Mocha Chiffon Cake with Fresh Strawberries
How is everything in your world? I am enjoying my full time job, but I really miss baking. I’ve been trying to bake often, but it’s just not easy. Hopefully, I will learn the better way to manage my time after work! Today, I would like to introduce you my ultimate favorite cake of all….”Mocah Chiffon Cake with Fresh Strawberries”!!!! Chestnut Chiffon Cupcake is the small version of enjoying heaven, this is the big version of enjoying heaven!
Again, chiffon cake is my FAVORITE cake of all. Chiffon cake doesn’t have a rich flavor of butter. However, this is such a light and moist cake that everyone can enjoy. Because the cake itself doesn’t have a strong flavor, you can add your favorite flavor to icing (usually Chantilly cream is used) and fruit as topping. In addition, once you’ve got a good recipe that you like, you can make a variety of chiffon cakes by substituting some ingredients. If you are like me, who doesn’t like cakes that are too sweet, this is your kind of cake.
Chiffon cake is not as hard as you’ve heard. You know, all those scary stories about how chiffon cake didn’t raise, chiffon cake sank, etc. Don’t worry about them and just follow steps and tips, you will have a full raised chiffon cake! And, even if you didn’t get it on the first time, don’t be disappointed. You will get it when you try again!
EQUIPMENT & INGREDIENTS
Equipment
1 Stand mixer (or hand mixer)
1 baking/cooking scale
1 10-inch Tube pan (Also known as a Chiffon or Angel food cake pan)
1 Baking pan
Ingredients
For cake
120g egg yolks (6 medium size egg yolks)
90g sugar A.
120g water
120g olive oil
15g coffee extract (espresso)
2g vanilla extract
180g cake flour
7g baking powder
320g egg whites (about 10 medium size egg whites)
120g sugar B.
For chantilly cream
300g heavy cream
30g sugar
5g orange liqueur
For topping
fresh strawberries
HOW TO MAKE
Before You Start
Sift the cake flour and baking powder three times.
Preheat the oven to 300F.
Making Egg Yolk Base
1. Separate egg yolks and whites. The way that I used to separate egg yolks and whites (photo 1) is a very useful method when you have to separate many eggs. See Alexa’s Tip #1. on the bottom for details.
2-3. Put 6 egg yolks in a stand mixer bowl and start beating for about 15 seconds. Then, slowly add sugar A. while beating egg yolks at a medium speed.
4-6. Raise the speed to high and continue beat egg yolks and sugar until the color lightens (about 3-4 minutes). Add water and beat. Then, add olive oil and beat well.
7-8. Add coffee extract and vanilla extract and beat until well mixed.
9. Sift cake flour and baking powder. Add the flour mixture and beat at low speed until you no longer see any powder. Do not over mix. Set the mixture aside in a separate bowl.
Making meringue
10-12. Add 10 egg whites in a bowl and beat at medium speed. When it starts foamy, slowly add sugar B. while it is beating. Then, increase to high speed and continue beat. You want to have medium peak meringue for chiffon cake. If it’s your first time, beat a little bit longer until you have medium and high peak meringue, but make sure not to overbeat.
Folding & Pouring
13-15. Add half of the meringue to the batter and GENTLY fold in using a whisk or rubber spatula. Then, add the rest of the meringue and GENTLY fold in. I like using a whisk because it has less chances to kill air bubbles in meringue.
16. Prepare a tube pan by simply spraying water all around the inside and placing it on the baking pan. This must done before you pour the batter.
17-18. Pour the batter into the tube pan up to 3/4 of the pan. Then, dip a chopstick (or any clean stick) in the batter and go around the pan once or twice to get the air out.
Baking & Cooling
19. Put the ENTIRE pan assemblage in the oven and bake for about 55 minutes. DO NOT OPEN the oven while it is baking.
20. Take the pan out and test with a toothpick after 55 minutes. (You can open the oven now.) If it doesn’t come out clean, bake a few more minutes and check again. Repeat as necessary. When it is done, IMMEDIATELY turn the tube pan upside down and place it on a cooling rack.
Taking Out & Layering
21. Cool the cake completely before take it out of the pan.
22. Run a metal spatula to around the inside of the pan to separate it from the cake. Remove the cake from the side of the tube pan.
