[RECIPE] A stroke of luck with Bailey's Coffee Marble chiffon cake

So the origin of the chiffon cake is purely American. It does not derive from some aristocrat fantasy, nor is it invented from some baker's experimental mistake. The first chiffon cake is credited to be invented by Harry Baker in 1927, an insurance salesman who bakes as a hobby and sold his cakes at a fancy Hollywood-goer restaurant. People usually used butter (i.e. in Bundt cake or sponge cake), yet vegetable oil became more affordable during that time, that must have led Harry to try out the cake recipes with a new ingredient that gives off that light fluffy texture. The cake is glorified to be the "best cake in 100 years" especially during 1940-1960, and I believe the recipe also spreaded its influence in Japan with its door opened to western influences after WWII. (Some of the best chiffon cakes now in Japan are originially from Kobe and Hokkaido).

So here I have my rendition of the chiffon cake recipe, it's heavenly light and fluffy, with a hint of the baileys and espresso. Perfect

Origin of this dessert: United States

Recommended drink pairing: Viennese coffee or espresso.

Ingredients

4 Eggs (separate egg white and yolk)

Sugar 102g

Olive oil 45g

Milk 56g

Bailey's 10ml

Flour 102g

Baking Powder 1.7g

Dark Chocolate 10g (2 cubes)

Cocoa Powder 5g

Espresso 5-10ml

Preparation

Preheat oven at 210 celsius

Sift four

Separate egg yolk in bowl A and egg white in bowl B

Gently heat up milk and olive oil in a cup (microwave is ok) for about 50sec

18cm chiffon cake tin

Direction

Add 1/2 of sugar into egg yolk in bowl A, mix well

Add milk and olive oil into A, stir well and add bailey's and cocoa powder

In a separate bowl B, beat egg white until foamy (like beer foams) before adding 1/3 of the rest of the sugar. At each stage, beat at high speed and add 1/3 of the sugar at each stage, until 70% peak.

*To check if it is 70% peak, gentily twirl the egg beater and turn it upside down to see if you can form a soft ice-cream like peak with your egg white meringue

Add 1/3 of the egg white to bowl A, lighly combine with the yolk mixture

Add all of the flour and baking powder at one go, and use the egg beater to do an up-and down stir, gently folding the mixture from bottom to top, for about 3-4 turns, and change it to a spatula to check that the mixture is well mixed but not overdone

Add the rest of the egg white meringue in and repeat the folding process, without overdoing it

In a separate clean bowl, take 1/4 of the mixture and mix it with melted dark chocolate and espresso

Pour in the mixture into the cake tin, and you can add in the dark chocolate mix into alternatingly to create the marble effect

Make sure hit the tin to get rid of the extra large bubbles

Bake for 31mins at 210c

*Note: Turn the tin upside down immediately when removed from the oven, to avoid over-shrinking