Recently, I was going to a potluck lunch with a group of girls, so I decided to make something special and fancy. I made a golden chiffon cake from Gram’s recipe.

I wound up not using the lemon

The ingredients are very easy and I just followed the instructions carefully. So first combining the dry ingredients in a sifter, then adding in the wet ingredients and mixing well. So far so good. Next I whipped the egg whites. And I whipped them. And I whipped them. It took quite a long time because it was warm, and egg whites whip better when it is cold and the bowl & beaters are cold. Strangely, they also whip better when they are at room temperature. So I whipped them forever.

Did I ever tell you that is Gram's mixing bowl?

I actually wonder if I could have whipped them longer. Now the next part is to fold the batter into the egg whites. You have to be careful not to bruise the whipped whites or to deflate them, so gently mix from the outside to the inside of the bowl. Once combined, pour the mixture into an 8x8x2 pan. Now here I did make a mistake. There’s no butter in this cake mix and not a lot of oil, so I worried it would stick to the pan, and I sprayed the pan with non-stick spray. Don’t do that, no matter how tempted you are.

Crosshatched by my cooling rack

So, when the cake comes out of the oven, it will be slightly rounded on top, and the instructions say “hang upside down until cool.” This perplexed me quite a lot because I figured the cake would fall out and/or break. I went with the instructions though, and turned the pan upside down onto a cooling rack. The cake stuck to the pan. Slowly as it cooled, the edges came away from the pan and it settled onto the cooling rack. Hence the crosshatching. However, in one place where the non-stick spray actually remained, the corner of the cake was oddly shaped and hardened. I believe it needs the hanging process to make the shape and texture light and enjoyable.

My icing skills need work

So here you have it, iced with vanilla buttercream. It was a light and somewhat spongey cake, but not like an angel food or even like a sponge cake. It was just very airy. It would be good with the lemon, which I decided not to use after all, but it’s not required. You could even try orange for something different.