Pumpkin Chiffon Cake

Here is a quick idea for a light dessert that would be perfect for your Thanksgiving celebration.
I saw this Pumpkin Chiffon Cake in Everyday with Rachael Ray Magazine
and since I had 10 egg whites in my freezer and also because I had been wanting to try a airy/light type of pumpkin cake, I made it right away.

This cake is easy to make- you simply whisk everything except the egg whites together in a large bowl. Then you whip the egg whites, like you would for angel food cake and fold them into the batter. I baked this cake in my angel food cake pan, which has special ridges for the resting upside down part.

We could hardly wait for the cake to rest, but once it had and we sprinkled it with powdered sugar- it was as good as gone.

Delightfully light and airy, but still full of pumpkin flavor and spices.
This is one I will make again and again. It was wonderful.


Recipe for Pumpkin Chiffon Cake

The Cake Slice-Triple Lemon Chiffon Cake

This month's selection for The Cake Slice was Triple Lemon Chiffon Cake. We are baking cakes from the wonderful book-Sky High: Irresistible Triple Layer Cakes. I made this early this month and took it to a party. It was the first cake to disappear. If you like lemon and chiffon cakes, you should really try this cake. I thought it was really easy to make and fun to decorate. The lemon curd was very lemony and creamy. The whipped cream frosting was light and the chiffon was perfect.
This is a really great cake for spring because it is light, fluffy and just the perfect thing to serve at this time of year. I got alot of compliments on the cake and requests for the recipe. That must mean it is a keeper!
To see other beautifully decorated cakes, go check out The Cake Slice Bakers.

TRIPLE LEMON CHIFFON CAKE

ADAPTED FROM: SKY HIGH IRRESISTIBLE TRIPLE LAYER CAKES BY ALISA HUNTMANS AND PETER WYNNE
FOR THE CAKE:

MAKES A 9-INCH TRIPLE LAYER CAKE
8 eggs, separated
1/4 cup walnut oil**
2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 tablespoon of lemon zest
1/3 cup water
1/2 teaspoon of cream of tartar
1 and 1/2 cups of sugar
1 ans 3/4 cups of cake flour*
1/2 teaspoon of baking soda
1/2 teaspoon of salt
[*1 cup of cake flour is equal to 3/4 cup of AP flour plus 2 tablespoons of corn starch]

[**equal amount of either almond oil, hazelnut oil, or canola oil]

Preheat the oven to 350*degrees F. Line the bottoms of three 9-inch pans with parchment paper but do not butter or grease the pans.
In a med-large bowl whisk together the egg yolks, oil, lemon juice, lemon zest, and water.
In the bowl of an electric mixer, whip the egg whites with the cream of tartar on medium speed until light and frothy. Slowly add 1/2 cup of sugar and continue to beat until soft peaks form.
Sift the flour, remaining sugar, baking soda , and salt into a large bowl. Whisk gently to combine. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients. Pour in the egg yolk mixture and mix to create a smooth paste. Add one-fourth of the egg whites and fold in to lighten the batter. Fold in the remaining egg whites and divide the batter among the three pans.
bake for about 16 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean. Transfer to wire racks to cool in the pans. Once cool run a knife around the cake to in order to un-mold the cakes. Carefully pull off the parchment paper from the bottoms of the cakes.
To assemble the cake, place one layer on a cake stand. Top with a heaping 1/4 cup of lemon curd and spread it evenly. Repeat with the remaining layers. Frost the top of the cake and the sides with the lemon cream frosting.

RICH LEMON CURD

MAKES 1 CUP
3 whole eggs
2 egg yolks
1/2 cup of sugar
1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon of freshly squeezed lemon juice (about 4 lemons)
grated zest of three lemons
4 tablespoons of unsalted butter, at room temp.
Whisk together the whole eggs, yolks, sugar, lemon juice , and lemon zest together in a medium bowl. Transfer to a small non-reactive saucepan. Gently heat the mixture, whisking until it thickens enough to coat the back of a spoon. make sure not to boil the mixture. Pour the mixture through a sieve into a heatproof bowl. Stir in the butter and cover the curd with plastic making sure the plastic touches the curd. This should prevent a skin from forming on the curd. Refrigerate until cold. Then remove 3 tablespoons of curd and set it aside for the icing.

