An air fryer moves hot air hard and close, which is why most chiffon attempts in one come out with a scorched top and a raw centre. The fix here is a sheet of foil over the tin for the first forty minutes, then a second, uncovered stretch at the same low temperature to dry the crumb out.
Chinese · Dessert
Air Fryer Chiffon Cake: A Six Inch Sponge That Does Not Sink
A three egg chiffon baked in a basket instead of an oven, shielded with foil for the first forty minutes so the top sets before the heat hits it directly.
- Prep25 min
- Cook65 min
- Serves6
- LevelMedium
Ingredients
| 50 g | cake flour |
| 3 | eggs , separated, cold |
| 30 g | whole milk |
| 30 g | corn oil |
| 20 g | caster sugar , for the yolks |
| 25 g | caster sugar , for the whites |
| 3 drops | lemon juice |
Method
- Weigh everything first. Chiffon punishes improvisation more than most cakes.
- Whisk the milk, corn oil and the 20 g of sugar with the yolks until the mixture looks pale and slightly thickened, then sift the cake flour over it and fold until just combined.
- Whip the cold whites with the lemon juice. Add the 25 g of sugar in three lots and stop at firm peaks that hold a small curl at the tip.
- Fold a spoonful of the meringue into the yolk batter to loosen it, then tip the whole thing back into the remaining meringue and fold with a spatula, turning the bowl as you go.
- Pour into an ungreased six inch tin and drop it on the counter twice to knock out the large bubbles.
- Cover the top with foil and bake at 130 C for 40 minutes.
- Take the foil off and bake at 130 C for another 25 minutes, until the top springs back when pressed.
- Invert the tin on a rack and let it cool completely before running a knife around the edge.
Notes
- Never grease the tin. The batter needs to climb the bare wall, and a greased tin gives you a cake that rises and then slides back down.
- Keep the foil loose. Pressed against the batter it will lift the crust off when you pull it away and leave a pale, dented top.
- If your basket runs hot, drop to 120 C and add ten minutes rather than moving the tin closer to the element.
Ratios and technique checked against Lara on Douguo (6寸戚风蛋糕空气炸锅版). The method here is written by Stellaok; the photograph is the source kitchen's, credited on the image above and linked back to the page it came from. No recipe text is reproduced.