Vanilla Chiffon Cake (video)
This classic chiffon cake is tender and light as air. It has the richness of a butter cake and the fluffiness of a sponge cake. Check out my easy method of making this wonderful and special cake that fits any occasion. 
What is chiffon cake?
Chiffon cake is a type of foam cake, which has a high ratio of eggs to flour and is leavened mainly from the air beaten into the egg whites. It’s similar to an angel food cake, but instead of using just egg whites, chiffon cake recipes use the whole egg. This gives a richer and more flavorful taste to the cake, and there is no question of what to do with the leftover egg yolks. It’s also similar to a sponge cake which is basically just eggs, sugar, and flour, but there is oil added to the batter. This makes the texture of a chiffon cake more moist and silky which is why it’s my favorite type of cake out of the three. It’s a very light and simple, yet delicious cake. So it’s a nice change from all the heavy decadent desserts out there.
Why this recipe is so great:
Easy and no waste – There are many variations out there, but what I like about this recipe is that there are an even number of egg whites to egg yolks used, so there is no waste. I kept the flavoring simple with just vanilla, but you can add some lemon zest or a touch of almond extract as well. The rest of the ingredients are all your usual pantry staples. The method of this recipe is easier than most. The dry ingredients and all of the wet ingredients, except for the egg whites, are prepared in the same bowl. The meringue and the egg yolk batter are prepared using the same beaters. So there is no mixing of everything separately or using a bunch of different utensils. Here are some reviews:
“Thank you so much for sharing this awesome recipe. I made this cake today and turned out so perfect!! My First time to make a Chiffon Cake but this recipe did not fail me. So thank you very much.” – Ana
“Thank you for a great recipe that is easy to follow with added bonus of a video. My family loved it. I had out of date cream of tartar so substituting 1 teaspoon of fresh lemon juice for the 1/2 teaspoon of cream of tartar. It worked well to whip the egg whites.” – Linda
How to make chiffon cake:
- You start by sifting the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt into a large mixing bowl. Make a well in the center. Add the egg yolks, vegetable oil, water, and vanilla. Set aside.
- Beat the egg whites and cream of tartar together until stiff peaks form. Set aside.
- Using the same beaters, combine the egg yolk mixture until smooth.
- Fold in 1/4 of the egg whites into the egg yolk batter to lighten it up. Then gently fold in the rest of the egg whites in two equal parts until no white streaks remain.
- Pour the batter into an ungreased 10″ tube pan and bake at 325F for about 1 hour.
- Invert and let cool completely before unmolding.
Expert tips:
- Beat your egg whites to stiff peaks – Since the meringue is the main leavening agent in this cake, it is really important to take the time to beat your egg whites to stiff peaks to ensure your cake has a nice rise and fluffy texture. Once your egg whites reach medium peaks (a tip that folds over), continue beating but check often and once you reach stiff peaks (a tip that points straight) STOP. You don’t want to over-beat your egg whites. They could possibly break and will be harder to fold.
- Fold in stages – Start by folding in only 1/4 of the meringue into your egg yolk batter to lighten the density of the batter, making it easier to combine the rest. Then fold in the remainder of the meringue in two equal parts using an under-and-over motion with your rubber spatula. Be gentle so you maintain as much of the air bubbles as possible.
- Do not grease your tube pan – The batter needs to be able to stick to the sides of the pan to help it rise to its maximum height.
- Cool upside down – As soon as you remove it from the oven, flip the cake over and cool it upside down in the pan to prevent it from collapsing. The reason is the structure of the cake crumb is not stable until it’s completely cooled. Some tube pans have feet that you can flip and stand it on. You can also set the tube pan over a bottleneck or two drinking glasses like I did.
Substitutions:
- Cake flour – It’s best to use cake flour for the most tender and soft chiffon cake. You can make your own cake flour by mixing 2 cups of all-purpose minus 4 tablespoons mixed with 4 tablespoons of corn starch. If you don’t have cornstarch, you can use straight all-purpose flour in a pinch, but please note the texture of the cake won’t be as soft.
- Cream of tartar – You can substitute the 1/2 teaspoon of cream of tartar with 1 teaspoon of white vinegar or lemon juice.