LEMON CREAM FROSTING

MAKES 3 AND 1/4 CUPS
1 and 1/2 cups of heavy cream
2 tablespoons of sugar
3 tablespoon of lemon curd
Whip the cream and sugar in a large chilled bowl until stiff peaks form. Fold in the lemon curd, forming a stiff frosting.

Coming Next- Pumpkin-Parmesan Scones

The Cake Slice- Cappuccino or Hot Cocoa Chiffon Cake

I've joined another group- The Cake Slice. I love baking cakes, they are probably my favorite thing to bake and decorate and I already owned the cookbook we are baking from, so I thought, why not? We are baking 1 cake a month from Sky High: Irresistible Triple Layer Cakes by Alisa Huntsman and Peter Wynne and for the debut cake- here is Cappuccino Chiffon Cake, or in my case, Hot Cocoa Chiffon Cake. You see, my family and I do not drink coffee, tea or alcoholic beverages, so thanks to Holly over at Phemomenon, who came up with a quick fix for subbing the expresso (she made a hot cocoa mix and told us all about it), we still were able to enjoy this cake. I was able to take this to a get together with some friends and it was a hit. Everyone really liked it. I have made chiffon cakes before, so the prep was easy and overall, I thought this cake was quite easy to prepare. The weekend I made it we had our first snow and the temperatures were in the 30's, so it traveled well and stayed nice and cold.

Go over to the Cake Slice Blogroll and see what all the other bakers did with their Cappucino or Hot Cocoa Chiffon Cakes!

CAPPUCCINO OR HOT COCOA CHIFFON CAKE adapted from Sky High: Irresistible Triple Layer Cakes by Alisa Huntsman and Peter Wynne

Makes an 8-inch triple layer cake

1/4 cup of neutral oil (ie. vegetable, canola, or soybean) I used canola

6 eggs separated

6 tablespoons of freshly brewed espresso cooled to room temperature I used 6 Tbls of this hot cocoa mixture- 2 Tbls high quality cocoa powder+2 Tbls sugar +8 oz hot water (save the rest to make the soaking syrup)

2 teaspoons of vanilla extract

1 and 1/3 cups of cake flour*

1 and 1/2 cups of sugar

1 teaspoon of baking powder

1/2 teaspoon of ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon of salt

1/2 teaspoon of cream of tartar

Cocoa powder or cinnamon for dusting

(*The recipe calls for cake flour and if you only have all-purpose flour on hand, you can substitute 3/4 cup (105 grams) all purpose flour plus 2 tablespoons (30 grams) cornstarch.)

Espresso (Hot Cocoa) Syrup

1/3 cup hot freshly brewed espresso ( I used the remainder of my hot cocoa mix and added sugar to taste and 1 tsp rum flavoring)

1/3 cup of sugar

1/3 cup dark rum, such as Meyers*(*if you want to leave out the rum you can use molasses thinned with pineapple juice and flavored with almond extract to equal 1/3 cup. Or use 1 to 2 teaspoons of rum extract flavoring but you'll have less syrup.)

Vanilla Whipped Cream

3 cups of heavy cream

1/3 cup of sugar

2 teaspoons of vanilla

1. Preheat the oven to 350F degrees. Line the bottoms of three 8-inch round cake pans with parchment paper but do not grease.

2. In a medium bowl, combine the oil, egg yolks, espresso (hot cocoa), and vanilla; whisk lightly to blend. In a large mixing bowl, sift together the flour, 1 cup of sugar, the baking powder, cinnamon, and salt. Set aside.

3. In the large bowl of an electric mixer, whip the egg whites with the cream of tartar on medium-low speed until frothy. Raise the mixer to medium high and gradually add the remaining 1/2 cup of sugar. Continue to beat until soft peaks form. Do not whip to stiff peaks or the cake will shrink upon cooling.

4. Add the espresso(hot cocoa)-egg mixture to the dry ingredients and fold together just until combined. Add one fourth of the egg whites and fold them gently into the batter. Fold in the remaining egg whites just until no streaks remain. Divide the batter among the pans.

