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Light, spongy and airy with nice fragrance from earl grey tea, this delightful Earl Grey Chiffon Cake is a perfect dessert for your afternoon tea!
Have you tried Earl Grey flavored baked goods before? How about baking with tea leaves? If you haven’t, you must try this Earl Grey chiffon cake. Earl Grey is a tea blend with delightful and calming citrus flavor. The citrus flavor comes from oil extracted from the rind of a bergamot orange.
As Earl Grey is my all-time favorite tea, all kinds of baked goods infused with Earl Grey tea are my top choices in bakeries. Given my love for sweet, I would even rank any Earl Grey flavored baked goods higher than chocolate. I am not kidding! From Earl Grey cookies, Earl Grey pound cake to this Earl Grey chiffon, I can never resist any of them.
Watch How To Make Earl Grey Chiffon Cake
Spongy and airy Earl Grey Chiffon Cake, made with Earl Grey tea and perfect for a snack or dessert.
Tea-Infused Baked Goods
After living in the U.S., I realized tea-infused baked goods are not as popular compared to Japan. This actually motivated me to learn how to bake so that I can enjoy my favorite Earl Grey baked goods at home.
If you haven’t tried making a chiffon cake before, you will have to trust me when I say it’s one of the easiest cakes to bake. Not an experienced baker? Not to worry. I used to think it would be intimidating to bake chiffon cake as well, but it turned out to be less challenging than I had presumed. Once you understand the simple techniques, it will be one of your favorite cake recipes to bake at home.
Tips to Make Airy Chiffon Cake
The most crucial part to make a successful chiffon cake is to make perfect meringue and fold it into batter correctly.
Meringue
In Japan, the majority of recipes call for cold egg whites to make meringue (and we don’t use cream of tartar). If you already know how to make meringue with room temperature egg whites and cream of tartar, please use your own method. Otherwise, you can follow my detailed instructions in the recipe.
Fold In
When you finish making meringue, make sure to fold in egg whites gently so the tiny bubbles don’t deflate. If you deflate the egg whites too much, the cake will not be fluffy.
How to Make the Perfect Chiffon Cake
- Have a question on chiffon cake making?
- Do you have a different size chiffon cake pan?
I answered your questions in this post.
Itadakimasu!
Chiffon cakes are my daughter’s favorite cake because she can help me make them and we enjoy making different types together. What I like best about chiffon cakes is they are so fluffy and bouncy, and not too sweet. The sponge-like texture is exceptionally light and airy that I feel like I can gobble up half of the cake myself.
It is also slightly healthier than other types of baked goods that use plenty of butter. This earl grey chiffon cake recipe uses just 3 Tbsp. of oil. With a faint citrus aroma, it makes the perfect cake to enjoy in the idyllic afternoon when you have some good friends over.
If you don’t like Earl Grey, try my Green Tea Chiffon Cake or Meyer Lemon Chiffon Cake.
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- 2 tsp Earl Grey loose tea leaves (3 g) (For step 2)
- 1 Tbsp Earl Grey loose tea leaves (5 g) (For step 3)
- 6 Tbsp hot water (90 ml)
- 3 large eggs (50 g each w/o shell)
- 85 g sugar (3 oz, or ½ cup and take away 1 Tbsp) (separated)
- 3 Tbsp neutral-flavored oil (vegetable, canola, etc) (40 ml)
- 75 g cake flour (⅔ cup and remove 2 tsp; If you're using a cup measurement, please follow this method to measure. Otherwise, the amount of flour tends to be more than you need. You can make your Homemade Cake Flour.)
- 1 tsp baking powder (3 g)
-
Gather all the ingredients. Preheat the oven to 340 ºF (170 ºC). You will also need a 17cm (7") chiffon cake pan. If you have a different size chiffon cake pan, please read this post. Make sure you use the correct chiffon cake pan. The best types are the aluminum ones with a removable base (Do not use non-stick bakeware for chiffon cake – it will not work). Do not grease the mold because the cake needs to cling on the sides and center of the pan for support as it rises or it will collapse.
- Put 2 tsp Earl Grey loose tea leaves in a food processor (I used a Nutribullet here) and grind them to fine powder. Alternatively, you can use a mortar and pestle to grind tea leaves, or put tea leaves in a bag and crush them.
- Put 1 Tbsp. Earl Grey loose tea leaves in a fine sieve over a bowl and pour 6 Tbsp (90 ml) of hot water to seep a strong tea. After cooling down, remove the tea leaves and use ONLY 4 Tbsp (60 ml) Earl Grey tea and set aside.
-
Separate 3 eggs to whites and yolks. Keep the egg whites in the refrigerator (or freezer) until you're ready to use.
-
In a large bowl, whisk 3 egg yolks and roughly ⅓ of 85 g (3 oz) sugar.
- Add 3 Tbsp vegetable oil, 4 Tbsp tea, and whisk all together until combined.
- Add the powdered Earl Grey tea in the egg mixture and mix well.
- Sift 75 g (2.6 oz) cake flour and 1 tsp baking powder into the egg mixture in 3 increments. Whisk until totally incorporated and make sure there are no lumps.
-
Using a stand mixer (make sure there is no trace of water or oil), whip the chilled egg whites on medium-low sped (speed 4) till opaque, foamy and bubbly. If you put the egg whites in the freezer, the surface and edges may be frozen already, but that's okay. You can add half-frozen egg whites into the bowl. Add ⅓ of the remaining sugar and continue whipping. After 30 seconds or so, increase the stand mixer speed to high (speed 10) and add the remaining sugar slowly in small increments. It takes about 2-3 minutes until stiff peaks form (from the moment you switched to speed 10, but this is just a rough guide and it will vary based on stand mixers.). To check on stiff peaks, pull up your whisk and see if the egg whites go straight up (stiff peak) and just the tip is soft enough that it folds over, like taking a bow.
-
Using a spatula, fold in ⅓ of the egg whites to the batter until the mixture is homogeneous.
- Fold in the rest of egg whites in 2-3 increments and mix gently until the mixture is homogeneous.
- Pour the batter into the ungreased 17 cm (7”) chiffon cake pan in same location to prevent from foaming more bubbles. To remove or prevent air pockets before baking, run a skewer (chopstick, knife or spatula) through the batter and then drop gently a few times.
- Bake in the preheated oven for 30-35 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean and the top of the cake springs back when gently pressed. If the top gets burn too quickly, cover the top loosely with aluminum foil.
- The cake must be cooled upside down in its pan so that it stretch down instead of collapsing. Stick the cake pan on a tall heavy bottle or invert the cake pan onto a cooling rack (if you use angel food cake pan). Let it cool completely. To extract the cake, run a thin sharp knife or thin offset spatula around both the outer and inner edge of the cake and then tap the cake out onto a serving plate.
- Dust powder sugar on top, if you like.
Tips for beating egg whites:
- Make sure your beaters and mixing bowl are clean and dry. A speck of oil or egg yolk on either one can minimize the volume of the beaten egg whites.
- Avoid plastic bowls -- even clean ones may hold oily residue that can affect the beating quality of the egg whites.
- Use a bowl that's wide enough to keep the beaters from being buried in the egg whites.
- Do not overbeat or underbeat egg whites -- your cake may fall. Egg whites should be stiff but not dry.
Recipe adapted from Chiffon Cake Book by Junko Fukuda.
Editor’s Note: This post was originally published on June 7, 2015. The blog content has been updated with more information.
Hello Nami – May I ask what brand of earl grey tea leaves do you use?
Hi Alana! I use Republic of Tea brand but can be any other brand, but use good tea! 🙂
http://amzn.to/1QmF8Qf
Thanks for sharing this, seems a brillant falvor for tea lovers! I just learnt to bake chiffon cakes 2 months ago and I’ve already baked it (with different falvors!) ~6 times, and as you said, with few simple techniques, it will turn amazing each time!
Any idea if we can use any other tea flavors (e.g., Twinings fruit teas)?
Hi Maram! I’m so happy to hear you enjoy making chiffon cakes too! The other types that I like is Matcha Chiffon Cake (recipe here: https://www.justonecookbook.com/green-tea-chiffon-cake/) and Hojicha (a type of Japanese tea). The fruity flavor sounds fabulous!
