vanilla chiffon cake
the #1 cake recipe in my arsenal
Alright so this is not your typical chiffon cake. Most chiffon cake recipes that you happen upon use some sort of oil as the fat in the recipe, which keeps the cake incredibly moist and tender. My olive oil chiffon is an example of an oil based chiffon cake.
This version uses melted butter and a touch of oil as the fat. This chiffon recipe came about after months of testing- I wanted a chiffon that was light but had enough structure and stability to hold up to denser and heavier fillings. Overtime the weight of the fillings and cake layers begins to essentially crush the bottom layers of cake causing these layered cakes to collapse.
I think classic chiffons pair well with things like whipped cream and fresh fruit because they’re much lighter than something like pastry cream, cremeux or a rich mousse. I could opt for something like a buttermilk cake which has tons of structure and a nice tight crumb but I personally prefer a lighter cake with an airy crumb.
All of this to say, this is the chiffon cake I use for all the layered cakes. It’s the one that I’m referring to in any Tik Tok where I say “I use my vanilla chiffon recipe and do ______ to it”.
This recipe is enough for 3-6” cake layers or 2-8” cake layers.
Ingredients:
90 grams granulated sugar (1)
30 grams neutral flavored oil of your choice
60 grams egg yolks (about 3 large egg yolks)
75 grams whole milk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3/4 teaspoon salt
60 grams butter, melted but still warm
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
140 grams all purpose flour
115 grams egg white (approx 4 large egg whites)
75 grams granulated sugar (2)
Directions:
Preheat your oven to 330F.
Line the bottoms of your desired cake tins with parchment rounds. DO NOT DO NOT DO NOT grease the pans. Unlike traditional chiffon you do not need to invert this one after baking but you still need it to cling and climb to the sides of the pan, otherwise it will collapse.
In a medium bowl combine sugar (1), oil, egg yolks, milk, salt and vanilla. Whisk to combine. Set aside.
In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment place your egg whites.
Start the mixer on the low end of medium (on 4 if you’re using a kitchen aid!). Once the egg whites begin to foam, slowly sprinkle in sugar (2) while the whites continue to whip.
Continue to whip until medium peaks form. Do not turn the mixer on high, you want to create nice uniform bubbles in the meringue. I know it’s tempting because it does take forever for the whites to get to where they need to be. But, your patience will be rewarded with beautiful chiffon cake layers later.
Once you get to medium peaks stop the mixer. The meringue should hold a shape but still fall over on itself in a ribbon. So like on the soft side of medium. You don’t want to go to stiff peaks, at that point you’ve incorporated the max amount of egg the whites can take on. It wont provide the same amount of rise and all that air can really dry out your cake.
At this point you’ll add your melted butter into the wet mix from earlier. Followed by the flour and baking powder- whisking just to combine. You do this now rather than earlier because you want this batter and the egg whites to have a similar consistency. If you mix earlier the flour will begin to hydrate and the melted butter will stiffen up the batter making it hard to fold the meringue in.
Fold 1/3 of the meringue into the batter. Once incorporated add the next 1/3 and fold it in. Followed by the final 1/3. Be mindful and fold gently you don’t want to totally deflate the meringue. Stop folding when the last streak of white disappears into the batter.
Weigh the batter into your cake tins. 210 grams per 6” pan or 315 grams per 8” pan.
Bake the 6” cakes for 25-30 minutes and the 8” for 28-32 minutes. The cake should bounce bake when you gently tap it in the center. If you’re a real cake nerd- you’ll temp it… a perfectly baked cake should register 205F.
Allow your cake layers to cool completely before filling and frosting.
*wrap your cakes in plastic wrap and put them in the fridge to firm up before you fill and frost your final cake- it makes the cake much easier to work with!!*
In case anyone else is wondering about it, I doubled the recipe and split the batter evenly into 3 9inch pans and it worked quite nicely! 1 recipe in 2 9inch pans was also okay, but of course thinner layers than you’d otherwise get (baking time was done with the recipe times as a starting point and then just frequent checks + vibes)
Kassie, I’m wondering along with a few other 👆🏻 how we’d bake this in a sheet pan? Would you recommend a size conversion and I assume we wouldn’t have to flip the pan at the end since it’s so thin?