Chiffon Cake Recipe – Perfect on Both Sides (2024)

Although most recipes only show you the back side of their chiffon cakes, my recipe teaches you how to make a airy and soft chiffon cake that has a perfect looking on BOTH SIDES!

By following this easy foolproof recipe, everyone can say goodbye to deflating, cracking, or burnt chiffon cakes.

How to Make the Chiffon Cake Batter

When you make a chiffon cake, which step do you think is the most important one?

I guess most people would answer: “Perfectly whipped egg white is the key to a successful chiffon cake”.
People often pay too much attention to the egg white, while ignore the importance of the egg yolk mixture.

Let’s compare 3 different methods of preparing the egg yolk mixture: all together method, flour oil method, and hot oil method. After the comparison, you will realize the importance of the egg yolk mixture.

Method 1: All Together Method

“All together method” is the easiest and most popular method. However, it is also the method with the highest failure rate.

When you prepare the egg yolk mixture for a chiffon cake, how many of you simply mix egg yolks, oil, milk, and cake flour all together with a whisk?

That could be the biggest reason why your chiffon cake cracks or shrinks.

When the flour comes in direct contact with water (milk here), it will form gluten fast.

We need the gluten to form when we make chewy foods such as breads and buns. However, chiffon cakes are supposed to be airy, soft, and fluffy. When there is too much gluten, the cake will be hard and thick like a pizza.

Many other chiffon cake recipes will tell you to “fold the egg yolk mixture gently” to avoid the formation of gluten. Nevertheless, a much easier and effective method is to block the direct contact of flour and water⬇.

Method 2: Flour Oil Method

“Flour oil method” is to mix flour and oil first, then add in rest of the ingredients: egg yolks, milk, and vanilla extract.

The principle of this method is that after the oil is mixed with the flour, the oil surrounds the flour particles, effectively preventing the formation of gluten after we add water later.

With flour oil method, you don’t have to fold the egg yolk mixture “gently”. No matter how crazily you stir the mixture, the gluten won’t form, because the flour is already “protected” by a layer of oil.

This easy method can greatly increase your success rate in making fluffy chiffon cakes with no cracks on the surface.

Method 3: Hot Oil Method

Strictly speaking, “hot oil method” is a branch of the flour oil method. We need to heat the oil to 70-80°C, pour it to the cake flour, mix well, then add the rest of the ingredients.

In short, the hot oil destroys the protein in flour, preventing it from generating gluten. Therefore, with hot oil method, the gluten won’t form no matter how hard you stir the mixture.

However, I personally prefer “flour oil method” than hot oil method.

Because if we accidentally make the oil overly hot, it will burn all the proteins and cause the chiffon cake to fail to rise.

I used “flour oil method” in this recipe, look how perfect my chiffon cake turned out to be:

How to beat egg whites for chiffon cake?

Now that we have gotten the egg yolk mixture perfectly prepared, the next tough task is to beat egg whites appropriately.

Many foolproof chiffon recipes would suggest you to beat the egg white until stiff peaks form. Yes, it’s the easiest way for a novice baker to get started with.

With stiff-peak egg whites, your chiffon cake will for sure be tall, fluffy and tasty, but might have many cracks on the top surface. That’s why many recipes only show you the bottom side of their finished chiffon cakes.

However, if the egg whites are not whipped up enough, let’s say you stopped whipping at the soft-peak stage, there isn’t enough air trapped in the egg whites, your chiffon cake won’t rise tall enough to be airy and fluffy.

With my hand mixer, which has 6 speed levels, I usually use speed 2 to beat the egg whites for about 8 minutes to get medium peaks.

Time might be varied for different hand mixers, but it’s easy to observe the peaks to tell the stage of your egg whites:

• Soft peaks: when you hold your beaters up with the egg white peaks pointing to the ceiling, the soft peaks can barely hold its shape, and will blend down and point to the floor.

• Medium peaks: when you hold your beaters up with the egg white peaks pointing to the ceiling, the medium peaks will slowly bend down and eventually hold its shape at 45 degrees pointing to the floor.

See Also

Chocolate Dump-It Cake RecipeSausage and Apple Stuffing Recipe - Happy Foods TubeHow to Dry Cranberries - Sugar Free RecipeOrange Bread Recipe - Happy Foods Tube

• Stiff peaks: when you hold your beaters up with the egg white peaks pointing to the ceiling, the stiff peaks will hold its shape and point straight up to the ceiling.

Last words before you start:

As we all know, one single drop of egg yolk or oil could stop the egg white from being beaten stiff.

Therefore, no matter how great your egg separating skills are, I still highly recommend using three bowls (two small bowls, one large mixing bowl) to separate egg yolks and whites.

• Carefully open an egg upright over a small bowl, letting the egg white drop to the bowl, keeping the yolk in one of the shell halves.

• Pass the egg yolk between the shell halves until most of the egg white has dropped to the small bowl, transfer the egg yolk to another small bowl.

• Pour the separated egg whites from the small bowl to a large mixing bowl. Repeat with the remaining eggs.

