Lemon Glow Chiffon Cake

[onehsancare]

I made RLB's Lemon Glow Chiffon Cake today, as I have done numerous times before. I believe I did essentially what I always do. I got a result, though, that was a surprise (and not a pleasant one).

Instead of a tube pan, I made the cake in two nine-inch rounds. They were beautiful out of the oven, and cooling them with the toothpicks to keep them elevated worked just fine. After depanning them, though, I discovered a quite-yucky yellow rubbery layer on the bottom. Peeling off the parchment didn't take care of it--I ended up slicing it off, along with some acceptable cake.

That gave me a cake sample to have my husband taste. (I don't eat sweets, so I rely on his taste buds for feedback.) He said it tasted good, but was a little dense. The rubbery part tasted like lemony rubber.

What did I do? If we weren't due at some friends' house in an hour, I'd make it again, if for no other reason than I'm not going to let a cake beat me . . . But it will be Monday before I can bake again, so I'm asking for your diagnosis.

[Amy Eber]

Tube pans conduct heat differently than round cake pans. Not usually a good idea to substitute even if the pans hold the same volume batter.

[ruthcooks]

There must be another reason besides pan size. I've had this rubber layer show up in a Chocolate Chiffon cake which I used to make perfectly.

[Ling]

Could it be that the eggs were simply not beaten long enough, and there was not enough air incorporated? Or perhaps the batter deflated too much due to over-folding?

[kaneel]

Could it be that the eggs were simply not beaten long enough, and there was not enough air incorporated? Or perhaps the batter deflated too much due to over-folding?

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I am with ling on this one.

I made this cake 2 weeks ago in a 10" that was 3" high and it came out perfectly

[middydd]

Could it be that the eggs were simply not beaten long enough, and there was not enough air incorporated? Or perhaps the batter deflated too much due to over-folding?

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It sounds like the oil may not have been incorporated well enough, and then the oil sat in the bottom of your bowl, when the batter is poured into the pan the oil impedes rising in the portion of the batter it's touching. I've had this happen with the butter in genoise.

[CanadianBakin']

I don't know from experience but I happened to be reading up on Chiffon cakes this evening and thought this quote from "Baking Illustrated" might be helpful:

"If the whites are not very stiff, the cake will not rise properly, and the bottom will be heavy, dense, wet, and custard-like. Better to overbeat than underbeat. After all, if you overbeat the egg whites and they end up dry and "blocky," you can simply smudge and smear the recalcitrant clumps with the flat side of the spatula to break them up."

[onehsancare]

You're probably right--it must have been a combination of over-folding and under-beating, but I've made the same cake many times before with no problem.

Darn. I hate this human/fallible thing.

(And that's great advice about overbeating, too--it's always good to have a back-up plan!)

ETA re: overbeating.

Edited February 21, 2006 by onehsancare (log)