Chocolate Chiffon Cake

This light, airy sponge cake is used for many different delicious things in my school bakery. Mousse Bombes and Black Forest Cake are my favorites. The recipe for Black Forest Cake will be up soon!

Chocolate Chiffon Cake

Makes approx 5 8-in rounds (or one full sheet pan)

Ingredients:

10 oz cake flour

8 oz granulated sugar

0.25 oz salt

0.5 oz baking powder

2 oz cocoa

5 oz vegetable oil

6 oz egg yolks

9 oz water

0.25 oz vanilla extract

10 oz egg whites

5 oz granulated sugar

0.05 oz cream of tartar

Sift the first 5 ingredients together into a mixing bowl.

Using the paddle attachment, turn mixer on low. With mixer running, pour oil into bowl, trying not let the oil touch the side of the bowl or the paddle. Mix until the dry and oil form a crumb-like texture. Stop the mixer; scrape the bowl.

Add the yolks all at once and mix. It should now look like fudge. Stop the mixer; scrape the bowl.

Add the water in thirds, scraping thoroughly after 2nd addition. When all the water is added, mix for 2 mins. Scrape the bowl and mix for another minute. It should be a very smooth batter.

Stir in the vanilla. Pour batter into a big, wide bowl. Set aside.

In a separate bowl, with the whisk attachment, whisk egg whites, 5 oz sugar and cream of tartar until medium peaks form.

In thirds, carefully fold whipped egg whites into batter with a rubber spatula.

Pour into ungreased, paper-lined, 8-in round cake pans (or one full sheet pan – ungreased and paper-lined). To cook evenly, they should all weigh 12 oz. In the bakery, this is 4 pans with a full 12 oz, and one with the leftover few ounces (we don’t waste anything!). At home if you do not have a scale, measure out 1 ½ cups per pan.

Bake at 350 degrees for 15-18 minutes. Because this is a sponge cake, a toothpick test will not work. Test doneness by pushing lightly in the center of the pan. If it gently springs back, it is done. If your fingerprint stays, let it bake for a minute or two more.

Extra info:

As I said in an earlier post, it is SO easy to overdevelop the gluten – even in moist cakes! However, chiffon cake is a special because it has oil in the recipe. When you add the oil to the dry ingredients, the oil encapsulates the flour and prevents gluten development. So you can’t really overdevelop the gluten in this recipe. Sweet! =)

The purpose of the cream of tartar with the egg whites and sugar is to stabilize the egg whites. As we saw in class when the cream of tartar was accidentally forgotten in one batch, it helps with the volume of the batter and finished cakes, and helps them to set up more. The acidity of the cream of tartar is what does this, so in other recipes you may see lemon juice or another acid to be whipped in with the egg whites, serving the same purpose.