- Tube pans – It’s best to use a 10″ tube pan with a removable bottom. The shape of a tube pan is perfect for the height of this cake and the hole in the center actually helps it bake evenly. If using a tube pan without a removable bottom, you can grease the bottom of the pan (not the sides) to make it easier to remove the cake. You can also bake this chiffon cake in two 8 or 9 inch round cake pans. Just make sure they are at least 3″ deep and grease only the bottom of the pans. Once the cakes are done, cool upside down on a cooling rack.
FAQ:
- How to store chiffon cake – You can cover it in a sealed airtight container or tightly wrap in saran wrap and store it at room temperature for 3-4 days.
- Can you freeze chiffon cake? Yes, you can. Once completely cooled, tightly wrap in a layer of saran wrap and a layer of aluminum foil and store in the freezer for up to 3 months. Thaw in the refrigerator overnight.
You might also like:
- Japanese Cheesecake
- Angel Food Cake
- Peaches and Cream Cake
- Vanilla Bean Magic Cake
- Chocolate Souffle
You can serve this cake as is or with some whipped cream and fresh fruit. You can also cut it horizontally and make it into a layer cake with your favorite frosting. The choice is yours; just enjoy and have fun with it.
Did you make this recipe? Please kindly leave a comment with your star rating below.
Vanilla Chiffon Cake Recipe
- Prep Time: 20 min
- Cook Time: 60 min
- Total Time: 1 hour 20 minutes
- Yield: 12
Description
This classic chiffon cake is tender and light as air. It has the richness of a butter cake and the fluffiness of a sponge cake.
Ingredients
- 2 cups (235g) cake flour
- 1&1/2 cups (300g) granulated sugar
- 1 tbsp (12g) baking powder
- 1 tsp (5g) salt
- 7 large egg yolks, room temperature
- 1/2 cup (125ml) vegetable oil
- 3/4 cup (188ml) cold water
- 1 tbsp (15ml) vanilla extract
- 7 large egg whites, room temperature
- 1/2 tsp (2g) cream of tartar
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325F.
- Sift the first 4 ingredients into a bowl. Make a well and add the next 4 ingredients. Set aside.
- In a large bowl, beat the egg whites until foamy. Add in the cream of tartar and continue beating until stiff peaks form. Set aside.
- Using the same beaters, beat the egg yolk batter. Scrape the bowl as needed. Beat until combined and smooth.
- Fold in 1/4 of the egg whites into the egg yolk batter to lighten it up. Then gently fold in the rest of the egg whites in two equal parts until no white streaks remain.
- Pour into an ungreased 10″ tube pan with removable bottom. Bake for 55-60 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. The top should be golden brown and spring back when lightly pressed.
- Let cool completely upside down. Unmold and serve. Slice using a serrated knife.
Notes
Leftovers can be stored in a sealed airtight container or tightly wrap in saran wrap and left at room temperature for 3-4 days.
You can also freeze chiffon cake once it’s completely cooled. Tightly wrap it in a layer of saran wrap and a layer of aluminum foil. Store in the freezer for up to 3 months. Thaw in the refrigerator overnight.
See above in post for expert tips and substitutions.
- Category: dessert
- Method: bake
- Cuisine: American
Keywords: chiffon cake recipe, easy chiffon cake, best chiffon cake, vanilla chiffon cake
Recipe adapted from Allrecipes.com. This post was originally published on June 16th, 2016 and has been recently updated with more information and step-by-step photo instructions.
259 Comments on “Vanilla Chiffon Cake (video)”
This is the best chiffon cake recipe I’ve ever tried. I never have cake flour in the house so my trick is to sub in powdered sugar for granulated, gram for gram. Works like a charm. Also I prefer the taste of butter so I use a stick of melted butter instead of the oil. Delicious!! I pour into 3 6in pans to make nice tall layers for my strawberry shortcakes and my tres leches cakes! Yes, this is the absolute best base cake recipe for tres leches!!
Great to hear and thank you for all the tips!
Hi, the taste is great. I only used 1 cup sugar and it’s sweet enough. However, there was layer of my batter (nearer the base of the tube pan) that not bake and it was still dense/raw. How can I make it fluffy as well?
Sounds like the egg whites separated from the egg yolk mixture while in the oven. Either the batter was not combined well enough, so make sure there are no more yellow streaks at the bottom of the bowl when you’re folding, or the egg whites was overbeaten, so make to beat just to stiff peaks. I hope this helps!
