Orange Glow Chiffon Cake Recipe

For this month baking partners challenge, Humi suggested Russian Honey Cake and Saraswathi suggested Orange Glow Chiffon Cake recipe. As my H doesn’t like cream in the cakes, I

preferred this chiffon cake for his Birthday. I made this cake and dusted with sugar and sprinkled some zest over it. This is the perfect cake for cream dis likers, it’s a very soft and moist sponge
cake with Orange/Lemon, the only technique to follow here is beating egg whites. I provided several links to beat egg whites in hand/electric blender and tips and techniques. Thanks Swathi for giving new and new opportunities. I
am glad to be a part of this group. Recently this wonderful group turned 1 year, my hearty wishes to the whole team and expecting many more challenges in future :-).

Wet Ingredients

Egg yolks (Large) – 3 Numbers / 130g
Canola oil / Sunflower oil  – ½ cup / 108g
Water – 2/3 cup / 156g @ Room temperature
Orange/Lemon juice – 2 Tbsp/ 30g
Vanilla Essence – 1tsp

Dry Ingredients

Cake flour – 2 1/4 cups (8 ounces) / 225g
Or (Replace with All Purpose Flour, I used 2 Cups minus 1 Tbsp APF/Maida + 4 Tbsp Corn Starch)
Caster sugar -1 1/2 cups + 2 Tbsp / 300g
Baking soda – 1/2 tsp
Orange/Lemon zest – 1 ~ 2 Tbsp (I used 2 Tbsp)
Salt – 1/2 tsp / 3.5g

For Meringue

Egg whites (Large) –  7 No / 300g
Cream of tartar –  1 ¼ tsp / 4g
Powdered Sugar – 2 Tbsp / 30 g For Orange glow Chiffon cake use Orange Juice and Orange Zest, I have given an easy trick to grate the Orange zest here.
You can check whipping egg whites with hand whisk here.
I also found this link very useful for beginners in whipping egg whites.

Orange Glow Chiffon Cake Preparation

• Preheat your oven to 325°F/155°C.
• For grating zest, first squeeze out the fresh juice from oranges (Pic 1 below), then freeze it at least 1 hour before gating the zest.
• Use the vegetable grater and grate the top most layer, leaving the white layer as it is (Pic 2).
• Separate the egg whites and yolks.
• Grab all the necessary ingredients (Pic 3)
• Grab your 10-inch tube pan with a detachable bottom, but do not grease it as the batter needs to climb up the sides

OR

• Line two 9 inch baking pan with parchment paper (I used one 8″ glass bowl and one non stick 10″ pan).
• Do not grease the pans, also i covered bottom of pans with foil not to burn the cake much (Pic 6).
• Place Oven safe ramekins/bowl/Stainless Steel Tumbler in middle of the pan.
• I used Tumbler and placed top down as shown in pic, while baking to keep the stainless steel tumbler at one place what did is I packed few dry beans (Rajma/Soy) in a aluminum foil and kept inside the tumbler not to move here and there while baking.

• Add the cake flour, baking soda and salt in a separate bowl.
• In a large mixing bowl, combine 1 1/2 cups of the sugar and the lemon zest.
• With your fingertips, work the zest and sugar together until the sugar is grainy and very aromatic.
• Then add remaining dry ingredients/flour mixture to it.
• Use stand mixer(low speed)/hand whisk beat until the ingredients are well incorporated.
• Make a well in the center of the ingredients then add wet ingredients like oil, egg yolks,
• water, Orange/lemon juice and Vanilla.
• Mix for about one minute on medium speed until the batter is smooth and there are no lumps.In a second large mixing bowl, beat the egg whites until they are foamy.
• Add the cream of tartar (Pic 1 below) and continue to beat on medium speed until they reach soft peak stage (Pic 2).
• You will know your egg whites have reached this stage when the beaters start to leave a trail or when the peaks fall over when the beaters are raised (Pic 3).

• Add the remaining 2 Tbsp of sugar and continue to beat the egg whites until they form stiff peaks (Pic 4) when the beaters are raised.
• Using a slotted spoon/spatula or balloon whisk, add 1/3 of egg whites to your cake batter (Pic 4 above the egg whites whipping picture)and gently stir them until they are incorporated.
• Add the remaining egg whites to the batter (Pic 5) and very gently fold them into the batter until they are incorporated and no traces of egg whites remain.
• Pour the batter into the un-greased pan (Pic 6) and run a small metal spatula or knife through the batter to prevent air pockets.
• Bake for 35 to 55 minutes (depends on quantity/mode of pan used) and or until the cake bounces back when lightly pressed in the center (Pic 7 and 8).
• Once baked, take the cake out of the oven and immediately turn it upside down over a bottle (Pic 9) or similar to it until it is completely cool, which can take up to 20 -40 minutes.

• Care should be taken when using non stick pan, as it starts falling after 15-20 minutes of time, after that you can cool the cake in up right position.
• Using an up and down motion, use a palette knife to loosen the sides of the cake away from the tin.
• Pull out the tumbler and use the palette knife around the bottom of the cake to release it from the base.
• Turn it over so that the base becomes the top and sprinkle with a dusting of icing sugar/lemon zest to serve.

Old post updated with recent pictures   Note:

1. You can add tutti frutti to this cake.