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Berry chiffon upside-down cake

(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.  


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.

    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 !

Some useful links for baking equipment or similar objects in photos :




    

    


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