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 myself, or even eaten. I know these are big statements, but I mean them. Chiffon cake is different from any other cake 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 chocolate chiffon cake.
You can serve chocolate chiffon cake plain (it’s addictive!) or even with a filling or covered with icing. You can have it to celebrate a birthday, or for breakfast (yay for the Italian concept of sweet food for breakfast!), for a snack, as a dessert after dinner… whatever the time of day, it’s impossible not to fall in love with it.
The recipe comes from one of the best cookbooks that I recently treated myself to: Monday Morning Cooking Club – The Food, the Stories, the Sisterhood. It’s a beautifully illustrated volume of both traditional and non-traditional Jewish recipes, whose 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 the website of the project. The book is so interesting and the recipes are so reliable, that if I had to leave for a desert island and could only bring one cookbook with me, perhaps this is the one I would choose.
Important note: to prepare the chocolate chiffon cake you will need a special chiffon or angel food cake pan. This is a very bundt tall pan with a flat and removable bottom and characteristic support feet; it is found in all shops that specialize in kitchen equipment or online on Amazon. No, another cake pan that you have at home will not work for this recipe: you need that specific one. I realize that they sell for about €20, but this will be the best “kitchen gadget” money that you can invest this year. Ditch the spiralizer, the air fryer and the ice cream maker, you don’t need them. What you need is this cake, trust me.
Chocolate chiffon cake
Ingredients
- 260 g self-rising flour*
- 135 g sweetened cocoa or hot cocoa mix
- 6 eggs
- 340 sugar, divided
- 1 cup peanut or sunflower seed oil
- 1 cup water
Instructions
- Divide the egg whites and the egg yolks into two bowls.6 eggs
- Whip the egg whites until stiff, adding half of the sugar as you go, to obtain a firm and shiny meringue, and store it in the fridge.340 sugar, divided
- Whip the egg yolks with the remaining half of the sugar, to obtain a light and pale cream.
- Pour the oil into the whipped egg yolk, mixing with the electric beater until it is well blended.1 cup peanut or sunflower seed oil
- Sift flour and cocoa into the mixture, then add water a little at a time until you have a smooth batter.135 g sweetened cocoa or hot cocoa mix, 1 cup water, 260 g self-rising flour*
- Gently fold the egg whites into the cocoa mixture, from top to bottom, constantly turning the bowl, until properly incorporated.
- Preheat the oven to 365°F. Pour the batter gently into the chiffon cake pan; the pan should NOT be greased or coated. The whole point of this cake pan is that the batter rises and sticks to the walls of the pan.
- Bake the chocolate chiffon cake for 55 minutes.
- Take the chocolate chiffon cake out of the oven and turn it upside down on the special little feet that the pan features, so that the cake can cool upside down. I know it sounds strange but this is the way it's done, trust the process.
- When the chocolate chiffon cake is completely cold, flip it over again, and use a knife to gently dislodge it from the pan. Store it well wrapped in foil until ready to serve.
If self-rising flour is not available where you live, don’t worry, it’s easy to make it at home. For every 1 cup of all-purpose flour, add 1 1/2 teaspoons of baking powder and 1/4 teaspoon of fine salt – that’s all you need.
