lemon chiffon cake

Layers bottom to top: cake, curd, cake, curd, cake, whip, curd, strawberries.

For her birthday, Susan requested a lemon cake with strawberries on top. I decided to try one from the awesome triple-layer cake book Sky High. It is a beautiful book that has brought us delicious cakes such as the CPBC and Strawberry Chiffon Shortcake. Today I flipped through hoping for a cake that fit Susan's requirements and found the Lemon Chiffon Cake.

This recipe required about a million eggs and a quarter-million lemons.

The cake itself is like a cross between a regular cake and a angel food cake, a "chiffon" cake, if you will. I will admit that it is not my favorite kind, but it worked well with this light cake. Between the layers was a tart and delicious lemon curd. It was frosted with a lemon whipped cream which I really liked. Sorry there is no picture of the cut cake. I only made a few changes (noted below in red italics). Next time I would make sure the whip cream layer is a little thicker since I loved it so much. This was a good, light summer cake. But if you love lemon cake, my favorite recipe is still this one.

Strawberries on top, per Susan's request. They gave the cake a nice little touch of color.

Triple Lemon Chiffon Cake
Sky High: Irresistible Triple Layer Cakes by Alisa Huntsman and Peter Wynne
Makes a 9-inch 3-layer cake

For the cake:
8 eggs, separated
1/4 cup walnut oil**
2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 tablespoon lemon zest
1/3 cup water
1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 3/4 cups cake flour*
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt

*1 cup cake flour is equal to 3/4 cup AP flour plus 2 tablespoons corn starch
**equal amount either almond oil, hazelnut oil, or canola oil (I used Canola)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line the bottoms of three 9-inch pans with parchment paper or wax paper but DO NOT 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 cake 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 toothpick 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. (I then added more lemon curd to the top for coloring... oh and the strawberries)


Rich Lemon Curd
3 whole eggs
2 egg yolks
1/2 cup sugar (I added about 1/4c more)
1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice (about 4 lemons)
grated zest of three lemons
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temp. (Mine was salted. oops.)

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. (Um, my mixture accidentally boiled. It thickened a little and is was delicious.) Pour the mixture through a sieve into a heatproof bowl. (I skipped this part. Seriously. Who owns a sieve??? Not me. I said "let them eat the zest." And they did. And no one noticed it.) 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
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
2 tablespoons sugar
3 tablespoon lemon curd
(I made 1.5x the recipe. It was delicious. Generously frost the cake with it.)

Whip the cream and sugar in a large chilled bowl until stiff peaks form. Fold in the lemon curd, forming a stiff frosting.