This lighter than air olive oil chiffon cake is fragrant with the faint scent of oranges and fruity olive oil. It's perfect with a cup of coffee or tea.
This olive oil chiffon cake includes freshly squeezed orange juice and extra virgin olive oil. It lends itself to all kinds of toppings, including whipped cream, chocolate sauce, fruit sauce, or ice cream.
Ingredients in this olive oil chiffon cake:
Pantry ingredients: All purpose flour, granulated sugar, baking powder, kosher salt, and pure vanilla extract.
Eggs: You will need nine eggs, separated into six yolks and nine whites (I recommend saving the three extra yolks for lime curd frozen custard). You can separate the eggs in your hand, letting the whites slip through your fingers into a bowl, or use a special egg separator tool.
Tip: Have a small bowl for dropping individual egg whites into before transferring them to the rest of the separated egg whites so that if any egg yolk gets into it, you don't mess with your clean egg whites.
You beat the whites, along with cream of tartar and some of the sugar to create stiff peaks, similar to making an angel food cake.
Liquids: Orange juice and zest along with extra virgin olive oil, into which you beat the egg yolks and vanilla.
While I have made chiffon cakes before, including espresso chiffon cake, this is my first attempt at one made in an angel food cake pan where the cake rises high.
You make this cake as a single light-as-air cake instead of layers. Just as you would with an angel food cake, you need to invert the pan in order to prevent the cake from falling as it cools once you take it out of the oven.
My pan has feet, but this cake rose so high (it doubled in height while baking and rose higher than the top of the pan) that I inverted it by placing the center spindle of the pan on the narrow top of a wine bottle.
Be sure the bottom is removable (most are) so that you can remove the deep cake from the pan. Use a light colored pan, not a dark angel food cake pan.
Also, do not grease the pan. Just like with angel food cake, the batter needs to be able to "grab" the sides of the pan as it rises in the oven. Plus, this helps the risen cake stay in the pan rather than falling out as it cools upside down.
The cake will stick to the sides of the pan, but, once it cools, you can use a long thin knife to separate the outside of the cake from the pan. I ended up with a couple of small gashes and light spots on the side of the cake, but nothing that a few patches of whipped cream or toppings (I hope to get way better at it the next time).
To separate the center and bottom from the cake, run the knife around the center and and the bottom and then invert the whole cake onto a plate. The cake is so light that turning the cake over is "a piece of cake!"
For the orange juice and zest, I substituted fresh tangelo juice from our tree that has been so productive this year. It's been an amazing year for this tree. You could also substitute tangerines.
Because there are only two of us, I served these slices plain or I frosted small sections of this cake with sweetened whipped cream just before slicing and serving. I didn't want to frost the whole cake and then have the whipped cream melt in the refrigerator. Plus, the plain cake stays fresher at room temperature.
I also made a quick cherry sauce using the same recipe from the topping for black forest cake.
This cake was amazing. It was so light and it stayed fresh for quite a long time!
You could also use leftovers for trifles with berries, custard, and whipped cream. So yummy.
Note: If you are worried that the extra virgin olive oil will be too strong of a flavor, you can mix half olive oil and half neutral oil. I used all olive oil and did not find it to be too strong. In fact, it was only faintly detectable, with the gentle orange scent and flavor being stronger.
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Follow our Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest pages where you can find all of our cakes, as well as inspiration for many other cakes. You can also click on the links below to take you to each of our cakes. If you have a blog and are interested in joining The Cake Slice Bakers and baking along with us, please send an email to thecakeslicebakers at gmail dot com for more details.
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Frost this cake with whipped cream, chocolate whipped cream, or serve it plain with individual toppings. The cake is way too light for buttercream.
If you'd like to use a whipped cream frosting, one way to make it in advance is add a whipped cream stabilizer to the cream before frosting.
I always keep some on hand for when I need to take a whipped cream dessert to an event or potluck. The cake will keep in the refrigerator for a few hours without weeping.
If you have a Dutch grocery store in your area, you may be able to find this product there too.
Olive Oil Chiffon Cake
Ingredients
- 210 grams (1 3/4 cups) all purpose flour
- 300 grams (1 1/2 cups) granulated sugar
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 6 large egg yolks, room temperature
- 1/2 cup freshly squeezed orange juice
- Zest of one orange
- 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extra
- 9 large egg whites, room temperature
- 1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
- Whipped cream and/or toppings of your choice
Instructions
- Heat your oven to 350 degrees F.
- In a medium to large bowl, whisk together the flour, 1 cup of the sugar, the baking powder, and the salt.
- In large bowl, whisk together the egg yolks, orange juice, orange zest, olive oil, and vanilla extract.
- Add the flour mixture to the egg yolk mixture and stir until smooth.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer (five quarts or larger), using the whisk attachment on high speed, begin beating the egg whites and cream of tartar until you have medium peaks, about 2 minutes. Change the mixer speed to medium low and begin adding the rest of the sugar by sprinkling it in slowly. Switch the speed to high until you have stiff peaks, about another minute.
- Stir 1/3 of the egg white mixture into the flour and egg yolk mixture to lighten it up. Next, fold in the rest of the egg whites into the batter using a rubber spatula until thoroughly mixed in.
- Pour the batter into an unprepared 10 inch angel food cake/tube pan.
- Bake the cake on the center rack for 50 to 55 minutes until a tester comes out clean. Immediately invert the pan over a wine bottle (or using the "legs" on your pan) and let cool for 45 minutes.
- Using a thin knife, loosen the cake away from the sides and the center tube of the pan. Separate the pan from the bottom and use the knife to loosing the top of the cake. Invert the cake onto a platter.
- Slice and serve with the toppings of your choice.
Nutrition Facts
Calories
287Fat (grams)
11.56Sat. Fat (grams)
2.08Carbs (grams)
40.37Fiber (grams)
0.6Net carbs
39.76Sugar (grams)
26.14Protein (grams)
5.95Sodium (milligrams)
310.63Cholesterol (grams)
91.8
Karen, this cake looks so light and airy (and yummy!)
ReplyDeleteThank you!
DeleteThat is an absolutely gorgeous cake Karen. I love olive oil cakes.
ReplyDeleteThanks Wendy, me too!
DeleteThat cake looks and sounds delicious! I've never made anything in an angel food cake pan - I may have to see if I can find one to borrow so I can try this recipe.
ReplyDeleteDefinitely. They're pretty inexpensive too.
Delete