Blue Ribbon Recipe (literally!): Honey Chiffon Cake

Back in August I wrote about how I entered events and won a blue ribbon at the State Fair, so here (finally!) is the recipe for my blue ribbon.  

Since I'm not usually a person who bakes with honey, I wanted to find a good recipe to work with.  Who better to tell me how to bake with honey than the National Honey Board, right?  So my initial attempt while practice baking was with this recipe for a honey chiffon cake.  That cake turned out tasty, but much, much too dense for a chiffon (I mean, in my personal opinion).  So I decided I needed to work on it.  

Now, it is important to mention that some parts of baking are easy to play with.  Swapping nuts for chips or raisins, usually safe.  Making a full cake into cupcakes, super-doable with changes to baking time.  Making things healthier by swapping out some of the fats for things like apple sauce or smooshed bananas, can be done.  Other parts of baking are very easy to mess up, because baking is CHEMISTRY.  That's right.  Everyone who says that chemistry is boring and un-useful?  They are super-wrong, because the bread we eat, treats we love...they are all just chemistry that happened to work out right.  

So...when I started fiddling with the actual chemistry of the cake, I was a little worried about how it might turn out.  Fairly miraculously, my first try turned out really, really well.  Basically, I used some of the tricks of making angel food cake: using cake flour instead of all-purpose, adding some cream of tartar to help stabilize the egg whites, using the specific folding instructions to ensure that the egg whites are as undisturbed as possible, etc.  

The final version was delicious, light and fluffy, and garnered me some of the nicest compliments about baking skill (not just taste) that I've ever gotten.  Oh, and I won a whole $15 for my efforts!  (To put that into perspective, though, I spent more than $15 on honey for the practice and final versions. :)  ) 

When I went to see the cake, I was initially with an old friend and her parents, but I went back by myself to visit my cake and take some ridiculous selfies with it.  Because...well, I'm goofy as all get-out.  While there, a woman and her husband were also looking at Honey baked goods.  They gave me a questioning look when I started to take selfies and then asked if I wanted them to take a photo.  I was a little embarrassed, but said no, that I had promised my mom that I would take silly selfies with my cake.  The woman was surprised and asked which was mine, and was so happy for me when I told her the blue ribbon.  We started chatting and she is actually a judge for honey and regular baking (though not the chiffon cake this year).  She was obviously really excited to see someone young (well, young-ish!) competing...and being successful.  The chat was nice and so encouraging!    

Ooooo....look!  Blue ribbon!

Anyway, here's the recipe--the BLUE RIBBON WINNING recipe--if you want to try it for yourself.  

Ingredients:

You have to submit an actual recipe card with Honey entries for the MN State Fair, with your sweeteners highlighted.  

• 1 cup + 2 Tbsp cake flour (not all-purpose)
• 2 tsp. cinnamon
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• heaping 1/4 tsp. cream of tartar
• 5 eggs, divided (whites from yolks)
• scant 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup honey (I used a clover/basswood honey from Pine County, MN)
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1 tsp. lemon juice
• 1/2 tsp vanilla

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit
2. Bowl #1:
   Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
   Whisk in cinnamon
3. Bowl #2:
   Beat egg yolks with sugar (I used a whisk to beat them by hand).
   Add honey and oil.  Mix well.
   Add lemon juice and vanilla.  Mix well.
4. Bowl #3: Using a stand mixer, beat egg whites and cream of tartar until stiff peaks form
5. Add contents of Bowl #1 to Bowl #2 and mix well
6. Fold mixture into Bowl #3, using a large spoon or spatula.  Turn bowl and use 15 to 20 complete fold-over strokes.  
7. Pour into ungreased tube pan and even top of cake batter
8. Bake for 45 minutes or until toothpick/cake tester comes out clean and cake springs back if lightly pressed,
9. Turn upside down to cool.  Cool completely before removing from pan. 

Entering into the Honey competition at the Horticulture building, before the State Fair opened.

Me outside the Bee and Honey room where the cake was on display.  My 90 year old grandma wondered why I took a picture of the woman behind me.  I don't think she's up-to-date on selfies! 

We're #1 (me and my cake, I mean)!