GLAZED HONEY CHIFFON CAKE
“A beautiful and light lemon-glazed chance to steer away from the traditional, heavier Rosh Hashanah honey cakes. We’ve absolutely fallen in love with this divine ode to honey that Natanya has created. It’s like no other.”
NOTE You will need a high-sided angel cake (chiffon) tin that is not non-stick, has a centre funnel and removable base. Do not grease it. Before beginning to bake, find a bottle that fits neatly into the top of the funnel – you will need to use this to support the cake as soon as it comes out of the oven.
6 eggs, separated
¾ cup (175g) caster sugar
¾ cup (180ml) vegetable oil
¾ cup (275g) honey
¼ cup (60ml) freshly brewed black tea 1½ cups (225g) self-raising flour
½ tsp bicarb soda
Lemon glaze
Juice of ½ lemon
½ cup (80g) pure icing sugar
1 Preheat oven to 200˚C (180˚C fan).
2 Place egg yolks and half the caster sugar in a bowl and use an electric mixer to beat until thick and pale. Add oil and continue to beat until well combined.
3 Mix honey into hot tea. Sift flour and bicarb together. With the mixer running at low speed, add honey mixture and flour mixture in three lots, alternating between wet and dry ingredients. Beat until just combined.
4 In a separate bowl, whisk eggwhites to soft peaks. Slowly add remaining sugar and continue to whisk until eggwhites are stiff but not dry. Using a metal spoon or silicone spatula, gently fold eggwhite mixture into batter until just mixed through. Pour mixture into cake tin and bake 50 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 180˚C (160˚C fan) and cook a further 10 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.
5 After removing cake from oven, insert the neck of a bottle into funnel of cake tin.
Immediately invert bottle and tin in one movement, so tin is balancing on the bottle (cake will be upside down). It is important for the cake to be suspended upside down until it is completely cool to prevent collapsing.
7 When the cake is completely cool, turn tin right side up and run a knife around both outside of the cake and the funnel. Holding the funnel, lift base out of tin and use knife to cut cake off base. Invert onto a plate, remove funnel piece, then invert once again onto a serving plate.
8 To make glaze, add lemon juice (a few drops at a time) to the icing sugar until you have a thick but runny glaze. Drizzle over cooled cake. Serves about 12
“My mother was the chiffon cake queen so I hope some of her skills are genetic - they are my favourite cake to make. I’ve been eating it since I was a toddler and so chiffon is the ultimate comfortfood cake for me.” - Merelyn