When Making Chiffon Cake, Here's Why It's Crucial To Separate The Eggs

Chiffon cake is more than a dessert. Thanks to its beautiful balance of rich taste and delicate texture, it's also an experience. Chiffon cake derives from sponge cake, but there is a difference between them. While it has that airy consistency, chiffon cake gets a buttery profile from vegetable oil. The star of the show really is that texture, all the more reason you really want to nail the cloud-like feel when baking chiffon cake. This comes down to the recipe's call to separate the eggs' whites from their yolks. But even the most dedicated home bakers are pressed for time, and many of us wonder if you really have to separate eggs when baking. How much of a difference does it make? To find out, we asked an expert, Kristina Lavallee, owner of The Cake Girl, who gave us a clear answer.

"It's definitely worth taking the time to whip the yolks and whites separately if you want that light, airy texture chiffon cakes are known for," Lavallee says. "Whipping the whites on their own helps build all those tiny air pockets that make the cake rise and stay soft." Egg yolks have a lot of fat, and if that's mixing with the proteins of the egg whites, it will weigh them down instead of allowing them to form their net of bubbles that creates that airy texture. Without separating the eggs, you'll still get a good flavor, Lavallee notes, but adds that "you'll lose that delicate, fluffy crumb that makes chiffon cakes special."

Egg whites must be added on their own to any recipe that calls for cloud-like texture. Want to make bakery-worthy meringue at home? Use egg whites, relying on those protein and water molecules. Likewise, egg whites alone elevate cocktails with delicate froth. And while a chiffon cake also calls for egg yolks because they contribute to its moisture and act as emulsifiers to bond other ingredients, they shouldn't get in the way of the egg whites' aerating magic. So, yes, it's worthwhile, even necessary, to separate eggs. Don't let this step intimidate you — there are plenty of hacks to make separating eggs quick and easy.

If you're extremely short on time — your kid told you about their school's bake sale on the morning of, for example — or if you're reading this after having already added the eggs to your chiffon cake together and are now fearing the results, don't fret. "If you skip that step and just mix everything together, the cake will come out dense instead of soft and fluffy," Lavallee admits, but you'll still have a moist, rich, buttery cake, which isn't a catastrophe. For future chiffon cakes, however, grab an empty water bottle, slotted spoon, funnel, or cocktail strainer and separate those eggs. Follow Lavallee's advice and "whip the egg whites until they reach that snow-like consistency because that is what gives a chiffon cake its height and light, airy texture."