Chiffon Cakes with Chocolate Chunks
Perfectly moist and studded with chocolate chunks, my heart chiffon cakes are an easy and delicious dessert.
Servings: 7 cakes
Print Recipe
Ingredients
For the wet ingredients:
- ⅓ cup butter, melted
- ⅓ cup oil
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 egg
- 2 tsp vanilla
- ½ cup almond milk, or milk of choice
For the dry ingredients:
- 1 ½ cups flour
- ½ tsp salt
- ¼ tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp baking powder
Everything else:
- 2 egg whites
- 8 oz baking chocolate, chopped, (milk, semi-sweet, dark, whatever your preference)
- 1 Tbsp flour
Instructions
Prepare the chocolate chunks
- Chop 8 ounces of baking chocolate into chunks. Sprinkle 1 Tbsp of flour over the chocolate, and work the flour into the chunks until they are well coated. (See photo in the article above for reference.) The flour keeps the chocolate chunks from sinking to the bottom of the cakes while they bake.
Whip the egg whites
- Separate 2 egg whites from their yokes (we won’t need these yolks in the recipe), and put the egg whites in a very clean mixing bowl.
- With a handheld or stand mixer with very clean beaters, beat the egg whites on medium speed until stiff peaks form, about 3-4 minutes. (See photos in the article above for reference.). The peaks are stiff enough if they hold their shape when you take the beaters out.
- Set aside, and proceed quickly with the following steps. The shorter the egg whites sit the better.
Cream the wet ingredients
- In a medium-sized mixing bowl, use a handheld or stand mixer to cream together the oil, melted butter, and sugar until well combined, about one minute.
- Now add the vanilla and the egg (not the egg whites we just beat to stiff peaks; we'll add those a little later).
- Beat with your mixer until everything is combined and fluffy, then add the milk. Mix until the milk is completely incorporated.
Mix in the dry ingredients
- Add the flour, salt, baking powder, and baking soda, and mix with your handheld/stand mixer until almost combine.
- Now add in the chocolate chunks. Mix them into the batter with a spatula until just combined. Don't overmix.
Fold in the egg whites
- Now fold in the egg whites with a silicon spatula. See photos in the article above for my folding technique.
- We want to completely incorporate the egg whites into the cake batter, but only by folding them in softly so they don't deflate.
Bake the chiffon cake
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
For the heart-shaped pan
- If using the heart-shaped pan, which I recommend, oil the pan well, and pour about ½ cup of batter into each heart. You will have just about ½ cup of batter left over. I use an 8 oz ramekin for the remaining batter, and I bake the ramekin alongside the heart-shaped cakes.
- Bake for 27-29 minutes, until the cakes are mostly firm—there will be a slight jiggle—and a toothpick inserted in the middle of a cake comes out mostly clean.
- Let the heart cakes cook for 5 minutes, then take them out of the pan. Use a butter knife if needed to help slide the cakes out of the pan. The side of each cake that was in the bottom of the pan will now become the top of each cake.
For an 8x8 inch or 9x9 inch pan
- If not using the heart-shaped pan, pour the cake batter into an oiled 8x8 inch or 9x9 inch pan.
- Bake for 30-35 minutes, until the cake is mostly firm on top—there will be a slight jiggle—and a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out mostly clean.
Serve and enjoy!
- Serve the cakes alone, with ice cream, or a cup of almond milk.
Notes
This chiffon cake can be made in my recommended heart-shaped pan, or in 7, 8 oz ramekins.
This chiffon cake can also be made in an 8x8 inch or 9x9 inch pan.