We were determined not to repeat the same disaster as our first lesson (read our blog “The Art of Mixing & Folding”). For our first cake, the Orange Chiffon Cake, we cleaned all the equipment and make sure that there is no hint of egg yolk in our egg whites mixture. All went well and our instructor, Chef Judy Koh, was quite impressed with the result. We even earned her compliment “This cake is good”.
However, our second cake, Walnut Chiffon Cake, did not go so well. Perhaps we had not cleaned the egg separator and our egg whites did not stiffen at all. It was a terrible feeling. My heart sank just looking at the mixture and willing it to rise, but fully knowing that it wouldn’t. At that point, we had to make a decision whether to go ahead or start all over. We decided to re-do our egg whites even though it may mean we do not have enough time to bake our third cake. It was well worth it. Although we over-beat the egg whites in our anxiety and the cake did not turn as as fluffy as some of our classmates’, it tasted delicious and we were happy with the way it turned out. It wasn’t FLAT :)
Somehow, we managed to find time to bake our third cake, the Pandan Chiffon Cake. It was the best of all the 3 chiffon cakes we baked that day. It was very fluffy and light. Everyone loved it and a friend even complimented that “it’s as good as that sold at Bengawan Solo”
As Judy mentioned at the start of the class, ” the difficulty in creating the perfect meringue will come back to haunt you”. It certainly did. However, knowing that it is not an unachievable task, as exemplified by our Pandan Chiffon Cake, serves to only spur us to perfect this elusive and exacting task.
The pandan in foreground, Orange Chiffon Cake on the right and Walnut Chiffon on the left
No comments:
Post a Comment