Whipped cream never lets you down. Unlike persnickety buttercream, which is always ready to turn on you, whipping cream just sits like a docile child in its carton until you need it, and it blooms into glorious creaminess in just a few minutes with a simple hand mixer. And then, if you add some thick, caramely dulce de leche, you've attained nirvana.
I'm going to talk about the chiffonlets, if for no other reason than that they're so cute, and have such a cute little name, but they're really not the star of this show. Just to let you know where I'm coming from here.
I didn't get around to ordering mini angel-food cake pans, so I used my Maryann pans, which I love. Just like I love wearing Mary Jane shoes. Maryann and Mary Jane both seem so proper, but also like they have a touch of evil about them. (Not nasty evil, but more like gleam-in-your-eye evil. Maybe like Evil Cake Lady). I feel like I've gotten along just fine my entire life without these pans, but now that I have them, they're indispensable.
Unlike an angel food cake, these baby chiffon cakes have egg yolks, not just egg whites. They also have leavening (baking soda, in this case) and oil. They're not as feathery-light as angel food cake, but they're still quite light, and this lightness causes people to think they're healthier and less caloric than they really are, but if that's what people want to think, who am I to correct them?
The yolks, flour, instant espresso powder, water, sugar, and baking soda are all mixed together to make a nice mocha-colored batter. (Oh, by the way, I doubled this recipe because I was making dessert for eight people--that's why I have way more than the three egg yolks in the recipe. It doubles quite easily, and makes an impressive dinner-party dessert).
The meringue is whisked into the rest of the batter, and then poured into pans.
I filled two Maryann pans, and still had some batter left, so I filled a few custard cups too.
See how cute they are when they're turned over? Like the awful spongy "shortcakes" you buy at the grocery store, only not like them at all.
I didn't put the Kahlua in the syrup because I knew I'd be serving some of these to people who don't use alcohol, and I didn't want to bother with making one syrup with Kahlua and one without. I do think the Kahlua would have been a nice touch. I also have Kahlua on hand, and would have loved the chance to open the bottle again. Kahlua and I have not been on good terms since one night many years ago when I drank an inordinate number of Black Russians. Big mistake.
I just realized that this cake has four separate components, and that fact did not phase me in the slightest. In fact, I was kind of wondering why this cake wasn't on the Quick and Easy list. All four are really simple components--like dump a can of sweetened condensed milk in a pan, put it in a bigger pan, and try to remember to take it out of the oven before it burns.
I don't like to whipped cream in this big bowl because I usually get little drops of cream all over the kitchen wall--the bowl is too wide. But I was whipping a generous amount of cream, in addition to the dulce de leche, so I did. It was crazy. Oceans of cream spattered all over the kitchen, not to mention my clothes and Jim's clothes. If it had been blood instead of cream, my kitchen would have looked like a murder scene. (Sorry--an occupational metaphor). But it must not have been as much as I thought, because there was still plenty of whipped cream to put on all the cakelets. I previously thought that the raspberry whipped cream was the best possible version, but I'm a dulce de leche convert now. This cream was so deliciously deep and rich. If I weren't civilized, I'd have licked it off the cake and asked for more. It was wonderful.
Oh, I almost forgot. Although I didn't have mini angel food cake pans, I did make a couple of fake angel food cakelets, simply by taking the plastic tube of a bulb baster and carefully removing the center core of the cakes I'd baked in the custard cups. I can see why these cakes would have been sweetness itself as baby angel food cakes.
TASTING PANEL"
Fred: "It's so light--my cardiologist would approve of this dessert." [I didn't have it in me to disabuse him of that happy thought.]
Laurel: "The whipped cream is indispensable."
Doug: "Will you please put this on your bake-again list?"
Jan: "What can I say? It's delicious."
Jim: "I really liked the cream. The cake had a nice chewy texture that I liked."
Mary: "Nice and light. The coffee flavor is just right."
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