Nanny Cake

 

Welcome to my blog!

My grandmother who we all called Nanny was famous for this cake. It's a chocolate chip chiffon cake. She always had at least 1/3rd of the cake in the freezer at all times. Once she served the last of it, she made a new one. 

I'm starting my blog with one of Nanny's recipes because everything I bake is ultimately in her memory. She inspired my love of baking, taught me the basics - of baking and of life in general. She's been gone for sixteen years and I still miss her daily. 

Also, this cake is the exact type of recipe I am always looking for: It's nut free and parve (parve = contains neither dairy nor meat) as written! I don't have to edit it on the fly to make it safe for our family. 

Instead of relying on the "creaming method" where solid fat (margarine or butter) and sugar are beaten together until light and fluffy, a chiffon cake relies on beaten egg whites for lift. 

I used avocado oil but any vegetable oil will work making this an excellent dessert option for those avoiding margarine or butter based desserts. 

[The links are affiliate links from Amazon - they may pay me something if you use them but I chose products specifically because they are the ones *I* use]

This cake requires a regular angel food/tube pan. It will not work with a nonstick tube cake pan. A Tube Cake Pan has removable bottom and center post for the cake to climb. The one I use has legs for suspending the cake upside down to help it set. 

The Recipe

Ingredients: 

• 2 cups flour
• 3 tsp baking powder
• 1 1/2 cup Sugar
• 1 tsp Salt
• 2 tsp Vanilla
• 3/4 cup cold water
• 1/2 cup oil
• 7 large egg yolks
• 7 large egg whites
• 1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
• 1 cup chocolate chips

Directions: 

• Preheat oven to 325°F
• In one bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, sugar and salt. 
• Make a well in mixture and add vanilla, water, oil & egg yolks. 
• Mix until just combined.  Set aside
• In separate bowl, beat egg whites with cream of tartar until peaks form.
• Fold egg whites into yolk mixture. Pour into ungreased angel food/tube pan. Sprinkle in the chocolate chips, trying to keep them away from the center pole or the edges of the pan where they might cause sticking. 
• Bake @ 325 for 50 minutes, then increase oven temperature to 350 for 10-15 minutes.
• Remove from oven and suspend upside down for 1 hour. If your tube pan doesn't have legs for this, place a soda bottle in the center of spring form and hang on that. Just be careful that it doesn't fall over!
• After an hour, invert back to right-side up.
• Remove cake from pan onto cake rack and let cool.
• 
  
• Notes: Removing from the pan might be a little tricky - I find running an Offset Spatula around the edge of the cake helps enable me to lift the center pole and cake out of the pan. Then I can use the spatula to free the bottom of the cake. If it doesn't come up off its center pole, then I use a small paring knife to try to loosen it. 
• My grandmother got around this problem by always cutting it in in 1/3rds rather than attempting to remove it in one piece. She always wrapped 2 of the thirds in plastic wrap then foil, labeled them, and froze them. If she had unexpected company, she'd pull one out and slice it frozen. Sometimes she served it with ice cream or whipped cream, depending on which she had on hand.