Hello everyone, I’m Lisa
I believe that many people new to learn baking
are not quite clear about the difference between Taiwanese castella cakes,
chiffon cakes and sponge cakes
so today we will take a look
at the functions, the method
and the taste
The recipes for these cakes are
in the description area below the video
At the end of the video, I will also show you the recipe ratios
required for different sizes of baking pans.
From a functional point of view, chiffon cakes are generally suitable
for simple fruit decorations because they are too soft and have poor support
sponge cakes have strong support and are suitable for making buttercream or fondant cakes
and can be used for more complicated cake decorations.
For Taiwanese castella cakes, they can be eaten
without any cream or decoration.
The methods of making the cakes are similar, but they are different in some ways
so the taste of the cakes are obviously different
Let’s make Taiwanese castella cake first
It is said that castella cake is actually an upgraded version of the chiffon cake
I think it makes sense
The basic method is very similar to that of a chiffon cake
Heat the vegetable oil on a low heat to
between 70-85 degrees celsius
If you use a microwave oven, it takes about 50 seconds for this amount
Sift the flour and mix with the hot oil
With the appropriate oil temperature, the mixture should be in such a fluid state
If the oil temperature is too high
the flour will be scalded into a thick dough
Add chilled milk and stir
the batter will soon become very rough and clumpy
Don't worry, it is normal
With adding egg yolks, the mixture will become very silky
Use three 60-65g eggs
separate the egg whites and yolks
mix well for each yolk added
After all the egg yolks are added
the egg yolk mixture becomes very smooth
if your egg yolk paste is thicker than this state
you can add a small amount of milk to dilute.
Everyone knows that Taiwanese castella cakes are moist and soft
the egg whites only need to be beaten to soft peak stage
Add a small amount of lemon juice when whisking the egg whites to make the meringue more stable
if you are not good at beating egg whites
you can watch one of my which is called "How to beat the egg whites".
Beat the egg whites into a lot of thick bubbles at medium and high speeds
add 1/3 of caster sugar to continue mixing at medium and high speeds
When the meringue starts to appear lines
pour 1/3 of sugar and change to medium speed
the meringue appears soft and collapse while lifting the whisk
Pour in the remaining sugar, change to low speed
mix until the meringue appears relatively firm and big hook-like,
that is so-called soft peak.
In this step, the wrong gesture will easily cause the cake batter to defoam, resulting in the cake not rising enough
Mix 1/3 of the meringue and egg yolk batter
For novices, I recommend using a whisk
Stir from bottom to top
to form an upright o-shape until no meringue is visible
Pour it back into the meringue and mix evenly in the same way
Finally, use a spatula to stir the place where the whisk cannot be reached
and the meringue is completely invisible, indicating that the mixing is done
During the mixing process, if you see bubbles continue to pop
or the cake batter gradually becomes thinner
it is a symptom of defoaming
Line a 6-inch round baking pan with baking paper for easy demolding
the baking paper should be 2-3 cm higher than the edge of the pan
The cake batter is as smooth as silk when it pours, which is the best state of the cake batter
About 80% full
shake slightly to eliminate small bubbles in the cake batter
Since Taiwanese castella cakes pursue low-temperature baking
without cracking on the surface
the loose-base pan must be wrapped in foil to prevent water from entering the pan
3 layers of foil are wrapped, put it in a larger baking tray
add about 500 ml of cold water.
Place the tray at the lower rack of the preheated 140 degrees Celsius oven
bake for 50 minutes
then turn to 160 degrees Celsius and bake for 10 minutes to color
Before taking the pan out, lightly press the center of the cake
if the surface is not bounced back, it means that the centre of the cake is not fully baked
it needs to be baked at low temperature for another 10 minutes
Demould immediately
which is very jiggling
Slight wrinkles on the surface after cooling is very normal
so you don't worry too much
Let’s make a chiffon cake
many people say that making chiffon cakes will drive them crazy
In fact, as long as you grasp the skills, chiffon cakes are not difficult to make.
I usually use 2 jumbo eggs for 6 inch chiffon cake, each egg is about 65-70 grams
So the chiffon cake rise the highest out of these 3 cakes
but it is most likely to shrink if it fail
separate egg whites and egg yolks
Pour milk and vegetable oil into the bowl
The oil floats on the surface
Mix together until fully emulsified
the oil and water are no longer separated
Sift half of the cake flour in a time
mix in a zig-zag motion until no flour can be seen
the batter is a bit thick right now
add the egg yolk
the mixture will flow slowly
The previous steps of beat the egg whites
are basically similar to those of Taiwanese castella cake
I will ignore the steps here
Lift the whisk, a firm and big hook shape forms, which is soft peak
If you make castella cake, you need to stop at this stage
To make a chiffon cake, we need to continue to beat
add the remaining sugar, and mix at low speed
until a firm and upright shape appears, which is so called stiff peak.
