Secret Recipe: Blue Bottle Coffee's Pixie Tangerine Chiffon Cake

Photo by Laura Flippen

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In the August Eat+Drink issue, which hits newsstands July 28, we interviewed Blue Bottle Coffee pastry chef Caitlin Williams Freeman about her Alamo Square dining room. She also shared with us her recipe for a Pixie tangerine chiffon cake, artistically crafted in the style of painter Wayne Thiebaud. Pixie tangerines also happen to be the official fruit of her hometown of Ojai, near Santa Barbara.

Pixie Tangerine Chiffon Cake

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

1/4 cup cornstarch

1 tbsp baking powder

1 1/2 cups sugar

1 teaspoon salt

Zest of three tangerines

1/4 cup olive oil

7 egg yolks

1/2 cup tangerine juice

3/4 cup plain yogurt

7 egg whites

1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Sift flour, cornstarch, and baking powder at least five times. In a large bowl, whisk together flour mixture lemon zest, salt, and sugar. Make a well in the center, and add olive oil, yolks, and juice. Mix with a rubber spatula until well-combined and free from lumps. Add yogurt, and incorporate thoroughly.

2. In a mixer fitted with the whisk attachment (or with a big bowl, whisk, and some stamina) whip egg whites to soft peaks.

3. Fold egg whites into flour and yolk mixture using a rubber spatula. Work quickly and gently, and stop when you can no longer see streaks of white.

4. Gently pour mixture into an ungreased two-piece 9-inch tube pan with a removable bottom. Bake 55 minutes, or until cake springs back when pressed lightly on top. Remove from oven, and cool upside down, atop a funnel, small jar, or bottle for at least 2 hours.

5. When cool, run a small offset spatula or thin knife around the edges, and remove from pan. Then run knife between cake and the bottom of the pan, and remove to a plate, top-side down.

Vanilla Swiss Meringue

8 egg whites

2 cups sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1. In a bain marie, combine all three ingredients, and heat, stirring constantly, until sugar has dissolved completely (130 degrees, to be precise).

2. In a mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, whip the egg-white mixture on medium speed until soft peaks form and the mixture has cooled to room temperature. Frost cake immediately.

View the discussion thread.

Chiffon cakes run to be alter in soaking fat than butter cakes, potentially making them better than their butter-heavy counterparts. The demand of butter, yet, agency that chiffon cakes demand overmuch of the deluxe smack of butter cakes, and thence they are typically served accompanied with flavourous sauces or otherwise accompaniments, much as drinkable or fruit fillings.

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By Derlierprossy (not verified) on December 15, 2011

y popular cakes are fizz cakes, but they haven't been exactly the easiest kindly to create. Alton's was a obedient act, but it was scarcely perfect. I've definitely had my fair apportion of flops so I couldn't be happier when I cut into my bar and saw a watertight knitwork crumb instead of the familiar patches of egg or vulgarity. I almost cried..haha. No seriously, I don't consider I can regularise count the figure of nowadays I've whipped up a scenic egg fizz onlyto disorderliness it up with my undue folding and essential to get rid of every azygos entity deflated.

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By Derlierprossy (not verified) on November 24, 2011

Chiffon cakes tend to be lower in saturated fat than butter cakes, potentially making them healthier than their butter-heavy counterparts. The lack of butter, however, means that chiffon cakes lack much of the rich flavor of butter cakes, and hence they are typically served accompanied with flavorful sauces or other accompaniments, such as chocolate or fruit fillings.
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By amandasmith (not verified) on October 13, 2011

My favourite cakes are foam cakes, but they haven't been exactly the easiest kind to make. Alton's was a good start, but it was hardly perfect. I've definitely had my fair share of flops so I couldn't be happier when I cut into my cake and saw a tight knit crumb instead of the usual patches of egg or coarseness. I almost cried..haha. No seriously, I don't think I can even count the number of times I've whipped up a beautiful egg foam only to mess it up with my excessive folding and need to get rid of every single trace of egg white or flour until the whole thing deflated.

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By Derlierprossy (not verified) on August 19, 2011

Legend has it that the chiffon cake was invented in Los Angeles in the late 1920s by a baker and caterer named Harry Baker. The light and airy, yet moist, cake was a huge hit right off the bat. Although it was popular, Baker kept the recipe a secret for 20 years before finally selling the recipe to General Mills, which introduced it to the American public (via Betty Crocker) in 1948.

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By Derlierprossy (not verified) on August 08, 2011

chiffon cake recipe

By alp (not verified) on July 24, 2011

That is a hilariously relevant comment. In other news... I am definitely trying this recipe!!

By Alicia (not verified) on July 15, 2011