Orange Chiffon Cake

Time for another fellowship birthday cake... what should I make this time?!?! Last month I made a pretty heavy cake - the chocolate cherry cake, this time, I want to make something lighter! As I was thinking what kind of cake I should make, I saw a post on my friend Alice's blog, she made a orange chiffon cake, and it looked pretty good!!!! So I went and ask her for the recipe, and she told me that it's actually Poh's recipe - her Malaysian favourite. Then I said to myself... I HAVE to try this recipe! I had a look at the ingredients and the steps, it didn't look that hard... PERFECT! 

Personally I like cakes that are quite plain and light, never really a big fan of mud cake or similar, cheesecake... ummm, ok with a small piece, probably prefer japanese cheesecake!!! So when I saw this chiffon cake recipe, I knew that I'd probably enjoy it! Now when I think back of all the cakes that I've made before, I actually don't remember making a chiffon cake, even if I did, it would probably be a long long time ago! 

Ingredients:

5 egg whites 

1/2 tsp cream of tartar

75g caster sugar

5 egg yolks

7tbs coconut milk

5tbs orange juice 1 tbs orange zest

150g self raising four, sifted

400ml full cream

2 tbs icing sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

150g hazelnuts 

150ml full cream

200g good quality dark chocolate chopped. 

1. Preheat oven at 160C fan forced/180C regular.

2. Beat egg whites and cream of tartar with an electric mixer till soft peaks. Add sugar one tablespoon at a time, beat thoroughly after each addition till you achieve stiff peaks. Set aside. 

3. In a separate bowl whisk egg yolks with caster sugar till fluffy. Add coconut milk, oil, orange juice, zest and self raising flour and whisk until combined. Gently fold the egg whites into the yolk mixture in 3 batches. 

4. Pour into a 22cm baba cake tin (do not use non-stick and do not grease). Bake 25mins at 160C fan forced, or till skewer comes out clean. 

5. When cake is out of the oven, immediately invert the cake still in the tin, and leave to cool completely. 

6. To make filling, whip the cream, sugar and vanilla till stiff but do not overbeat. Cover with cling film and refrigerate until required. 

7. Slice cake with a serrated knife into 3 equal layers. Spread a layer of the chantilly cream on each layer and sprinkle with chopped hazelnuts. 

8. To make ganache, bring cream to the boil in a small saucepan. Remove from heat, add chocolate pieces and whisk till chocolate has melted and emulsified with cream. Using a spatula spread evenly over the cake and sprinkle with chopped hazelnuts. 

The cake actually turned out perfect!!!!! It was tall and fluffy, although it was a bit messy when I tried to ice the cake. And it took me a while to figure out how to slide the assembled and iced cake from the cooling rack onto the plate in one piece without turning it into a leaning tower! 

However, I didn't get to taste the cake. =( I was actually looking forward to taste the cake at fellowship, but there were so many people that morning, and our dearest Mel cut some giant pieces of cake at the beginning, so a bunch of people didn't end up having a piece. So I've decided to make the cake again for this friday's Home Fellowship!!! haha... ummm... should I keep it as the orange chiffon cake or pandan flavour?!?!?! 

•