The process of mixing the egg whites and egg yolk mixture
is exactly the same as that of making castella cakes
turn the bowl with one hand and fold the meringue in the egg yolk mixture in the opposite direction
I strongly recommend that you practice this gesture. Some chiffon cakes have a pudding layer, which is caused by the meringue not being fully integrated into the egg yolk mixture.
Some chiffon cakes have a pudding layer
which is caused by the meringue not being fully integrated into the egg yolk mixture
The rise of chiffon cake is done by attaching to the sides of the mold
so if the mold is non-stick, the cake will not rise enough
By using an aluminum baking pan for chiffon cakes
there is no need to put baking paper and coat with butter
The batter of the chiffon cake will be a little thicker
pour it into a 6-inch mold and it will flow down slowly
about 60-70% full
gently shake to remove air bubbles.
place the baking pan at the lower rack of the preheated 140 degrees Celsius oven
bake it for 40 minutes, then raise it to 160 degree Celsius and bake it for 5 minutes for coloring
let the mold fall to remove the heat
insert a skewer to see if the center of the cake is baked
turn it over immediately
let it cool completely for over an hour
If you don’t wait for it to cool completely and demould
which will cause the cake to shrink in the middle
you can take a look at the mold
chiffon cakes are risen by attaching to the mold sides and bottom
If the bottom and mold sides are clean
the cake is basically either collapse at the bottom or shrinking badly
Now to make a sponge cake
traditional sponge cakes have only three ingredients
consisting of equal amounts of flour, sugar and eggs
but it comes out a dry and dense taste
The current recipe is well improved
Eggs at room temperature are required to make sponge cakes,
because the egg needs to be heated to 40 degrees celsius in a bain marie to be the easiest to beat
Use three large eggs, about 60-65 grams
heat to about 40 degrees in a bain marie
at the same time, heat the butter and milk to 60 degrees celsius in a bain marie
until the butter melts, turn off the heat and continue to maintain this temperature in a bain marie
Pour the sugar
and mix at high speed for about 2 minutes
At this stage, a large amount of air enters the egg, forming many large bubbles
the volume becomes larger rapidly
turn to medium speed
you can see that the big bubbles gradually become smaller and more delicate
use the whisk to draw an 8 shape and they will disappear slowly
change to low speedl
Air is difficult to enter when mixing at low speed, so the volume will not expand anymore
but the bubbles in the egg will gradually differentiate and become smaller
and it will appear very delicate and shiny
lift the mixing whisk, make another 8 shape and it wil not disappear
which means the egg is well beaten.
Sift half of the cake flour in a time
the flour is floating on the surface
if the flour collapses after being poured in
it means that the egg is beaten too soft
slight defoaming is normal
Mixing with a whisk can reduce the chance of defoaming
lift the whisk from the bottom and shake it to disperse the flour
fold in repeatedly
no flour and small particles in the batter
The optimal temperature of the milk and butter mixture needs to be around 60 degrees celsius
because too high temperature will destroy the stability of the batter
while the temperature is too low, pouring the butter into the batter can easily cause defoaming
take a small amount of batter, mix it with the milk and butter mixture
then pour it back into the batter, use fold in method, mix until it is evenly combined
The best temperature is about 25 degrees Celsius
The bubbles in the cake batter at this temperature are not easily destroyed
to bake a fluffy and delicate sponge cake
line a 6-inch round baking pan with baking paper for easy demolding
The baking paper should be 2-3 cm higher than the edge of the pan
Shake a bit, or use circular motions to remove small bubbles in the batter
Put it at the lower rack of the preheated oven, bake at 150°C for 40 minutes
adjust to 160°C and bake for 5 minutes to color.
the sponge cake need to be demoulded immediately after baking
Now the three cakes are all done
as the sponge cake contains butter and more sugar, so the color is darker
Chiffon and sponge cakes are both very fluffy and soft
Castella cake is relatively moist
Cut open, the textures of chiffon cake and castella cake are very delicate
In contrast, the sponge cake will be denser
Castella cake is relatively moist and soft, melt in the mouth, suitable for eating without any decoration
Chiffon cakes are soft, delicate and light
Sponge cake is fluffy, soft
full of egg flavour
Overall, each taste has its own merits
I have made a comparison sheet of the recipes of these 3 cakes
in addition, how to adjust the ratio of the recipe for different sizes of baking pan is also listed at the end
I hope it will be useful to everyone
I am Lisa
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