A few helpful hints: Separate the eggs while they're cold and then let them reach room temperature. Use a footed removable bottom tube pan if you have one. An important thing to remember when making Chiffon cake is not to grease the pan. The batter needs to cling to the pan to rise while baking. You need to invert the pan to let the cake cool for a few hours afterwards, and you don't want the cake to fall out! This blog has a few helpful hints as well. Also, I didn't have cake flour but I made my own. If you don't have any, but you have corn starch, here is an easy way to make it yourself.
Everyone seemed to like the cake, and I thought it was delicious too. I've never made angel food cake or sponge cake, but I love my aunt's pound cake recipe, and now this Chiffon Cake recipe will be another that I will make often.
Chiffon Cake
In the original recipes for chiffon cake published
by General Mills, the directions for beating the egg whites read, “WHIP until
whites form very stiff peaks. They should be much stiffer than for angel food
or meringue. DO NOT OVERBEAT.” These instructions, with their anxiety-inducing
capitalized words, are well taken. If the whites are not very stiff, the cake
will not rise properly, and the bottom will be heavy, dense, wet, and
custard-like. Better to overbeat than to underbeat. After all, if you overbeat
the egg whites and they end up dry and “blocky,” you can smudge and smear the
recalcitrant clumps with the flat side of the spatula to break them up.
CAKE:
1½ cups sugar
1 1/3 cups plain cake flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
7 large eggs, 2 whole, 5 separated, at room temperature
¾ cup cold water
½ cup vegetable oil
1 Tablespoon vanilla extract
½ teaspoon almond extract
½ teaspoon cream of tartar
GLAZE:
4 Tablespoons (½ stick) unsalted butter, melted
4-5 Tablespoons orange juice, lemon juice, milk, or coffee
(for date-spice or mocha-nut variations)
2 cups sifted confectioners’ sugar
FOR THE CAKE: Adjust an oven rack to the lower-middle
position and heat the oven to 325°. Whisk the sugar, flour, baking powder, and
salt together in a large bowl. Whisk in the 2 whole eggs, 5 egg yolks (reserve
the whites), water, oil, and extracts until the batter is just smooth.
Pour the reserved egg whites into the bowl of a standing
mixer; beat at a lower speed until foamy, about 1 minute. Add the cream of
tartar, gradually increase the speed to medium-high, and beat the whites until
very thick and stiff, just short of dry (as little as 7 minutes in a standing
mixer and as long as 10 minutes with a handheld mixer). With a large rubber
spatula, fold the whites into the batter, smearing in any blobs of white that
resist blending with the flat side of the
Spatula.
Pour the batter into an ungreased large tube pan (9-inch
diameter, 16-cup capacity). Rap the pan against the countertop 5 times to
rupture any large air pockets. If using a pan with a removable bottom, grasp
both sides with your hands while firmly pressing down on the tube with your
thumbs to keep the batter from seeping from the pan during the rapping process.
Wipe off any batter that may have dripped or splashed onto the inside walls of
the pan with a paper towel.
Bake the cake until a toothpick or thin skewer inserted
in the center comes out clean, 55-65 minutes. Immediately turn the cake upside
down to cool. If the pan does not have prongs around the rim for elevating the
cake, invert the pan onto the neck of a bottle or funnel. Let the cake cool
completely, 2 to 3 hours.
To unmold, turn the pan upright. Run a thin knife around
the pan’s circumference between the cake and the pan wall, always pressing
against the pan. Use a skewer to loosen the cake from the tube. For a one-piece
pan, bang it on the counter several times, then invert it over a serving plate.
For a two-piece pan, grasp the tube and lift the cake out of the pan. If
glazing the cake, use a fork or paring knife to gently scrape all the crust off
the cake. Loosen the cake from the pan bottom with a spatula or knife, then
invert the cake onto a serving plate. (The cake can be wrapped in plastic and
stored at room temperature for up to 2 days or refrigerated for up to 4 days.)
FOR THE GLAZE: Beat the butter, 4 tablespoons of the
liquid, and the confectioners’ sugar in a medium bowl until smooth. Let the
glaze stand 1 minute, then try spreading a little on the cake. If the cake
starts to tear, thin the glaze with up to 1 tablespoon more liquid. A little at
a time, spread the glaze over the cake top, letting any excess dribble down the
sides. Let the cake stand until the glaze dries, about 30 minutes. If you like,
spread the dribbles (before they have a chance to harden) to make a thin,
smooth coat. Serve.
Serves 12.
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| Whisk dry ingredients together |
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| Whisk in 2 whole eggs |
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| Add 5 egg yolks |
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| Add the cold water |
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| Add the oil |
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| Add the almond & vanilla extracts and whisk until smooth |
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| Beat egg whites until foamy, about 1 minute |
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| Add the cream of tartar and beat until thick & stiff |
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| Fold egg whites into the batter |
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| Pour batter into ungreased tube pan |
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| Bake for 55-65 minutes |
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| Immediately turn cake upside down to cool completely |
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| Invert cake onto a serving plate |
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| Photos by JoJo |
