Lady Praline Chiffon Cake

I feel like I was born at the tail end of the Chiffon Craze. It is as if the chiffon, a slightly denser cousin of angel food cake, was in vogue for a lifetime, then slowly drifted into irrelevance, like coq au vin. I remember chiffon cakes as regal affairs baked by regal ladies of a certain age, the kind of ladies who wore a large brooch pinned to their expensive jacket.

The chiffon cake was invented in California (the aptly named Harry Baker is credited with being