Guilt free Chocolate Chiffon Cake with Buttercream Frosting and Almond Praline

Guilt free Chocolate Chiffon Cake with Buttercream Frosting and Almond Praline

Recipe Source: Rose Levy Beranbum’s Cake Bible

One must- have book on baking is Rose Levy Beranbum’s Cake Bible. It is a treasure trove of amazing recipes, helpful hints and a baker’s secrets. This recipe is from that book.

For the Cake

½ cup+2 tbsp Hershey’s Cocoa powder

¾ cup boiling water

1 ¾ cups flour

1 ¾ cups sugar

2 tsp baking powder

½ tsp salt

6 tbsp Walnut oil ( I, unfortunately, did not have walnut oil and so I used normal vegetable oil)

2 tbsp Saffloweroil (I had no clue what this is and so I omitted this ingredient)

6 large eggs, separated

4 egg whites ( apart from the 6 egg whites you already have after seaparating the whites and yolks. So a total of 10 egg whites)

2 tsp vanilla essence

1 ¼ tsp cream of tartar (This is used to keep the egg whites stiff. If you don’t have this you can use 1 tsp white vinegar)

For the Buttercream Frosting

100 gm butter

150 gm icing sugar1 tsp vanilla essence

 Few drops milk if required

For the Almond Praline

1 cup sugar

1 cup Almonds with their skins

To prepare the cake

Preheat the oven to 160 degree Celsius. Boil the water and add to the cocoa powder. Mix well so that no lumps remain. Now leave it to cool.

Grease a tube pan.

Sieve together flour, baking powder and salt. Keep 2 tbsp sugar apart and mix the rest to the flour. 

Now make a well in the centre and add egg yolks, oils, chocolate mixture and vanilla essence and beat well for about a minute.

In a separate bowl add the cream of tartar to the egg whites and whisk well till peaks form.

 Be careful not to overbeat them otherwise the egg whites will curdle and will not incorporate into the batter properly. Add the remaining 2 tbsp sugar and beat a little more.

Now you have to mix with a balloon whisk. Take a few tablespoons of beaten egg whites at a time and slowly fold into the flour mixture.

Pour the batter into the greased tube pan. Run a knife through the batter to remove any air pockets. Bake for about 60 minutes.

Invert the pan upside down on a bottle and cool it completely.

To prepare the frosting

Beat the butter well till it is pale and frothy. Now add the sugar using a tablespoon. Keep beating. If the frosting seems too dry then you may use a drop or two of milk. Add the vanilla essence. Keep beating till the frosting is smooth.

To prepare the praline

Place the sugar in a pan and scatter the almonds over it. 

Then put the pan on medium heat to allow the sugar to melt. Do not try to mix or stir the sugar. You can swirl the pan around very gently so that the almonds are well coated. The sugar will start bubbling and will get a caramelized look. 

Turn off the heat and tip the whole thing onto a tray lined with parchment paper. Leave it like that till it is completely cool. Do not try to touch it because caramelized sugar is very very hot. 

Once it is cool break it into pieces and whiz in a mixture. Your praline is ready.

Frosting the cake

Using a spatula cover the cake with frosting. Then sprinkle praline all over the frosting.