chiffon cake

[pastrymama]

They do hold up just as well as a genoise and can be layered thin or thick. They just don't work well with a rolled fondant icing because of it's weight. The chiffon is soft and delicate and the weight of the fondant kind of squishes the cake.

[chefpeon]

They do hold up just as well as a genoise and can be layered thin or thick. They just don't work well with a rolled fondant icing because of it's weight. The chiffon is soft and delicate and the weight of the fondant kind of squishes the cake.

I've never had that kind of problem actually. Perhaps if your filling is super light and squishable.....perhaps......but chiffon has always been great for me whether I use fondant, marzipan, chocolate or buttercream..........

[M. Lucia]

I know you can do all those things with chiffon cakes, I guess I was wondering what specific cakes you prefer to use chiffon for?

ie, I always use an orange chiffon when I make a such-and-such layer cake, or I use chiffon in my mocha torte with x...

In what cases is chiffon your go-to cake?

(maybe this question is too specific)

[skyflyer3]

I use a chiffon cake recipe when I want a light feel to the cake, as opposed to a groan-because-it's-so-rich cake (and both types of recipes I use equally, they just have different purposes for me). For example, I use chiffon layers when I do a mango cake, with mango-flavored whipped cream, layers lightly soaked in mango concentrate. I also pair chocolate chiffon cake layers with cocoa whipped cream and do a cocoa-cherry chocolate mousse filling. These types of cakes I bake for showers, or spring and summer parties.

All this talk has made me want to bake a mango cake for this weekend - and I'm eying the one in King Arthur Flour's Baker's Companion. It calls for 7 eggs, and no extra egg whites, in addition to all-purpose flour. Does this sound right? I've always done chiffon cake recipes with extra whites, and cake flour.

[chromedome]

Thanks, what kind of tooth picks are you talkinb about?  I doubt the regular kind becasue they don't even seem long enough.

←

The ones I use are the round ones that you'd stick into a club sandwich, although without the cellophane ruffley things at the end. Compared to an ordinary flat toothpick they're maybe 40-50% longer. I bake round cakes in shallow 8" pans, maybe 3/4" deep, so these are more than long enough. Probably wouldn't work if I was using a sprinform.

[TurtleMeng]

Baked a chiffon today, put it in a 9-inch (3 inch high) pan and it rose pretty nicely. Inverted it straight on a cooling rack since the cake was lower than the pan, then left for science fair @ school. Came home and found the chiffon out of pan on cooling rack, sides curled up. Well, what do I expect. But does this always happen or do they stay in the pan sometimes? Perhaps 9 inch is too big. Since it fell out, did I lose height? It looks about 1 1/2 inch tall. What the heck, I'm sure it will taste ok. Will put the leftover mocha mousse in it and feed the nurses. They like sweet stuff.

[DiH]

Baked a chiffon today, put it in a 9-inch (3 inch high) pan and it rose pretty nicely.  Inverted it straight on a cooling rack since the cake was lower than the pan,  then left for science fair @ school.  Came home and found the chiffon out of pan on cooling rack, sides curled up.  Well, what do I expect.  But does this always happen or do they stay in the pan sometimes?  Perhaps 9 inch is too big.  Since it fell out, did I lose height?  It looks about 1 1/2 inch tall.  What the heck, I'm sure it will taste ok.  Will put the leftover mocha mousse in it and feed the nurses.  They like sweet stuff.

←

I baked my first chiffon cake yesterday and divided the batter between two 10" (3" high) round pans. Both cakes rose nicely but were still slightly below the top of the pan. I inverted them to cool... both stayed put until I ran a knife around the sides.

Cherry-Nut Chiffon Cake... 'm'm'm'm

Di

[Wendy DeBord]

Your cake should not have fallen out of the pan. The only way it would is if you greased your pan. Did you?

[Fernwood]

Questions for anyone, but especially Wendy & Anne:

I made a chocolate chiffon cake the other night based on the Spago recipe that Wendy seems to be familiar with. Below is the ingredients list with annotations about what I actually did. The first version of the recipe I read specified a half-sheet pan. Another indicated two 9” rounds. I used a 9 x 13 pan, ungreased, with parchment in bottom only. It took 35 min at 350 F (or maybe closer to 325, depending on whom you believe about my oven temp).

