Celebrate Lemon Chiffon Cake Day

Cake is always worth celebrating. Honestly, you don’t need to give us any other reason to whip up a delicious treat right now! Well, we’re just here to let you know that two days ago was Lemon Chiffon Cake Day. It is a day that celebrates the love of the deliciously light lemon cake that was invented by Harry Baker in 1927. After keeping the recipe a closely-guarded secret for over twenty years, he eventually sold the recipe to Betty Crocker in 1947, after which the packet-mix became the best-selling favorite that is known and loved across the world today.

Why not mark Lemon Chiffon Cake Day by baking your family a mouth-watering cake and taking some time to appreciate its light and fluffy goodness? The light and airy texture of lemon chiffon cake is achieved by using stiffened egg whites that are folded into the batter, and replacing butter, making the cake a rather low-fat treat. The egg-whites mean that the cake remains delectably moist, although the lack of butter flavoring does mean that you mustn’t stint on the lemon zest and juice!

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Chiffon cakes are usually baked in a tube pan and so they typically have a hole in the middle. A tube pan is the ideal baking vessel for chiffon and angel food cake, also called foam cake because its shape allows heat to penetrate evenly while baking. You might be wondering why chiffon cakes are so delicate? That is because chiffon cakes have a high ratio of eggs to flour and may contain either no fat or a small amount of fat, generally in the form of egg yolk and oil. Beaten eggs give chiffon cakes their light and fluffy texture. As such, they should be handled carefully after baking.

Lastly, it’s important to cool chiffon cakes upside down in the pan, otherwise, they will collapse and flatten. If using a tube pan with legs, invert the pan onto its legs. If using a tube pan without legs, invert the pan and place the neck over a funnel or narrow bottle. Cool cakes completely in the pan before removing them. To loosen from the pan, run a thin metal spatula around the edge of the pan and around the center tube using a sawing motion. Gently press the metal spatula between the pan and the cake to loosen more. Cool the cake completely before filling or frosting!