Yellow Chiffon Cake.

In culinary school (patisserie side) you learn a lot of different methods. Methods, terminology, everything is very exact for baking. It's not the same as cooking. There is room for experimentation, you just have to do it right. You gotta use the methods.

Specifically, where I'm going with this is cakes. There are tons of different cake recipes. Special cakes have special names. It can get pretty confusing. I'll try to keep this simple though. Chiffon cake. The chiffon method is a special method that I've become fond of. We made a lot of chiffon cakes in class. They're simple, very versatile, and tasty cakes. They aren't very dense and I like that. The reason they aren't dense is because air (and baking powder) is the leavening agent.

The method goes something like this:

1. Make a meringue (egg whites, cream of tartar, sugar)
2. Make a batter 
3. Fold the meringue into the batter & bake right away 

So here, yellow chiffon cake:

Ingredients:

5 egg whites

2.5 oz sugar

pinch of cream of tartar

4 oz cake flour

1.5 tsp baking powder

1/8 tsp salt

2 oz sugar

1/4 C salad oil

5 egg yolks (keep the whites!)

1/3 C water

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

*Note: ingredients should be room temperature.

Nice n fluffy

Procedure: 

1. Preheat oven 350 degrees F. Prepare 8" cake pan (parchment round on bottom, ungreased). 
2. Set up a mixer (clean bowl & whip--aka whisk--attachment) 
3. Whip egg whites in mixer on highest speed until they form soft peaks. Add cream of tartar and sugar. Whip until firm (but not too firm!), moist peaks. 
4. Scrape out whipped egg whites (meringue) into another bowl and set aside. 
5. In the same (egg-whitey) mixing bowl, sift flour, baking powder, salt, & sugar. Put the bowl back on the mixer, but use a paddle attachment now. 
6. Turn mixer to second speed & gradually stream in the oil. Then add egg yolks one at a time (remember to stop and scrape down the bowl, this batter should be smooooooth). 
7. Stream in water, then vanilla. Keep scrapin' the bowl. 
8. Now, take the meringue you prepared earlier. Scoop out about a quarter of the meringue and fold it into the batter. 
9. Keep adding meringue & folding. Try to do this somewhat fast. Don't over mix! The fluffy air from the meringue is what makes this cake so light and nice. 
10. When everything is combined, pour batter into the prepared pan and bake for about 35-40 minutes, or until toothpick comes out clean. Or! If you press the top of the cake gently and it springs back, it's done. 
11. Flip the hot cake upside down onto a sheet pan with parchment paper. 
12. When it's cool, run an offset spatula around the outside and pop out of the pan :) 

Woo! Chiffon cake! Next time I'll give you a strawberry shortcake...layering tutorial? Or an attempt at explaining the procedure. Yay!