Now is time to move into my mini lemon chiffon cakes with a lemon crystal glaze.
And that begins with the egg whites.
I start with 4 egg whites
I added 1/4 tsp of cream of tartar just like I did with the angle food cake
But now, instead of using icing sugar, I'm gonna slowly add 1/2 cup of granulated sugar
and whip the whites to medium peak
Here we go, just a nice soft curl over
Now here's what you do if you've accidentally overwhipped your egg whites
Let your egg whites sit for 10 minutes, even if you've added the sugar
You'll find they'll separate out, then on medium speed
rewhip them to that point you missed the 1st time
Now I'm going to sift my dry ingredients
1 cup of cake and pastry flour
Another 1/2 cup of granulated sugar
And in this recipe, I need to add a little baking powder
Because the difference between this chiffon cake and the angle food cake I made
is we are going to add fat, in the form of vegetable oil and egg yolks
So you need that baking powder to balance it out, and give it a little push
against the oil that's in the recipe
So this takes 1 1/2 of baking powder
and a 1/4 tsp of salt
Sift this right into the bowl
So this flour + sugar mixture is actually the base for the cake now
Now for the liquids
1/3 cup of vegetable oil
And vegetable oil really is that standout ingredient
for most chiffon cakes
Angle food cake being the one exception
Don't use melted butter; vegetable oil gives that chiffon cake
that beautiful stretchy, moist texture
And I saved 3 of the 4 yolks from the whites I separated earlier, those go right in
6 tbsps of lemon juice give the cake a nice tang
and I'll save some of the juice for the glaze
But I do want to add a couple of tsps of lemon zest
The oil that is in the zest permeates the cake as it bakes
So I want to whip this on high speed til it's just about double in volume
and it's gonna be a beautiful pale lemon color
So I've got a cake batter that looks like a traditional cake batter
but since we're transforming it into a chiffon
we've got to fold in the egg whites
I fold about 1/3 of the whites into the cake base
And I can add the remaining 2/3 of the whites
The 1st fold of 1/3 of whites is just to lighten that base batter
so that the 2nd fold folds in quickly
And you've got this beautiful, light fluffy batter
I find it easier to fill these mini chiffons without deflating the cake batter using a piping bag
You can fit the whole batter into 1 piping bag
Give the bag a little twist at the top
Trim
And I fill them about half way up
Because they are going to rise right to the top of the pan.
Perfect
These immediately will go into the oven at 325F for 16-18 mins
So this lemon glaze is 1 cup of sugar in the saucepot
and then I'll measure 1/3 cup of fresh squeezed lemon juice
I simply heat and stir these together to just below a simmer, you're just looking to dissolve the sugar
So after this comes to a simmer, I need it to cool down
a good 15 mins, and that's about perfect timing
when the chiffon cakes will come out of the oven
So just like the angle food cake, you check the doneness by pressing the center of the cake
when it springs back, you know it's done
now another important chiffon factor is you have to cool it upside down
so whether you set ramekins on your kitchen counter, or in this case I use tart rings
you want to flip the whole pan upside down
and this way the air can get underneath it until they cool completely
It only takes about 20-30 mins for them to cool
Now I have some already cooled and ready to be unmolded
Just like the angle food cake, run, except this time, a smaller palette knife
all the way around and just give it a little lift from the bottom
And I'm setting these on a cooling rack, so that they have room
for the glaze to coat all sides and drip off and set up completely
Now, an additional 1/3 cup of granulated sugar
and this is important for the crystal part of the crystal glaze
Because this is a lovely lemon syrup, but by stirring the sugar in after it's cooled
it gives it a more crystallized effect, and it also seals it
so it stays fresh and moist for longer
I'll just pour the glaze fully over, make sure it coats the sides
and the finishing touch just to dress them up a little bit
you can use a candy sugar flower, a silver dragee
here I've got little sugar pearl dragees, fully edible
It takes about 2hrs for that lemon crystal glaze to set on the outside of the chiffon cake
because of that added sugar, it doesn't soak in like a syrup
and really is a nice little tangy crunch on the outside of it