Lemon glow chiffon cake

   This cake is an part of Baking partner's anniversery challenge! Quite a surprise that  this community has reached almost an year with marvellous output every month they come up with.  Warm anniversery wishes and a great hug for all members!!

 

Though chiffon cake was quite satisfying with its easy-peasy ingredients, making them was of course a complex process!!  I did go through a lot of tuitoricals as suggested by Saraswathi of Sara's kitchen.  And yes thanks to her for such an helping hand.  Click here, here and here for more info.  Chiffon cake is an  light airy cake resembling like sponge cake usually had on bakery.  The only difference is that here egg whites are beaten into stiff peaks and folded into the batter while for the latter entire egg is added.  Also unlike regular cake which is made of butter, this cake is made of oil which retains their soft texture even after they are refrigerated.

Sounds divine, isn't it?  First the dry ingredients are mixed up (Flour + Sugar + Salt + Lemon zest + Baking powder).  A well is made in this mixture and all wet ingredients are added, later folded (Oil + Egg yolk + Water + Lime juice + Essence)  This mixture is folded with egg whites (that are beaten till stiff peaks are formed) on three batches.  Mixing can be done gradually or by CUT-FOLD-ROTATE rule.

The resulting mixture is run through a knife or tapped against a counter to reduce the amount of air bubbles (Normal problem that happens when stiff peaked egg whites are folded on)  Resulting mixture is baked and cooled on inverted fashion.  After all such hardwork, I dusted the cake with powdered sugar.  All my family members luved it.  So, thanks again for the Baking partners!

Now, let us move to ingredients.......

Ingredients required 

All ingredients are required to be at room temperature only 

Batch I

• 1 cup maida/all purpose flour
• 1 tbspn cornflour
• 3/4 cup powdered sugar
• Pinch of salt
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tbspn lemon zest

Batch II

• 1/4 cup oil
• 2 egg yolks
• 75 gm water
• 1 tbspn lime juice
• 1 tsp vanilla essence

others

• 3-4 egg whites
• 1 tsp lime juice
• 1 tbspn powdered sugar

Method

Mix all batch I ingredients in a bowl.  Give a gentle sitr till all ingredients are mixed and appears flavourful.

Make a well and add in batch 2 ingredients one by one.  

Slowly fold all ingredients together till the final mixture is well-mixed without any lumps.

In a separate bowl, agg egg whites and beat till they are foamy.  Now, add lime juice and continue to beat till soft peaks are formed

The given below must the consistency of soft peak when you take off the beater from the vessel.  Add  powdered sugar and continue to beat till you get a stiff peak.

Stiff peak  must look like given below pic.

Fold the stiff peaked egg whites into final batch 1-2 hybrid in three batches.  The basic principle of folding is cut-fold-rotate rule, which you can clearly see in a youtube video

That is CUT on the centre of the beaten egg using an rubber spatula.

FOLD them gradually reaching until bottom of the vessel 

And ROTATE them to thirty degree clockwise and repeat from Cut step.  Proceed everytime till the egg white is well mixed with batter.

Pour this on baking pan and quickly run through a knife in order to prevent any air bubbles present in batter.  You can also tap them gently over the table.  

Bake them in pre-heated oven for about 150 degree celsius for about fourty to fifty minutes till a skewer inserted into batter comes out clean.  

Invert them over an glass tumbler and let this cool for 11/2 hours.  This is an usual cooling procedure for chiffon cake which moists up or softens the cake in an extra attempt.

After that, run through an knife over the cake mould and collect ur cake.  Dust them with powdered sugar.

Enjoy with hot cup of tea!!  Happy baking!!

Check out the posts done by other Baking partners!