Banana Chiffon Cake

Category: Cakes > Foam Cakes > Chiffon

A chiffon cake is different from other foam cakes because it contains a fat - vegetable oil. Chiffon cakes usually have light flavoring so rich icings or toppings work well. This is a Banana Chiffon cake with a Banana Buttercream icing.



Recipe (Chiffon Cake):

• 2 cups Flour
  
• 1-1/2 cups Sugar
  
• 1 tbsp. Baking Powder
  
• 1 tsp. Salt
  
• 1 large Ripe Banana
  
• 1/2 cup Vegetable Oil
  
• 7 large Eggs, separated
  
• 1 tsp. Vanilla
  
• 1/2 tsp. Almond Extract
  
• 3/4 cup Cold Water
  
• 1/2 tsp. Cream of Tartar
  

Icing:

• 1 Ripe Banana
  
• 1/2 cup Butter
  
• 1 tsp. Vanilla
  
• 1 pound (4 cups) Powdered Sugar
  
• Milk
  
• Pinch of Salt
  

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Sift together the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt and place in large mixing bowl. Mash the banana and add it to the flour mixture. Next add the oil, egg yolks, vanilla and almond extracts and the cold water. Whisk together until the batter is smooth.

In a different large mixing bowl, beat egg whites and cream of tartar with an electric mixer until stiff peaks form.

With a rubber spatula, gently fold the beaten egg whites into the batter just until combined – it is important not to over-mix at this step. Pour batter into an ungreased 10” angel food cake pan. Bake about 55 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.

Invert pan over a cooling rack. Allow cake to cool completely in this upside down position before removing from the pan.

While the cake is baking you can mix the icing. Add the banana to a mixing bowl and mash. Add vanilla, a pinch of salt and butter. Cream together with the banana. Beat in the powdered sugar. If you need more liquid, add milk a tsp. at a time as needed. However, the banana provided a lot of liquid and you might not need to add any milk.

Once the cake is cool, you can ice it with the banana icing.

Baking Tips:

• Adding the salt to the icing helps cut down on some of the sweetness. You can add less or more to your taste.
  
• When adding salt to icing, you should place the salt in a liquid you need to add to the icing instead of just sprinkling the salt into the icing. That way you make sure to distribute the salt evenly.
  
• You need to start baking the cake as soon as the batter is finished being mixed so the air in the eggs don't start to escape.
  
• Because a chiffon cake is a foam cake, don't bang the batter around or it might not rise properly.
  
• Because of the banana, your icing will be a bit glaze like. You can add a tsp. of meringue powder to the icing to make it a little stiffer.