Lemon Glazed Chiffon Cake

Light chiffon cake drizzled with zesty lemon glaze

After baking butter and sponge cakes with no difficulty, I told my mum I want to learn to bake chiffon cake. The steps for chiffon cake is quite different from butter cake as you have to beat the egg yolks and whites separately. One golden rule in baking chiffon cake is that the egg whites mustn't be contaminated with anything, be it egg yolks or drops of water. The mixing bowl used to whisk the egg whites has to be spotless to get to the stiff peaks stage.


I find having chiffon cake alone can be quite plain so I like to add something more to it, like a glaze or fresh cream. I wanted to make a lemon chiffon cake so I can do a lemon glaze to go with it. I think the taste would be interesting.


This recipe is adapted from Baking Made Easy by Agnes Chang with some alterations to make a lemon chiffon instead of a basic one.
 

Ingredients:-
5 egg yolks
75g caster sugar
5 tbsp sunflower oil
2 tbsp lemon juice
3 tbsp water
some lemon rinds

150 g self-raising flour
1/2 tsp cream of tartar

5 egg whites
75g caster sugar

For glaze-
150g icing sugar
4 tbsp lemon juice
some lemon rinds

Method:-
Whisk egg yolks and 75g caster sugar. Add in lemon juice and water followed by oil and continue whisking until light and smooth. Add some lemon rinds.

Sift flour into the egg yolk mixture and fold in evenly.

Whisk egg whites and cream of tartar and whisk.
Add in sugar and continue whisking until stiff.

Add in egg whites into egg yolk mixture and fold in gently so as not to deflate the batter. 

Sprinkle some lemon rinds

 
Pour batter into a 22 cm chiffon cake tube pan. There is no need to grease or line the tube pan. Bake in preheated oven at 175°c for 40 minutes. 

When the cake is done, remove from oven and turn the cake upside down to cool. Run a knife around the side of cake and the bottom of the pan to remove cake from pan. 


Mix the icing sugar and lemon juice in a bowl. Add water if the icing sugar is still too thick but be careful not to make your glaze too runny. Pour the glaze over the cake and let the excess glaze flow down the edges of the cake. Chill the cake overnight in the fridge.

 
It's not that difficult to bake a chiffon cake. Follow the golden rules and all you need is a little practice to get the techniques right.

Pour lemon glaze over cake

Enjoy for breakfast or afternoon tea

Happy baking! xx