To clarify my # 3 its supposed to ask wheather to grease only the side of the parchment paper that will touch the cake bottom or also the opposite side which touch only the pan bottom?
1. If i want to make this into a chocolate chiffon cake what kind of choclate would i use and how much?
2. Would two 8 inch wide 3 inch deep square cake pans work for this cake?
3. Should both sides of the parchment paper that I use only at the bottom of my cake pans or only the side that will touch the cake bottom? should I use solid crisco vegtable shortening or pam spray?
4. If I decide to separate the two cakes into layers, so i can fill & frost, do you recommend chilling the depanned cooled cakes 1st before separating into layers?
5. Also if i use homeade hawaiian style chocolate dobash to fill & frost should it still be warm before spreading on the cake as it has a cooked cornstarch base, that sets once it cool?
Hi Monica, here are my answers to your questions:
1) Unsweetened cocoa powder, I would say about 1/2 cup
2) Yes
3) Yes, just line and grease the bottom of the pans only. You can use butter or cooking spray.
4) You don’t need to chill, just cool to room temp before cutting.
5) I would let the frosting cool down a bit but still warm enough to spread. You just don’t want it to be hot so it melts into the cake.
I hope this all helps! Let me know if you have any further questions. Enjoy the cake!
Awesome.. I substituted the vanilla essence with pandan essence. I wish I could post my pic here. Thanks for the receipe.
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You’re very welcome and great idea with the pandan essence! You can email me a pic at [email protected] or tag me on Instagram if you’d like. Thanks for the comment!
Lily, this sounds amazing and I want to try it, but a couple of questions:
1) My tube pan is not non-stick. If I don’t grease it, how do I get the cake out of the pan without breaking it, or should I go ahead and grease the pan?
2) Can I make this in a pan that makes 8 mini tube cakes, and if so, how long should I bake them?
Thanks for your help.
Hi Mary,
Do not grease the pan because chiffon cakes like angel cakes need to be able to grip onto the sides to rise properly. Unless your tube pan does not have a removable bottom then grease the bottom only.
-cool the cake upside down
-once completely cooled, run a thin knife along the edge and around the center tube
-use the tube to pull the cake out
-run a thin knife along the bottom and invert the cake onto a serving plate
Yes, you can use mini tube pan and just bake until golden brown on top. I hope this helps!
Thank you for your quick reply, Lily! I forgot to mention that my pan that makes 8 mini tube cakes at once is non stick. Is it okay to use that as long as I don’t grease it? Thanks again.
If it has removable bottom then don’t grease at all. If it does not have a removable bottom then grease the bottoms only. I hope you enjoy the cakes!
If I had to divide this recipe by 1/4, how many eggs would I use? One, or two? (7 divided by 4 is 1.75, so I wasn’t really sure) Would I just divide the rest of the ingredients by 4 as well? Thx in advance.
★★★★★
I would just use 2 eggs and divide the rest of the ingredients by 4. I hope this helps and enjoy!
The photo(s) will be used as a photo header for each of the recipe, by the way. That means the watermark in the pictures you have in each of your recipes will be trimmed to for the size of the photo header. Thanks!
★★★★★
Hi!
I and together with another one I collaborate with are making a collection of cake recipes. We call it a Cake Recipe Portfolio. The intended purpose of it is to give it to our friends and family who bake cakes for them to be able to bake them during occassions and as a hobby during this pandemic. It is in a digital copy in pdf format.
The recipes we include are from and owned by their respective authors and their websites and are never claimed to be ours. It is non-profit, to be sent to friends and family personally, and never to be uploaded to any site or media in a way that can be downloaded.
I found your recipe for a Vanila Chiffon Cake and upon reviewing the webpage feedback from the comment section, I thought we could feature your recipe together with other of your recipes in your website (we like to feature them too, if we love it!) We will include the ingridients, the directions, the notes, and one, if not all pictures used in (each of) the recipe(s) – all found in your website. I hope we could have a go with it. Thanks!
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Hi Justin,
I STRONGLY prefer to keep MY recipes and photos on MY site, so please DO NOT include ANY of my content in your portfolio. Thank you for asking though.
Thank you, this worked for me! Came out high, fluffy, yummy!
