Earl Grey Chiffon Cake and Whipped Cream

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I’ve been making earl grey chiffon cake since I was 15 or 16 years old. Fluffy and silky soft chiffon cake with elegant bergamot aroma has been my family and friends’ all the time favorite cake. Since the cake is really light, the cake is perfect for after dinner or for tea time cake. Additionally, you don’t need expensive ingredients, such as butter, chocolate, or nuts. Today, I decorate the cake with earl grey whipped cream and edible flowers, but those are only if you would like.  The cake is completely perfect and tasty enough without any decorations.

Ingredients for Earl Grey Chiffon Cake

• Egg… use egg yolk and white separately
  
• Sugar… refined regular granulated sugar is best
  
• Oil… you can use almost any kind of oil for a chiffon cake, but I highly recommend using plain oil such as vegetable oil, avocado oil, or canola oil. I’ve used olive oil before and it worked but the olive fragrance was too strong for the cake.
  
• Flour… all-purpose flour or cake flour or pastry flour.
  
• Earl Grey Tea…in order to add the earl grey aroma into this cake, I make thick, dark earl grey tea by using a lot of earl grey tea leaves. Also, I add earl grey tea powder into the cake batter. It’s not easy to buy the earl grey tea powder in the regular grocery store, so you can mill the tea leaf by coffee mill or chopped by knife. Fyi, I bought my earl grey tea powder online.

Tips for Earl Grey Tea Chiffon Cake

-Which Cake Pan Should I Choose for Chiffon Cake?

Chiffon cake mold is normally made with aluminum and without a non-stick coating. The best chiffon cake pan shape is the tube, which has a slender central cylinder that supports the chiffon batter, producing a ring-shaped cake. Most of my chiffon cake mold I purchased in Japan because there is more variety is available in Japan. However, you can use angel cake mold instead. There is also availabe a paper-type chiffon cake mold which will be very convenient for gifting the chiffon cake. The chiffon batter also can be baked in a cupcake mold or sheet pan. Chiffon sheet cake is perfect for the roll cake dough.

-DO NOT Spray Oil Onto The Mold

One of the reasons to fail in making chiffon cake is by putting oil on the mold. The dough is hanging on the edge of the mold while baking and rising. So it shouldn’t be slippery on the edge of the mold.

-Important to Cool the Cake Inverted

Since the freshly baked chiffon cake contains steam, the cake shape is not stable because of the water of the steam.

If you remove the chiffon cake mold as it is, the fluffed chiffon cake will deflate.

By cooling it upside down, the steam trapped in the cake can easily escape, and the bulging shape can be maintained.

Immediately after baking, turn it upside down and let it cool.

-How to Unmold the Chiffon Cake

There are two ways to remove chiffon cake from the pan. By thin paring knife or spatula. Also, you can unmold the cake simply by hand. 

• By paring knife: run a knife against the sides of the cake pan to detach it from the sides and center tube of the pan. Be careful to not tear the cake.
   
• By hand: push the edge of the cake attached to the mold down gently with your fingers. Then, flip over the mold and the cake and then remove the tube from the top. I really prefer to use this method to unmold my chiffon cake because you don’t have to worry about the knife tearing the cake. However, you need bravery to do this method, especially for the first time. But do not worry, if your cake is baked well, the cake will bounce back even if you think for a second that the cake is smashed.

Decorations for Earl Grey Chiffon Cake

This earl grey chiffon cake is already very tasty so you can enjoy it without any decoration or garnish. However, if you want to upgrade your cake,  whipped cream or any of your favorite jams can be a perfect garnish for this cake. If you want to decorate your cake as I did, here is how to do.

-Earl Grey Whipped Cream

1. Add heavy cream and earl grey tea together in a small pan then heat it up. Once it starts simmering, put the lid on, and remove it from the heat. Leave it for 10 minutes.
   
2. Strain tea leaves and add sugar to the cream, and whip with a whisk until soft peaks or your desired stiffness.

-Pressed Edible Flowers

I use a flower press to make the pressed edible flowers but you can also press the flowers other ways. Simply place your flowers between sheets of paper or a notepad and stack some heavy books on top. It normally takes between 2 to 4 weeks all depending on the flowers and temperatures and climate.