CHOCOLATE CHIFFON LOAF CAKE

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A light and soft chocolate chiffon loaf cake flavored with orange liqueur. A simple and easy recipe, perfect for any occasion.

hocolate Chiffon Loaf Cake

Edited to add on April 30, 2018: This recipe for chocolate chiffon cake is super easy and yields a fluffy, soft and moist chocolate cake. Addition of orange liqueur elevates the taste of this chocolate chiffon loaf cake taste even more. Feel free to skip it in case you don’t have any on hand. While the top most picture on the post is the most recent, the one directly above went with the original post that went live on November 18, 2010. I am happy to say that I have learnt a lot about photography in the last few years and I hope I continue to grow and never stop learning.

Original Post:

So, we are back to just the two of us in our house. Said bye to V’s parents on Sunday and came back home to an empty house. After one month of Mom’s cooking lessons, catching up on family gossip, Papa’s watering the garden, and celebrating festivals together, V and I are both alone again in the house. From being so busy to not find time to log on to the net, I now have ample time on hand, and of course, back to having nothing to do in the afternoon. Which means- I am back to blogging :)! And, that too with a chocolate chiffon cake! There couldn’t be a better way to come back!

This cake is very, very soft- like the name suggests its like chiffon- light and soft. The recipe is adapted from Classic Home Desserts by Richard Sax. I couldn’t find vanilla essence in my house, which came as a shock to me, because its never happened that I don’t have a bottle of vanilla essence in my pantry. So, instead I used a teaspoon of Godiva chocolate liqueur (like I needed an excuse for doing that!), notching up the cake a little.

hocolate Chiffon Loaf Cake

CHOCOLATE CHIFFON LOAF CAKE
 
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Serves: 1 9 inch loaf
Ingredients
  • ⅓ cup unsweetened Dutch- process cocoa powder (in case, dutch process cocoa is not available, switch the baking powder called below for 1 tsp baking soda)
  • ½ cup boiling water
  • 1 tsp instant coffee powder
  • ¾ cup cake flour ( I have used all purpose flour too with good results, though cake flour is ideal)
  • ¾ cup sugar
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • ¼ cup vegetable oil (use an oil which is neutral in taste)
  • 2 large egg yolks
  • 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
  • 2 tbsp grand marnier (optional)
  • 4 large egg whites
  • Pinch cream of tartar
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 180 C/350 F. Line a 8 by 4 inch loaf pan with parchment paper.
  2. In a bowl sift the cocoa powder. Add boiling water and instant coffee. Whisk till blended. Add the oil, egg yolks, vanilla and grand marnier to it. Whisk well.
  3. In another bowl, sift the flour with the baking powder and ½ cup of the sugar.
  4. Add the cocoa-water mix to the flour mix and stir till combined. Don't over mix.
  5. In a grease free bowl, beat the egg whites with the cream of tart until soft peaks.
  6. Gradually add in the sugar and beat whites till stiff peaks.
  7. Fold ¼ of the beaten egg whites to the chocolate mixture, to loosen the batter.
  8. Gently fold in the remaining batter, making sure to not deflate the whites.
  9. Scrape the batter into the prepared pan; smooth the top.
  10. Bake until toothpick comes clean when inserted in the centre of the cake, about 50 minutes (start checking after 40-45 minutes, depending on your oven)
  11. Cool cake in pan on wire rack for 10 minutes. Invert and let cool to room temperature. Enjoy!
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HALLOWEEN & THE RUN UP TO IT!

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Last weekend was awesome fun. And so was this one – Sunday was Halloween! And with that the festive season in the US kick starts! 🙂 🙂

Have not been able to blog for a long time- V’s parents are here so been busy exploring places with them around our little small town. Last weekend, I went for my first American football game and realised that more activity happens off field than on field, with cheerleaders chanting and the band playing and the food flying all over- it is fun. That was Friday. Saturday, finally, after  pestering V a lot to take me to the nearby places around our small mining town,  and thanks to his parents being here, we went.

About a 1.5 hour drive from our town is a huge pumpkin patch. Close to it is also an apple orchard and a vineyard. En route we saw rows and rows of greenhouses. There is a whole establishment dealing in producing tomatoes. It was beautiful and made all of us day dream about opening something on a similar scale like this back in India. Hopefully, some day we will!

