Chiffon Back to a Dessert Recipe!

Ahahaha, I think these puns are getting worse, but oh well! I hope you’ve been having a good week so far! So I’ve been spending a lot of time watching cooking/baking videos (especially Food Wishes, so if you haven’t already definitely check this guy out on YouTube; he’s amazing), and I’ve gotten into the cake mood. One of the problems with being in college is that it’s fairly difficult to make time to create your own food, but it means that on break I get to make as much delicious food as I’d like! So because of my cake craving (both making and eating), today’s recipe is Lemon Chiffon cake! Chiffon cake is a blend between oil/batter cakes and sponge cake, which makes it both delicate and full of flavor. If you’d rather have an orange or lime cake, the lemons in the recipe can be pretty easily replaced, just so you know that you have the option!

Ingredients 
FOR THE CAKE

·      3-4 lemons

·      2 ¼ cups cake flour

·      1 ½ cups sugar

·      1 tbsp baking powder

·      1 tsp salt

·      ½ cup canola/vegetable oil

·      ¼ cup water

·      6 large eggs, separated and at room temperature

·      ½ tsp cream of tartar

FOR THE GLAZE

·      2 cupts confectioner’s sugar

·      2 tbsp lemon juice

·      1 tbsp heavy cream

Preheat the oven to 325ºF. Zest the lemons, set aside, and juice and strain the lemons until you have ½ cup of juice. Sift together the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt onto a sheet of parchment paper. In a large bowl, combine the oil, water, egg yolks, lemon juice, and zest, and beat until well combined. Using a spatula, gently fold the sifted flour mixture into the wet ingredients until the batter is smooth. In a separate large bowl combine the egg whites and cream of tartar, and beat until soft peaks form. Using the spatula from before, gently fold ¼ of the egg whites into the batter until incorporated, and keep adding egg whites gently until combined, smooth, and foamy. Pour the batter into a tube pan with a removable bottom (make sure you do NOT grease the pan, or the cake will have difficulty rising when baking because it won’t have anything to stick to in order to grow). Bake the cake in the oven for about 40-45 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out cleanly, remove from the oven, and invert the pan on a wire rack to cool for about 45 minutes IN THE PAN.

            To make the glaze, combine the confectioners’ sugar, lemon juice, and cream in a small bowl and whisk until the sugar dissolves and the glaze is smooth. Add some more sugar if too liquid-y and some water if too thick. Place the cake right side up over a rack with a pan underneath to catch the glaze, and pour as much of the glaze as you want over the cake, letting it drip down the sides. Once the glaze dries, gently and slowly transfer the cake to a serving platter and enjoy!

And that’s that! I hope you enjoy this refreshing treat, and have a wonderful rest of the week!