Take advantage of the citrus season and make this delicate Meyer Lemon Chiffon Cake cake that guarantee to brighten up your day!
Ingredients
- 3 large eggs (50 g each w/o shell) (separated)
- 3 oz sugar (measure ½ cup and remove 1 Tbsp; separated)
- 3 Tbsp neutral-flavored oil (vegetable, rice bran, canola, etc.)
- 2 Meyer lemons (for zesting and juicing)
- 2.6 oz cake flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 2 Tbsp confectioners’ sugar/powdered sugar (for sprinkling on the cake)
Meyer Lemon Icing Glaze (Optional)
- ½ cup confectioners’ sugar/powdered sugar
- ½ Meyer lemon (for 1 Tbsp juice)
Instructions
- Gather all the ingredients. You will also need a 17cm (7″) chiffon cake pan. Make sure you use the correct chiffon cake pan. The best types are the aluminum ones with a removable base (Do not use non-stick bakeware for chiffon cake – it will not work). Do not grease the mold because the cake needs to cling on the sides and center of the pan for support as it rises or it will collapse.
- Preheat the oven to 340ºF (170ºC). For a convection oven, reduce cooking temperature by 25ºF (15ºC). Separate 3 eggs to yolks and whites. Egg yolks in a large bowl, and whites in a smaller bowl.
- In the bowl with egg yolks, add roughly ⅓ of granulated sugar and whisk until creamy pale yellow color.
- Add 3 Tbsp (40 ml) vegetable oil and zest of 1-2 Meyer lemons (I love more zest in the cake so I use 2, but you can use one).
- Cut Meyer lemons in half. Juice all of it (4 halves).
- If you don’t have 4 Tbsp (¼ cup or 60 ml) of juice, add water.
- Add 4 Tbsp (¼ cup or 60 ml) juice to the egg mixture and whisk well.
- Sift 75 g (2.6 oz) cake flour and 1 tsp baking powder into the egg mixture. Whisk until totally incorporated and make sure there are no lumps.
- Using a stand mixer (make sure there is no trace of water or oil), whip the egg whites on medium low sped (speed 4) till opaque, foamy and bubbly. Add ⅓ of the remaining granulated sugar and continue whipping.
- After 30 seconds or so, increase the stand mixer speed to high (speed 10) and add the remaining sugar slowly in small increments.
- It takes about 2-3 minutes until stiff peaks form (from the moment you switched to speed 10, but this is just a rough estimate). To check on stiff peaks, pull up your whisk and see if the egg whites go straight up (stiff peak) and just the tip is soft enough that it folds over, like taking a bow.
- Using a whisk, fold in ⅓ of the egg whites in the batter until the mixture is homogeneous.
- Fold in the rest of egg whites in 2-3 increments and mix gently until the mixture is homogeneous.
- Pour the batter into the ungreased 17 cm (7”) chiffon cake pan in same location to prevent from forming more bubbles.
- To remove or prevent air pockets before baking, run a skewer (chopstick, knife or spatula) through the batter and then drop the pan gently on the kitchen counter a few times.
- Bake at 340ºF (170ºC) for 30-35 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean and the top of the cake springs back when gently pressed. If the top gets burn too quickly, cover the top loosely with aluminum foil.
- As soon as you take out the cake pan from the oven, drop it gently on the kitchen counter to stop shrinking. The cake must be cooled upside down in its pan so that it stretches downward instead of collapsing. Stick the cake pan on a tall heavy bottle or invert the cake pan onto a cooling rack (if you use angel food cake pan). Let it cool completely.
- To extract the cake, run a thin sharp knife or thin offset spatula around both the outer and inner edge of the cake.
- Remove the cake from the pan and run the knife on the bottom. Move onto a serving plate.
- Dust powder sugar on top, if you like, and enjoy!
- [Optional] To Make Meyer Lemon Icing Glaze, place powder sugar in a small bowl and stir in 1 Tbsp. Meyer lemon juice using the half Meyer lemon you kept from step 4. The glaze should be thick, but pourable. Add more sugar or Meyer lemon juice as necessary to achieve desired consistency. Drizzle over the cake using a spoon and enjoy!
