Chocolate chiffon cake
I must confess that this chocolate chiffon cake is my new favorite cake and probably (caution is a must) the best cake I have ever baked or eaten. It is different from any other dessert I have ever come across because it has a special consistency; imagine biting into a delicate cloud of cocoa, soft but moist, light and at the same time velvety. Done? That’s it, the chiffon cake.
You can serve the chocolate chiffon cake plain (it’s addictive!) or even with a filling or covered with icing, at breakfast, for a snack, as a dessert after dinner… I think it’s basically impossible not to fall in love with it.
The recipe comes, among other things I love, from one of the best cookbooks that I recently treated myself to: Monday Morning Cooking Club – The Food, the Stories, the Sisterhood.
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It is a beautifully illustrated volume of both traditional and non-traditional Jewish recipes, whose entire proceeds go to charity, curated by six young women from the Jewish community in Sydney, who have been cooking together since 2006. If you are curious, you can learn more about the history of this recipe book on sito del progetto. The book is so interesting and at the same time reliable from a recipe point of view, that if I had to leave for a deserted island and could only bring one cookbook with me, perhaps this is the one I would choose.
Note: to prepare the chocolate chiffon cake you will need a special chiffon and angel food cake mold. This is avery high mold with a flat and removable bottom and characteristic support feet; it is found in all specialized shops or obviously online on Amazon. No, another cake pan that you have at home will not do: you need that specific one. I realize that they sell for about €20, but this will be the best money spent in the food sector that you can invest this year, I promise.
Chocolate chiffon cake
Ingredients
- 260 g self-rising flour
- 135 g sweet cocoa the original recipe calls for drinking chocolate, which I happened to have at home, but sweet cocoa will work equally well
- 6 eggs
- 170 + 170 g total 340 g sugar
- 250 ml peanut or sunflower seed oil
- 250 ml water
Instructions
- Divide the eggs into two bowls, the whites on one side, and the yolks on the other.
- Whisk the egg whites until stiff, adding the first 170 g sugar mid-process, to obtain a firm and shiny meringue, then transfer everything to the refrigerator; whisk the egg yolks with the remaining 170 g sugar, to obtain a light and foamy cream.
- Pour the seed oil into the egg yolk cream, mixing with the electric beater until it is well blended.
- Sift the flour and cocoa into the cream, then add the water a little at a time until you have a smooth and uniform dough.
- Gently blend the whisked egg whites into the cocoa mixture, with an airy movement from top to bottom, constantly turning the bowl.
- Now that the dough is ready, pour it gently into the chiffon cake mold; the mold should absolutely not be greased with butter or coated with flour.
- Bake the chocolate chiffon cake in a conventional oven preheated to 180° for 55 minutes.
- Take the chocolate chiffon cake out of the oven and turn it upside down on the appropriate feet of the mold, so that the cake is cooled upside down. I know it sounds strange but trust me, it is necessary.
- When the chocolate chiffon cake is completely cold, gently remove it from the base of the mould, and store it well wrapped in foil until ready to serve.
