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Orange Chiffon Cake Recipe – Airy, light, cottony, and to-die-for orange sponge cake. You’ve got to make it!
Chiffon cake—much like angel cake in the US (but tastes better)—is one of the most popular cakes in Malaysia and Singapore.
Walk into any cake shops or supermarkets, you can always find various flavors of chiffon cake for sale.
Chiffon cake is prized for its very light, soft, and cottony texture.
Everyone loves it.
Believe it or not, I was quite a Orange chiffon cake baker when I was in high school.
During one of my high school years, I remember my eldest sister-in-law started baking chiffon cake at home.
She had learned how to bake chiffon cake from her co-worker and started testing out the recipe.
I loved pottering in the kitchen, watching the preparation and baking process.
She started teaching me her recipe.
I remember vividly she had to beat the egg whites until soft peaks formed, during which she would turn the container with the egg whites upside down to test the readiness.
She cautioned me that if the egg whites were runny, the cake would fail.
The foamy texture of the egg whites mesmerized me…I thought it was amazing that the egg whites defy gravity!
Soon after that, I started testing out her chiffon cake recipe, with great success.
While the most popular is pandan chiffon cake, I loved making orange chiffon cake.
My late aunt would always buy me oranges.
Once in a while, I would bake coffee chiffon cake and she would ask her friend from the coffee shop for some Nescafe coffee mix.
For a month or two, my favorite pass time was baking orange chiffon cake.
I loved the citrusy fragrance and the mild tangy flavor of orange chiffon cake.
As with many teenage obsessions, soon I found another hobby and I stopped baking.
Fast forward to many years later, the last chiffon cake I made was this lemon chiffon cake I posted many years ago.
If you asked me if I still remember my sister-in-law’s recipe, the answer is a clear no.
However, I am happy that my contributor CP Choong is sharing her Orange Chiffon Cake recipe with us, which brings back many memories of my high school days.
How Many Calories per Serving?
This recipe is only 537 calories per serving.
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Orange Chiffon Cake
Ingredients
- 7 egg yolks
- 1/4 cup superfine sugar
- ¼ tsp salt
- 4 tablespoons cooking oil
- 2 tablespoons grated orange rind
- 4 tbsp orange juice
- few drops of orange colouring (I omitted)
- 4 oz (125g) self-raising flour
- 7 egg whites
- ½ teaspoon cream of tartar (I substitute with 1 tsp lemon juice)
- 2/3 cup superfine sugar
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 170°C (325°F). Prepare a 9-in (22 cm) tube pan, ungreased.
- To make egg yolk batter, beat egg yolks with sugar till pale, then add in salt and oil, mix briefly till looks like mayonnaise.
- Add in grated orange rind, orange juice and orange colouring (I omitted) and mix well. Fold in sieved flour until forms batter.
- To make egg white foam, beat egg whites and cream of tartar until mixture forms soft peaks. Gradually add in sugar, beating at high speed until stiff peaks form.
- Gently fold beaten egg white foam into egg yolk batter in 3 batches until fully combined. (Do not overmix)
- Pour batter into ungreased 9-in (22 cm) tube pan. Tap the pan a few times on table top to get rid of any trapped air bubbles in the batter.
- Bake in preheated oven at 170°C (325°F) for 50-60 minutes or until cooked. (When lightly pressed, the cake will spring back)
- Immediately upon removing the cake from the oven invert the pan (turn upside down) and place on a bottle or flat surface so it is suspended over the counter. Let cool completely before removing the cake from pan.
- To remove cake from pan, run a thin bladed knife or a palette knife around the side of the pan and center core, release the cake and run the knife along the base of the pan to remove cake.
Notes
Nutrition
Notice: Nutrition is auto-calculated, using Spoonacular, for your convenience. Where relevant, we recommend using your own nutrition calculations.
I tried this recipe, and it turned out fabulous just like I remember it when I was younger. I’ve always wanted to learn how to make it because growing up as a kid we use to buy orange chiffon cake in the stores, and it was always a favorite to everyone in Hawaii. Now you don’t find it so much around. I’ve tried making it once before when a neighbor showed me how to do it, but it never turned out like hers. When I saw this recipe, I had to give it another try. To my surprise it turned out so awesome just like when we bought it at the store. My husband and I ate the whole thing by ourselves. It was light, fluffy, and spongy, and had the orange taste which we love. It is not too sweet but just right. It was perfect. Thank you Rasa for sharing your recipe!
Thanks Nadine! :)
My chiffon cake tube pan ungreased and it didn’t come out well like yours. It stuck to the pan.
You need to grease it generously.
But as mentioned in the recipe, it calls for an ungreased pan.
Helen, did you use a proper chiffon pan where the base comes off? No greasing is necessary and in fact, preferred. Use a spatula or thin kinfe and run it between the tin and the cake in three places: side of the pan, (at this point, separate the two parts of the tin), bottom of the pan and the centre core. Wella!
I baked this cake today. My 2nd try for chiffon cake. As I didn’t hv lemon juice or tartar cream, I substituted it with apple cider vinegar instead. I reduced the quantity of sugar by 30gms. However, it still turned out rather sweet for my taste bud. With all these tweaks, I m glad that cake turned out fluffy and moist. My hubby loves this cake and he has eaten half of it, all by himself.
Many thks for this recipe. I will replace orange juice with pandan juice in my next bake for a pandan chiffon cake instead. From a fellow Penangite.
Hi Celine thanks for trying my recipe!
Terrific recipe! This is the first chiffon cake I have ever made with such a lovely texture (this is my second try, my first cake – different recipe – came out dry and hard). Moist and delicious.
Thanks Lori for trying this orange chiffon cake.
Can I put fresh or can orange in the cake?
How would it work if I use a bundt mold? Do I let it cool upside down? Or flip it right way after its out of the oven?
Hi, just wondering if you have a plain/vanilla chiffon cake recipe?
Thanks,
Esther
what will be the effect if i add cream of tartar to the egg whites?
Hi I love chiffon cake but would like to turn this into chocolate flavor. How do I do it?
Hi. Thanks for sharing this recipe. I’ve always wanted to try this. Can I ask why there are two indications of the superfine sugar in the ingredients? One is for 50g and the other listing is 130g?
Am I supposed to have 180g total?
50g goes into egg yolk. 130g goes into egg whites