In the year 1927 Harry Baker, a Los Angeles insurance agent, is said to have invented the original chiffon cake. As word spread of this wonderful airy cake, he was continually asked for the recipe. But for two decades he carefully guarded his secret recipe, making his special cake only for the reigning royalty of the silver screen. Harry Baker sold the cake to Hollywood stars and made it for the famous Brown Derby Restaurant. The secret to Baker's light and airy chiffon cake is that the egg whites are beaten separately from the yolks and it uses vegetable oil instead of butter or conventional shortening. Then in 1947 General Mills bought the recipe from Harry Baker. He agreed to sell the recipe to General Mills so "Betty Crocker could give the secret to the women of the America." In 1948 General Mills released the secret recipe in the May 1948 Better Homes and Gardens Magazine and it became a nationwide sensation. The secret ingredient, vegetable oil, was then revealed. Better Homes and Garden Magazine advertised the cake as "The first really new cake in 100 years." 
Celebrate 84 years of Chiffon Cakes!
~ Chef ~
