Birthday Cake Club: Roasted Strawberry Olive Oil Chiffon Cake

Upgrade your summer sheet cake with this flavorful beauty!

Hi Bakers!

June Birthday Cake Club is always extra special to me, because it’s my birthday month. This year, I am celebrating my 40th birthday! One of yours and my favorite cakes so far is the Tart and Sweet Sheet Cake from a couple of years ago. Sheet cakes are still trending strong, so I was excited to create this one with fluffy chiffon cake and roasted berries for my milestone birthday month.

This cake is an upgrade of the sheet cakes we grew up with. It has four layers of olive oil chiffon cake with a hint of orange, roasted strawberries and cherries, and a whipped cream cheese meringue buttercream.

Decorating this style of cake is so fun! I was inspired by the romantic cakes from Reverie Deli. I increased the buttercream yield since the last sheet cake so there’s more room to play.

I swore off sheet cakes for far too long and every time I get to make one now, it brings me so much joy! They just make sense with how easily they cut into neat squares. Whether you like a corner piece or one from the center, the options for frosting to filling ratio in each bite will satisfy everyone’s needs.

One of my first bakery gigs included assembling fresh strawberry-filled, whipped cream frosted sheet cakes. Not a very easy assignment, to say the least. But once you embrace that the sides don’t need to be perfect (as is the case with this style of decorating), the task of icing a sheet cake is so much more enjoyable.

As you would with a round cake, concentrate on getting enough icing where the sides meet the top of the cake to prevent droopy corners.   

Let’s Talk Chiffon Cakes…

A chiffon cake is a cross between a sponge cake and an oil-based cake. It is soft and pillowy from whipped egg whites but rich and tender from the addition of oil and fat-laden egg yolks. 

Where some sponge cakes are purposefully plain and rely on simple syrup, chiffon cake is moist, rich, and melt-in-your mouth tender.

When making a chiffon cake, whipped egg whites are folded into the cake batter. The biggest difference between most other sponge cakes and chiffon cakes is that chiffon cakes have a significant amount of oil while others have little to no additional fat beyond egg yolks. 

Chiffon cakes are the most forgiving cakes of the sponge family. They contain baking powder that acts like a safety net for insufficient egg whites.

That being said…

Tips for Whipping Egg Whites:

• Whip egg whites in a clean bowl. It must be free from grease. Metal and glass bowls work best.

• Add an acid. Cream of tartar, lemon juice, and vinegar help stabilize whipped egg whites and keep them from deflating too quickly.

• The key to whipping up puffy clouds of egg whites is to start low and slow then gradually increase to high speed as you add the sugar.

• Whip the egg whites until they are thick and billowy. When you stop the mixer and lift up the whisk, they should hold medium peaks with a slight curl at the tip. 

• Do not over-mix egg whites. If you mix too long, the egg whites will turn dry and begin to clump together. Not only are these types of egg whites less efficient at creating puffy cakes, they are much harder to fold into the batter and can lead to a collapsed cake structure.

Use a “J” fold to scoop and flip the batter from the bottom of the bowl up to the top to combine the whipped whites and cake batter. Rotate the bowl and repeat.

Chiffon cakes are traditionally baked in a tube pan and cooled upside down. Baking the same batter in a sheet pan definitely works, but be prepared for the baked cake to collapse slightly. If you start with a strong meringue and proper batter, then the shrinking should be minimal.

Lastly, the frosting. I wanted something smooth and stable, so I went with a silky Swiss meringue buttercream. Adding cream cheese lightens it up and gives a slightly airy, whipped frosting feel. I tried adding some of the roasted strawberry juice, but it really didn’t give the color I was hoping for. Use a gel food coloring if you want it pink or the color of your choice.