Today we are continuing our Summer Dessert Recipe Series with a slightly different kind of recipe.  Today we have Mimi’s Best Orange Chiffon Muffin Recipe.

From our other talks, you know, we like quick, simple recipes. Please note, that this is not one of those. This orange chiffon cake is one of Mimi’s best recipes and a family favorite. But she would only make this for special occasions.

Today’s talk will give you a step-by-step guide on how to make Mimi’s best orange chiffon muffins or cake. But please read through it before you decide if you want to make it.

We are not trying to discourage you from making it. But just be aware this Orange Chiffon muffins or cake takes some time, it is not a quick thing.

This recipe will give you one of the best-baked goods you will ever make and eat. The end products are soft, moist, sweet, and have a citrus kick.

But this is one of those in-depth recipes that takes some time and several steps. This is also one of those recipes that if you skip a step or substitute a step, there is no telling what you will get.

You would do well to have 3 mixers available. It can, of course, be done with one mixer or by hand.  But it does take more time and planning.

Please read carefully before you start.  This will give you an idea of the steps, and time it will take. And how many mixing bowls you will need.

There is a three-part recipe for the cake. There are two different recipes for the icing. We will give you all 3 recipes so you can decide the icing recipe you like best.

Ingredients:

We found it best or maybe easiest to use 3 large mixing bowls.  You need to mix 3 steps separately then mix the 3 together. That is why we said having 3 mixers would be good.

Bowl 1 mix:

2 cups flour

½ cup sugar

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

add all the dry ingredients and mix well.

Bowl 2 mix:

You will need 7 eggs separated, keep the egg yolks for bowl 2 and set the egg whites aside for bowl 3.

the unbeaten egg yolks of 7 eggs

½ cup oil

juice of 2 oranges ( you can use other fruit juices but it does change the flavor.)

with the orange juice, add enough water to make ¾ cup

1 Tablespoon grated orange rind

add all the ingredients and beat until smooth.

Bowl 3 mix:

using only the egg white from the 7 eggs, approx 1 cup

add ½ teaspoon cream of tartar

beat on high until peaks form

When you have the 3 bowls, you are ready to add them together.

Take bowls 1 and 2 and mix them. Beat until will mixed and smooth.

Add 1 teaspoon of vanilla.

Take bowl 3 and add to the mix. Fold in the stiff egg whites and mix well.

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Put the mix into the pan of your choice.

We like mini muffins so that is the pan we use.

Be sure to spray or grease the tins or pans well, you do not want to tear your goodies apart trying to get them out of the pan.

Put the pan or pans into the oven and cook at 350 for approx 55 minutes.

If you use the mini-muffin tins, leave them in the oven for about 25 minutes. A large bunt pan or tube pan will need to cook about 55 minutes. You can gauge the time by what size pan or muffin tin you use.

This orange chiffon recipe can be used with any size or shape pan or tin you want. You can make a whole cake, tube cake, bunt cake, muffins, cupcakes, or mini-muffins. It all depends on what shape, size, and finished count you want. All you have to do is pick one and go with it.

The recipe makes enough for a whole cake, approx 2 tube pans, a dozen muffins, or a lot of mini-muffins.

We find it best to use a 1 Tablespoon measuring spoon. Do not overfill or you will have a mess in the bottom of your oven. If this should happen, we did a talk after the holiday on How to easily clean up “holiday stove” with an easy recipe.

Make sure to test your cake, muffins, or mini-muffins. They must be cooked all the way through. Smaller pans will cook through faster. Larger pans take longer to get cooked in the middle.

When the cake, muffins, or mini-muffins are cooked take them out of the oven and let them cook a bit.

Take the cake, etc out of the pan. Be careful and remove it from the pan gently. The cake or muffins will be soft and moist and can easily tare apart coming out of the pan.

While the cake or muffins are cooling, make the icing.

Glaze #1

In a boiler on the stove mix:

½ cup butter

4 tablespoons flour

½ teaspoon salt

½ cup orange juice (or the fruit juice you are using)

Stir and boil for 1 minute.

Stir and boil for 1 minute.

Remove from heat and stir in:

3 cups of powdered sugar

1 Tablespoon grated orange rind

Mix until smooth

Spoon or pour over the orange chiffon cake or muffins. You may find it easier, as we do, to dip the muffins into the icing.

Be careful not to burn yourself on the hot icing.

We do not use glaze #2 but we included the recipe in case anyone wanted an alternative to glaze #1

Glaze #2

In the boiler in the stovetop mix

2 cups orange juice

2 Tablespoons milk

1 Tablespoon butter

Heat to melt the butter and mix well.

Remove from heat

Add 2 ½ cups powdered sugar

Beat until smooth

Add 2 teaspoons grated orange rind

mix well.

Drizzle over the cake or muffins.

Now ready to eat and enjoy Mimi’s best Orange Chiffon Muffins or Cake.

The cake or muffins should be moist and soft. The orange juice will give you a citrus flavor with a twang. But the butter and powdered sugar will make them very sweet.

This is not a good recipe for diabetics or people with other sugar-related health issues. It is not gluten-free, vegan, or low sugar.

This is an old, fashioned, full of all the good stuff, not very good for you but a really good tasting recipe.

So keep that in mind when you decide to make this orange chiffon cake. And remember that when you start eating it. A little bit goes a long way. That is why we usually make the mini-muffins.

As we said at the start, this is a longer process than most of the recipes we like to share. But it will be worth it.

If you have a helper or a willing older kid, they can help out and take some of the steps. This will make it faster but do not rush. Make sure you get the steps right and in order

Again, you can use other fruit juices but it will change the flavor and not give you the hard citrus kick this recipe is known for.

We used pineapple juice as we had some on hand.

As you know from other talks, we use everything we can and save leftovers to use in other projects.

Having made a pineapple surprise a few days before we saved the pineapple juice, as we always do. Since we had pineapple juice sitting in the fridge we decided to use it for the orange chiffon cake.

The pineapple juice worked fine.  But as we said, it did not give us that hard citrus kick that orange juice would have.

We hope you have enjoyed this recipe for Mimi’s best orange chiffon muffins or cake. It is a bit of a process but well worth it. Try it out and see for yourself.

Thank you for visiting and please come again for another edition of Out Standing in the Field.