23. Run a metal spatula to separate the bottom of the tube pan from the cake.
24. Put the cake board on top of the cake and flip it over.
25. Remove the bottom of the tube pan.
26. Slice the cake in three layers.
Decorating
27. Make Chantilly Cream (Whipped Cream) and apply two layers of Chantilly Cream.
28. Put a thick layer of cream on the top and put enough in the center to cover the cake. Then, put the cream around the side. Make it pretty as you want! I sliced fresh strawberries about 1/4-inch thick and put around the cake. Also, sliced whole strawberries with the stem on and decorate them on top of the cake.
ALEXA’S TIPS
1. It is pretty important to separate yolks from whites clearly when you make meringue or a cake like chiffon. When you have to separate quite a few eggs yolks and whites, try this method. There is a chance that you might break one yolk and not be able to use whites, but this is efficient if you are successive. Break egg shells carefully and put them all in a big bowl. Wash your hand really clean. Use your four fingers of both hands and separate yolks from egg whites by tossing egg yolks left and right. Wash your hands really well after this process!
2. The key point of making a good meringue is a. using a clean dry bowl and b. having egg whites without any part of yolks.
3. It is really important to put the chiffon cake batter in the oven as soon as you pour it in the pan. If you forgot to preheat the oven and have to let the batter sit for 5 or 10 minutes, the cake might sink instead raise because the air bubbles in meringue died. So, make sure you preheat the oven before you start!
4. If you are using a nonstick tube pan like I did, you don’t want to run a metal spatula and scratch the pan. Here is a little trick for that problem. I wrapped my metal spatula with plastic wrap a couple of times and it didn’t scratch a line! If you have a rubber bowl scraper, that can be a good tool.
Taste Review
I loved it! This cake is so light and moist. Plus, I love fresh strawberry and whipped cream.
My limit is usually a half piece for a butter cake or pound cake. However, oh boy, I can eat a giant slice of chiffon cake for breakfast, lunch, and dinner! Although you are a big fan of a butter cake, you will enjoy this soft and moist chiffon cake. =]
A side of the mocha chiffon cake! Isn’t it beautiful?
No time to decorate? Just slice a piece and enjoy with whipped cream and your favorite fruit on top! Or, drizzle a hot fudge sauce and sprinkle powdered sugar!
Next time, I will share with you how to make green tea, banana, chocolate, and strawberry chiffon cake.
This is my first cake ever. Before this one, cake was something that I only buy at a bakery. I made this cake for my husband’s birthday. I used a cake mix and a store-bought icing. It’s not bad for the first cake, is it?
This is such a quick and easy dessert. My husband introduced me to the great world of strawberry shortcake. Ever since than, I’m in love with the combination of strawberry and whipped cream!
This is a second cake that I made for my hubby’s birthday. Can you tell that I really tried hard to make it little bit fancier than the first one? I used Betty Crocker Super Moist – Dark Chocolate cake mix (It was my favorite, but I don’t see this anymore in a grocery store.) and I LOVED it. The combination of “Dark chocolate cake + Whipped cream icing + Fresh strawberry filling” is my ultimate favorite!
This is a cake with yellow cake mix and strawberry flavored icing. I wasn’t sure where I was going with the decorating part, but my friend who got this cake loved it…=]
Whipped cream icing is my favorite, not so much for my husband though. I like it because it is sweet, but not too sweet. I’ve always whipped my own heavy cream as I have a control in consistency for decorating. How did I make this chocolate flavored whipped cream? It’s simple, just add chocolate syrup while you are whipping heavy cream!
