Mango Chiffon Cake

Everyone cannot do everything. I know it, you know it.
There are certain things I cannot do. Since you are reading what I write, I thought I would share some of those secrets with you.
I cannot ride a bicycle.
I cannot swim.
I cannot parallel park. (May be I can. I have never tried it. I am scared of it)
I cannot separate eggs. Seriously. I went and got the small egg separator for doing this job.
That is one of the reason I have never made a chiffon cake or meringue or a macaron before. I just can't separate the eggs. Now I can with the help of the gadget.

Sometime back, someone asked me if I could make a chiffon cake and that too mango flavored one. Here is my take on it. I looked at many chiffon cake recipes and adapted to use mango pulp.

One Year Back - Eggless Orange Muffins
Ingredients:
Cake flour - sifted and then measured 2 1/4 cups
White Sugar - 1 1/4 cup divided use
Vegetable Oil - 1/2 cup
Egg - 7 large separated
Baking Powder - 1 TBSP
Salt - 1/4 tsp
Cream of Tartar - 3/4 tsp (I have read that even if you don't use it, chiffon cake will still work)
Mango pulp (Sweetened condensed mango pulp) - 3/4 cup (See Notes)
Vanilla - 2 tsp (Or cardamom or mango extract if you have it)

Method:
Separate the eggs when cold. But, use it in the recipe when they are at room temperature. Egg whites whip nicely when at room temperature. Preheat the oven to 325 F. Get the 10" tube pan ready (If you have angel food pan, even better). Do not grease it. In a bowl, whisk together 1 cup of sugar, cake flour, baking powder, salt. Set aside. In another bowl, whisk together to combine oil, egg yolks, mango pulp and vanilla. Slowly mix the dry ingredients to the egg yolk and mango mixture and combine till there is no streak of flour left.

In another clean bowl, take the egg whites and with the electric mixer with whip attachment, whip the eggs till foamy. Add cream of tartar and continue to whip till soft peaks form. Slowly add the reserved 1/4 cup of sugar and continue to beat till you get stiff peaks but don't over beat to make them dry. Add about 1/4th of this whipped egg white to the mango mixture to lighten. Fold the egg whites to the mango mixture in batches. Take care not to deflate the whites. Gently fold. Pour into the pan and bake for 50 - 60 minutes or until golden and the cake springs back when touched and toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
Cool inverted on a bottle (I have never done this) or cool inverted on the wire rack if the pan has feet. My tube pan does and that is what I did. It has to cool completely for about 1 1/2 - 2 hours. Run a spatula around the edge of the pan and the center and release the cake from the pan. Serve as is or with some powdered sugar sprinkled on the top or whipped cream. Go as fancy as you want.

If you have a removable bottom tube pan, use that. The cake stuck and I couldn't get it out in one piece. Since this is the first time I baked Chiffon cake, I don't really know why it happened. Maybe some chiffon cakes do come out in one piece from a tube pan, but this one didn't. So, I am going to get myself a tube pan with removable bottom. But my husband who says he is tired of eating cakes said it was one of the best cakes I have ever baked. And if you have been reading this blog for long, you know that means it is an excellent one.

Notes:
If you want to use fresh mango, puree the mango and measure 3/4 cup of it. Increase the sugar to 1 1/2 cups and proceed.

Enjoy.