Lemon Chiffon Cake
This delicious, airy Lemon Chiffon Cake is so moist and light!
We absolutely love lemon desserts and are so happy to have a chiffon cake to add to our Cake Recipes section.
Table of Contents
What is a Chiffon Cake?
If you've never had a chiffon cake, it is much different in texture from our usual bundt cakes or pound cakes. They contain oil rather than butter, they generally contain less flour, the eggs are separated so that the whites can be whipped up and folded into the batter.
All of this results in the soft, light, and delicate cake which bakes up beautifully in a tube pan.
How to Make Lemon Chiffon Cake
You can find the full, printable Lemon Chiffon Cake recipe further down in this post, but here is a quick rundown of our steps!
- Do not grease the pan. I know this is unusual and so I'm putting this step first!
- Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F
- Next, separate the egg yolks and egg whites, put them in separate medium size bowls
- In the bowl of your stand mixer, combine the all purpose flour, sugar, baking powder and salt.
- In another bowl, whisk the egg yolks, water and lemon juice, oil, lemon zest, vanilla and lemon extract. Add this to the dry ingredients and mix until well blended.
- In a separate bowl, add cream of tartar to egg whites, beat until stiff peaks form. Do not beat above medium speed.
- Fold the egg whites into the cake batter. Then, gently spoon into an ungreased 12 cup tube pan. Cut through the batter with a knife to remove air pockets.
- Bake at 325 degrees F for 45 to 50 minutes. The cake is done when it springs back when lightly pressed.
- Immediately turn the cake upside down on a cooling rack and let cool completely. This could take a couple of hours depending on the temperature of your kitchen. When the outside of the pan is cool it is ready to turn out,
- Run a thin blade knife around the side of the tube pan as well as the center tube of the pan and release.
White Chocolate Lemon Glaze
We often use our simple vanilla glaze for our bundt cakes and pound cakes but for today's recipe, we decided to get get fancy! This white chocolate lemon glaze is so flavorful and pairs perfectly with our lemon chiffon cake.
This recipe is adapted from King Arthur Flour's "poured fondant" recipe but with a touch of lemon (don't let the name scare you- it is not fondant), It is really delicious, and simple to make!
We waited to prepare the white chocolate glaze until the cake had baked and cooled.
Preparing the Glaze
First, measure out your ingredients so that everything is ready to go.
Melt the white chocolate chips (we heated ours in the microwave in small increments). If you'd rather not microwave, just heat in a small saucepan.
Next, sift confectioners sugar into a bowl and add the corn syrup and hot water. Stir until smooth.
Add the melted white chocolate, lemon extract, a pinch of salt, and stir until smooth. If it is too thick, you can add a touch more water or milk.
This glaze will thicken as it cools. If it has cooled and thickened too much, you can microwave very briefly to bring it back to glazing consistency.
Glazing the Lemon Chiffon Cake
To apply the white chocolate lemon glaze, you can either spoon it over the cooled cake, or you can load it into a disposable piping bag with the tip snipped away.
I personally like to pipe on the glaze with a disposable piping bag because it gives me more control over the drips- but there's no wrong way to glaze a cake!
*If the drips are traveling further down the cake than you intended, you can always pop it in the freezer for a few minutes to free everything into place.
Also, keep in mind that you can test your drips on the inside of the bowl to get an idea of the consistency of the drip before decorating the cake. If it is too thin or too fast, just allow it to cool for a few more minutes.
FAQs
More Lemon Cakes to Try
This light Lemon Chiffon Cake makes a great summer cake.
We are big fans of lemon desserts and have created so many lemon cakes over the years!. We hope that you will give some of these delicious recipes a try.
Our homemade Lemon Cake is always a popular choice, along with our Lemon Buttermilk Cake, Lemon Sour Cream Cake, and Lemon Blueberry Cake.
If you prefer to work with cake mixes, this Lemon Layer Cake- Doctored Mix is amazing!
More recently, we've made a Lemon Cheesecake Cake which consists of a lemon cheese cake layer sandwiched between two lemon cake layers.
You can find our full listing of favorite Lemon Recipes here: Favorite Lemon Cakes and Frostings!
Enjoy the Recipe
Have you made this? We would LOVE for you to leave a ⭐️ rating as well as a comment and photo below! We really appreciate your feedback!
Lemon Chiffon Cake
This light, moist, and flavorful Lemon Chiffon Cake has a wonderfully airy texture. Perfect for a baby or bridal shower, a tea, or just because!
Ingredients
- 7 room temperature eggs, separated
- 2 cups (242g) all-purpose flour
- 1 ½ cups (300g) sugar
- 3 teaspoons baking powder (10g)
- 1 teaspoon salt (6g)
- ¾ cup (183g) lemon juice and water (add the juice of 2 lemons to a 1 cup measure, then add water to the ¾ cup mark
- ½ cup (108g) canola oil
- zest of 2 lemons
- 1 teaspoon (3g) vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon (3g) lemon extract
- ½ teaspoon cream of tartar (a substitution for cream of tartar is ½ teaspoon lemon juice)
For the White Chocolate Lemon Glaze
- ½ cup (71g) white chocolate chips- we used Ghirardelli (you can substitute white bark coating)
- 2 cups (227g) confectioners sugar, sifted
- 2 Tablespoons (39g) light corn syrup
- 2 Tablespoons (28g) hot water
- ½ teaspoon Lemon Extract (adjust amount to suit your taste)
- Pinch of salt (we prefer fine grain salt/popcorn salt when possible)
Instructions
- Do not grease the tube pan (do not use a bundt pan or nonstick pan)
- Lower oven rack to next to lowest position. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F
- Separate the egg yolks and egg whites, put in separate medium size bowls
- In the bowl of your mixer, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt.
