Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Lemon Chiffon Cake

I made this recipe for our 5 year anniversary dinner celebration.  This is the last year we'll celebrate it, since our wedding anniversary is more important.  Plus, it's kind of a pain because it's 2 days before Valentine's Day which translates to me planning two special meals.  Which I don't mind, but still!  Anyways, I wanted to make some sort of lemon dessert, but use my cute heart pan to make individual heart cakes.  This recipe was pretty simple and actually really tasty, but I had some trouble with it.  I normally don't have too many issues with baking or cooking, but I now think it might have been because I forgot the cream of tartar (it's mentioned in the ingredient list, but not in the directions), and also because that pan is just difficult.  But the cake itself was delicious, so light and fluffy, yet substantial.  I whipped up some whipped cream and added some sugar and lemon extract and it was a nice, lemon-filled dessert for us.  I modified the recipe a bit (the instructions were a bit vague about the sugar, so I kind of just added until I felt it tasted good; I used way more lemon juice, because it initially did not taste the way I wanted it to), and I'm sure I'll try it again, using a normal cake pan next time.

5 eggs, separated
1/4 tsp. cream of tartar
1 c. sugar, divided
2/3 c. flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
4 Tbl. vegetable oil
6 Tbl. milk
juice from 1 lemon (original recipe called for 1 tsp. lemon extract)
1 Tbl. lemon zest

1.  Preheat oven to 325 degrees.  Sift flour, baking powder, and salt into a small bowl.
2.  Add cream of tartar to egg whites and mix.  Add in 1/2 c. sugar once slightly stiff, and continue beating until stiff.
3.  In large bowl, add oil in with egg yolks and mix until color is a pale yellow.  Add other 1/2 c. sugar, continue to mix.
4.  Add in milk, lemon extract/juice, zest and beat until well blended.
5.  Add in dry ingredients and mix well.
6.  Gently fold in egg whites and mix well.
7.  Pour into pan and bake 20 - 25 minutes.

not the best picture, but you get the idea

No comments: