birthday chiffon shortcake

*from smitten kitchen

Cake layers:
2 1/4 cups sifted cake flour
1 1/2 cups superfine or regular sugar, divided
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup cold water
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon lemon zest
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
5 large egg yolks at room temperature
8 large egg whites at room temperature
1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar


1. Make cake layers: Preheat the oven to 325°F. Have two 9-inch round cake pans ready, lined with parchment paper that has been lightly sprayed with cooking spray, but otherwise ungreased. (Alternatively, this recipe yields on classic tube chiffon cake. Leave the cake pan ungreased, and use one with a removable bottom.)

2. Sift the flour, 1 1/4 cups sugar, baking powder and salt together twice into a large bowl.

3. In a another bowl, beat the yolks, water, oil, zest and vanilla on high speed until smooth. Stir into the flour mixture until smooth. In another large bowl, or the bowl of your stand mixer, beat the egg whites with the cream of tartar until soft peaks are formed. Add the remaining 1/4 cup sugar, and beat on high speed until the peaks are stiff but not dry.

4. Use a rubber spatula to fold one-quarter of the egg whites into the egg yolk mixture, then fold in the remaining whites. Do so gently, only until the egg whites are no longer visible. Overdoing it will deflate the egg whites, and yield a denser, shorter cake.

5. Scrape the batter into the two prepared pans and spread evenly. Bake them until the top springs back when lightly pressed and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean 40 min

6. Let cakes cool on a cooling rack for at least an hour (or, if in a tube pan, upside down over a bottleneck or resting the pan on four glasses for at least 1 1/2 hours). When completely cool, run a knife around the sides to release, then flip out onto a plate and then another plate.

7. then cut each cake in half. ( I only did a 3 layer, and I will probably freeze the left over for a trifle sometime. but you could do all 4 too)

I made this whipped cream, but intead of brown sugar, I did powdered sugar and added a bit of lemon zest.

I took a little of the whipped cream mix and added chopped strawberries and added that to the middle of the layers.