Mile High Marble Chiffon Cake- Step by Step

I love a good chiffon cake since it is the (IMHO) perfect blend between the more substantial butter type cake and the sponge type cake. It has the whipped egg whites for a lovely fluffy texture and yet there is oil in it so unlike angel food cake, it doesn’t have that somewhat dry texture.

There is a trick to these cakes that you cannot avoid. If after you bake them fully, you don’t invert them (literally turn them upside down, more on that soon) they will flatten into a dense unpleasant texture, nearly always.

I’ve had many versions of this cake that I’ve made over the years and have had the ignominy of my cake falling right out of the pan even when it seemed fully baked and the pan was not greased. Horrors and aggravation over the waste of time and ingredients.

So, I finally found my recipe that I trust and use and tfutfutfu, doesn’t fall out of the pan. This is over many years of fiddling about and many marble chiffon cakes that my family has (happily) eaten.

A very important trick that I’ve discovered really helps with folding the whites into the batter, is to use a whisk. This seems so crazily obvious after the fact that you wonder why people even suggest using a spatula. It almost automatically folds the whites in for you thereby keeping them fairly well inflated and yet mixed in properly. It’s a great hack.

So, If you have two mixing bowls to go with your mixer, great. If not, get out another bowl or two. It’s fairly straightforward but this is not a one bowl recipe. 🙂 still worth it.

Take your egg whites and start whipping them on medium, not high till they get a bit frothy. Make sure there’s no egg yolk or fat in your bowl which will negatively impact the whites. They just won’t whip properly.

These are untouched egg whites with no yolk in it.

you see the beginning of the whites whipping up a bit frothy. At this point, add the half a cup of sugar slowly (so it dissolves into the whites) and then the cream of tartar (or the lemon juice).

You see they are setting up nicely but still soft. Remember this is at medium speed.

You see they are beaten properly, not stiff but you see the whip marks in the whites and the egg white when you pull the whisk up curls up and hangs down staying put. Don’t beat to a meringue like consistency, that’s too much. Hence, you keep the mixer on medium and it will perform that egg white magic and yes, you can stop the mixer and check to see that it’s ready. If it looks too weepy, keep going but don’t overdo.

Then, set the egg whites aside. If you have a second mixer bowl, great. If not, gently use a spatula to remove the beaten egg whites and put in a clean bowl.

Then take the cup of sugar and the egg yolks and whip together (still using your whisk beaters).

You start whipping the yolks and add the sugar. Then, as you continue they lighten up to a pale yellow.

This is what you want, pale yellow. Then you add the orange juice, water and oil and vanilla and whip.

I had no fresh orange juice so I used more water and some frozen concentrate. Great in a pinch although I prefer the fresh juice. After whipping this in, you add your flour, baking powder and salt and beat just till combined. Your batter’s consistency should look like this:

It should drip thickly off the spatula but should drip. Now add about a third at a time, your patiently waiting beaten egg whites. Make sure you don’t wander off in the middle of this recipe, or take a long distracting call. The egg whites don’t deflate that quickly but do not do well if abandoned for long. You take a handheld whisk and gently whisk the whites into the yellow batter till nicely combined, scraping from the bottom. To see if you’ve done a decent job, take your spatula and scrape the bottom of the mixing bowl just to see if you have too much unmixed yellow batter. If you’ve done a decent job, you should see a nice fairly pale yellow batter.

Now you pour 2/3 of your yellow batter into an UNGREASED 10 inch (not 9 inch or it’ll overflow in your oven and make a terrible mess) tube pan. No misplaced mercy people, no greasing. By greasing the pan, think of it as having a mountain climber try to climb up a greased rope to get to the top. Not a pretty thought. Even using a non stick pan I have found is fine (since none I have used is really THAT non stick) as long as you don’t grease it. Trust me, please.

Now you take the 1/3 left over batter and add your chocolate mixture to it. This is a combo of cocoa and hot water and sugar mixed together with a whisk or fork till fully combined so that the remaining batter shouldn’t deflate on you. Pour over the batter.

and using the hand whisk (the mixer is too powerful now and would deflate the whites too much) gently whisk together till it looks like this:

You can see it’s still fluffy. Then, scrape all that chocolate mixture right on top of the batter in your tube pan. Take a knife and make S shaped swirls to marbelize the batters together (this is fun, just don’t get carried away or you’ll end up with a chocolate chiffon cake 😉 ) and it should look like this:

Now you know I get crazy that people should pre-heat their oven. The temp is 350 but if you don’t preheat for at least 15 minutes, it’s not gonna be the right temperature and with the egg whites in the batter, it matters more than with most cakes. I also advise you to put the tube pan on a parchment lined jelly roll pan in case there are any little drips.

