ORANGE CHIFFON CAKE

This is another recipe from the Gwinear Parish recipe booklet. And a most unusual recipe as well! It is incredibly light and zesty, and fat free, not to mention absolutely delicious! I took this photo and within a couple of hours it had disappeared.

4½ Self Raising Flour 

1½ teaspoons of baking powder

Sift the above and set aside for a moment.

In a smallish bowl place:

3 egg yolks [I used large]

5 oz caster sugar

4 tablespoons of cold water

1 tablespoons of grated orange zest [I used one very large orange]

1 teaspoon lemon essence [I used a few drops of lemon extract - much stronger]

Whisk the above at high speed until well blended and light and airy. 3 - 4 mins.

Fold the flour into this mixture, very carefully, by hand.

In a large bowl whisk the egg yolks until stiff along with:

¼ teaspoon of cream of tartar 

½ a teaspoon of salt. 

Then carefully fold the other mixture into the egg whites, using a cutting motion, ensuring you don’t knock back any of the air.

Pour the mixture into an UNGREASED 8 x 8 x 2 inch tin. [my square tin is 9 x 9, so I used that]. Bake in a preheated fan oven 165C for about 25 mins until firm to the touch.

Now comes the really weird bit….. Invert the cake tin over 2 tins of the same height [see pic on my Blog] until cold. Just holding it suspended by the sides or corners. I presume this is to stop it sinking and retain as much air as possible in the cake. It really works!!

When cold, turn it over and loosen the sides with a sharp knife to remove. I used a bendy spatula to loosen the base which came clean away.

Ice with orange butter icing or just grated orange. Or even whipped cream. Whatever!!

Cut into squares to serve. Just lovely. My next post will be another, very different, tray bake from the US!