Chiffon Cake In Regular Pans

Baking By sarahgale314 Updated 21 Jan 2015 , 6:55pm by sweettooth101

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sarahgale314 Posted 14 Aug 2014 , 3:47pm
post #1 of 25

AI have a client who wants a Hawaiian guava cake for their wedding cake, and for it to look like a wedding cake. Traditional guava cake is a chiffon cake, which I have only done in a tube pan before.

Rose Beranbaum has a recipe for orange chiffon cake baked in a springform pan, using a rose nail in the center, and I tried it, but my cake fell out of the pan when I turned it upside down to cool. After reading online, it sounded like I underbaked my cake, so I tried again, letting it cook a little longer. It then sunk and shrunk away from the sides of the pan, while still in the oven; a sign of overbaking! However, a toothpick near the center still came out wet, and once again, it fell out of the pan when I inverted it. The pan is aluminum, not a nonstick pan, and I am not treating the sides at all.

This is frustrating me to no end. I have baked hundreds of cakes of all different kinds, made French pastries, macarons, homemade puff pastry, homemade croissants... Nothing has given me as much trouble as trying to bake stupid chiffon cake in a non-tube pan! I have seen on here people who claim they use chiffon cake in regular cake pans all the time, and the blog for Woodland Bakery claims the same thing (but with no directions at all how to do it).

I told the client before I started these experiments that it may not be possible to do chiffon batter in regular cake pans, so I would have to substitute genoise or butter cake, syruped with guava syrup, and they are fine with that, but I would like to have it authentic if possible.

24 replies
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Rfisher Posted 14 Aug 2014 , 4:11pm
post #2 of 25

AHow large are your pans? You may not be able to get anything larger than a 10"? Have you tried not inverting them?

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sarahgale314 Posted 14 Aug 2014 , 4:41pm
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AMy experiments have been with a 9-inch springform and a Rose nail in the center. According to Rose Beranbaum and everything I've read online, you must cool chiffon inverted in the cake pan until totally cold, or else it will collapse and turn into a hockey puck of cake. Chiffon cake is a lot like Angel food cake, relying on whipped egg whites for leavening. The texture is like angel food cake, too, and they are usually baked in an up greased angel food pan and cooled upside down in the pan, like angel food, for this reason. I am feeling extremely skeptical that anyone actually bakes chiffon cake in regular pans without it turning out a lot more dense than what you get out of a tube pan.

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Rfisher Posted 14 Aug 2014 , 4:53pm
post #4 of 25

AWhat's to lose? http://forums.egullet.org/topic/56216-chiffon-cake-problem-help/ One of these posters I feel is very knowledgable. Do it! Do it! Do it!

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sarahgale314 Posted 14 Aug 2014 , 5:41pm
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ASounds like more flour is needed... Rose's recipe uses 1 1/3 cups cake flour. I actually found the recipe from the Hawaiian restaurant that invented the cake, and with all the other ingredients exactly the same amounts as rose's recipe, the cake flour is 2 3/4 cups - a bit more than double!

Experiment 3 will commence shortly...

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mattyeatscakes Posted 14 Aug 2014 , 8:14pm
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AI am Filipino and most of my clients are Filipinos as well, and we love our chiffon cakes. Almost all my cakes are chiffon cakes, iced in SMBC and covered in fondant. I use the 2" deep wilton pans, from sizes 6"-10" (it is currently the biggest size i offer). Never had to use a flower nail. No grease, just parchment paper on the bottom.

Also my recipe calls for cake flour, not AP. Was your meringue at medium peaks? Also did you gently fold in the meringue to the yolk mixture? Were your eggs at room temp? Your cake flour sifted?

Hopefully you get success with your cake! Good luck :)

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sarahgale314 Posted 14 Aug 2014 , 8:24pm
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AYes, it was sifted cake flour. They baked up just fine, the problem is cooling them upside down. I had parchment on the bottoms, and they fell out of the pan. The parchment made it so the cake doesn't stick to the bottom, obviously, and so the bottom of the cake sagged down as it was hanging there cooling, and pulled the whole cake right out of the pan, deflating it, and squashing it into a dense cake pancake.