I love to watch Foodnetwork channel! I have learned most of cooking and baking knowledge and skills by watching TV shows on Foodnetwork. One day, I saw a very fancy chocolate cake on TV – something like the one that I made, and I decided to try for my friend’s birthday cake. At that time, I had absolutely no idea about ‘tempering chocolate,’ so I just melted regular chocolate candy bars, piped and shaped, and waited until they get hard. However, shaped chocolate decors were still soft, so I decided to chill them in a refrigerator. They got hard, but it only lasted for a couple of minutes. Result – my finger prints appeared everywhere on chocolate decors and as soon as it reached room temperature, they were falling apart. Years later, I now know what to do! =]
After I had a great holidays (Christmas and New Year’s Day) at my parents-in-law’s house, I wanted make something sweet for them before I go home. Again, I made my ultimate favorite – A dark chocolate cake with fresh berries and whipped cream icing. I forgot to buy mint leaves, so I went out to their backyard and got some sage leaves! It worked for that time. Haha…=]
Strawberry short cake is my emergency dessert – when I really want some sweet stuff, which is very rare. Any kind of cake (pound cake, angel’s food cake, sponge cake, or chiffon cake) and strawberries are all I need, then, I can simply make this dessert. Don’t have whipped cream? Don’t worry, It is still good without whipped cream!
One of my favorite desserts is good quality vanilla ice cream on top of freshly baked hot brownie. Of course, I can’t forget to drizzle some chocolate syrup and dust powdered sugar for extra sweetness! Oh, I recently got an ice cream machine as a gift from my mother-in-law. I can’t wait to make all different kinds of frozen desserts! 
I made this cake for my birthday. Yeah, it sounds a little weird, but it was my first time making my own cake. I think everyone deserves to have a special cake on their birthday. =] For this cake, I tried some new techniques. First, I added fresh strawberry puree while I was whipping heavy cream. You can see strawberry seeds on the cake! I personally don’t like using artificial flavor, so this is how I usually flavor my sweets. Second, I tired sugar art for the first time. I didn’t know how to do it, but I just did it after I saw a quick process of ‘how to make sugar art’ on TV. It was very beautiful, but my hands were burning!
Although I had not attempted to bake cakes from scratch during my first four years of baking, I made some cookies from scratch time to time. One cold night, I had to have some sweets and made pecan shortbread cookies. I shaped dough in start, square, and triangle before I freeze them. They were good. =]
My first homemade icing (other than whipped cream icing). Instead of adding sugar to cream cheese icing, I added melted white chocolate. Yammmm…it was good! No special decoration needed! Just decorate two layers of baked cake with white chocolate cream cheese icing and sprinkle cocoa powder on top!
Winter was coming. I had to smell freshly backed gingerbread cookies in the kitchen before Christmas arrived. I think I over-baked cookies little bit, but it was ok. Royal icing is so fun and pretty to decorate.
At the end of 2007, my mother-in-law and I decided to take a cake decorating class for fun. We registered at Joann for Wilton cake decorating beginner’s class and decorated three cakes through the classes. This was my first cake – the theme that I picked was ‘Thanksgiving.’ I decorated cute mother and baby pumpkin using a star tip decoration method.
My second week of class, I learned how to make clowns on top of cupcakes. My clowns were about to fall.
We also learned how to make drop flowers on the same week we made clowns.
This was the final project – decorating with flowers and ribbons. I baked a regular cake mix in a one cake pan (the height was higher than a regular pan) and sliced them in three layers. Then, carve them into three different sizes using plates. It was my first mini wedding cake. =]
I’ve always dreamed about making individual cakes. I didn’t have individual cake rings, but I attempted to make them anyway. I baked cake in a sheet pan, cut it with a circle cookie cutter, and arranged layers with whipped ganache by hands. It was messy and not easy, but I did it! By making this sweet, I’ve learned why it is important to have right tools and pans to make certain sweets. It saves lots of time and helps me to get a perfect result. I still don’t have individual cake rings – they are quite pricey. I’m just waiting for the right time to buy all kinds of different size cake rings!
I LOVE berries!
Baked tart shell (Click 
1. Usually, apricot jam is often used for making glaze (I haven’t look up why yet.) But, any kind of jams will work for glaze. Since I am making fresh berries tarts, I picked a raspberry jam to make my glaze. Boil the jam in a sauce pan and pour over a strainer.
3. Melt the chocolate you picked and brush the tart shells (the bottom and side) with the melted chocolate. This step helps you to prevent tart shells becoming soggy and it also upgrades the taste! =]
5. Arrange the berries over the surface of the pastry cream. Make sure that you try to fill the entire tart shell as the pastry cream is invisible.
Garnish with fresh mint and serve or eat within 12 hours!
Love the color of berries and mint!