A light and airy cake is on the menu today. It’s a cool day with overcast skies. A respite from the tropical heat experienced over the last few days. I really welcome the slight drizzle and the cool breeze with big open arms. Walking my dog today has been so pleasant.
The weather has put me in a good mood to bake a lemon chiffon cake. I hadn’t had a chiffon cake for many months. The cake turned out pleasantly, light and airy with a tinge of fresh lemon scent. I love it. The recipe is pretty simple and uncomplicated. I used the juice of half a lemon and some lemon rind to flavour the cake. The other ingredients are the standard egg yolks, egg whites, vegetable oil, caster sugar and cake flour. For the meringue, I beat my egg whites till they are at soft peak stage. The cake rose beautifully and shrank just a little while cooling (this is normal). The cake tasted light and refreshing and is a perfect pairing with tea or coffee. I’m thankful for this simple enjoyment I have today.
Lemon Chiffon Cake
Ingredients (for a 17cm chiffon cake pan):
- 3 egg yolks
- 15g caster sugar
- 20ml fresh milk
- 40ml vegetable oil (I used canola oil)
- 15ml lemon juice (about juice of 1/2 lemon)
- 1/2 teaspoon lemon rind
- 70g cake flour
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 3 egg whites
- 45g caster sugar
Direction:
- Preheat oven to 170C.
- Using a hand whisk, mix egg yolks and 15g sugar until all the sugar is dissolved.
- Add milk and continue to whisk. Then add lemon juice and lemon rind, whisk to combine.
- Add vegetable oil and whisk to combine everything.
- Add cake flour and baking powder and use a spatula to fold the flour into the wet mixture. Set aside.
- Using an electric mixer, beat egg whites until they become frothy. Add 45g sugar in 3 parts, beating until you get soft peaks.
- Take 1/3 of the meringue and fold into the egg yolk mixture. Make sure that the meringue is completely folded in. Repeat with another 1/3 until all the meringue is folded completely into the egg yolk mixture.
- Pour batter into chiffon cake pan. The cake pan doesn’t need any parchment paper or greasing.
- Tap the cake pan on the counter a few times to release any air bubbles trapped in the batter.
- Bake in preheated oven for 30 minutes.
- When the cake is done, remove from the oven carefully and immediately invert the cake pan on the base of a cup or bowl. This step is important so that the cake doesn’t collapse.
- Let the cake cool completely. This takes about 1 hour.
- When the cake has cooled, turn the cake pan over and use a thin bladed knife to run through the rim to release the cake.
- Slice cake and store in an air-tight container.