April 29, 2009 - Chiffon Cakes

Cake - my favorite food in the world. No, not my favorite dessert, my flat out favorite food. I am loving everything that I'm learning, but cake is the primary reason I am in pastry school, and I am so so so happy that cake making time has arrived!

We started with American cakes, specifically chiffon cakes. Butter cakes will follow next week. Later in the course, we will work on European cakes, and an advanced cake decorating section will come at the very end of the course (I CANNOT wait!).

Today, we made a bunch of chiffon cakes and multiple batches of buttercream to use in a basic decorating class next week. As a result, I don't have a lot of cake pictures quite yet. Before starting on my cakes, I grabbed my orange peels from the fridge and got them simmering in sugar syrup, where they remained throughout the class. Both chiffon cakes and buttercream require meringue (or at least whipped egg whites). As you may recall, the meringue class didn't rank among my favorites, and I went into this class a little nervous. This ended up being a great lesson in practice makes perfect -- meringues may have been a pain in the a$$ the first time around, but they were a breeze the second. I had absolutely no issues, since I knew exactly what to look for as I whipped my eggs. I finished my cakes and buttercream with tons of time to spare. We had a few students missing, so I whipped up an extra batch of chiffon and baked some cakes for them to decorate next week as well.

I still had some time to spare while everyone else finished up some candy projects from Monday (my oranges were still simmering). I learned to make sugar flowers using violas and meringue powder (you can also use an eggwash, but that carries a risk of salmonella, so the faint of heart should stick to the powder). Mix the meringue powder with water, paint onto the flower petals with a small brush, and then sprinkle with sugar. When dry, the flowers make a delicate garnish on any dessert. We stuck ours on some cupcakes that were baked with extra chiffon batter.

At the end of the night, I packed up my orange peels to take home and complete over the weekend. They needed to dry at least 8 hours after simmering, so I placed them on a cooling rack in my kitchen with a nice little note reading "Touch and you die" to let the roommates know they weren't quite ready for eating. Once dry, I tossed the peels in sugar and dipped a few of them in dark chocolate. So after nearly a week of preparation, I can report on the final product: delicious!!! These are definitely something I will make again (when time permits of course).

The Delicious Recipe of the Day: Blums Chiffon Cake

(from Blums Restaurant)

• 11 oz cake flour
• 5 oz sugar (#1)
• 1 Tbsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 4 fl oz canola oil
• 6 egg yolks
• 6 fl oz water
• 1/2 Tbsp lemon zest (can increase for taste)
• 1/2 Tbsp vanilla
• 1 cup egg whites
• 5 oz sugar (#2)

Line 2-8 inch cake pans (or 1/2 sheet) with parchment. Whip the oil and egg yolks together just until combined. Stir in the water, vanilla and lemon zest.

Sift together the cake flour, sugar #1, baking powder and salt. Stir this into egg yolk mixture, mixing just until combined. do not overwork this portion of the batter, or your chiffon will be too spongy.

Whip the egg whites to a foam. Then gradually add sugar #2 and continue whipping until stiff, but not dry, peaks form. Carefully fold the meringue into the reserved batter. Divide the batter between the prepared pans.

Bake at 375 degrees for about 25 minutes or until cake springs back when pressed lightly in center.

Invert the pans on a parchment lined rack and allow cakes to cool in pans before unmolding.