GRANULATED SUGAR, 1-1/2 cups

FLOUR, All-Purpose, 1 cup (used 120g cake flour)

UNSWEETENED COCOA, 3/4 cup (used Droste Dutch-process)

BAKING POWDER, 2 teaspoons

BAKING SODA, 1 teaspoon (omitted)

SALT, 1/4 teaspoon (used ½ tsp)

EGGS, 4 separated

EGG WHITES, 2

VEGETABLE OIL, 3/4 cup (used ½ cup)

WATER, 1/2 cup

VANILLA EXTRACT, 1 teaspoon

This was an excellent cake, very chocolatey, light and tender. The crumb was somewhat coarse, compared to a 2-stage butter cake. Maybe that’s just the way chiffon cakes are (I have only made a couple in the past), or maybe my oven should have been a little hotter? I would like to use the recipe again for a two-layer B-day cake. Reading the discussion above about cooling inverted or not, I was thinking maybe the upside-down thing is more important when you have a deeper cake, like a tube pan (more weight). Wendy said she doesn’t invert her chiffon rounds; Anne said she does, but didn’t specify pan prep, I think. I would like to bake my layer cake in one 3” deep pan, then slice. I didn’t invert my 9x13 cake; the edges pulled quite a bit from the sides and I think it might have fallen out if I had.

1. Can I invert a deep round with parchment underneath without fear of the cake hitting the counter?

2. Or do you think the deep pan is a mistake with this recipe...?

3. Should there be a temperature adjustment when changing from the wide, shallow pan to the smaller deeper format?

4. Any opinions about the texture-temperature issue?

5. Any frosting suggestions for chocolate chiffon? I put a white mountain frosting on the sheet cake, which was fine, but boring. For the birthday, I need something that the kids will like (not too exotic), but I’m hoping for more flavor synergy with the cake.

Thanks, Fern

[Wendy DeBord]

Ah, I'm glad that you enjoyed this cake. Everytime I make it it does pull away from the sides of my ungreased pan, it does do a deflating act of sorts. But it still tastes great. I make this recipe usually as a cake roll, it's been a while since I baked it in a round. But I don't see why you couldn't bake it in a deeper pan. If I recall correctly it's not the easiest cake to cut into layers (it's so moist the knive sticks)..........so you might find baking 3 or 4 shallower layers the answer. Even if it became more dense baked in a deep pan, it still should be a good tasting cake. Like I said before I don't invert this cake (because it pulls away from the sides of the pan). I think I'd leave the oven temp. alone on this one, even with a bigger and deeper pan.

I usually frost this cake with whip cream or some type of mousse. Although I did use german chocolate frosting in it this past winter as a bouche de noel, it was a big hit too.

[TurtleMeng]

Your cake should not have fallen out of the pan. The only way it would is if you greased your pan. Did you?

←

Hi Wendy

No I did not grease the pan. I just threw in my bottom parchment liner. I think if the pan is big enough the weight will pull it out, but yours doesn't? What is the secret....

The nurses were making themselves fat again this morning with the cake. (if they saw this they would tear me into pieces). I tasted the chiffon, it's pretty good, but I still scratch my head about this falling out problem.

[Patrick S]

I tried my hand at the chocolate chiffon, using the recipe Neil linked to. Would you believe that I managed to forget to leave the pan ungreased? So I was unable to invert the cake while it cooled. So the middle sank a bit. But then Fern said his cake pulled away at the edges too, even though he left his ungreased, so I dont think it would have mattered. In my defense, by friday night of every week, Ive built up a major sleep deficit and most of my brain has already gone bye-bye till morning.

Anyway, the cake is moist and chocolatey with a lighter mouthfeel (than most of the cakes I make), even though the photos make them look dense like brownies. Very good for snacking. Next time I think Ill follow your example Wendy and make this as a roll, with maybe a coffee buttercream filling or something lighter like a mousse. Like Fern, I used a 13x9, and it took 35 min @ 350 to get a clean toothpick.

Edited January 29, 2005 by Patrick S (log)

[Pam R]

Your cake should not have fallen out of the pan. The only way it would is if you greased your pan. Did you?

←

The cake may also fall if it is underbaked - that has happened to me more than once.

Chiffon cake is a great friend of the Jewish baker. Throughout the year, we make them at work for a couple of different cakes/tortes. (Shmoo - pecan chiffon with whipped cream and homemade caramel sauce. Chocolate logs - chocolate chiffon baked in a sheet pan and jolled a la jelly roll. Filled with chocolate filling, chocolate icing and chocolate chunks - AKA The porcupine cake - and others.)

During Passover Chiffon cake is the star. At work I bake at least a 100 for a 2 day period. Basically I bake chocolate chip chiffons - they are sold un-iced. I bake honey chiffon cakes. Most of all, lemon chiffon cakes. I bake them in a flan pan, and don't invert it after it bakes - then fill it with lemon curd and top it with fresh fruit. Bake in a tube pan and sold as is. Or layered with lemon curd, whipped cream or covered in meringue.

