Birthday Cake for the Bird

If there is on thing that you take away from Durban Central please, please, let it be the Chocolate Chiffon Cake Recipe. This isn't the kind of cake you serve at a well mannered tea party next to the strawberry macaroons and a pot of herbal tea, oh no. This Cake is for night time and is best enjoyed in the company of chilled bubbles and sexy sexy heels. Please don't judge me because of my pictures, I murdered my camera so I am currently trying to make do with my cell phone - this is not really working out well for me as you can see!

INGREDIENTS

3/4 cup hot water mixed 

with 1/2 cup of cocoa powder

1 3/4 cup Self raining flour

1 3/4 cup sugar

7.5 ml Bicarb

a pinch of salt

1/2 cup oil

7 egg yolks

7 egg whites

1/2 teaspoon cream of tar tar

Pre-heat the oven to 160 C

Before you get going on the sieving and bowl licking, chuck the egg whites into a clean bowl and whip them up until they get foamy then chuck in the cream of tar tar and continue to beat them until you can hold the bowl up side down without the whites falling out. Put them aside.

Grab your bowl with the cocoa and hot water mixture in it, add the oil and beat it with a hand beater. Once the mixture is smooth beat in the 7 egg yolks one by one until you have a smooth liquid. Set aside for just now.

Sieve together the remaining dry ingredients into a big bowl and stir them together until the flour and sugar is nicely incorporated. Using a hand beater or Kitchen aid (with the paddle attachment) slowly beat the cocoa and oil mix into the dry ingredients. Beat until smooth. You want your mixture to have the same consistency as a double thick milkshake, it mustn't be stiff and dry. You can add a little water to thin it out if necessary. 

Now pay attention because this next step will either make or break your day. Divide the egg whites in half and pour half the whipped whites into the cake mixture. Use a big spoon or a whisk and slowly fold in the whites. You don't want to stir them in completely, the idea is to fold them in just enough that the bubbles are still intact but you don't have huge chunks of egg white clouds floating around. Once the first half are done fold in the second half. You will see in my pic that my whites are not 100% mixed in they are stirred in just enough so try not to over do it! Pour the mixture into a greased Chiffon Cake tin and bang it into the oven for 50 minutes or until your kitchen smells like cake and a knife stuck into the cake comes out clean.

Now you have probably been wondering why your cake tin has funny legs on the top- here is why. When you take your cake out the oven, flip it up side down ,balance it on its little legs - don't worry, it won't fall out - and leave it to cool. This step gives the chiffon Cake its impressive height. If you don't let the cake cool up side down, it slowly slouches down to something resembling a stodgy flop- we don't want this. When the cake is cool, take it out of the Cake tin, stop to marvel, and then smother it in Chocolate ganache and chuckles:)