Vanilla chiffon filled with mangoes, balsamic strawberries, and yogurt whipped cream

This cake is what I call my "hybrid" chiffon cake because I've combined the airy texture of aĀ chiffon with the stability of a classic vanilla layer cake.Ā ItĀ has the lightest texture of all my cakes and this one has a classic vanilla flavor that goes great with any type of fruit and whipped cream.

Traditionally, chiffon cakes are baked in chiffon cake pans and then cooled upside down.Ā These baking pans are large andĀ tall, and contain a central hole. It kind of looks like a large donut, which facilitates even heat transfer throughout the batter. Cooling upside down allows the cake to remain tall so the weight of gravity doesn't push down on it.Ā 

I've designed my chiffon cake recipe so that it is a tad sturdier;Ā this allows us to reliably bake chiffons in different cake pans in the Cakeculator. Cupcakes and mini cakes bake well with this recipe and I've also used this chiffon to make tall stacked layer cakes.

A few notes on baking this cake in rounded cake pans:
I have cooled these cakes both right side up and upside down. If you cool them right side up - they will shrink down to a level surface and kind of be wrinkly on the tops. It didn't affect the inner texture of the cake at all, really. I feel like it's more of an apperance thing. (If it concaves or pulls away from the sides of the pan when you take it out of the oven, however, the cake is underbaked. The cake should level, but not collapse.)

If you cool them upside down, they will look slightly higher. Watch my video and you can see the littleĀ bit of difference. As far as the texture, I couldn't really tell -Ā but the finished cake looksĀ prettier. Though the appearance doesn't really matter if you'reĀ stacking layers inside a cake. I still let them cool upside down even though it is nerve wracking the first few times you do it. But don't worry, if it's fully baked - and I give you lots of visuals in the video on how to tell - it won't fall out.

Note that I use 2" high pans, which after turning the pans upside down kinda just barely smooshes the cake. If you use a 3" high pan, maybe you'll likely get noticeably higher cakes.

To make other cake sizes, such as cupcakes or mini cakes, you can select "Vanilla Chiffon" in my cakeculator by going here.

If you'd like to make the exact cake I show in my YouTube video, I've written it out below.

Step-by-Step

Hi! I'm Adriana.

I built this site for the curious home baker. I'm a huge science + tech nerd; you'll feel right at home if you like exploring and experimenting in the kitchen too.

Here you can build cakes with my Cakeculator and find recipes to accompany the videos from YouTube, Tiktok, and Instagram.

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