Thanks dear, will try it for sure 🙂
Can anyone pls advise what is the difference between an angel cake pan and a chiffon cake pan? Thank you.
Hi Shirley! I thought this explains well:
http://www.cupcakeproject.com/2008/04/chiffon-cake-vs-angel-food-cake.html
Hope that helps! 🙂
Hello Nami,
I just tried making your chiffon cake, and oh my it is so delicious. I just have a quick question regarding the tea. I noticed you have another chiffon cake recipe that used green tea powder, i was wondering if i can use the method for this cake but with green tea leaves instead? The reason why is because i have plenty of green tea leaves, but hardly any green tea powder where i live.
thank you very much
Hi Thuyanh! Thank you so much for trying my recipe! Yes the other recipe is Matcha Chiffon Cake (https://www.justonecookbook.com/green-tea-chiffon-cake/). Green tea powder (matcha) and green tea leaves (even though you make it to powder) are different, so you can’t substitute with ground green tea leaves. Green tea is too subtle and doesn’t have too much flavor unlike green tea powder… so it won’t work. 🙁
Hi Nami!
Nice looking cake! I hope I can make it as beautiful as you do in your recipe. Wishing you an enjoyable and safe trip in Japan with your family this Summer!
Thanks so much Marguerite! I’m sure yours will come out well! Good luck! 🙂
Hi Nami-san!
My mother once found this recipe for earl grey tea muffins and they tasted delicious! It was too bad that she lost the sheet though. Thanks to you, I can make something similar to it! 🙂 I was just wondering whether we can turn these into muffins, or just put it in a regular cake pan. Also whether we can use different tea brands because I have a collection of earl grey tea and I’m not sure whether it would change the overall flavour of the product. I’m looking forward to making this! Thanks, Nami-san!
Megumi
Hi Megumi-san!
1) Some readers told me that they tried with Russian Earl Grey and lavender earl grey and it was very good! 🙂
2) If you really want a chiffon cake, you need a chiffon cake pan…. or Angel food cake pan… The cake has to climb up so you can’t use non-stick material and you also need to invert the cake pan after baking the cake. With muffin pan, I feel it’s not optimal. However I have some readers told me to use muffin pans to make my other chiffon cake (matcha) and they loved it. So… it’s up to you. 😀
Hope you enjoy!
Thanks a lot! I made it today and it tasted delicious! I made three of them they were so good!
Megumi
I’m so happy to hear you liked the recipe! Thank you so much for your kind feedback, Megumi-san!
Very disappointed to find that I can’t sign up for your email newsletter. .co.uk email addresses are invalid apparently…
Hi Heather! I am not sure why my subscribing system didn’t add your email address but I just added your email address manually. However, you are required to “confirm” the subscription. Please check your inbox (or spam if you can’t find any email). Thank you so much for subscribing to my blog! 🙂
Hi, I’ve just made this cake for tea and it’s the best chiffon cake my husband & I’ve ever eaten 😀 Thank you for the recipe ; )
Hi Frances! Thank you so much for your kind feedback. I’m happy to hear you and your husband enjoyed this recipe! Isn’t it so delicious? Wish I have a slice right now… 🙂
Thanks for the recipe, it was delicious! I ended up doubling the recipe because I only had a 10 inch angel food cake tin, but it worked out just fine.
Hi Michelle! I’m so happy to hear you liked this recipe and doubling the recipe worked! Thanks so much for letting me know angel cake pan worker too! 🙂
hi 🙂 your recipe looks wonderful, I was wondering if I could try it with a 23 cm pan instead!
I am making this tomorrow! I’ve never made a chiffon cake, but I love baking with tea so I’m excited to give this recipe a go.
Hi Molly! I hope you enjoy this recipe! The meringue is the key to this recipe. Hope yours will come out well. 🙂
Everything came out perfectly! I used mini bundt and mini loaf pans. They are adorable and absolutely delicious, even according to someone who doesn’t like earl grey tea! A+ recipe.
Hi Molly! Thank you so much for your kind feedback! I’m really happy to hear you liked the recipe. And thanks for letting us know about mini bundt cake and mini loaf pans so that other readers will be able to use them. 🙂 Thank you!!
Hi Nami, I am new to your website. Your recipes are lovely! I want to make this earl grey chiffon cake today. Anyway, what is the song that is playing in your youtube video for this earl grey chiffon cake?
Hi Nelly! Welcome to my blog! So glad you found my site! The song is called “Crazy Like Me”:
http://www.audionetwork.com/browse/m/track/crazy-like-me_56382
I put the name of music in every video under description box on YouTube, in case you are interested in other music. 🙂
Thank you for your comment!
Thank you Nami for this yummy recipe! I tried it yesterday, and although it tasted wonderful, my cake did not rise well. Then I noticed on the “Green Tea Chiffon” recipe that you mention that non-stick pans will not work, so that was my mistake! I really appreciate the amount of detail that you include in your directions.
Hi Tamu! Thank you for trying this recipe! Yes, if it’s non-stick pan, it’s hard to “climb up”. Some people use paper mold, which might work better than non-stick. 🙂 I’m glad to hear my recipe was helpful. 🙂
Hello!
This is a wonderful recipe, thank you Nami!
I was just wondering whether you have any advice on adapting this for an 8 inch tin instead?
Your recipe in an 8 inch tin is still wonderfully light and tasty but asthetically, it doesn’t quite reach that height!
Thanks again!
Hi Alexandra! Thank you for trying this recipe! I’m so glad you enjoyed this recipe. 8-inch measurement can be found here:
https://www.justonecookbook.com/perfect-chiffon-cake/
Hope that helps!
Hi Nami, I made this cake last week and really love it so much! Even though it was not as perfect as yours. I notice you mention large eggs in your recipe. How many grams is the egg? I used the 700gr eggs and I think the yolk looks smaller than yours and I am wondering whether this what caused my batter looks dryer than yours. Thank you so much for your reply and I am looking fwd to make this cake again! 🙂
Hi Nelly! Yay! I’m so happy to hear you liked this recipe!
According to this site (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicken_egg_sizes), American large egg is 54.4 grams (mass) and 46 mL (3.25 tbsp) (cooking yield). You will need 3 eggs for this recipe. Did you put 700 grams, or was it typo…?
Hi Nammi,
I love your website and the recipes. Its so generous of you sharing all your secret recipes with us all. Just wondering if I’m using a 8 inch cake tin, how should i adjust the ingredients? plus do you hv more flavor of chiffon recipe to share?
Thankssss
Vivian
Hi Vivian! Thank you for your kind words! As this is 7 inch chiffon cake and you will use 8″ pan, the cake will become flatter for sure. Are you using the chiffon cake, or regular round pan? If it’s round, I think it’s even flatter… You will need to figure out the volume and calculate how many % more.
I also have green tea chiffon cake recipe: https://www.justonecookbook.com/green-tea-chiffon-cake/
Hope this helps! 🙂
Hello Nami,
I made this cake with a bundt cake pan because I didn’t have an angel food cake pan, and the cake stuck completely to the pan! I was able to scoop it out in pieces and it was delicious, but I was wondering… is the reason it stuck because I used the wrong pan? Or maybe I did something else wrong? Egg whites not airy enough? Thank you! Megan.
Hi Megan! I’ve heard from some readers that they used a bundt cake, so you’re not the first. But I’m not too sure if they greased the pan. For a chiffon cake pan, we do NOT grease the pan. If you follow my recipe, you probably didn’t? I wonder that’s why the batter stuck to the pan… The cake is supposed to cling to the pan, so oil is not good (slippery) for chiffon cake pan. Was the cake texture fluffy? I wonder if it could rise as it should be. If you think egg white (meringue) was successful, I think the only part was the cake pan. I wish I could help, but it’s hard to know what went wrong without being in the kitchen with you… 🙂
Hi, can tea leaves from the tea bags be use for this?
If I am using from the tea bags, some much tea leaves from the tea bags is required to replace the quantity in the recipe?
Hi Tim! I apologize for my late response. I somehow didn’t see your comment in my Inbox till now (It has become “read” so I didn’t realize.. So sorry!).