Do you cool your cakes upside down in the pans, remove them immediately to cool on a rack, or what? Also, how much flour do you use? The upside down cooling recipes I've seen call for 1 1/3 cups cake flour for 5 eggs, 1/2 cup oil, 3/4 cup water (or juice), whereas another recipe I read called for 2 3/4 cups cake flour for the same amount of other ingredients.

I've done chiffon cakes in ungreased tube pans before, hanging upside down to cool, and they come out fine, because of the pan.

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sweettooth101 Posted 14 Aug 2014 , 10:44pm
post #8 of 25

I too make chiffon cakes all the time, in fact all my  wedding cakes I have made are chiffon. I use the wilton 3'' pans, line the bottom only with greased on both side of  parchment,cake pan  sides should NOT be greased. As soon as the cake comes out of the oven I cover the center part across with cling wrap   and then flip the pan over resting the edges onto a couple of butter knives and allow to cool.

The reason for  placing the cling wrap only in the middle is to leave 'breathing' space. When I first started doing this, I covered the whole cake with cling wrap, it created a vacuum and the middle of the cake got sucked up, leaving a huge crater.It baffled me how a perfectly baked cake when flipped could end up like that.

I have almost tripled the recipe for a 14'' x 3'' cake and it has come out perfect.

If you would like the recipe I use please pm me.

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mattyeatscakes Posted 15 Aug 2014 , 2:54am
post #9 of 25

ASweettooth101, if it's ok, may i have your recipe? I am still looking for the perfect chiffon cake recipe. While i like mine, it can be on the dry side on it's own. But with SMBC it's good..

I have even used my recipe into cupcakes and it's fine. Never had the middle sinking. Also i've never inverted it.. Maybe because it's only 2"?

My recipe calls for:

2 1/4 c cake flour 1 1/2 c white sugar 1 tsp salt 3 tsp baking powder 2/3 c water 1/2 c oil 1 tbsp vanilla 7 eggs separated

Baked at 340 F. This makes about 3 8" or 2 10" cakes. And i've used this to make a variety of flavours: taro, mango, pandan, mocha, orange...

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scrumdiddlycakes Posted 15 Aug 2014 , 4:39am
post #10 of 25

I just use my regular 4" high cake tins, making sure not a speck of grease touche sit. Never use nails, bake strips, etc.
If it seems like the top is wanting to crack/pull away, but the cake isn't done, put a cookie sheet on the rack directly above the cake, you should also be baking as low in the oven as possible.

 

Are you greasing the pan at all? That's the only thing I can think of, other than a recipe flaw, or a recipe that just doesn't work with a regular tin.

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sweettooth101 Posted 15 Aug 2014 , 1:25pm
post #11 of 25
White chiffon cake
Follow recipe below leaving out 1/2 cup cocoa and replacing with 1/2 cup cornstarch
 
 
 
 Chocolate  Chiffon Cake
 
Prepare a round 11'' x3''deep pan by greasing only the bottom (NOT THE SIDES) and lining the bottom with parchment paper.
 
1 3/4 cup flour (all purpose)
1 3/4 cup sugar
3 teaspoon baking powder
1      ''       salt
1/2 cup cocoa
Sift all above together in a large bowl
 
seperate 7 eggs
 
Whisk the 7 egg whites and 1/2  tsp cream of tartar until peaks form 
 
In a seperate bowl combine:
7 egg yolks
1/2 cup oil
1 tspoon vanilla essence
3/4 cup boiling water
 
Mix well.
To it  add  the dry ingredients
mix thoroughly.
Gently fold in the beaten egg whites  careful not to over mix
pour into prepared cake pan
bake at 350
 
as soon as it comes out of the oven place a cling wrap on the  hot pan across the center of the cake, leaving sides open and turn the whole pan upside down on counter top to cool. Rest the rim of the pans on a couple of bread knives on wooden spoon handle.
This trick stops the cake from sinking and keeps it moist.
 
 
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sweettooth101 Posted 15 Aug 2014 , 1:26pm
post #12 of 25

i don't use cake nails either.

