I have been obsessed with the blueberry chiffon cake from Paris Baguette since the very first time I tasted it. It is literally a taste of heaven...fluffy and airy, moist with the right amount of sweetness. I tried to find recipes for it online but this recipe was the closest thing to it that I could find and the recipe calls for strawberries instead of blueberries. Since strawberries are now in season, I decided to test this recipe out before determining its adaptability to blueberries.
Strawberry Chiffon Cake Recipe
adapated from Little Corner of Mine
Dry Ingredients
1 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 Tbsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1/2 cup sugar
Wet Ingredients
1/2 cup canola oil
6 egg yolks
3/4 cup strawberry puree (Use a blender and puree 7-8 strawberries with 3/4 cup of water and sieved)
1 tsp. imitation strawberry extract
Few drops of red coloring
Meringue
6 egg whites
1/2 tsp. cream of tartar
3/4 cup sugar
Directions
Preheat oven to 350'F.
I threw 7-8 chopped strawberries and the water into a food processor to puree. Then I strained it through the sieve to remove all the seeds and pulp.
Sift dry ingredients in a big bowl. Stir to mix. Add wet ingredients and use an electric mixer to mix until incorporated, set aside.
For the meringue, beat egg whites and cream of tartar in another bowl until soft peaks form, then gradually add in the sugar. Beat until stiff peaks are formed. Fold 1/3 of the meringue mixture into the yolk batter gently but thoroughly. Then, add another 1/3 of the meringue and do the same until all the meringue is incorporated.
Pour batter into a tube pan and rap on the table to remove any air pockets.
Bake for 50 minutes or until a tooth pick inserted come out clean. Invert the pan and let the cake cool inside the pan. When cooled, loosen the edges and remove the cake to cool completely on a wire rack.
Assembling the cake
The frosting was made by whipping heavy whipping cream with powdered sugar and vanilla bean paste.
I decided to go with slicing the cake into 3 layers in case the inside was dry and needed more filling.
I spread a layer of cream and added fresh chopped strawberries.
I placed the second layer of cake on top next and filled another layer with cream and strawberries.
After assembling the cake, I added a first layer of cream, the "crumb" layer to cover all the crumbs. A second layer was then added on and smoothed out.
Tada!
I was super duper impressed with the results of this cake, considering there wasn't alot of feedback on it on the website. It was not overtly sweet and very moist and light - I would definitely characterize this cake in the "Asian" cake category. It lends to alot of possible variations: mango, blueberry, peach, cherry...basically any fruit you can puree with water and strain through a sieve. This recipe is a definite keeper!