Berry chiffon upside-down cake

Overhead view of berry chiffon cake with strawberry cream

(Better late than never...)

It's time for an upside-down cake, this time with berries. I had initially wanted to bake a pandan chiffon cake but, slight drawback... I didn't have any pandan leaves or extract. Since it's summertime, I had lots of berries instead, so the decision was made. By the way, you can use this batter base to make all kinds of chiffon cake flavors : mocha, ube, pandan, cider, berries... It's my go-to batter nowadays, the cake is so delicious and pillow-soft (the secret is in the meringue you fold in).

Here's the recipe :

   3 eggs, separated
1/4 water or milk (this is what you can substitute with flavors like strong coffee, pandan extract, juice, ube, cider, lemon...)
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 cup cake flour
  1/2 cup sugar + 1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
   1 teaspoon vanilla
1-1/2 cup berries (raspberries, strawberries, blueberries, cherries, currants)

Preheat oven 350° F / 180° C. Line a 9-10" diameter pan with parchment paper. Separate eggs into 2 bowls. Beat egg whites until you get soft peaks. Add 1/2 cup of sugar and continue to beat until you get a stiff meringue (about 2 minutes). In the other bowl, beat the egg yolks with vegetable oil, 1/4 liquid (water, milk, juice, coffee, limoncello... according to the flavor you want to have, I used milk for this version), then add vanilla.

Whip egg whites until you get soft peaks

Cake is ready when it springs to the touch

Pipe roses or dollops forms of buttercream on cooled cake

Add cake flour, sugar, baking powder, salt. You can also add a tablespoon of the meringue to the batter if it's too thick. Then begin to fold in the rest of the meringue a spoonful at a time, making sure not to overmix (you don't want to deflate the air). Once ou get an even-colored batter, spoon the batter into the pan, then tap pan gently on the countertop to remove bubbles. For this version of the sponge cake I added berries over the batter (which later seep to the bottom of the cake while baking). Bake for 30-35 minutes or until the middle has risen, test with a toothpick which should come out clean.

Allow to cool on a cooling rack. Remove from pan, turn over onto a serving dish and peel off the parchment paper. Once completely cool, make a strawberry buttercream you can pipe or spoon on top with some sliced strawberries. You can also powder the cake with some confectioners sugar.

Outdoor picnic setting of berry cake on a serving tray

Strawberry buttercream
1 cup butter
2 cups confectioners sugar
1/4 cup pureed strawberries
1 teaspoon vanilla
(add a teaspoon of cream if too thick, some powdered milk if too liquid)

Happy baking, everyone !