Yes, you can use tea leaves from tea bags. I specified the amount in Tbsp. and gram, so please open the bag and measure. The tea leaves won’t be as good as loose tea (usually), but adding more doesn’t mean better flavors. I strongly recommend loose tea leaves for better taste. 🙂
Hi, Nami! I made this yesterday after searching for recipes for the earl grey chiffon cake. I decided to make yours as it looked very simple and I had most of the ingredients at home. It turned out perfect; the texture and taste is amazing! I’ve shared this with my family and colleagues, they all absolutely love it! One of them suggested I use a thin layer of lemon curd to help with the bitter aftertaste from the earl grey leaves. I will be baking it again for my friend’s birthday this weekend. Thank you for this amazing recipe. Definitely saving this one and baking it many more times again! 🙂
Cheers from Singapore!
Ridha
Hi Ridha! I’m so happy to hear yours came out well! Thank you for writing your kind feedback here. 🙂
I love lemon curd. Let me know how it goes with the lemon curd. I’d just spread on top to eat it… yum! 😀
Thanks again, and Happy Birthday to your friend!
Hi Nami,
Hope this email finds you well.
I will like to inquire where to buy the egg separator that you use in your video. I tried looking for it on Amazon but did not find it.
Thank you.
Hi Cindy! I had oxo egg separator before but it breaks egg yolk all the time, this one is from Daiso (Japanese dollar store) and it works GREAT! I love it so much. It’s too bad I can’t find similar to this anywhere else… Do you live near one of daiso locations? Hope you can find it!
I’m a newbie at baking… This is the first cake I tried and turns out amazing!! Thanks a lot for the detailed recipe and YouTube instructions!!! My cake didn’t rise fully and evenly like yours though.. Any idea why? Regardless, it taste good and fluffy.. I’m gonna try it again soon and hopefully master it one day!
Hi Moon! Awesome! I’m happy to hear that. Did you use an aluminum chiffon cake mold? This helps. Do not use non-stick because it won’t rise taller. Also you might under-beat the meringue (more air you put, the taller your chiffon cake is). However, over beating will end up with collapsing the cake due to air bubbles not sustaining the batter. So… it’s all about meringue. 🙂 Good luck!
Hi Nami,
I have followed your early grey recipe and it turned out really nice (so fluffy and moist) but the smell of the cake was really disturbing. Quite fishy smell which I think that comes from the egg yolks. How to solve that? Do I have to pour vanilla essence (but I think it won’t beat the fishy smell)? or may be 3 egg yolks are too much for that portion? Please advise 🙂
Thanks before ^^
HI Pam! Fishy? I don’t think it’s from the eggs? Are you sure? Do you think it could be your oil or tea or maybe bake pan coating? I just don’t think it can be from the egg yolk? You can definitely try reducing the egg yolk and see if that helps. 🙂
This looks fantastic!! I think I am going to try this with Lapsang souchong. It’s my favorite tea, and the only flavor I have of quality loose tea. I think I shall get some good Earl Grey for the next cake. chiffon is also my favorite type of cake, so versatile and delicious.
Hi Sheri! I don’t think I’ve tasted Lapsang Souchong before. I love tea, and I’d love to taste it one day. It’s actually quite easy to make (than it looks), so I hope you enjoy making this! 🙂
Hi Nami,
This cake looks amazing, I can’t wait to make it,
However I was wondering if this could be made with other teas, like Piccadilly tea or English Rose?
Would that work?
Hi CharC! I think it’ll work as long as you like that tea flavor. Earl Grey works great for baked goods (and known for that). I hope those tea choices are strong enough for the baked goods. 🙂
Thanks so much for your well throughout posts. I’ve tried your chiffon cake recipes and they work really well. I was wondering if you have tried them without using baking powders?
Also can you tell me which NutriBullet food processor you used to grind the tea leaves? I have a NutriBullet Pro but not sure if I can use it for dry ingredients.
Thanks so much again Nami for the wonderful posts.
Wendy
Hi Wendy! The recipe works well as it is so I haven’t experimented without BP yet. But there are so many recipes without it, so it should work. Let us know if you try it! 🙂
My NutriBrullet is not Pro one (I think). I got it in Costco… should be basic one. The blade I use is the one with flat blade. Should work for spice etc. Hope this helps!
Thanks Nami! I did try baking it without BP and it worked just as well. Thanks again for the amazing recipe. I have been tweaking your recipe for different flavors and they all turned out great 🙂
Hi Wendy! Thanks so much for coming back to give us feedback. Great to hear we can bake without BP. I’m happy that you’ve been making different versions! Yay!
Hi Nami,
Can I use canola / olive oil instead? Will the quantity still be the same?
Hi Fen! I recommend canola oil as it’s neutral flavored oil, but NOT olive oil. 🙂 Yes, quality same. Hope you enjoy!
This looks like it’d be really fun to make! One question, though: would the content of tea bags be a suitable substitute for the loose tea leaves (since they’re going to be blitzed to powder anyways)?
Hi Lisa! Sure, it’ll be good enough for baked goods. Hope you enjoy the recipe! 🙂
Thanks for this perfect recipe it is so fluffy and aromatic!!
Hi Kati! You’re very welcome! Thank you for your kind feedback! 🙂
Hi Nami! I tried making this cake twice and both times as soon as I took the cake out of the oven, it shrank quite a lot, which made the texture of the cake dense instead of fluffy. Is there anything I can do to prevent the shrinking? I’m not sure what I am doing wrong.
Hi Lauren! Usually when I hear shrinking, it’s related to the egg white. Meringue is supposed to make it fluffy and the air should keep it up. But if you don’t have the air in the batter, it will collapse as soon as the cake comes out (temperature drops). I’m pretty sure it’s due to over or under beating of egg whites.
Hi Nami,
Thank you for sharing your recipe! I tried it and it turned out great. However, the texture turned out a bit dry, even after I increased the amount of tea to 50ml instead of 40ml as mentioned in your recipe. Was wondering if I overbeat my meringue that caused the dryness or did I put in too much flour (it was actually less than the 75g mentioned in recipe) ?
Thank you so much. I hope to hear from you soon.
Hi Quinta! Hmmm it’s hard for me to say… Often when it’d dry, it’s due to baking too long or due to meringue. Make sure to whip stiff peak keeping air bubble inside the batter. Hope it will come out nicely next time!
I made your cake for a baby shower the past weekend and paired it with vanilla swiss meringue buttercream, and it was a HUGE HIT! Everyone was mesmerized by how fragrant and how tasty it was! Thank you so much for the recipe! I made 4 individual pans and all of them turned out perfect!
Hi Ann! Thank you so much for your kind feedback! I just saw your blog post too (http://pastrymusings.blogspot.com/2016/08/baby-shower-olliepeacewithyou.html)! BEAUTIFUL!!!! Very very impressive work! I’m so happy yours came out well. Thank you for trying this recipe! xo
Hi Nami,
Would I be able to use this recipe in a regular cake pan? Can I also substitute the water for milk?
Thank you!
Hi Mary, If you use a regular cake pan, the cake will not rise as a Chiffon Cake pan. As for milk, it will change the texture of this cake, and intense earl grey tea lover will be more like milk tea. But definitely, you can. We recommend increasing more tea leaves if you like more Earl Grey flavor.
We hope this helps!
I hope you don’t mind I loved this recipe so much I adapted it for a recipe for my blog: http://www.rhiansrecipes.com/2016/09/10/earl-grey-blackberry-chiffon-cake/
Thank you so much for the inspiration!
Hi Rhian! Thank you so much for letting me know. I just saw the post. So happy you enjoyed this recipe! 🙂
I’m living in USA. Can I use betty crocker cake mix instead of cake flour?
Thank u
Hi Ezra! If you want to make chiffon cake, you have to use cake flour. This is my favorite cake flour brand:
http://amzn.to/2dt2xSG
Hello Nami! I love tea-infused desserts! Thanks for your recipe and I’ve got one thing to ask: if using convection oven, how should I adjust the temperature/baking time for this recipe? Thank you!
