A Chiffon cake is a seriously light and fluffy cake which originates from America. Traditionally it’s made in a ring tin, but I decided to make it in a 9” round cake tin and it turned out beautifully. It doesn’t have a huge amount of flavour so I added some Rose essence to mine which gave it a lovely sweet taste. It doesn’t taste of roses – at least it doesn’t taste how I think roses taste. I haven’t actually eaten any. Have you?
I’ve never baked with rose essence before but last week I was on a shoot which had a catered lunch (this is a rarity- believe me. Normally it’s sandwiches and a packet of crisps!) and one of the puddings was this fantasticly large domed cake with dried petals on top. It was really light and had a rose syrup soaking up the bottom. I was looking to recreate that but I didn’t think that this cake needed any syrup and I was right. It’s fine and dandy just as it is…. well maybe with a little strawberries and cream!
I made this Rose Chiffon Cake yesterday to take along to my in laws for lunch. It was father’s day and on Tuesday it’s Tim and his mum’s birthday so it was the perfect time to have all the family together. I love a proper catch up! Don’t you?
Ingredients
6 large eggs
225 plain flour (sieved)
300 g caster sugar (sieved)
1 tbsp baking powder (yes tablespoon!)
1/2 teaspoon salt
120 ml sunflower oil
180 ml rose water (Measure 1 tablespoon of Rose essence and make up the rest of the volume with water)
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
Icing sugar to decorate
How to make a Rose Chiffon cake
Pre-heat your oven to 170ºC (150ºC Fan) Oil and line a 9” cake tin or a ring shaped tin. This cake rises very high so make sure that your baking paper is taller than the side of the tin.
Separate the egg whites and yolks.
Place all the dry ingredients in a bowl (keeping 50g sugar to one side)
Add the oil, egg yolks, rose water and vanilla essence to the flour and beat until combined.
In a separate bowl whisk the egg whites until you have soft peaks (that means that when you lift out the whisk the peak of egg whites just flops over and doesn’t stand to attention. Then whisk in the last 50g of sugar.
Using a metal spoon carefully fold the egg whites into the cake batter. Do this in three stages so that the cake will remain light and fluffy. Be careful not to over mix as you will bash out all the air in the eggs which is what makes the cake’s texture so yummy.
Pour the batter into your prepared tin and bake for 45-60 minutes or until the cake comes away from the side of the tin.
Remove from the oven and allow to cool whilst in the tin. The cake will be very puffy when it comes out and will deflate and wrinkle back into the tin as it cools. Don’t worry- it will still be light as a feather.
Remove from the tin and sprinkle with sieved icing sugar.
Enjoy with some fresh fruit and a drizzle of cream
Looks lovely where do i buy rose water from as i have never heard of it .
No, I’ve only just recently heard of it. But now you have you’ll see it all over the place! I got it from Sainsburys but you can get it in most supermarkets. It’s usually next to the vanilla essence.
EM
x
I made this cake today, I only had 60ml of the rose water in my ingredients cupboards but it still gave me the most beautiful cake. This is definitely on my forever cakes list. I served it this afternoon with a drizzle of vanilla icing and it was a huge success not only light as a feather but so moist with such a delicate flavour but distinct flavour. Summer on a plate.
Looks lovely where do i buy rose water from as i have never heard of it .
No, I’ve only just recently heard of it. But now you have you’ll see it all over the place! I got it from Sainsburys but you can get it in most supermarkets. It’s usually next to the vanilla essence.
EM
x
I made this cake today, I only had 60ml of the rose water in my ingredients cupboards but it still gave me the most beautiful cake. This is definitely on my forever cakes list. I served it this afternoon with a drizzle of vanilla icing and it was a huge success not only light as a feather but so moist with such a delicate flavour but distinct flavour. Summer on a plate.