In this way, even if we accidentally break a yolk in the middle of the separating process, we will only “pollute” one egg white, and the other egg whites in the large mixing bowls are still clean and safe.

You can save the egg yolk polluted egg whites for scrambled eggs, but NEVER try to scoop out the egg yolk and keep using the polluted egg white.

My countless failure experiences taught me this lesson: always use three bowls to separate eggs.

EQUIPMENT for making a chiffon cake

• Aluminum cake pan – 6 x 3 Inch (Bothround cake pansortube cake panswould work.Do notuse a non-stick cheesecake pan.)
• Hand mixer – It is actually possible to whisk the egg whites by hand. It will take you about 15 minutes.
• Kitchen scale
• Oven
• Mixing bowls – You will need at least 2 large mixing bowls and 2 small bowl.

INGREDIENTSfor making a 6 inch chiffon cake

• 3large eggs(Each egg weighs about 60g with shell)
• 50gcake flour (Can be substituted with 40g all purpose flour + 10g cornstarch)
• 30gvegetable oil(Or corn oil)
• 30gmilk(Or soymilk, coconut milk, oat milk, almond milk …)
• 45gsugar
• ½tspvanilla extract(optional)
• ½tsplemon juice(optional)

Step-by-step: How to make a perfect chiffon cake

1. Separate 3 eggsinto yolks and whites. Place theegg yolksin asmall bowl, set aside oncountertop. Place theegg whitesin alarge mixing bowl, keep in thefridge.

2. Add50g cake flourand30g vegetable oilinto a large mixing bowl, mix with a whisk until smooth.

3. Add3 egg yolks,30g milk, and½ tsp of vanilla extractto thecake flour oil mixture, mix with a whisk until smooth. Set aside.

4. Preheat oven to 300°F (150°C).

5. Take theegg whitemixing bowl out from the fridge, add½ tsp of lemon juiceand15g sugarinto the egg whites. Usemedium-low speed(speed 2 out of 6) of a hand mixer to whip the egg whites for 2 minutes untilfish eye size bubblesform.

6. Add another15g sugarinto theegg whites, use medium-low speed to whip the egg whites for 2 more minutes until thebubbles are too tiny to be seen.

7. Add the remaining15g sugarinto the egg whites, use medium-low speed to whip the egg whites untilmedium peakforms (See the pictures belowfor the differences between “soft peaks” and “medium peaks”.)

8. Scoop⅓ of the egg whitesinto theegg yolk mixture, fold until well combined.

9. Transfer theegg yolk mixtureto theegg white bowl,gently folduntil the color looks even.

10. Pour the batter into thecake pan, gentlyspread the batterwith a spatula to create a smooth surface.Loosely cover the cake pan with foil.

11. Bake at300 °F (150 °C)for20 minutes, thenremove the foil. Bake at300 °Ffor35 more minutes.

12. Remove the cake pan from the oven,immediately flip it upside downand allow it to cool completely on a wire rack.

13. To unmold the cake, insert a small knife between the cake and the sides of the cake pan, run it around. Insert four fingers into the gap between the cake and the cake pan, press the cake towards its center, repeat until the bottom of the cake is separated from the cake pan. Flip the cake over onto a serving plate.

Chiffon Cake FAQs, Tips & Trouble Shooting:

I have been making chiffon cakes and keep revising my recipes for almost 8 years. Hopefully my recipe is detailed and informative enough for you to make a great chiffon cake.

But please feel free to leave a comment below if you have any questions or suggestions. I will make sure to read them and keep updating this trouble shooting section.

Your Question 1: Can I use normal flour instead of cake flour?

Yes, you can substitute 50g cake flour in this recipe with 40g all purpose flour + 10g cornstarch.

Cake flour contains around 9% proteins, while all purpose flour contains about 12% proteins. As we have mentioned above, when proteins and water meet each other, they will form gluten, which will make our cake chewy instead of fluffy.

Therefore, we will need to reduce the amount of proteins in regular flour by mixing in some gluten free powder, such as rice flour or cornstarch.

Your Question 2: Can I spray oil on my cake pan so that it can be unmolded easier?

Nope, please don’t do that. The cake won’t be able to rise if you use a nonstick cheesecake pan or if you spray oil over the cake pan.

A chiffon cake pan is supposed to be “non nonstick“. Because the cake needs to “climb up” along the cake pan’s walls in order to rise.

The best cake pan for making a chiffon cake is actually an aluminum tube pan with a removable bottom.

But as you could see, I used a 6 inch round pan without a removable bottom and still successfully made a perfect chiffon cake.

Your Question 3: What’s the recipe for a 7 inch or 8 inch chiffon cake?

You can always use this chart to convert a 6 inch cake recipe to any size you need.

For example, if you want to use my 6 inch chiffon cake recipe to make an 8 inch cake, you can locate “6 inch” in the “Before ↓” column, then locate “8 inch” in the “After →” row, and find the number 1.78.

Multiply all the ingredients in a 6 inch cake recipe by 1.78 to get the ingredients you need for an 8 inch cake.

