Birthday cakes are a labour of love
When it comes to birthday cakes, my mom is a superstar. Over the years, she has created literally hundreds of cakes to celebrate our family birthdays. A labour of love, the title of birthday cake maker remains exclusively hers, and we look forward to her delicious chiffon cakes each year to celebrate our big day.
Mom usually uses her old-fashioned tube pan to make this chiffon cake. A tube pan is a deep baking pan that has a hollow tube in the center which allows for more uniform baking for a tall cake. This pan is used for angel food and sponge cakes and is also referred to as an angel food cake pan.
Once the cake is baked, the pan is turned over and the firm cake releases onto a plate to be iced and decorated for serving. When I was a girl, mom would insert a doll in the hole and decorate the cake surrounding like a skirt.
I adored my “dolly cakes” and would wait in anticipation to see which doll she was using each year.
Chiffon cakes are light and fluffy and not too sweet. Mom’s addition of orange zest gives them a lovely twist and she uses a simple whipped cream icing – sometimes with toasted oats sprinkled on top, sometimes just berries. A pour-over glaze is also a lovely idea for this type of cake. Did you know that the chiffon cake was the most fashionable cake in the ’50s and ’60s?
It has a very interesting history and has made a comeback in the food world over the past few years. Of course, it was always “in” at our house.
General Mills introduced the chiffon cake to the world in 1948 with the headline “The first really new cake in 100 years!”
Chiffon cake was invented in L.A. by an insurance agent named Harry Baker in 1927. His unusual cake was light and fluffy and different from the usual angel food and sponge cakes. It was the talk of the town, and his method was a secret until 1947 when he sold it to General Mills.
The secret ingredient turned out to be the vegetable oil instead of butter. Also folding in the stiffly beaten egg whites would give the cake its height.
Hooray for all of you loving birthdaycake makers out there. Know that you are cherished.