Hello KaChun! Reduce 25F. So if it’s 350F, change to 325F. 🙂 Hope you enjoy this recipe! 🙂
This recipe is awesome! It nails the subtle sweetness that’s in Japanese sweets, not over powering. Really great! I’ve made this 3 times (an earl grey, a banana and a huckleberry tea) and the basic proportions are spot on. I also am making this cake with gluten free flours (my own whole grain mix) and never a problem. It’s easy to make, light, airy, sweet, spongy! Everything you need in a chiffon cake:) it’s hard to order this at a cafe now, lol! I just wanted to give you a shout out, and let you know how good your recipe is. Thank you.
Hi Stephen! Thank you so much for your kind words. This is my favorite too! I love your chiffon cake with different flavors… huckleberry tea! YUM! This recipe works with so many different flavors and you’re already making different versions, which made me happy!
And thanks for letting me know about the GF flour info! So glad to know it works! I’m sure other JOC readers will appreciate your feedback. Thank you!
Thanks for writing! xo
hi! love your recipes…question on this cake. Do i need a chiffon pan or can I use a standard 9″ round baking tin that one can use for cakes? Pros/cons? We live in a small space and don’t have space for another cookware.
Thank you
Hi ben! Thank you for your kind words! 🙂
Chiffon cake is different from the round regular cakes. It needs the ungreased pan surface to climb up to get it’s light, airy height (I recommend aluminum pan, do not use non-stick). This is why a tube pan is used, so the center also has a surface to climb up. Also you will need to put the pan upside down as soon as it comes out from the oven. With the tube pan, it’s easy to do that.
I think with the regular pan, the cake will be higher around the edges and sunken in the middle? But it’ll be edible and delicious, maybe it’s not perfect chiffon cake. 🙂
You’ll love the chiffon cake and I think it’ll be a good investment. It took me a long time to decide buying chiffon cake pan, madeleine pans, and popover pans, but I make these often and it was worth it. 🙂
Hi there
I only have an 8 inch aluminum angel food cake pan. Can I use that and do I need to make any changes to the measurements.
Thanks
Hi Karen! I’m not a big fan of changing the recipe that works. It’s hard to increase the ingredients by %… and if you use 8 inch chiffon cake pan with this recipe, it’ll be flatter. Therefore, I’d either double it and make 2 chiffon cakes (one 8 inch and use other cake pan). It’s hard to increase 50% (1.5 egg…..). I always avoid to do that. Sorry I’m not so helpful…. :/
Hi!
Recipe says 90ml water, but in the directions it says 60ml. May I know which is right?
Thanks so much for this recipe, I’m looking forward to trying it!
Wendy
Hi Wendy! The recipe is correct. You use 90 ml of hot water to make tea, but at the end you will only need 60 ml. I am including about 2 Tbsp. extra hot water since leaves will absorb moisture etc. If you pour 4 Tbsp, you may not be able to get 4 Tbsp. exactly. 🙂
I re-wrote the recipe so hopefully my English is easier to understand? 🙂
I see! Ah now it is clear to me. Thanks so much for replying!
Hi Nami,
Thank you for the recipe. The chiffon cake is really soft & light! My family & friends love it a lot. One question, there seemed to have many lumps of egg white mixture when I mixed in with the egg yolk batter. Should I flatten the lumps?
Hi Tracia! I’m so happy to hear your chiffon cake came out well and enjoyed by your family and friends. Do you mean air pockets? What do you mean by “lumps”? Are they batter that’s not well mixed?
Hi Nami, I am a fan of Japanese food and am loving your website! I’ve made this EG cake 3 times, and your recipe never fails me. The only problem is I’m too greedy 🙂 , wish the cake is bigger.
Can I use 4eggs or more instead of 3? But how should the rest of the ingredients be adjusted? Thanks in advance!
Hi Clairice! I’m so happy to hear you like Japanese food and enjoy my recipes. 🙂 Haha, I know, the chiffon cake disappear too fast as it’s so light and airy and I feel like I didn’t eat any slice after half of the cake is gone… 😀 Cake is like science, and it’s important to keep the ratio correct, if you think this recipe works perfectly now. I recommend doubling the recipe or find the easy calculation to keep the same ratio. 🙂
Hi Nami
I am happy to discover your Earl Grey Chiffon Cake recipe through Youtube. I have tried doing it twice. But both times, the cakes did not rise as much as shown in the video. Both times, the cakes raised up to a quarter height of the 17 inch pan.
I am not sure whether is it due to the meringue or other reasons? My finished meringue is white, foamy, and it is soft to touch with peaks. My mixer has the maximum speed of 4. After folding in the meringue with the “Earl Grey” mixture, when pouring into the baking pan, the mixture quantity’s height were less than half instead of 3-quarter full.
Should I increased the number of egg whites for the meringue?
Hope you can help out and advise.
Many thanks!
Valerie
HI Valerie! I have a few questions.
1) What cake pan are you using? Please don’t use non-stick. The cake batter doesn’t “grab” the wall to climb up when it’s slippery.
2) The way you described meringue sounds right. You probably took a longer time to beat the egg whites compared to mine if your max is 4. If you’re not sure about egg whites, maybe you can look for a video or image of how egg whites should look like. Since your cake batter is only half, it’s the egg whites that cause this lack of batter. Don’t change the amount of ingredients, but beat the egg whites until it has more volume. 🙂
Hi Nami
Thank you very much for your reply. =)
I am using angel pan and did not grease the pan.
Yes, yes, as you have mentioned, it may be the mixer beating power.. I followed 2-3 mins of beating as per video but may have to take longer now. For the second round, I reduced the sugar to 70g as my family’s seniors feedback that it is a tad sweet for them. =)
I am going to try again tomorrow. Hope it will rise up. =)
Cheers!
Hi Valerie! I see. Hope next time will be successful! Good luck. xo
Hi Nami, I love earl grey tea too! My first reaction after finding this recipe is literally “I’m so gonna make this cake!” (^^;)
Anyway, I have some things to ask you…
1. I don’t have the small blender that’s shown in your video so I’m afraid I won’t be able to grind the tea leaves, is it OK if I just omit the ground tea leaves?
2. Can I use parchment paper so the cake will be a bit easier to pick up instead of running a knife around it? Or is it better to not use it since we are going to put the cake upside down for a while until it’s cooled?
And the last but not least: 3. Your cake looks amazing, can I have a slice, please? (LOL JK) 😛
Hi Debby! So happy to hear you like this recipe! Here are my answers.
1) To be honest, this brings so much flavor so please don’t skip. If you don’t have a blender, you could 1) use a mortar and pestle, 2) use your knife to chop (a little more tedious), or 3) do you have anything that you can grind? Coffee bean grinder, blender?
2) No, you can’t use a parchment paper. The chiffon cake’s batter climbs up the side of aluminum cake pan (which is why it’s best to use aluminum material, and NEVER non-stick cake pan). If you use a parchment paper, cake batter can’t grab to climb higher and the cake will be very flat. And upside down is important process so the cake can still be taller while cooling down instead of shrinking down. 🙂
3) I really wish! Move to my neighborhood? 🙂
One more thing! If you ever watch our video from your mobile device, the video has typo on oven temperature. Make sure to follow my written recipe. I put the annotation to correct the oven temperature which is visible from computer on desktop, but mobile doesn’t show annotation. Hope that helps!
Can you replace the eggs with yogurt instead?
Hi Adrienne! Sorry, but chiffon cake will need egg white to get that volume and height, and yogurt can’t do that…. 🙂
Hi, there is an error in your video. It says 107C instead of 170C. I tried to bake the cake just by watching the video and used the wrong temperature. Now my cake is still wet after 30mins of baking at 107C. I hope I can still save it. Thanks for the great recipe anyway!
Hi Adeline! We’re aware of the typo in the video, but won’t be able to fix once it’s published. We put the annotation over the video to correct the temperature, but YouTube discontinue to support annotation function so it might not be shown anymore. 🙁 I truly apologize. 🙁 I put a note in the video description on YouTube and wrote a comment there… but I am aware that not everyone will read the description before baking or check my website for the written recipe… I’m very sorry.