Okay, if you don’t want to do the math, I can list them for you:

INGREDIENTSfor making a 7 inch chiffon cake

4large eggs(Each egg weighs about 60g with shell)
68gcake flour (Can be substituted with 55g all purpose flour + 13g cornstarch)
41gvegetable oil(Or corn oil)
41gmilk(Or soymilk, coconut milk, oat milk, almond milk …)
61.2gsugar
2⁄3tspvanilla extract(optional)
2⁄3tsplemon juice(optional)

INGREDIENTSfor making a 8 inch chiffon cake

5 1⁄3large eggs(Each egg weighs about 60g with shell)
89gcake flour (Can be substituted with 71g all purpose flour + 18g cornstarch)
53gvegetable oil(Or corn oil)
53gmilk(Or soymilk, coconut milk, oat milk, almond milk …)
80gsugar
0.9tspvanilla extract(optional)
0.9tsplemon juice(optional)

Your Question 4: Chiffon Cake Baking Times & Temperature By Pan Size

The 55-minute baking time in this recipe is for a 6 inch cake. Please bake it for a longer time if you are going to make a larger cake.

Below is my suggesting baking time & temperature. But the best baking time and temperature for your cake might be slightly different, since we have different brands of oven, different types of baking pan, and blending gestures… You may need to take a couple of tries to figure out the best numbers for your cake.

For a 9in cake, you can bake it at 300 °F (150 °C) for 40 minutes, then remove the foil. Bake at 300 °F for 30 more minutes.

Your Question 5: Why did my chiffon collapsed in the middle? (I did not open the oven door)

There could be a few possible reasons for a chiffon to collapse:

1. The egg white hasn’t been whipped enough.

If you whip the egg white until stiff peaks form, the cake would be tall and fluffy, but will also crack on the top surface. But it won’t affect the taste. However, if the peaks are too soft, the cake will shrink after it’s cooled, this will actually make the cake taste hard instead of fluffy.

Therefore, many recipes would say “whip the egg white until stiff peaks form”. You could start with stiff peak egg whites, then gradually move to medium peak egg whites after you gain more chiffon experiences.

2. It’s possible that you over blended the egg white and egg yolk mixture.

As soon as the egg white and egg yolk meet each other, the egg white will start to defoam fast. Make preheat the oven before blending them together, and blend them as gently and fast as possible.

3. It’s very likely that the oven temperature isn’t high enough.

My small countertop oven actually bake cake faster than my large oven. For this recipe, I baked my chiffon at 300 °F (150 °C) for 20 minutes, then remove the foil, bake at 300 °F for 35 more minutes.

You could try extension the first baking period for 5 to 10 minutes: baked at 300 °F (150 °C) for 30 minutes, then remove the foil, bake at 300 °F for 35 more minutes.

As long as the cake is not turning brown or exploding like a mushroom, you can bake it for a longer time until it gets dryer and becomes more stable.

The last 10 minutes really matters. There was one time when I removed my cake from the oven to early, it shrank. I simply send it bake to bake for 10 more minutes. It cracked a little on the top surface, but it smelled better and grew back fully after the second time of baking.

Your Question 6: Can I use this recipe to make a sheet cake?

Round chiffon cake and flat chiffon sheet cake have similar recipes. But it is worth noting that:

1. A round chiffon cake hasa much higher flour contentthan a flat chiffon sheet cake.

For example, to make a7-inchround chiffon cake, we will need 4 eggs, 40gvegetable oil, 40gmilk, and68g cake flour…

However, if we are making a achiffon sheet cake instead, we will need 4 eggs, 40gvegetable oil, 40gmilk, andonly 50g cake flour…

It is because that achiffon sheet cakedoesn’t need to rise as high as a round chiffon cake. And we want it to beas soft and flexible as possible, so that it won’t cracking easily when rolled up. Therefore we should addless flourto a chiffon sheet cake to make itmoister and tender.

2. We need to bake a chiffon sheet cake ata higher temperature for a shorter period of time.

When making around chiffon cake, I usually bake a 6 inch cake at300 °F (150 °C) for about 55 minutesuntil thesurface of the cake turns lightly brown. In this way we can make sure that cakerises slowly but steadily, so thatthe surface of the cake won’t crackandthe center part of the cake will be fully baked.

A sheet chiffon cake ismuch thinnerthan a regular chiffon cake, so youdon’t need to worry about the under-cooked inner part. When the top surface of the sheet cake islight yellow, the whole cake should already be fully baked.

For a 11×13 inch sheet chiffon cake, I baked it at 345°F/175°Cforonly 20 minutes. Do not wait until the surface of the cake turns golden brown. Otherwise it will be too dry to be rolled up.

Check out my chiffon roll cake recipe for more details:

Your Question 7: How to make a chocolate chiffon cake?

By adding cocoa powder to the cake batter, you can easily transform it into a chocolate chiffon cake with a delightful cloud-like texture.

Check out my Chocolate Sponge Cake Recipe for more details:

My Other Dessert Recipes You Will Also Like: