Question about chiffon cake

My wife has been working on making a chiffon cake. The picture below is attempt number 10. She has varied the temperature of the oven, used a metal tray or no metal tray in the oven, and other factors. The cake rises and looks ok from the top, but it always has this weird form on the bottom. To me, it seems that a steam / gas pocket is forming possibly because the heat is too hot on the bottom. She says she has lowered the bottom temperature and the results are similar.

My question is what causes this to happen and what are some solutions?

baking oven

Best Answer

I was just looking into trying this myself (after a disastrous attempt at bundt cake - tasted fine but broke in half coming out of the pan) anyway, I found a great site with lots of tips https://www.justonecookbook.com/how_to/perfect-chiffon-cake/ but what I also found, were other chiffon cakes where this had happened, and rather than it being a failure, people would decorate the groove with fresh fruit and icing sugar. So as long as it tastes good, just embellish it.

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What is special about chiffon cake?

As a result, chiffon cakes (as well as angel cakes and other foam cakes) achieve a fluffy texture by having egg whites beaten separately until stiff and then folded into the cake batter before baking. Its aeration properties rely on both the quality of the meringue and the chemical leaveners.

Why does chiffon cake fall out of pan?

Beat egg whites correctly: Under-beating egg whites will cause the cake structure to collapse, while over-beating can cause the mixture to break down when you fold it into the batter, creating a heavy batter. Therefore, always keep an eye out for the egg whites as they thicken.

What makes a chiffon cake rise?

To simplify it, a chiffon cake is leavened naturally i.e. it gets its rise mainly from the meringue (whisked egg whites) and not from chemical leaveners such as baking soda and baking powder. Make sure you use the correct chiffon cake tin for this purpose.

What type of cake is chiffon cake?

Chiffon cake is a type of foam cake, which has a high ratio of eggs to flour and is leavened mainly from the air beaten into the egg whites. It's similar to an angel food cake, but instead of using just egg whites, chiffon cake recipes use the whole egg.