Bake this beauty for one hour. Check with a wooden skewer to make sure it is fully baked. Now this is the interesting part. Take it out when fully baked and wait for about 3 minutes or until it just begins to deflate a tiny bit.

You don’t want it to be over the top of the tube pan. You already have a cooling rack and paper towels out. Place a paper towel on the cooling rack and carefully turn your pan upside down with the cake directly above the paper towel, like so.

Now let the cake cool undisturbed for 2 hours or until completely cool. It really works and doesn’t stick to the paper towel.

To unmold this gorgeous creature, gently take a sharp knife and slide around the edge of the cake (all the way around and make sure to reach the bottom of the pan) following the curve of the pan and gently do the same around the tube part. Now (cake is cold, remember) gently press down on the top of the cake, all around to help release it from the sides. You might need to do the knife around the edges and this twice to make sure the whole cake releases. Then, take a plate or pretty platter and place right on top of the pan and flip cake over onto it, letting it gently land on the plate or platter. Do it from right on top to make sure the cake stays in shape. If you dislodge the cake patiently, it will release, no worries.

High and beautiful, moist and delicious, you will make it again and again.

Mile High Marble Chiffon Cake

6 eggs whites
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar OR 1/2 teaspoon lemon juice

6 egg yolks
1 cup sugar
3/4 cup orange juice OR 2 tablespoon orange juice concentrate and 3/4 cup water
1/2 cup vegetable oil like canola
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups flour
1 tablespoon OR 3 teaspoons baking powder
nice pinch of salt, about 1/2 a teaspoon, rounded

4 flat tablespoons cocoa, sift after measuring
1/4 cup very hot water
1/4 cup sugar

Directions:

You will note that I have listed sugar as an ingredient in more than one place. This is quite deliberate, I want to be certain that you don’t add all the sugar to one of the batters.

First, preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Then in a mixer with whisk beaters (hand held or stand mixer) start beating the egg white on medium speed. They will start getting frothy and add your sugar slowly. As the egg whites begin to mount up and turn white, add the cream of tartar OR the lemon juice and beat (still on medium speed) until the mixture is firm but not too stiff (see pics above) and the whisks leave marks in the whites and are not weepy but not dry. You can and should stop beating them if you are worried about overbeating since you can continue beating the egg whites if they are not properly set up.

Set the whites aside.

In a separate bowl, take the yolks and the 1 cup of sugar and beat till they change from deep yellow to pale yellow, and then add the oil, orange juice and vanilla whipping all the while. Take the flour, salt and baking powder, which I mix together in a bowl and shake gently into the batter and mix just till incorporated.

Now take your beaten egg whites and with a handheld whisk, gently fold 1/3 of them into the yellow batter, making sure you scrape the bottom of the bowl just to initially lighten the batter and then add the rest and continue to whisk them in gently but thoroughly. You will see that the whisk does most of the folding work for you. Check to see that all the whites have been incorporated into all the batter, but don’t be too vigorous so as not to deflate them too much.

Take a 10 inch tube pan and DO NOT GREASE IT and pour 2/3 of the light yellow batter into the pan.

Next in a small bowl, whisk (with a fork or a whisk) the hot water, cocoa and 1/4 cup of sugar till you have a thinnish batter and pour into the remaining 1/3 of yellow batter in your bowl. Stir gently with the whisk till it turns chocolate colored and pour the lot on top of your light yellow batter. Take a knife and using S shaped swirls, swirl and marbelize your batter (see above) till it has a nice pattern.

Take your tube pan and place on a jelly roll pan or baking sheet lined with a piece of parchment paper on it (to catch any spills) and place in 350 preheated oven for 1 hour. Check with a wooden skewer (toothpick is too short for the job) to make sure it is fully baked.

Remove from oven and let deflate for a few minutes (not longer) and then, take a cooling rack and a piece or two of paper towel and gently invert pan over paper towel which you’ve put on the cooling rack (see pic above). Let cool completely, about 2 hours, and turn right side up. Using a knife, carefully cut around the edge of the pan and the middle tube to release the cake from the sides. Best to repeat this to be sure. Then, press gently down of the top of the cake to ensure the release. If your cake is properly cold, no worries. Take a plate or nice platter, put on top of tube pan and flip cake over to platter. You will have a beautiful high cake that’s gorgeous as is or if you wish to guild the lily, you can sift some confectioner’s sugar over the top.