With our hand picked pumpkins dumped in the car, we drove to the Apple Annie’s Orchard. After having a light snack of bean burritos (which were similar to our Indian Rajma roti) and pasta salad at the pumpkin patch, it was time for dessert at the orchard. I had the best tasting cider donuts there. V’s mom, who a day before, had vowed to not eat a donut again, was tempted so much by the smell, that she ordered for all of us. A testimony to the taste would be that there was a 20 minute wait to get your own freshly made cider donut. It was crisp and perfectly sweet.

We also tried there homemade ice cream and their apple pie- which was really good. Though, normally I like making my own breads and cakes, but with everything tasting so good, I was tempted to try some of theirs and got the pumpkin and apple bread home. I was not disappointed at all.

Having had our dose of apples and pumpkins, it was time for some wine tasting 🙂 . Who would have thought to find a vineyard in Arizona! After tasting 13 different wines, we finally bought two bottles of their gold medal winning sparkling wine. I’m not a big fan of wine- but champagne I like and this tasted more like champagne, so I’m glad we brought back some home.

The next day we drove to Alpine, a small hill station with a Swiss-like setting.

The drive to Alpine is very scenic and the fall colored trees en route made the drive all the more captivating.

With a really hectic last week, this weekend we chose to take it easy. Did some grocery shopping and bought candy for the trick-or-treaters. Friday, I carved my first pumpkin ever.

I was really excited about Halloween. I just think its a fun holiday- people dressed up in costumes, houses decorated, candies galore- it’s just so festive. V’s dad probably was even more excited than me. He had been going to the library and reading Halloween stories and then coming back home and reciting them to all of us. On Sunday, he made a Halloween poster that we put outside near the entrance. V and I gifted him a Halloween t-shirt which he sportingly wore! Even though we had a good stock of candy, thanks to my friends who had warned me that a lot of kids come to the lane where our house is, we still ran out and V had to rush to the store to get more. The second lot, too, vanished with as much speed as V got them. Finally, we decided to shut off our lights and move out, since the kids were still coming in large numbers (felt bad doing it but had no choice- no amount of candy was enough for the crowd we got!). Overall, a fun two weeks. Will be back soon with some recipes!

MOM-IN-LAW’s LAYERED CHICKEN BIRYANI

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26th was Karwa Chauth- a Hindu tradition where the wife keeps a day long fast for the well-being, prosperity and longevity of her husband. It was my first ever- and well, it went off not half as bad as I expected. Fortunately, for me, my mom-in-law keeps a very easy fast- she has fruits and water. Traditionally, though, women only eat before sunrise on the day of the fast (called sargi). Then, once dawn breaks, they can’t eat or drink anything till they don’t see the moon. Over the years, people have started drinking water, but don’t eat anything till they don’t offer prayer to the moon. Since, the way you do it the first time, you have to continue the exact same tradition each year, and since, fortunately, I had freedom to be flexible in the fast, thanks to my mom-in-law, I did not eat anything till the evening prayer , after which I had fruits once. And then waited till I saw the moon to break my fast. Even V kept the fast with me, eating only when and what I was eating. Thanks to the 5 ‘o’ clock fruit intake the wait for the moon wasn’t half as bad as I thought it would be.

We had already prepared food for the evening- kadhi and mixed vegetable with paranthas. So, as soon as we saw the moon at 8.35 pm (after countless trips outside to check whether the moon is out), we offered prayers to the moon and went directly for the food. I have never eaten so fast and quickly, and food has never ever tasted this good.

(The M&M and the flowers are V’s karwa chauth gift to me 🙂 )

Now, traditionally, there is no non-vegetarian dish served on such an auspicious day and so, of course, the recipe I have given below was not made on 26th but, since, long back I had promised to post it and have delayed it enough, I thought of finally posting V’s mom’s version of layered biryani. So here it is!

(There is a lot of approximation in measurement. My mom-in-law does it by pure feel and so its not possible to give the exact measurement. I have tried my best to write as exact the quantities as I remember. But feel free to experiment! Go with your gut:)!)

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