5. Bake the cakes for 18 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean. Allow the cakes to cool completely in the pans. Once cooled run a knife around the edge of the pans to release the cakes. Invert onto a wire rack and remove the parchment papers.

6. To assemble the cake, place one cake layer flat side up on a cake stand or platter. Soak the cake with 1/3 cup of the espresso (hot cocoa) syrup. Spread 1 and 1/3 cups of whipped cream evenly over the top of the cake. Repeat with the next layer the same steps. Finally, top with the third layer. Soak with syrup and frost the top and sides of the cake with the whipped cream.

7. To decorate the cake smooth out the whipped cream as much as possible on top. Lay a paper doily on top and sift cocoa powder or cinnamon over the doily to reveal a lacy detail.

Espresso (Hot Cocoa) Syrup-makes 1 cup

In a bowl, stir together the espresso (hot cocoa) and sugar. Stir until the sugar dissolves. Add the rum extract and let cool to room temperature.

Vanilla Whipped Cream-makes 6 cups

Place the cream, sugar, and vanilla in large chilled mixing bowl with chilled beaters. With the whip attachment, beat the cream until stiff peaks form.

Peaches and Cream Chiffon Cake

I mentioned in yesterday's post that there was another birthday coming up, in 2 days. Well, my sister always requests angel food cake with strawberries and Cool Whip. I decided I could up it a little, while keeping it light and fruity. Folks, we have a winner here. This cake was perfect for her (and all of us). The cake was light and fluffy, not too sweet. The peaches were perfectly ripe and juicy (Thank you Farmer's Market)- I added a tad of lemon zest to the peach mixture just for fun. The cream was actually mostly greek yogurt with a little whipped cream and sugar mixed in. Can I say perfection? It was wonderful. We had Prudy's Raspberry-Lime Sorbet and her Vanilla Raspberry Ice Cream alongside (recipe and pics below) and it was even better than perfect! YUM!


My sis barely beat out my 6 year old to the candles!
Peaches and Cream Chiffon Cake from Woman's Day magazine
5 large egg whites

4 large egg yolks

1/4 tsp cream of tartar

3/4 cup granulated sugar

1/4 cup peach nectar

1 Tbsp canola oil

1 vanilla bean, split, seeds scraped, or 1 Tbsp vanilla extract

1/4 tsp salt

1 cup cake flour (not self-rising)

Filling and Cream

4 cups (2 lb) ripe peaches, pitted and sliced

1 1/2 Tbsp lemon juice

1/4 cup granulated sugar

2 Tbsp confectioners' sugar

1 cup nonfat Greek yogurt

1/2 cup heavy cream

PREPARATION
1. Heat oven to 325°F. Coat an 8 x 3-in. springform pan with nonstick spray.

2. Cake: Beat egg whites and cream of tartar in large bowl with mixer at medium speed until soft peaks form when beaters are lifted. Gradually beat in 1/4 cup of the sugar; beat on high until stiff yet billowy peaks form. In a medium bowl beat the egg yolks, remaining 1/2 cup sugar, peach nectar, oil, vanilla bean and salt on medium-high until light in color and slightly thickened, about 5 minutes.

3. Pour half of the yolk mixture over whites and sift half of the flour on top; fold until just blended. Fold in remaining yolk mixture and flour. Scrape batter into prepared pan. Bake 34 to 36 minutes, until cake rises slightly above top edge of pan, is golden brown and a pick inserted in center comes out clean. Remove from oven; cool cake on a wire rack 3 minutes. Invert cake onto wire rack, remove pan, reinvert and cool completely.

4. Filling and Cream: Toss peaches, lemon juice and granulated sugar in a medium bowl. Let stand while cake bakes. Stir confectioners' sugar into yogurt in a medium bowl. In a small bowl, beat cream until stiff peaks form; fold into yogurt mixture and refrigerate.

5. Trim the top of the cake, then split into 2 layers. Place bottom layer on plate; spoon half the peaches with juices over top, then spread half of the cream. Top with remaining cake layer, peaches and a dollop of cream. Serve remaining cream on the side.