Vanilla Chiffon Fruit Cake

The recipe features a spongy vanilla chiffon cake filled with whipped cream frosting and fruits and topped with more fruits. It’s light and fresh and a crowd pleaser, especially for a family that doesn’t like “too sweet” desserts like my family. I made this cake recently for my sister’s birthday and it was a hit with the family.

There are many components to the cake, but they are fairly simple. Furthermore, I kept the cake decorating simple and rustic and yet elegant.

Notes:

• As always, when making chiffon cake, don’t grease the pan. They rise by crawling up the sides of the pan.
• Allow the cake to cool in the pan for a few minutes before turning onto a cooling rack. Run a knife around the cake and you may have to get your fingers in there to wedge out the cake. I found that, the closer my wax paper is to covering the whole bottom of the pan the better. The cake is less likely to stick to the bottom of the pan and can turn out easier.
• Try not to over whip the egg whites, make sure it gets to the stiff peak stage, where the peaks will stand and it’s still glossy. If you over whip and your meringue looks more like sea-foam, you’ll get a dryer cake.
• While we’re talking about the meringue, you can omit the cream of tartar if you don’t have it. I made this vanilla chiffon without it and it turned out just fine. So I will make that optional in the recipe below.
• For frosting, I used my go-to whipped cream frosting recipe and a simple jam glaze recipe.

Vanilla Chiffon Cake

Time: 45 minutes

Yields: 3 9-inch layers

6 egg yolks
½ cup sugar
1 1/4 whole milk
1/3 cup vegetable oil
2 cups cake flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Meringue
6 egg whites
¼ cup sugar
½ tsp cream of tartar (optional)

• Preheat oven to 325F. Prepare place cut wax paper or parchment paper into three 9-inch round cake pans. Do not grease. Set aside.
• Separate eggs, putting egg whites directly into a mixer bowl. For the meringue, using the whisk attachment or a hand whisk beat egg whites until frothy. Add ¼ cup of sugar and cream of tartar (if using) and whisk until it is glossy and at stiff peak forms and stands when you pull the mixer away. This could take several minutes. If you are using a stand mixer you can start to mix the batter while the meringue is going.
• For the batter, whisk together the egg yolks, ½ cup sugar, whole milk, vanilla extract and vegetable oil.
• Sift cake flour, salt and baking powder into mixture and whisk until smooth.
• Fold in a little bit of the meringue until combined, then gently fold in the rest of the meringue. Try not to overwork. Tap the pans on the counter a couple of times to release air bubbles.
• Pour batter into prepared pans and bake for 20-25 minutes. When you remove pans from oven, run a knife or spatula around the edge of the pan. Allow to cool in pan for 5-10 minutes before turning onto a cooling rack. You may have to run a sharp knife or offset spatula around the edge and use your fingers to gently try to release from the edge. Allow to cool completely before frosting.

To Assemble:

1 whipped cream frosting recipe
1 apricot jam glaze recipe
3 to 4 cups fruits (your choice) – for filling and topping

Place about 1 1/2 cups into a plastic zip topped bag and cut off one corner of the bag. For bottom two layers of cake, pipe on the bagged frosting and smooth out with offset spatula. Arrange about ½ cup of sliced fruits or berries onto of frosting for filling in between each layer. Place the last layer of cake on top and spread frosting as evenly as possible outside of cake. To create rustic look, take the end of an offset spatula and brush on the frosting with quick strokes. Top with the rest the fruits. Brush the cooled glaze on fruit.