Hi Nami, it is ok coz my cake still turned out well after I continued baking it at the right temperature!
May I ask if I should burst every lump I see when folding the egg whites into the batter? How thorough should I mix them? Thanks.
Hi Adeline! I’m glad to hear….
Don’t worry too much – make sure to run a skewer through the batter and then drop gently a few times before putting into the oven. 🙂
Thank you so so much for this PERFECT recipe! Its delicious!
Hi Sly! So happy to hear you liked this recipe! Thank you!! 🙂
Hi, Nami,
This summer was the first time I tasted an Earl Grey chiffon cake and since then I wanted to try and make one myself. I was looking all over the internet for a good easy, Japanese recipe and yours looks absolutely amazing!
My question is: Is it possible to make the cake in a regular, round cake pan?
Hi Noa! Personally, I don’t recommend. One reader left comment above in this post or another chiffon cake recipe on my blog that he/she tried with round pan and it worked. But I didn’t see it and I’m not sure how successful it was. The thing is, if you want to make a chiffon cake, tall and airy, I really think . you need a chiffon cake pan that’s NOT non-stick. The batter is supposed to climb up and slippery non stick won’t work, also the center of cake needs to climb up using the tube area… therefore, I don’t think the regular cake pan works. If you have a leftover batter I would put in a small cake pan or muffin cup to try… but not a big cake pan. That’s what I think, but I’m not an expert in baking either. 🙂
The cake turned out amazing and got many compliments 🙂 Eventually found a chiffon cake pan although it wasn’t with a removable base so it was very hard to take the cake out of the pan.
I will definitely make this cake again!
Thank you, Noa.
Hi Noa! I’m glad to hear you and others enjoyed this chiffon cake recipe. Thank you for your kind feedback. 🙂
Hi! Thank you for being so specific in explaining each step in the procedure and having photos and a video as well! I like the additional info about substitutes and how to make it he recipe foolproof. Many thanks and keep the recipes coming. Looking forward to more????
Hi Teresa! You’re very welcome. I tend to write too much… but I like sharing a little things I learned from baking/cooking with my readers too. Thank you for your kind comment. xoxo
Dear Nami
I’ve baked this Earl Grey Chiffon Cake 3 times and I must say the sweetness of the cake is just nice and the texture is also good and soft. However, my family members commented that the earl grey taste is not there. How can I improve the cake to have a stronger tea taste?
Wendy
Hi Wendy! Thank you for trying this recipe! You can definitely make it stronger by using more tea leaves (but keeping the amount of the liquid). Hope that helps!
May i ask, for 21″ cake pan, what is the conversion?
Hi Cindy! I’m sorry but I don’t make the conversion. If it’s hard to calculate (sometimes can’t divide eggs etc), you can duplicate the recipe and make the small version with the leftover. That would be my approach…
Hi, can you use bundt pans instead?
Hi Emy! If it’s non-stick pan, you can’t use it. I have never tried it with the bundt pan though. But good part is that it has the empty hole just like chiffon cake pan. 😀
Made this cake today but since I only had a 10 inch pan I took a risk and doubled the recipe. I lowered the cooking temperature to 325 (on bake, not convection) and cooked for 55 minutes. It turned out fabulous. Some sites had recommended altering the baking soda but I just doubled that as well. Such a nice cake and not sickly sweet like many Angel or Chiffon cakes. I’ll be making this again.
Hi Mary! I’m really happy to hear that you enjoyed this cake, and thank you for writing your kind feedback. Japanese sweets are usually not overly sweet compared to western sweets. Thank you once again!
Hi Nami!!
I really want to make the earl grey chiffon cake, but I don’t have the chiffon cake pan, so I was wondering if I could use a spring pan instead?
Thank you for your input! 🙂
Hi Hesper! I don’t recommend… maybe you can succeed but I don’t know and I don’t want to waste the ingredients by failing so I would prefer not to recommend it. Some people make chiffon cake with smaller container with leftover batter (after doubling the recipe for a different size chiffon cake pan), and heard it was successful. But a bigger springform pan… not sure. You have to make it upside down, but without the tube it’s impossible. I think it’s a good investment to purchase. Trust me, you’ll be making this cake again and again. So light and delicious. By next day it’ll be gone and you have to make it again soon. 😉
Got it! Thank you so much Nami! 🙂
I have always enjoyed your videos but this one with the music soundtrack is driving me a little crazy. Is this something you are going to be doing to all your videos now instead of explaining what you are doing?
Hi John! Thank you for watching my videos. Sorry you didn’t like the music choice for this video. This video gets divided feedback on music –
either people hate it or love it (and asking the name of song), which I thought it’s interesting (usually similar response on most of our videos). This video is pretty old, and back then we were testing different kind of music to see what works. We concluded that we like classical piano or acoustic guitar feeling. I never use voice over for my videos explaining the cooking process, I use caption. So… if you’re referring to voice over, maybe you are talking about someone’s videos?
Hi! Thank you for sharing this recipe! I have a pantry FULL of tea that I’m trying to get rid of so this recipe was perfect! I just made cupcake versions of this (had to cut the cooking time in half) and it turned out great! I accidentally added all the sugar into the egg yolk mixture which meant I ended up using more sugar than your recipe called for but it still didn’t turn out overly sweet.
I’ll be re-using this recipe and trying it out with the other teas that I have. Thanks for sharing this great recipe!
Hi Melissa! I’m so happy to hear that cupcake version worked (and thanks for sharing the cooking time with us!). Japanese desserts are not overly sweet, so maybe that’s why it wasn’t too sweet. 🙂 Thank you for your kind feedback! xo
Hi Nami! I have a 10 in x 4 in/ 25.4 cm x 10,16 cm . So by how much do you suggest I increase the recipe?
Hi Sydney! I’m not very good at converting and calculating to fit a certain size… I recommend doubling it and make the leftover batter with different cakes (someone above your comment made cupcakes). 🙂
Hi Nami, I have been trying this recipe for quite sometime but I have no idea why is my batter so sticky instead of a more watery form when I watch your video. Thank you for your reading and hope to get your reply soon!:)
Hi Jasmine! Let me see… I have a few questions to ask you too. 1) Do you measure by weight (gram)? 2) How successful are you at making meringue (step 9)? What do you mean by “sticky”? Is it thicker and heavier look than mine? I feel like your dry ingredients are more… which is why I asked if you use a kitchen scale to measure the flour. Do you think that could be it?
Hello Nami,
I really want to make this recipe but I can only find a 9″ pan. How should I adjust the recipe for this?
Well wishes,
Severin
Hi Severin! I recommend doubling the recipe or at least x 1.5 (but so hard to calculate the eggs!). If I were you, I’d double it, and use the leftover batter to make a small one. 🙂
Can this recipe be baked in 8″ round trays? i.e. Amount of batter in each and bake for how long
Thank you!
Hi N! I’m sorry but I had never tried it with a non chiffon cake pan. I have heard that you can make the cake, but may not be optimal result. I wrote the post about chiffon cake here and mentioned why we need to use a chiffon cake pan. 🙂
https://www.justonecookbook.com/how_to/perfect-chiffon-cake/
Thank you for posting the recipe. I love the taste of the cake! But mine didn’t rise as much as the one shown in your video and also shrank quite a bit when it was cooling down (I’ve turned in upside down as suggested in the recipe). I also noticed that the texture of the upper and lower half of the cake seem to be different – the upper half is more airy and light; while the lower half seems to be more dense. Would appreciate if you can give me some advise. Thanks!!!
Hi Janice! Thank you so much for trying this recipe! I think I know why – I think the egg whites could be probably beaten a bit more (if you didn’t over-beaten and egg whites were broken into pieces). And you could mix the batter thoroughly. You might be afraid of over mixing but it’s important that egg whites and yolk mixture are thoroughly mixed. Otherwise, egg white portion will shrink, and the batter will separate into two layers like yours. Hope that helps!
You may think this is helpful: https://www.justonecookbook.com/how_to/perfect-chiffon-cake/
Thank you for your suggestions! I tried to make the cake again and this time it was perfect!
