Soft, fluffy and easy to make Vanilla Chiffon Cake is a great all time and day of the year cake that never cease to delight anyone who eats it. The softness is just unbelievable, the sweetness is just perfect. This is the kind of cake that you can serve as is even without any frosting and still taste great. In fact, a lot of times I prefer to serve it just as it is. It’s a great breakfast cake, tea time or snack cake. With this cake, you can forget about the frosting. Dust it with an icing sugar or a simple classic look or drizzle it with orange glaze for an extra citrus flavor.

About This Recipe

• Ease in Making the Recipe: I always consider chiffon cake as an easy recipe to make. Regardless of variation, chiffon cakes follows a similar method in making it, and the method is quite easy. That is mixing the wet ingredients, sifting the dry ingredients and adding the whipped egg whites. Each of these steps are easy and simple, watch the video to see how it is done.
• Ingredients: This is a basic vanilla chiffon cake. The ingredients are basic for a chiffon cake. Oil for a moist soft texture, milk, eggs, sugar, leavening agent, salt and cake flour.

• Texture, Taste & Flavor: Super soft and moist. Often times, the challenge with chiffon cakes are they tend to be soft but they end up dry. This is not the case for this cake. The oil keeps the cake soft and moist, and of course the sugar. The cake has just the right sweetness, this is the kind of cake that you can eat more than one slice and not feel overwhelmed with the sweetness. In most desserts, that is how I like it. Just the right sweetness.
• Make-Ahead: Yes you can make this even 3 days ahead. Because the cake uses oil instead of butter, cake remains soft even when refrigerated. Take the cake out of the refrigerator at least 1 hour before serving it to let it come to room temperature. If you are adding glaze, add the glaze only the day that you are serving it.

What is Chiffon Cake?

Chiffon Cake is a light, fluffy and airy cake. It do not use too much fat like butter. Instead, to keep the texture soft, it uses oil. Another technique that Chiffon Cake uses is the separation of egg yolk and egg white, and whipping the egg white to stiff peaks. Chiffon Cake usually do not use any leavening agent (although you can if you want to). It relies on the whipped egg white for volume and lift. This is why it is very important to have the eggs in room temperature so they mix and whipped easily. It will take about 6-8 minutes to get to stuff peaks. Stiff peaks simply means the egg white will hold its shape, the pointed tip remains up and standing and when you turn the bowl upside down, the mixture will not slide down or fall. 

Simplicity is Beauty

Chiffon cakes is one of my favorite cake to make. There was a time when I was WFH due to COVID19 that I started making Chiffon Cake almost every week from one variation to another. What I love about chiffon cake is the simplicity of the ingredients and the process and yet, even with all this simplicity,Chiffon Cake always comes out beautiful and attractive as is, even without a frosting. You do not need to dress it up with frosting, although you can it you want to. In fact, most Chiffon Cakes are served plain without frosting. This makes the cake the center of attention, it is simple and yet it is enjoyable to eat.

The texture is soft, light and airy and it was moist, never dry. Chiffon cakes have a tendency to be dry, but not this one. The taste is subtle, not too sweet which I really like. I guess another reason why I was able to make this almost every week ie because it was so light, I do not feel overwhelmed eating the entire cake (Yes, you heard me right ENTIRE cake) to myself. Not in one seating! Spread over a week time 🙂 I find it great to go with tea, for light breakfast served with fresh fruits, or for snack time.

NO to Non-Stick Tube Pan for Chiffon Cakes

This is one time where I would not recommend using a non-stick pan or even to grease the pan itself. Since this cake has a very light and airy texture, it will collapse as soon as you take it out of the oven. To prevent that, the cake need to stick to the bottom and side of the pan which makes a non-stick tube pan NOT suitable for this purpose. A tube in the middle gives the cake more surface area to cling to and using a regular pan gives extra grip to the cake. Once it comes out of the oven, the cake needs to be inverted (upside down) to prevent it from collapsing. This will retain the tall structure we built from whipping the egg whites and adding extra leavening agents.

Ingredients:

• 4 Eggs (separated, room temperature)
• 1 1/2 tablespoon caster Sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon fine Salt
• 1/4 cup Flavorless Oil
• 2 teaspoon Pure Vanilla Extract
• 1/3 cup Fresh Milk
• 3/4 cup + 1 tablespoon Cake Flour
• 1/2 teaspoon Baking Powder
• 1/2 cup granulated Sugar

Instructions:

1. Pre-heat the oven at 350F.
2. Wet Ingredients (Egg Yolk Mixture): In a mixing bowl, add the egg yolks, 1 1/2 tablespoon of sugar and salt. Mix to break the egg yolk. Add fresh oil and mix. Add milk and continue mixing.
3. Dry Ingredients: Sift the cake flour and baking powder onto the egg yolk mixture. Mix to combine.
4. Egg White: Using an electric mixer, whipped the egg white to stiff peaks, about 7 – 8 minutes while gradually adding the sugar in 3 – 4 additions.
5. Egg Yolk + Egg White: Transfer about 1/4 of the whipped egg white into the egg yolk mixture and gently fold to combine. Pour the mixture into the whipped egg white and gently fold to combine.
6. Pour into a 6″ tube pan. Tap at least 3-4 times on the counter top to release the bubbles or run a knife or chopstick along the batter to release air bubbles. Do NOT grease the pan.
7. Bake for 40 – 43 minutes until the top has browned.
8. Cool: Take out from the oven, cool and invert the pan. This will avoid the cake from deflating.
9. Serve: Decorate as desired or serve as is with a dusting of icing sugar on top or some whipped cream or fruit compote
10. Storage: You can keep the cake in the fridge for a week or freeze it for 2-3 months, preferably without frosting. Tightly wrap in with cling wrap, then put it inside a ziplock bag and then inside a container. When you want to serve it, move the cake to the refrigerator overnight or take it out in the counter to let the cake thaw.

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