Personally, I never add more whites to the recipe. I never use cake flour - I use either all purpose or a combo of cake meal and potato starch.

If the cake does fall in, or out of the pan, I cut them into cubes and freeze them. When I have a ton of them, I make chocolate rum mousse and using a loaf pan, put the two together and make a Chocolate Mousse Log.

It's almost time to start zesting lemons and freezing them for Passover!

[Fernwood]

I made my chocolate chiffon layer cake; baked it as two 9" layers. I guess my pans are only ~1.5" high and the cake rose above the rim of the pans in the oven...

but fell a little below while cooling.

I took a chance and sliced the layers and actually found it pretty easy to handle. I layered it up with a raspberry mousse (just whipped cream, raspberry puree and a little gelatin) and cocoa whipped cream, which was also the frosting. This was finished in a crazed rush during the cocktail hour with dinner not even started, so the assembly and decoration was totally slapdash and I had to be pleased that it looked as good as it did.

The crumb isn't as pretty as a butter cake--who cares? It is light, tender and delicious. This made a great birthday cake! Chiffon is my new favorite category. I guess I need to work up some other flavors. Will it work as well with a buttercream, or will the cake be too soft and flexible for a frosting that is more rigid when chilled?

Thanks for suggesting this recipe.

Fern

[skyflyer3]

What a great looking cake, Fernwood! I'm salivating. May I ask, is you cocoa whipped cream recipe the one in the "Cake Bible"? I haven't tried it yet, but it would be an excellent compliment to a chocolate chiffon cake.

Just wanted to report that I did the King Arthur Flour Chiffon Cake recipe this weekend, and it's quite a huge cake. I divided the batter into thirds, baked in three 9-in rounds, left them to cool overnight and frosted them in the morning with whipped cream laced with mango concentrate. Recipe was easy, delish and slightly light - I used Enova oil, now carried at my local Renton Fred Meyer, and the resulting layers were substantial but spongy, with a lovely almond flavoring. This is a great cake for real fruit fillings, like you might see in the International District at "Piece of Cake", with honeydew, canteloupe and straweberries between the layers. Next time I'm going to add some chunks of mango to the whipped cream - I soaked the layers for a little while with some mango juice, but the flavor didn't come through as strong as I would have liked.

[Patrick S]

Yeah, good job Fern. I'm glad you found the cake durable enough to slice and ice, because I will use this cake again.

Did you invert your cakes when they came out of the oven? They look quite flat in your second picture.

[Fernwood]

Thanks for the nice feedback!

What a great looking cake, Fernwood!  I'm salivating.  May I ask, is you cocoa whipped cream recipe the one in the "Cake Bible"?  I haven't tried it yet, but it would be an excellent compliment to a chocolate chiffon cake.

←

Yes, I made 1.5x the recipe, but would make 2x next time to have some for piping (not that I had time for that, anyway). I also did RLB's thing of adding a little butter to the cream to make it more stable and I think it helped. I wish I knew the butterfat % of the cream I use, but none of them are labelled. I figure it's not bad, because Stop & Shop offers "light cream", "whipping cream" and "heavy whipping cream". I know the last is the highest fat because it costs the most:wink:, but it seems like the regulations allow a huge range of fat % and there's no way to really know what you're getting if it's not specified.

Your mango cake sounds great! I definitely want to try a yellow chiffon with fruit.

Did you invert your cakes when they came out of the oven? They look quite flat in your second picture.

←

I turned one over briefly as a test, but I could feel it sagging out of the pan (parchment underneath), so I just cooled them rightside-up on the counter. It seems to me that the inversion thing can only be of value when the bottom of the cake is sticking in the pan and the top is suspended, so gravity is stretching the cake out, instead of compressing it. If you invert the cake but the top is resting on the rack, I don't see what improvement that is over just leaving it upright. Anyway, they sank to very slightly concave as they cooled, but that was fine. In fact, I ended up thinking that if I had deeper pans and the sides had risen higher, the end result might have been more sunken-looking, who knows? Interestingly, they didn't pull from the edges of the pan in the oven. When I saw one layer start to crack by the rim after they came out (you can see it in the middle pic), I ran my little knife around the edges right away, even though they weren't yet cool. This kept the edges attached to the layers.

Fern

[shaloop]

Chiffon cake is a great friend of the Jewish baker.  Throughout the year, we make them at work for a couple of different cakes/tortes. (Shmoo - pecan chiffon with whipped cream and homemade caramel sauce.  Chocolate logs - chocolate chiffon baked in a sheet pan and jolled a la jelly roll. Filled with chocolate filling, chocolate icing and chocolate chunks - AKA The porcupine cake - and others.)