- In another bowl, whisk the egg yolks, lemon juice and water, oil, lemon zest, vanilla and lemon extract. Add this to the dry ingredients and mix until well blended.
- In a separate bowl, add cream of tartar to egg whites, beat until stiff peaks form. Do not beat above medium speed. Fold the egg whites into the batter.
- Gently pour or spoon into an un-greased 12 cup tube pan. Cut through the batter with a knife to remove air pockets.
- Bake at 325 degrees for 45 to 50 minutes. The cake is done when it springs back when lightly pressed.
- Immediately turn the cake upside down on a cooling rack and let cool completely. This could take a couple of hours depending on the temperature of your kitchen. When the outside of the pan is cool it is ready to turn out.
- Run a thin blade knife around the side of the tube pan as well as the center tube of the pan.
For the White Chocolate Lemon Glaze
Once the cake has cooled and you are ready to add the glaze...
- Melt the white chocolate chips -- we heated ours in the microwave in small increments, stirring in between First 30 seconds, then 10 second increments until melted. While the chips still have their shape, stir to complete the melting process.
- Sift confectioners sugar into a bowl and add the corn syrup and hot water. Stir until smooth.
- Next, add the melted white chocolate, lemon extract, and a pinch of salt and stir until smooth. If it is too thick, you can add a touch more water or milk.
- This glaze will thicken as it cools. If it has cooled and thickened too much, you can microwave very briefly to bring it back to glazing consistency.
Glazing the Cake
You can spoon the glaze over the cake, but for more control, use a disposable piping bag with the tip snipped away.
Once you've applied the glaze, you can add lemon zest to the top if you'd like for additional color and lemon flavor. Enjoy!
Notes
*This recipe was adapted from Taste of Home's Lemon Chiffon Cake
Wow! Looks light and delish! I'm a huge lemon fan :-) Looks beautiful and yummy as always! :-)
Thanks for this wonderful recipe! I want to try it, but I need to buy a tube pan. Should I get a non-stick, or no? If you have a link or a suggestion as to what pan would be good to buy, if greatly appreciate it! Thank you!
@MsGF- Thank you! ;0)
@Amy- Glad that you're planning to make it! You'll want to use a non-stick aluminum tube pan. Ours is Magic Line but there are several brands out there that would be good.
You may even like the angel food cake pans that have little legs for the recipes where the cake rises above the pan (since the pan is turned upside down while the cake cools).
Just remember not to grease the pan. Hope you enjoy it!
Can I use a Bundt pan with a design? Not sure if the cake will release if you can't run a knife around...
Hi Sally, I would not recommend a bundt pan with a design. It is best to use a tube pan because chiffon cakes have very little flour meaning not much gluten to give structure. Do not use a non stick pan or grease the sides or bottom of the tube pan. The batter must cling to the sides of the pan as it bakes. The cake structure is not strong until the cake cools and this is why the cake is cooled with the pan upside down otherwise it could deflate and flatten. You will need to run a knife with a thin blade around the side of the tube pan and also around the center tube of the pan before turning the cake out.
Thanks, Bebe. Sounds like I just avoided a caketastrophe!
Hi - after step 4 & 5 do you combine the flour and egg yolk mixture before folding in the egg whites? The recipe seems to be missing a step.
Hi Tori, I see how that might be confusing. I have reworded it. Yes, the wet ingredients are added to the dry ingredients and mixed until well blended.
Hi be be
Beautiful cake just a question how much lemon juice goes into the recipe and how much water and should the water be warm thank you for the recipe cannot wait to try it
Greetings from dublin ireland ????????
Patricia obrien
Greetings to you, Patricia, from Dublin! We are happy to have you visiting our website. I think the measuring cups you use are slightly different in quantity than ours in the US, but I don't think it is enough to negativity affect the recipe. The recipe is for 3/4 cup (314g) lemon juice and water. The amount is just whatever is squeezed from 2 lemons as they vary in size, then water added to the measuring cup to reach 314 grams. The water does not need to be warm, room temp is good. The lemon juice adds flavor to the cake but the stronger lemon flavor comes from lemon extract. Hope you will enjoy the cake.
Having trouble finding this tube pan. All the Magic Line tube pans I saw did not have the exact tube. Their tube pan all have open "tubes" whereas the photo of her's just shows a very small hole at the top of their tube
Hi Tricia, we bought ours at a local shop but it looks like this is the same pan that we have:
https://www.lynelles.com/shop/Cake-and-Speciality-pans/magic--line/p/Angel-Food-Pan-Magic-Line-10-x21005215.htm
You should have good results with any shiny tube/angel food pan that is 12 cup/10 inch (or similar size).
Great!! Thank you so much!!!! Appreciate the quick response.