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sarahgale314 Posted 15 Aug 2014 , 9:23pm
post #13 of 25

AAmazingly, I was looking in my June issue of. Cook's Country magazine for dinner ideas, and at the back, they had a recipe for chiffon layer cake... Baked in a normal 9 inch cake pan! I just tried their recipe out, and it worked beautifully! It is a bit different. It uses melted butter instead of oil, very little water, and only some of the egg whites are beaten. It's put in a greased, floured, parchment lined pan, and removed from the pan after 10 minutes and cooled on a rack, like a normal butter cake. It came out nice and high. I used a 3-inch high 9-inch diameter pan, and it went right to the very top. PM me if anyone is interested in the recipe.

[IMG ALT=""]http://www.cakecentral.com/content/type/61/id/3276313/width/350/height/700[/IMG]

I will be splitting this one and filling it with sweetened mascarpone cream, then topping it with more mascarpone cream, fresh blueberries, and salted caramel.

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sarahgale314 Posted 16 Aug 2014 , 7:55pm
post #14 of 25

AThe cake was quite delicious - a bit less light than chiffon baked in a tube pan, but that comes out so light and fluffy, I don't think it would tier well for a wedding cake at all, whereas this definitely will. I will be using this recipe for the Hawaiian guava cake. It's a lot like a sponge cake, and would be excellent syruped.

I filled it with sweetened mascarpone cream, and topped it with fresh blueberries and homemade caramel.

[IMG ALT=""]http://www.cakecentral.com/content/type/61/id/3276564/width/350/height/700[/IMG]

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sarahgale314 Posted 17 Aug 2014 , 7:22pm
post #15 of 25

AI did one last experiment, swapping oil for the melted butter. It made the texture a bit more tender, but also had a slight dip in the top. I would say you can use oil for a more tender crumb, but you will want to put a rose nail in the center to prevent the dip.

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sarahgale314 Posted 19 Aug 2014 , 6:02pm
post #16 of 25

AI tried cupcakes with the recipe today, using oil. They came out fabulous. Extremely light and fluffy. I'll be making boston creme pie cupcakes out of them for a friend's birthday.

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fraggle17 Posted 11 Sep 2014 , 4:40pm
post #17 of 25

ACan you put ur recipe on here, I was asked if I could make a chocolate chiffon cake, I hadn't heard of it before, now I've read up on it, but wondering if I need special tin or if it's possible in a normal tin?

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seventhheaven Posted 31 Oct 2014 , 8:09pm
post #18 of 25

AHi Sarah gale i would love your recipie for the cream! thanx

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Gerle Posted 31 Oct 2014 , 8:59pm
post #19 of 25

sweettooth101....I saw you recipe further up on the thread and you say to bake the chiffon cake at 350, but for how long?  30 minutes? 45?  I'd love to try a chiffon cake, but haven't ever made one before so don't know how long to bake it.

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sarahgale314 Posted 31 Oct 2014 , 9:20pm
post #20 of 25

A[IMG]http://www.cakecentral.com/content/type/61/id/3300892/width/200/height/400[/IMG]

Here's the guava chiffon wedding cake. Chiffon cake, cream cheese frosting, guava purée, and gum paste exploded rose.

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Gerle Posted 31 Oct 2014 , 9:25pm
post #21 of 25

Ahhh, there's the pic!  Very nice!  Love the exploded rose!

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sweettooth101 Posted 2 Jan 2015 , 8:31pm
post #22 of 25

My apologies Gerle, i didn't get a notification with your question. 2 months later,lol, I bake the cake for about 50 mins but as a rule I never follow time because all ovens are different. At about 40 mins I will take a skewer and poke it in the center and test if it's done.

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rizzavictorio Posted 9 Jan 2015 , 12:37am
post #23 of 25

I would like to have a copy of your recipe of chiffon cake.  I have mine worse than yours...thanks.

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ntam Posted 21 Jan 2015 , 5:31pm
post #24 of 25

May you share with me your recipe on baking a chiffon cake in a regular round pans instead of a tube-pan.  I am pretty happy with chiffon cakes baked with a tube-pan, but when it comes to making a decent decoration of the cake, the hole in the centre really sets some restrictions to the garnishing.  Look forward to receiving the recipe from you soonest.  Thank you.

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sweettooth101 Posted 21 Jan 2015 , 6:55pm
post #25 of 25

I am sorry ladies I am not too sure who the requests for recipe is addressed to, I posted mine on page one of this thread and also at this link with  a little easier to understand method.

http://www.cakecentral.com/t/781593/chiffon-cake

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