Milk chiffon cake

Chiffon cake is my favourite cake -- light, fluffy, of just enough moistness, tastes even better after chilled. I once tried lemon chiffon cake and coffee chiffon cake. Since there is no butter in this cake, it is lack of rich flavour. I wonder if the addition of skim milk can help me to obtain much more creamy color and richer taste. The result cheered me :=D

Making chiffon cake is sort of tricky job: Some may say they never succeed, however, some lucky folks never fail. Why? I have to say that there ARE a lot of tips and you WILL find them in my directions. I don't use baking powder and vanilla in my recipe, the whole cake is only supported by fluffy beaten egg white.

Here we go:

1. Line bottom of a 9-inch spring form pan with parchment paper (shaped into the same size as the bottom); don't grease the pan so that it can allow the batter to cling to the sides of the pan as it rises.

2. Take five eggs from the fridge and place them on the dry towel, dry the surface of chilled egg to avoid any drop of water. You need three bowls for separating egg white and yolk: yolk bowl, egg white bowl and working bowl. Crack the egg to get a sharp and even break; pull the shells apart over working bowl, the egg white runs to the bowl; flip flop the yolk between the two shells three times, let all white leave the shell. Never let any yolk drops into the egg white (That's why you need a working bowl, in case the egg white is contaminated by yolk drops or even rotten egg or egg with blood). Put yolk into yolk bowl. Transfer egg white into egg white bowl, cover the bowl, in case it is contaminated by water or something else. Repeat the steps to finish separation of the five eggs. Bring egg white and yolk to room temperature.

3. Whisk 1/3 cup skim milk and 5 tsp sugar to have sugar completely dissolved; whisk into 1/4 cup vegetable oil (check the label: the oil should not contain silicates as they tend to inhibit foaming); sift into 1 cup cake flour and mix them well; finally, combine the flour mixture with five yolks to obtain smooth batter.

4. Beat egg whites until foamy; add several drops of lemon juice and 1/3 cup sugar; beat until stiff peaks form. You will find that beaten egg white will not drop when you turn over the bowl.

5. Adjust the rack in the oven to the low position and preheat oven to 325 F.

6. With a rubber spatula, mix 1/3 beaten egg white with batter obtained in step 3 until smooth.

7. Pour the smooth batter back into the remaining 2/3 beaten egg white, fold batter very gently but quickly -- try to fully blend the batter in no more than two minutes otherwise, batter will be deflated.

8. Pour the batter into spring form pan; give the pan three gentle raps on the counter to release any large air bubbles and smooth the top with spatula.

9. Bake for 45 minutes or until the cake tester or toothpick inserted in the middle of the cake comes out clean and the cake is golden.

10. Immediately remove the cake from the oven, invert the pan and stand it on the rack. Let the cake cool completely.

11. Run a rubber spatula around the inside of the pan, then remove the cake from the pan, invert the cake onto a greased rack.

Chiffon cake can be stored in the fridge for several days.