I'm Baaaacckkkkk!!!! Lemon cake recipe

I'm actually cooking and baking again! I'm starting to feel human. Though DD has now caught my cough. Poor girl. I'm keeping her home from gymnastics today because I don't want to be one of "those mothers" (again). :D

Even though it's Tuesday here's my menu plan for the week:

Sunday I made PW's Penne a la Betsy, salad and a yummy lemon cake that I will share the recipe for.
Monday I made a smoked sausage because DS has been asking for it, au gratin potatoes (from a box) , sweet corn and sliced apples. Basic, easy but everyone ate really well.
Tuesday we are headed to a friend's house for dinner. I'm bringing cookies. They wanted me to bring a vegetable dish and FG laughed and them and told them it may end up being chocolate covered broccoli because I don't know how to bring anything to a party except dessert.
Wednesday Spaghetti, salad, bread - basic. But I'm going to try to fool my family and add some ground flax seed to my bread. hee hee hee Don't tell on me!
Thursday is FG's 36th (ha ha! but damn, he still won't catch up to me) Birthday and he's going to a Van Halen concert with SMA. Yeah, just like it was 15 years ago - bahahahahaha! The kids and I will scrape something together.
Friday FG gets to pick since it's his birthday dinner. He said he doesn't want to go out (damn) but wants to be home since he hasn't been home all that much lately. Oh well. I guess I'll survive and make whatever is requested.
Saturday I am hoping the weather holds ok so I can make ribs. If not, I'll have to come up with a Plan B.

Now, the cake recipe:

Lemon Chiffon Cake from WS Essentials of Baking book
3 or 4 lemons
2 1/4 cups cake flour
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup water
6 large eggs, separated and at room temp.
1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar

Grate the zest from the lemons and squeeze and strain the juice to get to 1/2 cup. Have ready an ungreased 10" tube pan with removable bottom.
Sift together flour, granulated sugar, baking powder and salt.
In a bowl combine oil, water, egg yolks, lemon juice and zest. Beat until well mixed.
Gently fold in the dry ingredients until batter is smooth.

With whip attachement, whip egg whites to soft peaks. Do not overbeat.
Gently fold in 1/2 of the egg whites into the batter until almost fully incorporated. Add remaining egg whites and fold until combined. Batter should be smooth but foamy. Pour evenly into the tube pan.
Bake until toothpick inserted comes out clean, about 45 - 50 minutes. Remove from oven and invert pan onto wire rack. Make sure air can circulate around the cake. Let cool completely upside down in the pan, about 45 minutes.
Loosen the edges by tapping the sides of the pan on the counter. Using the center tube, pull the cake out of the pan. Invert onto the rack and then disengage it from the pan bottom, pull pan bottom and tube from the cake.
Make the citrus glaze of 2 cups powdered sugar, 2 tablespoons lemon juice, 1 tablespoon heavy cream. Whisk until smooth and pour over top and down sides of cake.
Cake is best served the day it is baked.
I'm going to go have another piece and I'll let you know if it's really badddd after a couple of days.

Enjoy! It was a perfect light cake for a warm spring day. We had highs in the low 80's and spent a ton of time outside. Now today, snow this morning. Thankfully it didn't stick. But we did have some crazy-ass winds yesterday that blew down part of our fence and our giant umbrella, which thankfully was closed up.