Light and airy Vanilla Chiffon
Here is the recipe to match today’s tutorial, Chiffon cake basics. This is a cake almost everyone likes. It’s light, it’s slow to dry out. It can be baked in every type of pan and can be adorned simply with a sprinkling of powdered sugar, a buttercream or a flat icing.
Next week on the show, we’ll discuss customizing the cake - we can switch out the watch for other liquids and create all sorts of great flavors.
But in order for you to learn the technique, we’ll use water and vanilla.
It’s also a relatively inexpensive cake to prepare - no butter - just eggs and depending on their size it will take 7-8.
A scale is necessary though - precision really helps.
Take the chiffon cake for a spin (it’s named after the fabric which was a staple of 1920s fashion) more on that next week.
Any questions, let me know.
Happy Baking! Colette
Equipment:
2 (8” x 2” or 8” x 3” ) cake pans, scale, whisk, spatula, parchment paper, stand mixer, whisk and paddle attachment, medium bowl, whisk, scissors, half sheet tray
Chiffon Cake MEP
Ingredients:
233g cake flour
186g sugar (sugar 1#)
4g salt
11g baking
116g veg oil
116g egg yolks
175g water
6g vanilla extract
233g egg whites
116g sugar (sugar 2#)
1g cream of tartar
Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Prep cans with a light spray or lightly grease with cake goo (recipe is below at the bottom of the post).
Cut parchment circles for the bottom of each pan.
If using 8” x 2” pans you’ll need to collar the pan. Cut 4 strips of parchment paper 3” tall and 18” long. Line the bottom and sides of the pan - trim any excess - there will need to be 2” of overlap. For an 8” x 3” pan just line the bottom of the pan with parchment paper. No spray or grease.
Sift the dry ingredients with sugar #1 into the mixer bowl, add oil and mix on low speed, using the paddle attachment until the dry ingredients are moistened.
Add the egg yolks, water and vanilla in three increments. It can be poured in with the mixer on low or added with the mixer off.
Mix until smooth but not overmixed. Move to a medium sized bowl. Wash mixer bowl and attach whisk attachment.
Whip the egg whites and cream of tartar until they reach a cappuccino foam and then rain in sugar and continue to mix on medium high and whip until the meringue holds a medium peak.
Carefully fold in the egg whites into the egg and flour base in three increments.
Place in prepared pans and bake until a light golden brown and a skewer comes out clean - on average it takes 25/ 30 minutes - but remember the time depends on your oven.
Ideally, the cake does best if it is cooled upside down and this can be done with 8” x 3’ pans. In a shorter pan - let cool a few minutes and then remove the collar, carefully, and invert the cake onto a cardboard. Cool to room temperature. Wrap well and refrigerate.
Cakes can be refrigerated up to 24 hours and frozen for up to two weeks before finishing.