Lemon & Thyme Olive Oil Chiffon Cakes
These cakes are, as Prue Leith would say, an absolute triumph. They are so so pretty and delicate, and just unusual enough to pleasantly surprise the palate. Thyme in my cake, you ask? It is a DEEPLY underrated flavor when paired with light, sweet and tart flavors like lemon and apricot. Sometime this past August, I was visiting my childhood best friend’s mother (an amazing woman), and she gave me a peach & thyme lemonade she’d made, which BLEW my mind and later inspired this cake. The ones pictured above I made with three layers and garnished with lemon zest and more thyme. At the bottom of the recipe, I’ll leave another photo of my most recent batch- which only used two layers to be more stable for transport to a friend’s home. It’s up to you which route you choose to take :) This recipe typically makes five or six two-layer cakes or four three-layer cakes.
Ingredients
Cake:
175g AP flour
1 3/4 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp salt
85g light brown sugar
1/3 cup good quality olive oil
1/2 cup whole milk
6 large eggs, separated (84g egg yolks, 210 grams egg whites)
1 tsp cream of tartar
1/2 cup sugar
1 tbsp lemon extract
Zest of one lemon
2 tbsp chopped fresh thyme
Mascarpone Cream:
6 oz mascarpone
1/2 cup heavy cream
2 tbsp powdered sugar
2 tsp vanilla bean paste
Apricot-thyme jam:
1/3 cup apricot jam
2 tbsp boiling water
1 tbsp finely chopped fresh thyme
Directions
In a medium bowl, combine your flour, baking powder, and salt, then set aside.
In another, larger bowl, whisk together your egg yolks, brown sugar, olive oil, milk, lemon extract, lemon zest, and thyme.
Sift in your dry ingredients and whisk until fully incorporated. Set aside.
In a medium bowl, combine your egg whites and cream of tartar and mix using an electric hand mixer (or stand mixer) until they turn white and smooth, and begin to peak.
Begin streaming in your 1/2 cup of sugar and continue to mix for a couple more minutes until you have stiff peaks.
Spoon 1/3 of the egg whites into your batter- whisk it in completely before adding the other 2/3 and folding it in gently with a spatula until completely incorporated.
Preheat your oven to 375F and line a 13x18” baking sheet with parchment paper.
Pour your batter into your baking sheet and spread it evenly with your spatula.
Bake for 18-20 minutes, or until golden, then carefully use the overhang of parchment paper to remove the cake from the tray and let it cool completely.
While the cake cools, prepare your fillings.
For the whipped mascarpone, combine your heavy cream, mascarpone, vanilla bean paste (or extract), and powdered sugar and blend or whip until smooth and thick. Spoon into a decorating bag (or small ziplog) and store in the fridge until ready to use.
In a small bowl, combine your apricot jam with the boiling water to thin it out, along with the thyme and mix well. Leave at room temp to avoid it thickening again.
Once your cake is cooled, use a circular cookie cutter to cut out uniform rounds of cake. Depends on the size of your cutter, but I get 10-12 rounds out of this recipe. Set half of them on your work surface to decorate.
Cut off the tip of your decorating/ziploc bag of mascarpone cream and carefully pipe a thick border of cream in a circle on the surface of each cake round. This will act as a wall. Then, spoon a little less than a tablespoon of your apricot jam into the circle you’ve just piped.
Top each one with one of the unfrosted rounds of cake.
Pipe more mascarpone on top, and smooth with an offset spatula or butterknife.
Drizzle with more apricot jam and use the knife to gently swirl it into the mascarpone.
Garnish with a sprig of thyme and lemon zest (optional) and serve.