Hi Janice! Wonderful!!! Thanks so much for keeping me posted! I’m really happy to hear that yours came out well this time. 🙂 xo
This looks delicious! Have you tried steeping the tea bag in milk instead of water?
Hi Alyssa! That should work too as milk tea flavor. I like intense earl grey tea for the cake, so I use hot water, but if you want to make it milk tea, definitely you can. I would increase more tea leaves though so the tea leaves taste will come through from milk.
Great recipe and tips! Thank you! First time I made this and took it to work. My coworkers loved it. Then I made it to surprise my husband when he came back from a trip O/S, next I want to try the lemon one.
Hi Vanessa! Thank you for trying this recipe and I’m so happy to hear you and your coworkers enjoyed it! Thanks for writing your kind feedback. Hope your lemon one will turn out good!
Hi Nami, baked accordingly and it tasted delicious. Fine tea leaves strengthened the taste further besides adding the liquid form. I would like to double the recipe ingredients. Whats the estimate baking duration please? Thanks
Hi Jerene! I am so sorry for my late response. Unfortunately, I’ve never tested with a bigger chiffon cake pan, so I can’t tell exactly how long it should be baked. 🙁 Keep an eye on the cake and insert the skewer to see if it’s done. If it comes out clean, it should be done. Sorry I wish I could help you more…
I baked for 55minutes to double the recipe ingredients with 23cm chiffon cake mould. Perfect! Thank you for sharing the recipe
Hi Jerene! I’m so happy to hear that your cake came out well! Thanks so much for your kind feedback. 🙂
Hi Nami, I’ve tried your lemon chiffon cake recipe and it is super good! I have a few questions which I hope you are able to answer:
1) Do you have recipe for Pandan chiffon cake? Not sure how much coconut milk/cream should I use.
2) Can I reduce the amount of sugar by 30%?
3) Do I have to add cream of tartar for non-citrus flavoured chiffon cake?
Hope to hear for you soon! 😊
Hi YC! I’m so happy to hear you enjoyed this recipe! Here are my answers:
1) No, I don’t… I had never had Pandan before.
2) I haven’t tried, but I would suggest to gradually reduce, by 10% at a time?
3) I don’t use the cream of tartar. In Japan, we don’t use this (and it’s not common) so we make it without it.
Hi Nami, this looks delicious! Thank you so much for providing info and help on making chiffon cakes; I’ve been reading reading your guide and am going to try to make a chiffon cake soon! I was wondering, could this recipe be modified to be black sesame flavored using a paste or powder? Thanks so much again!
Hi Christina! Yes, you can modify this recipe to make black sesame chiffon cake. It’s on my list of recipes to make but I haven’t had a chance yet. Watch out for the oil content as sesame paste is quite oily so you need to adjust the amount of oil too. 🙂
Hi I really want to try make this but I only have a 21cm/8inch tin. Can you advise how to tweak the measurements please for the ingredients to fit an 8 inch tin? Thank you!
Hi Ri! I have the measurement here: https://www.justonecookbook.com/perfect-chiffon-cake/
Hi! I have watched your youtube video about this earl grey chiffon cake and tried 3 times to make this cake. But fails on all attemp. I wonder why my cake have this hollow at the bottom of the cake. And also it sinks. Im using regular 15cm aluminium pan to bake this cake. And have it baked at 170°c. At first attemp i bake it at 22cm pan and it baked perfectly but is kinda low since the pan is too big. On second attemp i didnt measure correctly and have put lesser flour so it fails because it have too much water and lack of flour. Making it kinda like egg pudding texture with a big hole at the bottom. I am pretty sure it was because of the water. However on third attemp i measure everything correctly but as i tried your recipe from a translated page. It have many errors (first it said to soak 2 TBSP of tea leaves. Second it said 1 TSP of tea leaves to blend in the cake mixture. Third, it didn’t say to use ONLY 60ml of the tea).
Is that the reason why my cake have a big hollow at the bottom of the cake? And also is it because i used regular 15cm pan and 7cm in height without hole in the middle?
It shrinks and the middle is still wet. ( i also decrease the heat to 100°c at last 15 mins because im scared it will burnt the cake. Stupid me)
I also attatch a photo of my cake with hollowed bottom for refference.
Hi Shely! Before I answer your questions, I want to mention that this recipe really works great (it’s not my recipe as I stated in the Notes). I’ve received very positive feedback on this recipe (as well as my other chiffon cake recipes – the base recipe is same) as you can see comments from my readers on all these chiffon cake recipes.
Now, I’ll answer your questions.
1) 15 cm is okay, and yes 22 cm would be way too big for this recipe. I have measurements for different chiffon cake pans here, including 22 cm: https://www.justonecookbook.com/perfect-chiffon-cake/
2) For chiffon cake recipes, I recommend measuring ingredients with a kitchen scale. 1 cup cake flour can vary in weight if you don’t properly fill up 1 cup.
3) I’m not sure what it means by “a translated page”? Was it my recipe because the measurement mentioned there is all wrong.
4) a big hollow in the cake is caused by the following.
– NEVER use a round cake pan and you have to make a chiffon cake using a chiffon cake pan. The cake batter needs to climb up and you need to make it upside down after baking. Also the center will not be cooked through without a hole in the middle. I can see why the center of your cake is wet. When it’s wet (undercook), there is no support for your cake structure.
– Please do not change the oven temperature. If your oven is small and you are concerned about burning, then you can insert a sheet of aluminum foil to cover the top.
– and please read this post for troubleshooting: https://www.justonecookbook.com/perfect-chiffon-cake/
Hope that helps!
Hi there Nami, thanks for the reply.
I will try using chiffon pan next time.
Yes, your recipe is fine 🙂
What i mean is that i used to follow other people recipe turns out to be translated to my native language from your recipe with twisted measurements (probably due to bad translation)
Yes i do use kitchen scale but couldn’t help it if im using a wrong recipe.
I will try again when i have the time. Thanks! 🙂
Hi Shely! Good luck! Please let me know how it goes. I’m sending positive energy your way! xoxo
This cake is so good, I’m making it for my husband’s birthday tonight! I’ve been making it for over a year now, and every time I do, my whole family gets excited.
Thank you so much Nami, your recipes are wonderful. 🙂
Hi Rose! I’m so glad to hear that you and your family enjoyed this cake! Thanks for your kind feedback. And happy birthday to your husband! 🙂
Is there a replacement I can use for cake flour?
Hi Jocelyn! Homemade cake flour instruction is on the Note section in the recipe or you can click “cake flour” in the ingredient and the cake flour page has a homemade cake flour recipe.
Hi, I’m going to make one. But is it okay for me not to add any flavor (earl grey)? Because I want to make the original chiffon. Or do I need to add other ingredients?
Hi Ronny! You can use vanilla essence to make it the original version. Please use 6 Tbsp milk or water for this recipe. 🙂
This may sound like an odd question, but here goes. I’ve found Japanese potato starch, which I first tried using to coat chicken for kara-age, can be substituted in a lot of recipes that call for cornstarch. My sister is allergic to corn/maize and I cook for the family a lot so I was happy to find an alternative. Do you think potato starch would work in place of cornstarch in your home-made cake flour? This recipe looks lovely and I don’t want to waste a batch using potato starch if it’s unsuitable. I’m in New Zealand where there is no such thing as cake flour.
Hi Sarah! I apologize for my late response (as I travel in Japan). I believe you can substitute with potato starch or arrowroot powder, although I had never used it before. Hope you enjoy the recipe! 🙂
Thanks!
How can I strengthen the earl grey flavour in the cake? Do I use more tea leaves, or use more tea leaves to infuse the water only? Grateful for your thoughts. Thanks!
Hi Michelle! I’d suggest making a stronger tea (use more tea leaves). Don’t change the amount of liquid in the recipe. 🙂 Hope this helps!
Hi Nami,
How much earl grey tea should i use for a 21cm pan recipe?
Hi Victoria! I suggested the following to a reader who asked the amount for 22 cm pan.
1 Tbsp Earl Grey loose tea leaves (5 g) (For step 2)
1 Tbsp and ½ tsp Earl Grey loose tea leaves (6 g) (For step 3)
You can slightly less than that amount? And adjust based on this next time? I haven’t made this recipe with 21 or 22 cm, so I can only guess. 🙂
Hi Nami,
Thanks! My cake cracked on the top. I baked 170degree for 35mins. Any tips?
