very smooth with tiny bubbles. However, unlike most meringues or even Swiss meringue that is made with other sugar or syrup, this gula Melaka meringue is unusually firmer with a soft cooked souffle texture and it's ok!
Using a hand whisk or a spatula, gently fold in the egg whites to the egg yolks mixture in 3-4 batches. It is ok to mix the 1st batch of egg white more vigorously into the egg yolk mixture but the subsequent portions must be folded in very gently. Make sure that most of the white is not visible after folding.
Pour batter into an un-greased 20 cm chiffon tube pan. Give the pan a gentle tap and use a skewer to draw a zigzag on the batter surface to remove any large air bubbles.
Chiffon baking options:
Basic - Bake at 160°C for 50 mins until it is thoroughly baked. IMPORTANT: This cake has high liquid content and needs to be baked for at least 45 mins in total. Cover the top of your cake very loosely with a piece of foil when it turns brown too quickly at the last 15-20 mins of baking.
With slits - This chiffon cake baking strategy will help the cake to rise uniformly rising with minimal cracks. The cake will also have a deep flavoursome top and surrounding crust.
Bake at 160°C for at least 15 mins or until a "skin" has formed on the cake surface and just before the cake surface starts to crack.
At the 10th to 14th minute, remove the cake out from oven. Cut 6 or more slits on the cake surface and place the cake back into the oven immediately. Continue to bake at 140°C for another 50 mins or until it is thoroughly baked. Increase oven temperature to 160°C and bake for another 5 mins or until the top skin of the cake is nicely browned.
Baking tip: Please do not bake this cake with too low oven temperature or a tray of boiling water (also known as steam bake). Detailed explanation is at here.
After baking, invert the cake immediately to cool on a wire rack. Allow the cake to cool completely in the pan before removing it from the pan. To unmould, please use a blunt thin plastic spatula or knife to run along the cake's edges and gently push the cake out from the pan.
Baking tip: Do not unmould the cake by pressing it! The cake is very fragile!!!
Slice with a serrated knife and serve.
Store any uneaten in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days. And it is still very soft and moist even on the 3rd day of bake!
Enjoy!!!
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