Orange-Glow Chiffon Layer Cake

One of the best cakes I have ever made, and I never thought I would say that about a cake that doesn't contain butter. It's light and fresh and has a dreamy, spongy texture. I've made a tangerine version and a lemon version. The author gives leavening and flavor adjustments for the lemon version on her blog.

This cake is a little tricky and requires everything to be just right. Use a silver (i.e., not a non-stick) springform, cake strips, a flower nail, unbleached AP flour and measure or weigh everything carefully. Underbaking and overbaking will also create problems.

For the whipped cream recipe listed with the cake, be sure to use sweet orange marmalade, as the classic, somewhat bitter variety makes terrible whipped cream (voice of experience). For the tangerine version, I used homemade tangerine preserves, which worked very well. For the lemon version, I flavored the whipped cream with lemon oil and vanilla.

The photos are the lemon version, which had blueberries in the center filling and was topped with raspberries.

I'm including this review for those of you who are not quite as expert in cake making as the previous reviewer (lovely photo by the way!), or who don't have all the tools recommended in the recipe.

I have a silver springform pan, but no cake strips and no cake nail either, but I forged ahead and the cake still turned out to be delicious and it didn't suffer too much for not having the nail or the strip. It was light and fluffy and had a lovely orange flavour. I didn't frost it and we just had it as the dessert for a nice lunch.