Ann's Chiffon Cake

A chiffon cake is the in-between, the hybrid that takes the lightness of angel food and the richness of a butter cake and gives you both at once. The technique is the same as Harry Baker’s original 1927 recipe: oil in the batter (instead of butter), whipped egg whites folded in for lift, and a tall ungreased tube pan that lets the cake climb up the sides as it bakes.

Why oil instead of butter? Oil stays liquid at any temperature, so the crumb is moist and tender even cold, while butter cakes can firm up when chilled. The trade-off is that oil cakes need the structural lift of beaten whites to keep them from going dense.

The two-bowl method is the heart of it. Build a satiny yolk batter on one side, beat the egg whites with cream of tartar to stiff peaks on the other, and fold them together with care. Underfolding leaves streaks; overfolding deflates the whites and you lose the rise.

Pro Tips

• Use an ungreased tube pan; the cake clings to the sides to climb, and a greased pan defeats it.
• Invert the pan right after baking and cool fully upside down to keep the cake from collapsing under its own weight.
• Beat the egg whites to stiff, glossy peaks; soft peaks will not support the cake.
• Add the sugar to the whites gradually, two tablespoons at a time, so it dissolves completely.

Variations

• Add a tablespoon of lemon zest and a teaspoon of lemon extract for a lemon chiffon.
• Swap the water for orange juice and stir in two tablespoons of orange zest for a citrus chiffon.
• Sift two tablespoons of cocoa powder into the dry ingredients (and reduce the flour by the same amount) for a chocolate chiffon.