Hi Victoria! Possible that your ACTUAL oven temperature is too high? Having an oven thermometer helps to find that out. Also, maybe the cake was too close to the heating element?
Hi this looks so amazing ! I’m a newbie baker, is it possible to make without a electric mixer and just using my hands?
Hi Sherril! Thank you for your kind words. 🙂 Yes, you can. But since you’re a beginner baker, I will also mention that whipping egg whites with hand whisk can take a long time. I also started without an electric hand mixer or stand mixer and had experience whipping egg whites with hands… My arms (I switch hands) almost fell off! So that’s one thing you may need to remember. After you tried a few times, you will want to get an electric hand mixer and it will be easier. 😀
Hello! Can I use a regular cake tin instead of a tube pan? I’d like to make an Earl grey cake that I can frost 🙂 Thank you 🙂
Hi Alex! I highly recommend using a tubed pan for a chiffon cake for the best result. There are reasons why we need the tube in the pan. 🙂
Hi Nami-san! Can we use a bundt cake pan? Thank you!
Hi Yui! I do not recommend. Some of my readers have made this recipe in a bundt cake pan, but I don’t know if it was the optimal result or not (since I didn’t get to taste). A bundt cake pan is typically non-stick, and making chiffon cake in a non-stick pan is a big no no… So I would not recommend making chiffon cakes in a bundt cake pan.
Can I ask is it 107C or 170C? The top of my cake cracked and I’m not sure if it’s the temperature
Hi Eliza! Could you let me know where you saw 107 ºC? It was a typo in the video, but since then, we re-published the video with the correct oven temperature (170 ºC) already… so as far as we know, you should not see 107 ºC.
Here at the blog. (The video does say 107C but I didnt watch the video until my cake went into the oven..)
Never mind it was me confusing myself. It does say 170C. I’m so sorry!!
Hi Eliza! No problem at all! We know this issue as soon as we published the video on YouTube, and people told us we had a typo. I was wondering how you got 107 ºC because we took down the old video and I thought there was a stolen video out there. 🙂
Hi Nami,
My very first chiffon cake is currently in the oven and it has risen beautifully exactly like yours! I love the detail of your instructions~ baking is a science after all!
I note you very helpfully include the metric and imperial measures in your recipe. When you are baking this yourself, do you prefer to use grams and ml to weigh out all ingredients, or do you use tbsp/tsp and cups?
Many thanks!
Hi Lexie! I use metric (grams) for my baking (unless I follow American recipes). For savory… when the amount is small, I use tablespoons. For example, instead of 60 ml soy sauce, I write 4 Tbsp in my notebook, and then when I write the recipe for the blog, I also write 60 ml. Hope this helps.
I hope your cake will turn out well at the end! Enjoy! 🙂 xo
Thank you Nami! I was considering whether I really need a more accurate set of digital scales and ml measuring jug. My cake turned out just perfectly~ even using the tblsp and cup measurements (I also made the cake flour substitution w cornflour)~ so thank you again for the wonderfully accurate recipe! (ps I think your comments email address is not working properly ~posting directly on the page instead)
Hi Lexie! I believe in precise measurement so there will be no mistake or guessing. 🙂 I’m glad your cake came out well!
P.S. Yes, my response will go to the comment under your comment (as well as sending you via email). Is that what you’re talking about?
I’ve tried this recipe twice recently. For my first try, despite adding sugar at the wrong step, the cake still turned out quite good, though I think it wasn’t tall enough. As for my second attempt today, I added everything correctly and the cake turned out very well! My family loves the cake as it’s not overly sweet. Thank you for sharing your recipe 🙂 I’ll be trying out the matcha one next week!
Hi Ashley! Yay!! Thank you for trying my recipe! I’m so happy to hear your chiffon cake came out well! Thank you for trying my recipe. Hope you will enjoy the matcha one next. 🙂
My cake turned out fine. But it wasn’t the chiffon cake texture I was expecting. It was a bit crumbly. Any suggestions on how I can make it softer?
Hi Van! Hmm it doesn’t sound right. It’s a bit hard to pinpoint what went wrong without me being in the kitchen or seeing pictures of the result… But if you didn’t have any substitution, use the right tool and pan, and follow the recipe exactly, I assume you didn’t make the right meringue which could be the cause of not having the fluffy and bouncy texture…
I tried this recipe today, my very first chiffon cake that does not fail!! Taste and texture so wonderful!! Thank you so much Nami!
Hi Yolin! I’m so happy to hear that! Thank you so much for your kind feedback! 😀
hi! I was wondering if a 22cm chiffon cake pan would work as well? thank you!
Hi Claire! Please check this page to modify the amount of ingredients fo your 22 cm: https://www.justonecookbook.com/perfect-chiffon-cake/
thanks for the reply! would you change the amount of tea leaves in the recipe as well?
Hi Claire! Yes, slightly. How about…
1 Tbsp Earl Grey loose tea leaves (5 g) (For step 2)
1 Tbsp and ½ tsp Earl Grey loose tea leaves (6 g) (For step 3)
And adjust based on this next time?
What are the ingredients for the earl vrey chiffon for a 10 inch pan?
Hi Myrna! Please refer this measurement for 10-inch pan as a guide: https://www.justonecookbook.com/perfect-chiffon-cake/
Can this be made in cupcakes mold instead?
Hi J! Unfortunately, chiffon cakes should be made in an aluminum chiffon cake pan (DO NOT use non-stick pans, and it must be a tube pan). 🙂
I made this yesterday and it was good although slightly too sweet so I thought to reduce sugar to 70g next if that’s possible?
Also, I tried making this again in an 8-inch pan by referring to your conversion chart (that was really helpful!) but the chiffon cake shrunk a little and fell off after few minutes of inverted cooling. I modified to the following for 8-inch:
~5g powdered tea leaves
95ml earl grey tea to be mix in the yolk mixture
5 large eggs
110g sugar (reduced slightly to be less sweet)
1/4 cup oil
120g cake flour
1 1/4tsp baking powder
Does the ratio seem alright? If yes then I’m guessing it could be that I did not beat my egg white enough as I was half suspecting it as I mix the egg white into batter mixture, but just want to check with you that the recipe I used is correct before trying for a second time!
Hi Ee Quin! Thank you so much for trying this recipe! I haven’t reduced the amount of sugar in my chiffon cake recipes, so it’s hard for me to say how much reduction could still yield a successful cake. I think slightly less sweet should be okay.
Regarding the dropping of the cake, usually one of 3 reasons.
1) Lack of baking – need to bake 5 minutes longer and see. If you’re afraid of burning (smaller oven), try covering with foil.
2) Lack of sugar or too much meringue (amount)
3) The meringue wasn’t made well (under/over beaten)
Tried this and omg sooooo fluffy and good!!!! Thank you for such a perfect recipe!!! I my takeaway was to fold the egg White in very very gently!!!
Hi Jt! Thank you for your kind feedback. I’m glad your chiffon cake came out well. 🙂
Hi Nami, can you use the actual blend-to-fine earl grey tea leaves instead of the tea? Thanks.
Hi Wei! I’m sorry, I’m not fully understanding your question… what are the blend-to-fine earl grey tea leaves?
Hey, I was wondering if I could possibly make this a plain vanilla chiffon? I do not know how to substitute
Hi Piper! Follow my basic chiffon cake recipe here and adjust the vanilla or add vanilla bean. 🙂
https://www.justonecookbook.com/perfect-chiffon-cake/
Hello! I’m really keen to try this but I am unsure how to adapt your recipe to a 25 cm chiffon cake pan. Any advice? Also, please say hi to Miso for me! 🙂
Hi Suli! You can check 25 cm basic measurement is here. You have to adjust the other additions though.
https://www.justonecookbook.com/perfect-chiffon-cake/
Thank you for your kind hello to Miso! He’s napping behind me. 🙂
I’m so in love with your recipes, like your little fan . Even started buying kayanoya dashi online. You are like mangchi for japanese. I was wonder if this recipe would work for the matcha Swiss roll cake?
