Vanilla Chiffon Cake
Vanilla Chiffon Cake! “Chiffon” is a great word. It sounds pretty and it conjures up images of softness, airiness and luxury, like the namesake fabric. Those are all lovely traits for a cake, no? Who doesn’t want a cake that is soft, airy and luxurious?
Table of contents
What is Chiffon Cake?
What makes chiffon cake unique is the fact that it’s sort-of a cross between a rich buttery cake and an airy sponge cake. It’s got the best of both worlds.
The lightness comes from first whipping up the yolks with the other ingredients and then folding in whipped egg whites. There’s also a generous dose of baking powder in the batter to help expand all those air bubbles.
When baked in an ungreased tube pan, this cake puffs up super-high and is light as a cloud.
Because there’s oil in the cake, it stay soft even when refrigerated.
That means this is the perfect base for cakes that require refrigeration. One of my favorite ways to use vanilla chiffon cake is to make a spectacular cream-filled Strawberry Tall Cake. You could also fill this cake with light and airy Fresh Strawberry Mousse.
Ingredients
Ingredient Notes
- Cake Flour – Low protein cake flour makes a very tender cake. I prefer bleached cake flour for the softest crumb, but unbleached cake flour will work.
- Oil – The oil not only adds moisture to the cake, but also coats the flour which prevents gluten formation. Oil stays liquid when chilled, so the cake will stay soft, even when refrigerated.
- Eggs – The eggs form the structure for the cake. Since the eggs are whisked the cake is very light.
- Baking Powder – It looks like a lot of baking powder in the recipe. But this cake needs to rise high in the oven. The structure from the eggs will support the air in in the cake and the baking powder will expand those bubbles for the lightest cake.
Process Photos
See the recipe card for detailed measurements and instructions.
- Combine the eggs, oil, water and in a mixing bowl.
- Mix until the ingredients are emulsified.
- Add the dry ingredients and mix to combine.
- Increase the speed to high and whip for 1 minute. Set the bowl aside.
- Whip the whites with sugar until the reach full peak.
- Fold the whites into the batter.
- Spread the batter into the pan. Bake until the middle of the cake springs back with lightly pressed.
- Cool the cake in the tube pan upside down so it doesn’t collapse.
- If you bake the batter in regular round pans cool right side up.
FAQs about Vanilla Chiffon Cake:
Chiffon cakes are traditionally baked in an angel food cake pan. The batter can also be baked in two 8 inch x 3 inch round pans to make a layer cake. This recipe can also be baked into a dozen cupcakes (use cupcake liners).
If the cake is baked in a tube pan, treat it like an angel food cake and cool it upside down. Cool layer cakes in the pans.
If you baked the cake in a tube pan and greased the pan the cake can sink. If you took the cake out of the pan before it was completely cooled, or if you didn’t cool it upside down, the cake could sink. If you overwhip the eggs your cake won’t rise as high as it could.
A chiffon cake will stay fresh at room temperature (if it doesn’t have a filling) for 3-4 days.
A cake without filling can be stored at room temperature for 3-4 days. If the cake has a perishable filling, it should be refrigerated.
Yes, because it’s made with oil instead of butter, chiffon cake will be soft even if refrigerated.
Yes, wrap the cake in two layers of plastic wrap and freeze for up to 3 months. You can also freeze individually wrapped slices. Defrost in the wrapping at room temperature.
You also should try my Lemon Chiffon cake and Chocolate Chiffon cake recipes.
I have so many cake recipe for you to try. Vanilla Buttermilk Cake, White Cake, Vanilla Butter Cake, Chocolate Butter Cake, Old Fashioned Chocolate Cake, Genoise sponge cake, Angel Food Cake and Chocolate Genoise.
If you love this recipe as much as I do, I’d really appreciate a star rating and a quick comment. Ratings and comments help my recipes show in search results. Thanks!
Vanilla Chiffon Cake
Ingredients
- 3 ½ oz vegetable oil (½ cup)
- 6 large eggs (room temp, separated)
- 6 oz water (¾ cup)
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 10 oz cake flour (2 ¼ cups, see note)
- 12 oz granulated sugar (1 ½ cups, divided)
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon table salt
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 325 °F. For a traditional chiffon cake, use an ungreased 10" tube pan. If you want to make a layer cake line two 8”x3" cake pans with parchment paper or butter and flour the bottom of the pans only.
- Combine 3 ½ oz vegetable oil, 6 egg yolks, 6 oz water and 1 tablespoon vanilla extract in a mixer bowl. Mix on medium speed until well combined.
- Sift 10 oz cake flour with 1 cup of the sugar, 1 tablespoon baking powder and ½ teaspoon table salt. With the mixer on low, add the dry ingredients to yolk mixture. Whip on high speed for 1 minute, then set aside
- Whip 6 egg whites on medium speed to soft peak. Gradually add the remaining ½ cup sugar, increase the speed to medium high and whip to full peak. Fold the whites into the yolk mixture in three increments.
- If making a layer cake, divide the batter between the two pans. If you're using a tube pan, pour all the batter into the pan. Bake until the middle of the cake springs back with lightly pressed, 30-35 minutes for the layers or about 50-60 minutes for the tube pan.
- Cool the cake completely in the pan. If using a tube pan cool the pan upside down.
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Hi! I’m from the UK and we don’t have cake flour here. It’s only plain flour (all purpose) or self raising flour. Would plain flour work as a good substitute for cake flour? Thank you 🙂
As a replacement, for each cup of cake flour use 3/4 cup of “plain” flour plus 2 tablespoons of corn starch. There’s more information about cake flour in this post.
I loved this cake! Thank you so much. The only thing I found was that it was quite sweet. Can I reduce the Mount of sugar or will it affect the rise and texture?
Changing the amount of sugar will change the texture of the cake.
Hi could please tell me substitute for eggs I want to make it eggless version.
Sorry, I couldn’t give a good substitute without extensive research and testing. The eggs are an important part of the structure for this cake.
I made this a couple of weeks ago and it turned out so good! I wanted to use the same recipe for my daughter’s birthday cake but turn it into a confetti cake. Do you think the cake can support Jimmy sprinkles added to it? Any advice is appreciated!
I haven’t tried it, but I would think so. I would fold the sprinkles into the batter just before folding in the egg whites.
Hi Eileen!
Thank you for the posting this wonderful recipe. I baked this for my daughter’s birthday and it was delightful. I used two different sized pans to make it a tier cake.
I baked it a second time though using half the recipe in a 8*2 inch pan, my cake did rise but shrunk and deflated after taking out from the oven. And wasn’t light airy fluffy like the first time I baked it. It’s dense and flat 🙁 in your experience what could I have done wrong? An idea?
Thanks!
I couldn’t say for sure. Are you sure you halved all the ingredients, including the baking powder? Are you sure the cake was baked through?
Hi Eileen! Thank for replying, Yes I used exactly half the ingredients, including baking powder. I baked the cake for 30 mins and it was cooked through, I’ll try again I guess till it’s perfect 🙂
I made this cake using the suggested Grand Marnier…it was the BEST cake I’ve ever tasted…THE BEST!! I want to make this cake again but I’m out of strawberries and was wondering if I could substitute blueberries instead? If so, would I still use the Grand Marnier?
You could use any fresh berries in this cake. I like lemon and blueberry so Limoncello would be a nice pairing. But Grand Marnier would be good too.