During Passover Chiffon cake is the star.  At work I bake at least a 100 for a 2 day period.  Basically I bake chocolate chip chiffons - they are sold un-iced.  I bake honey chiffon cakes.  Most of all, lemon chiffon cakes.  I bake them in a flan pan, and don't invert it after it bakes - then fill it with lemon curd and top it with fresh fruit.  Bake in a tube pan and sold as is. Or layered with lemon curd, whipped cream or covered in meringue.

Personally, I never add more whites to the recipe.  I never use cake flour - I use either all purpose or a combo of cake meal and potato starch.

I know this is a really old post but I hope you can help me. I would like to make a lemon cake using a lemon chiffon cake and filled with lemon curd/cream. I want to make a layered cake, say 9". What recipe do you use for this? I noticed that you said you don't use extra whites or cake flour. I've seen some recipes that call for 6 eggs, some for 7, some for as few as 4 with 2 extra whites, some with anywhere from 1 3/4 c flour to 2 1/4. Do you have a go to recipe for this application? Any help would be appreciated.

[LittleIsland]

Oh Shaloop, that's exactly what I have planned for some time in the near future! I've even bought my jar of lemon curd (yes, I will get round to trying my hand at making it one day once I've gotten the cake right) in preparation. I want to cover the whole cake with a soft lemon-gel kind of topping too - one that might firm up slightly on the surface but stay soft-ish inside.

Anyway I was going to start with RLB's lemon chiffon recipe which calls for 10 white and 6-7 yolks I think. Possibly it's a little soft as a layer cake to support fillings and topping, but you (or I ) could ask her that question on her website, realbakingwithrose

And I'd be interested to see what the others have to say in response to your question too!

[onehsancare]

I use RLB's recipe for lemon chiffon, reducing the water by 2 T. and increasing the lemon juice by the same amount. I double the amount of zest. I bake it in my angelfood cake pan, because I like how the feet let me invert it to cool.

I torte the cake, then fill it with Pierre Herme's lemon cream.

I make a lemon whipped cream (just using lemon extract instead of vanilla); sometimes I add some sour cream, too, then cover the cake with it. (Sometimes I make a pool of lemon cream around the center hole.)

Very yummy, very easy, full of compliments.

My husband has begun complaining about washing the pans, though--I washed them yesterday and they really are a pain, even after hours of soaking in hot soapy water. Any hints on washing?

[LittleIsland]

My husband has begun complaining about washing the pans, though--I washed them yesterday and they really are a pain, even after hours of soaking in hot soapy water.  Any hints on washing?

←

Hmm I usually find the angel or chiffon pans very easy to wash because there's not much stuck onto them after cutting the cake out of the pan. Any chiffon crust that's left is usually very soft and comes of easily - it's not crusty like how some cakes can get. Not that I do that much of my own washing however!

[_john]

I have a very small Japanese oven and the top of my chiffon keeps burning after it puffs up with vigor. I am using my widest round pan, I can't turn off the top coil. How can I prevent the top from burning?

[lorinda]

I have a very small Japanese oven and the top of my chiffon keeps burning after it puffs up with vigor. I am using my widest round pan, I can't turn off the top coil. How can I prevent the top from burning?

←

Hi John,

I bake my chiffon's in a regular sized domestic oven and turn off the top element after approx. 30 mins, and at the end of the cooking time (65 mins) it is very brown.

So I can't really help you, other than to say - don't cover the top with aluminium foil. I did that once, and the cake promptly sank (even while it was in the oven).

[helenjp]

What temperature are you baking it at? I checked a few Japanese recipes, they all have 170deg.C., 30-40 minutes for a cake with 7 egg whites and about 4 yolks.

Do you actually have a bottom coil?

That works fine in my oven - which is barely 30cm wide. If yours is smaller, you might just need to make a smaller recipe! You could try putting greased foil on top of the cake.

Hope you work it out - chiffon cake is practically made for Japan, since butter is expensive and not always fresh.

Edit: quick survey suggests that other people with small (15 liter - I think mine is probably a bit bigger) ovens have the same problems. Advice I found:

1) Don't use a chiffon pan larger than 17cm diameter in the smaller ovens, or bake in several small paper cups/pans.

2) For cakes in a single pan, set the preheat temperature 20deg.C. higher than required, put cake in, cancel temperature and reset to correct temperature, to combat the huge drop in temperature that occurs with a largish cake and small oven capacity.

P.S. Just coming up to company personnel relocation season - watch out for second-hand kitchen equipment at local second-hand stores over the next 3 months.

[helenjp]

don't cover the top with aluminium foil

I wondered if that might happen! So much for that idea!