Test of My Cooking Skills

This is one beautiful cake! The recipe sounded so good! So, I figured, why not give it a try? Have wanted to try a chiffon cake for years. They were all the "rage" in the 40's and 50's, but seems there's never been a mix for them. So, after hemming and hawing for a few days, finally bit the bullet this morning and got to work.

Had to zest there oranges (honeybell tangelos), then juice them (neat trick if the only piece of cooking equipment you don't own is a juicer). Then, separate six eggs - wait, make that seven, and throw away a yolk. After that, while they were getting to room temperature, had to dig to the far back corner of the pantry and find the box of cake flour that's been there since I moved in five years ago. Pray the weevils haven't discovered it. Thank your lucky stars and yourself for remembering to have it sealed in a plastic bag. Sift the darned stuff with the antique flour sifter from my aunt. Ever heard of castor sugar? I have, but never had any, so made my own, which required digging out the food processor and grinding regular sugar for about a minute.

Whew!

Then, drag out the hand mixer, beat the dry ingredients, add the wet and mix till smooth. Ok. Then haul out the Kitchenaid stand mixer and beat the egg whites. Fold whites into batter. Well - get yourself a REALLY big bowl first! At this point, every mixing bowl, measuring cup, mixer (stand and hand), several little bowls, a plate, and measuring spoons are dirty. Basically everything in the kitchen.

But, I managed to fold it together, put it in the pan and bake it until it was absolutely beautifully done and smelled heavenly. Ok - invert the pan on a bottle. Wait - thought it'd fit on a booze bottle, but that was too big. Ran to the fridge and grabbed a small necked wine bottle. Phone rings - don't even bother trying to answer!! Have to invert the cake or it might fall!!! Panic set in, but managed to invert it on the wine bottle (memo to self - buy some old-fashioned bottles of soda). As you can see - somehow even managed to get it out of the pan in one whole piece!

Looked naked somehow, so whipped up some powdered sugar icing and put some orange extract in it. So now, comes the test . . . the tasting. Anybody interested???

Hope it was worth it!

Next - the new bread machine!!!