You will love this soft, fluffy, and spongey chiffon cake with a lemon scent and dressed with a quick and simple lemon glaze. All the tips you need to make this successfully at home.
This recipe is for 8-inch chiffon tube pan. Find recipe adjustment for different tube size and baking temperature at the foot notes.
Make sure your 8-inch chiffon tube pan does not have a non-stick coating or your cake will not rise. The cake needs to cling to the side of the pan to rise tall
Get the eggs out of the fridge and separate them when they are still cold. They are easier to separate when they are cold.
Place the egg whites in a clean mixing bowl. I use a stand mixer with a whisk attachment to whip the egg whites. Put the egg yolks in a separate mixing bowl. You will have trouble whipping your meringue if there's a trace of grease in your utensils or bowls
Let the yolks and the whites come to a room temperature, this may take about 30 minutes or so
Prepare cake batter:
Preheat your oven to 330 F (165 C) for conventional oven. If you have a convection oven, I suggest lowering the temperature by 25 F (15 C). Place the oven rack 4th from the top (or adjust accordingly, you will know your oven best)
Add salt, honey, milk, lemon juice, and lemon zest to the bowl with egg yolks in it. Whisk to combine. You may see some tiny lumps, but that's okay because of the lemon zest
Sift in the cake flour and baking powder and whisk to combine
Prepare the meringue:
Beat the egg whites on medium speed until frothy, add cream of tartar or lemon juice/vinegar and whip until it turns whitish and air bubbles are fine. Gradually add the sugar as you beat, in 3 batches. I beat them at medium speed (speed 6 on Kitchen Aid). This will take a bit longer compared to beating at high speed. I used to do higher speed (speed 8), but the meringue is smoother and nicer when I maintain the speed on 6 and much more stable too. I highly recommend stopping several times to check on the consistency and scraping the sides of the bowl to make sure no sugar left on the side of the bowl. Whip until you reach a stiff peak but still have a slight bent on the tip. Then lower the speed to 4 and whip for 1 minute to even out large bubbles and stop beating
Fold meringue into the cake batter:
Gently fold 1/3 of the meringue into the thick batter. Using a whisk, using a cutting motion and fold over to mix. Repeat this motion several rounds. Continue on with the second 1/3 of the meringue again to mix.
For the last 1/3 of the meringue, use a rubber spatula instead to ensure you get all the batter at the bottom of the bowl mixed in as well. Use a cut down in the middle and fold over motion to fold gently but quickly. Make sure you don't see any more white meringue. The mixture should be fluffy and voluminous.
Pour the batter into an UNGREASED chiffon cake pan. Gently drop the cake pan from about 10 cm height on the counter 2-3 times. Use a skewer to draw a zig zag to pop bubbles inside the cake batter
Baking:
Put the chiffon pan in the middle rack and let it bake for 50-55 minutes. The time is just for a reference. Your oven may need less or more time to bake.You can start checking at 50 minute mark.
Test for doneness:
I know this is weird to say, but it's actually "safer" to overbake chiffon cake than underbaking. Underbaking tends to cause the cake to collapse. Usually if you insert a skewer inside the cake and no crumbs stick to it or very minimal crumbs, it is safe to say that the cake is cooked through. You can also touch the top and if it springs back, it's a good sign that it's cooked through. I like to have some golden brown on top. I don't know if you notice, but when the cake has a golden brown color on top, it's actually more flavorful too than when the cake is pale in color
Don't be alarmed if your cake has some cracks on top. What you are looking at will become the bottom of your cake. I know many people mind it a lot and make a big fuss when the top of the chiffon cake cracks, but actually it's not a flaw.
Cooling:
Drop the cake pan from about 10 cm height on the counter several times to prevent shrinkage when you pull the cake out of the oven. Then carefully invert the pan upside down immediately. Please don't be tempted to remove it from the pan if it's still warm. It takes about one to two hours to cool down completely
Once it's cooled down completely, use a spatula knife to run through the edge and the outer center of the tube to help release the cake. Gently push the base to lift the cake out. Use the knife again to run through the base of the pan and then carefully release the cake.
If you don't like brown crumbs on the outside of the cake, you can gently scrape it off using an offset spatula
Prepare lemon glaze:
Once the cake has cooled down and ready to be served, you can quickly make the lemon glaze. Combine all the ingredients for the glaze and stir. Drizzle it over the cake and decorate with some lemon zest if you like
Storing:
This glaze chiffon cake can be kept in an air-tight container at room temperature for up to 3 days.
Notes
Recipe adjustment for different chiffon tube pans: For 15 cm (6-inch tube pan): multiply the ingredient amount by 0.6 and round it to the nearest 10, for example if it is 48 you round it to 50. Bake at the temperature specified in the recipe for 40-45 minutes. For 22 cm (9-inch) tube pan: multiply the ingredient amount by 1.4 and round it to the nearest 10. Bake at the temperature specified in the recipe for 55-60 minutes. For 26 cm (10-inch) tube pan: multiply the ingredient amount by 1.6 and round it to the nearest 10. Bake at the temperature specified in the recipe for 60-65 minutes.