Thank you!
It’s G O R G E O U S!
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Gosh that’s pretty. Happiest bday!
Just went and read the recipe. Lots of complaints about the cake texture. Do you think people generally don’t know what chiffon cake should be like, or maybe they all over mixed …? Or maybe you altered the recipe ?
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Thank you!
What are the complaints? I haven’t read any reviews of this except for a blog entry here. I managed to get the recipe off Cook’s Illustrated’s free preview of this recipe but I can’t read comments.
There’s someone in there saying their cake didn’t rise and that the original recipe doesn’t instruct you to beat the cake mixture before adding the egg whites, which I can’t understand at all, because the instructions are pretty clear and standard chiffon procedure. You mix the yolks (and in this case whole eggs, too) with the oil (butter here), flour, and liquid ingredients and then you whisk in a portion of whites to lighten and then fold the rest in.
The cake is wonderful. It’s light since it’s a chiffon, but a bit more substantial than some other chiffon cakes, in part because of butter. It’s like a butter cake, but lighter and moister. I almost considered using olive oil since I love it with blackberries, but I love butter, too. 
I made no changes other than procedure since I have 4 6-inch pans and they fit in the oven all at once. So no baking in batches. And this is half a recipe for 6-inch pans.
The cake reminds me a bit of this one texturally in that it’s not super delicate and light the way for example Asian chiffon cakes are:
The easiest misstep I could see is people over-beating the whites, since you want soft peaks, and people are used to firm and stiff peaks for a lot of recipes. This could cause issues with the rise.
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Something like that is what I plan to ask for for my next birthday! What do you mean by "the six inch version "? I can’t imagine a six inch cake pan, but that would be interesting! I’m sure you have explained this elswhere, and I will try to find it.
Found it!
I made no changes other than procedure since I have 4 6-inch pans and they fit in the oven all at once. So no baking in batches. And this is half a recipe for 6-inch pans.
I need one of those! I seem to recall having a six inch cake pan for making cheesecake in an Instant Pot!
Almost every cake I make is done with 6-inch pans since I don’t want a cake bigger than that most times, so they’re among my most-used pans. It’s also the norm for a lot of YouTube channels, so if you’re ever looking for smaller cakes, just go there.
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oh, tons of complaints on the CI site (I have a subscription.) But it sounds like you loved the version you made!
"It was good but not great. I took steps to ensure a tender chiffon cake, like not overwhipping the egg whites and minimizing gluten development. The cake was moist but denser than i like. I think it’s engineered to be dense to support four tiers, but i didn’t like it. The frosting was a lot of work, turned out a pretty color, but it tasted too much like cream cheese (versus whipped cream). I enjoyed making this cake because I enjoyed baking. But I would not make this recipe again.’
and
Cake was somewhat dense but it had good flavor.
and
The cake ends up dense and rubbery. I doubled the lemon zest to taste (it didn’t seem lemony enough before) when I baked it, but considering the other comments, I don’t think that was the problem. Will definitely be using this frosting again, just on a different lemon cake.
and
This was a flop for me. I just can’t do chiffon cakes. I’m still going to use the frosting but will make different lemon cake layers.
and
Very dense cake! I was careful not to over mix the batter but I still got a dry and dense cake. The flavor was good though.
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What a beautiful birthday cake!
Happy Birthday!
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What I made is the recipe available on ATK’s site here:
This is viewable to all whereas this was not, but is now allowing me to view:
Descriptions like “rubbery” are a sign of over-mixed chiffon cake. I find in the USA people don’t bake chiffon and other sponge cakes nearly as often as butter cakes, and sponge cakes tend to take some practice, so it’s harder to nail them.
The cake is distinctly lemony, and the frosting has a good balance of cream cheese and mascarpone to it. I like the cream cheese, but one can use all mascarpone instead.
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What an utterly gorgeous work of art!! So glad you were happy with it! It does sound delicious. Happy birthday!
ETA: if you have a picture of the whole cake would you please share it?
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Thank you! I don’t have a photo of the whole thing. Since I don’t have fresh blackberries here I just piped some of the frosting on top and covered it completely rather than going for the naked look that ATK used to decorate.
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I bet yours was prettier than theirs! 
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If you order, peeps here like Fat Daddio Loose Bottoms; that’s what I bought.
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I’d go with Parrish’s Magic line over Fat Daddio for pans if looking to bake cakes. I have Fat Daddio pans and I have Magic Line pans and I wish I hadn’t bought so many Fat Daddio pans the last few years. They conduct too much heat, which causes a lot of browning on the outside and also makes cakes dome. Even today two of the pans I used were Fat Daddio and two were Magic Line and the Magic line layers were simply better. They took longer to bake because they don’t conduct as much heat and browned less on the sides and baked up slightly taller.
To make up for the issues with Fat Daddio I’ve invested in cake strips to line the sides.
Back when Stella Parks was recommending these pans and Serious Eats still had comments on their articles, there was some back and forth between a poster who baked cakes professionally and Stella with the poster raising these issues and having baked for years with these pans I see that they were correct.
Even Fat Daddios recommends baking at a lower temp with their pans:
But even with that adjustment their pans cook the outside of cakes too hot compared to uncoated pans.
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Good to know; does Amazon stock?
I think most of mine came from Amazon. I got them so many years ago on Alice Medrich’s recommendation and I think they were all bought online.
They can also be purchased here:
Chicago Metallic uncoated line is also sold on Amazon and is a good brand.
Here you can see that he uses Fat Daddio pans, but thanks to cake strips the cakes cook much more evenly:
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Hojicha cake with genmaicha cream and hojicha ganache.
I had to grind my genmaicha myself and ultimately my cream turned out pretty gray rather than a pretty light green, and I think my hojicha is really potent, because I think just half would have been enough for the cake. I cut it once I got to the ganache. Still this is a delicious cake with subtle sweetness. I also loved the genmaicha cream so much that I will definitely be making it into ice cream. The toasted rice and tea is amazing combined with cream.
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Continuing cookie baking for family gift boxes with Walnut Squares - a very sweet frosted bar cookie with walnuts, brown sugar and coconut. Cut small. Recipe is in the comment below, generously given over the phone when I called the baker whose name was on the bake sale cookie plate and begged for the recipe. (Phone books, dial landline phones, bake sales… it was a different time)
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Walnut Squares
350 degrees, 25 minutes, 9 x 13 ungreased pan, cool before frosting
Reminder – fast to make but cutting and packaging these for gift plates takes extra time.
Crust
1 cup flour
½ cup butter (no substitutes – not good with blend or margarine)
1 Tablespoon sugar
¼ tsp. salt
Filling
2 eggs, beaten
1 ¼ cup brown sugar
2 Tablespoons flour
½ tsp. vanilla
½ tsp. baking powder
½ cup coconut
1 cup chopped walnuts
Frosting - note original called for twice this, but we prefer lots less
1 cups powdered sugar
1 / 4 cup butter (no substitutes)
1/2 of a beaten egg (use pasteurized egg, or substitute 1 T. milk – I use milk)
Mix crust ingredients using mixer to consistency of coarse cornmeal and pat crust into ungreased 9 x 13 pan.
Mix filling ingredients and pour over crust. Use spatula to gently spread filling to edges.
Bake at 350 degrees F., 25 minutes.
Cool. Frost.
From 1982 Helen Restovich, Rochester MN (bake sale)
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