Earl Grey Chiffon Cake

Step 1

Start by steeping either your Earl Grey tea bags or loose tea leaves in the hot water for a few minutes to brew a strong tea whilst you gather the rest of your ingredients. After it has cooled down, remove tea bags or drain the tea leaves and measure out only 120ml of earl grey tea and set aside.

Step 2

This is an optional step, for those who would like to add crushed tea leaves into your batter. I use tea bags and usually just crush them directly. If you wish to have a finer texture, you may also grind it with a food processor, or use the mortar and pestle to crush. You may wish to omit the crushed tea leaves, but they do add to the strength of the earl grey flavour and I'd highly recommend it.

Step 3

Preheat oven to 170°C. Sift flour and baking powder, set aside.

Step 4

Separate your eggs, placing the whites in one clean and dry large bowl, and the yolks in another clean bowl.

Step 5

Using either a whisk to beat manually by hand, or flat beater on your stand mixer, combine egg yolks and sugar in a bowl and beat until mixture becomes light and colour turns pale.

Step 6

Add oil, infused earl grey tea water, and crushed tea leaves and whisk until well combined. If using an electronic mixer, use the slowest speed setting.

Step 7

Add flour gradually in 4-5 folds, and mix until batter is well incorporated without any lumps. Set aside.

Step 8

Using a stand mixer with balloon whisk attachment, beat egg whites on medium low speed until foamy then add in cream of tartar.

Step 9

When the mixture starts to get bubbly, add half portion of sugar and beat on high speed for 2-3 minutes. Reduce speed to medium-high then add remaining sugar gradually and beat until egg whites are glossy, with stiff peaks. When you lift your whisk, your egg white meringue would stand straight up with the tip slightly bent over. Also be sure to check the bottom of the bowl to ensure that there is no liquidy mixture - this is considered under-beating. Note that under-beating or over-beating the meringue mixture would cause the cake to either not rise, or it would rise and collapse.

Step 10

Using a spatula, add ⅓ of meringue into egg yolk mixture and fold in lightly. You'd want to be as gentle as you can so as to ensure you do not deflate the egg whites too much.

Step 11

Add in another ⅓ of the meringue and fold - again, remember to be gentle. This is to ensure you'd achieve a fluffy cake.

Step 12

Finally add the remaining meringue and fold to incorporate completely. If your meringue is not completely homogenous with your egg yolk mixture, when the cake is baked, you would find white streaks.

Step 13

Pour batter into a 22cm/9" chiffon cake tube pan. The best chiffon cake pan to use is the aluminium pan with removable base. The non-stick ones are not suitable and DO NOT grease your chiffon cake pan.

Step 14

Knock the cake pan lightly on the tabletop to remove air pockets. If you skip this step, you may find holes within your cake after baking.

Step 15

Bake in preheated oven for 45 minutes. When cake is done, remove from oven and invert it on a wire rack, leaving it to cool. Please make sure the cake is left upside down until completely cool or the cake will collapse.

Step 16

Once cake has cooled completely, carefully run a palette knife or spatula around the sides of the cake to loosen it before inverting onto a cake board or serving plate. The base of your cake, would be the top.

Step 17

Slice cake to your desired serving size, and enjoy.