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Hi Maddy! Thank you for your kind words, Maddy. 🙂 I’m glad you like Kayanoya dashi too! To be honest, I’m not sure if you can convert this to swiss roll… I haven’t done it before.
Thanks for this amazing recipe! It baked perfectly, despite this being my first time baking a cake! I also used your recipe for whipped cream (from the souffle pancake recipe) and covered the entire cake with whipped cream. The combination was soft and fluffy like clouds on your tongue.
Hi Adie! Aww I’m so happy to hear that you tried this recipe and enjoyed it. Thank you for your kind feedback, Adie!
Hello nami!
Need some help. I would love to try your recipe but could you kindly teach me or share with me the measurements of 6 inch chiffon tin pan instead??
Thank you!
Regards
Joanna
Hi Joanna! Please see the basic ingredients for 6-inch pan (and adjust the rest of the ingredients).
hhttps://www.justonecookbook.com/perfect-chiffon-cake/
Hello Nami, do the eggs have to be at room temperature or can I use them straight from the fridge?
Hi Jia! No, I do not bring the eggs to room temperature. I separate eggs and put the egg whites in the freezer (or fridge) until I make the meringue.
Hi Nami, my chiffon cakes turned out awesome! My family was very pleased with them that I ended up baking them 2 days in a row 😀 Thank you for sharing this recipe!
If I would like to make an earl grey tea infused cream or glaze for the cake, how would you advise to go about it? Thought it would be interesting to try this out the next round I bake.
Thanks again!
Hi Jia! So glad to hear your cake came out well! Thanks for trying this recipe (twice!). Hmmm…. EG infused cream sounds delicious. How about using 2 tea bags for like 1 cup heavy cream and infuse in the pot? Chill completely before whipping with sugar. 🙂
Hi Nami,
I would like to make this recipe with a 10inch pan. What would be the amount of earl grey tea leaf for 10 inch? Also the amount of hot water here is 6 Tbsp (90 ml) but when i check your other post for making chiffon cake for other size, the amount of hot water for 7 inch is 60ml – so what would be the amount of water needed for 10 inch, is it still 170ml like you stated ?(i jsut want to double check).
Thank you and im excited to make this!!
Hi Zoe! See the step 3, I only used 4 Tbsp. You need to prepare extra for leaves to absorb moisture etc, which is why the ingredient amount is more. 🙂
Hi Nami – So far so good with this cake, it’s currently cooling upside down and smells amazing! Would you recommend storing this at room temp or in the fridge? Your other article said it depends on the ingredients. Thank you!
Hi Andrea! I actually changed to this: Wrap the cake in plastic wrap and keep at a cool, dark place for about 2-3 days. Depends on the ingredients or climate you live in, it might be better to keep in the refrigerator for 3-4 days. If you live in warm, humid place, definitely refrigerate. Otherwise, it should be okay at room temp (cool and dark place) for a few days.
Hi Nami. I’ve tried the recipe a few times and the taste is amazing! Just a problem though, I’ve used top flour instead of cake flour and the cake seemed a lil flat. Just wondering if there’s an issue with substituting it? I’ve read that both are pretty similar.
Hi Huda! Thanks for trying this recipe and I’m so glad you enjoyed it! What’s top flour? Does it have more gluten in it (to make bread?)? The type of flour you need is the one with the LEAST gluten in it. It creates fluffy and airy texture and not with other types of flour. 🙂
If the flour is the best one that’s similar to cake flour…
1) Did you use an aluminum chiffon cake pan? DO NOT use a non-stick coated chiffon cake pan. It won’t rise tall.
2) Make sure the meringue is well made to give the cake rise.
Top flour is similar to cake flour and is ideal for chiffon and sponge cakes and swiss rolls! Yes, i use an aluminium pan and my meringue seems okay so im not sure what caused the problem 🙁
Hi Huda! Thank you so much for letting me know. Do you think the cake was completely cooked through? Sometimes when it’s under-baked, the cake sinks as it’s not done inside. Add 2-3 mins more may help if this problem continues?
Hello Nami,
Just made this and it turned out AWESOME! I only had a 23cm tin but thanks to your guide, I managed to adjust the ingredients effortlessly. This is my first attempt at chiffon cake. honestly I was praying that it doesn’t collapse when it came out of the oven – fortunately it didn’t :D. Now I can’t wait to try out the other flavours you have shared! Thank you for all the information you have provided as well!
Hi Faye! Thank you so much for trying this recipe! I’m so glad your first chiffon cake came out well! Thanks for your kind feedback! 🙂
Hi Nami, I have a 25cm chiffon tin and was wondering how you adjust the quantity of the earl grey leaves when using a bigger pan? Thank you.
Hi Ana, you need to make sure your tea is strong and 170 ml (measure ⅔ cup and add 2 tsp) total. Please check this page for finding ingredient measurement for your 25 cm pan.
https://www.justonecookbook.com/perfect-chiffon-cake/
I’m going to make this today! How do I adjust the earl grey ingredients if I’m making it in a 10inch pan? Do I still grind only 2tsp of leaves +4 Tbsp of the tea or should I increase these slightly?
Hi Vicky! I’d increase slightly as you’re making more batter. 🙂
Hai Nami
Thank you for sharing this great recipe.
I like making chiffon cake also. And this earl grey flavour is new for me.
I adjust the sugar, since i dont like something too sweet. I put only 55 gr sugar. But it still too sweet for me. Next i will only just put 40gr only.
And i also skip baking powder .
As long as the meringue is on the right consistency, it will still turn great without baking powder.
Again thank you for share this good recipe.
Hi Lin,
Thank you for sharing your cooking experience and tips with us!
Your comments are valuable and very helpful!
H Nami,
If I don’t have a Chiffon cake pan, can I just use a regular circular cake pan? If it’s fine to use a regular circular cake pan, would the baking time change?
Thank you!
Hi Cals,
We don’t recommend using a circular cake pan to make this Chiffon Cake.
The batter is supposed to climb up using the tube area. Also, the center will not be cooked through without a hole in the middle.
However, some readers told us that they used muffin pans to make other chiffon cake (matcha), and they loved it! 😀
Thank you Nami for yet another fabulous recipe! The cake is so soft and moist and has a great fragrance, though for my personal taste I might reduce sugar slighly in future. It’s definitely a cake i would bake again 🙂
Hi DT,
Thank you very much for trying this recipe and for your kind feedback!
We are so glad to hear you enjoyed this Chiffon Cake.😊
Hello Nami, do you think I could add a berry puree into the cake? Thought such a combination will be great!
Hi Kat,
We see other readers adding the mango purée to a Chiffon cake, and we think it would work, but we did not test it ourselves.
If you add a puree to this recipe, we recommend adjusting the water amount. Please let us know how it goes!😁
Hi Naomi, in this recipe should I reduce the tea and/or oil since there is no water? And should I reduce the same volume as the amount of pureee I add in?
If I reduce the liquid tea, will it help to retain the tea flavour if I add the powder tea leaves?
Not very sure how this will go, will let you know after I try! Thanks so much for your advice!
Hi Kat,
In this recipe, you need 6 Tbsp hot water (90 ml). So if you reduce this amount, you will get more strong tea. Then you don’t need to add the powder tea leaves?🤔 We can’t wait to hear the result! Please keep us posted it.😉
Hi Nami, your recipe looks great! I just wanted to ask about “folding the egg whites in” – I read in your other post that you suggest using a whisk to fold them in but in this recipe you still use a spatula. So, should I go for the whisk or the spatula? I was also wondering if I should chill the egg whites (and for approx. how long) as it is not directly indicated in the recipe. Thanks and happy holidays! 🙂
Hi Nina,
Thank you very much for trying this recipe!
This recipe was published on June 7, 2015, and Nami was using the spatula at the time. Please use a whisk to fold the egg whites if that works for you.
As for the egg, we recommend chilling them for this recipe. 😉
Happy Holidays and New year!
Can this recipe be used for cupcakes???
Hi Jean,
We have never baked the Chiffon cake in cupcakes shapes before, and we don’t know how the outcome will be…
Let us know how it goes!