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You’re welcome, Sue! Happy to hear it turned out well for you:)
Not yet. Can’t wait to try. Thanks for the recipe!
This was an amazing recipe! If I wanted to half this recipe, how would I half the eggs? Thanks!
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Thank you, Dee! To cut the recipe in half, I would go with 4 egg whites and 3 egg yolks. Enjoy and have a great weekend!
Amazing cake!!! Lily, would you have any advice on how to incorporate gula melaka into this recipe?
★★★★★
I’ve never baked with gula melaka before. Does it come in granulated form or is there a way for you to grate it finely? If so, you could try substituting 1/2 a cup of the white sugar with it to see if that’s enough to get the flavor without affecting the original texture of the cake. I hope this helps and let me know if you give it a try:)
For the first time, I got it right with this recipe. Thank you 😘
★★★★★
You’re very welcome! Thank you for your feedback and have a great day:)
I make the original version and replace the water with coconut milk and pandan to make pandan version. The result is always wonderful since my first try. I am not a baker and never made my own chiffon. This works like magic to me. Thank you so much.
My favorite is to add in coconut milk and pandan. Feels like home.
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You’re very welcome, Heny! Your coconut pandan version sounds delicious. Enjoy and have a great week!
Had this and it was amazing! Heny, may I ask how much coconut milk and pandan you used?
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Hi Chen,
Here is how it’s done by Heny’s own words:
I made my own pandan extract using a regular blender. Blending about 4 to 6 leaves with water. Pressed all the juice and separate the leaves. Let the juice set few hours, the extract will sink to the bottom and I split the water from the extract (very little extract result). I use the same water composition as in your recipe, I just altered it to 1/2 pandan cold water, 1/2 coconut milk (carton not canned) and all pandan extract.
I hope this helps!
Yes, it’s a good recipe 👍
But if I want to make about 2 to 3 of this chiffon cake, how should I do it? Do it one at a time or I can just double or triple the ingredients portion?
Please advise me,
Thank you
Best Regards,
Jenny
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I would make one at a time or batch it, meaning beat the 2 or 3 portions of egg whites individually then beat the 2-3 portions of egg yolk mixture, combine, and bake. I hope this helps and let me know if you have any other questions.
Hello,
Is this cake sturdy enough to be made as a two-layer sheet cake layered with Swiss meringue buttercream and berry filling? If so, how many cups of batter would I need and how long should I bake it for? My pans are 13.7” x 10.5” x 2.3” (34.7cm x 26.6cm x 5.8cm).
Also, should I invert the pans over a wire rack as they cool? Do you recommend greasing or lining the pan with parchment paper? Thank you.
I think there is enough for two pans so I would divide the batter evenly into both. I would definitely line the bottom of the pans with parchment paper but not line or grease the sides and just run a knife along the sides to remove the cake when cooled. Bake it for 30-45 minutes or until golden on top and the center springs back when lightly pressed. And yes, I would invert the pans to cool. I hope this helps and enjoy the cake!
Can honey either replace part of or all of the sugar in this recipe? I would like the flavor the cake with honey, and was wondering if replacing the sugar with it would alter the structure/texture of the cake.
Honey is thick and heavy so I’m a little worried it will deflate the delicate whipped egg whites that make this cake so fluffy and tender. I definitely wouldn’t replace all of the sugar with honey. Perhaps you can try subbing 1/2 cup of sugar with 1/2 cup of honey and see how that turns out. No promises as I have not tried it for myself. If you do give it a try, let me know how it turns out.
I made this cake- texture was amazing. Light and velvety in the mouth. Much more satisfying than angel food.
One question to the author – could I make this with slightly less sugar? I would like to keep the texture and quality with just a little less sweetness.
Thanks in advance!
Thank you for your kind words, Lisa! You could probably reduce the sugar by 1/4 cup or 1/2 cup at the moist without affecting the texture too much.
Hi!
Thankyou for this recipe, it’s easy to follow and the tips are very helpful.
Can I substitute vegetable oil with melted butter? Will that make the cake less puffy and soft or will it be okay? I realize that vegetable oil is lighter but I think butter might make the taste even more scrumptious.
Thankyou again.
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You’re very welcome, Sana! As for the butter, I’ve never tried it for myself but I don’t see why not. The only thing is: yes, butter is more flavorful but oil tends to make baked goods more moist so just keep that in mind:)