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Chocolate Chip Chiffon Cake

A light and flavorful chiffon cake studded with chocolate chips. Easy and delicious, high-altitude recipe (with low-altitude conversion)
Course Cake
Cuisine American
Keyword Angel Food cake, chiffon cake, chocolate chip cookies
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 1 hour
Total Time 1 hour 15 minutes
Servings 12

Ingredients

  • 5 oz dark or bittersweet chocolate preferably Belgian
  • 7 large eggs carefully separated with no yolk in whites
  • ½ teaspoon cream of tartar
  • 1 ½ cups sugar divided
  • ½ cup vegetable oil
  • ¾ cup milk whole or skim
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla bean paste or substitute with vanilla extract
  • 1 ½ cups flour
  • 1 ½ teaspoon baking powder 2 ½ teaspoons for low altitude
  • Powdered sugar for garnishing if desired.

Instructions

  1. Preheat your oven to 325°F.
  2. Finely chop the chocolate until you have tiny pieces but not ground. (Smaller than even mini chocolate chips.)
  3. Have a 10-inch angel food cake pan ready. It also works as a layer cake in 2 9-inch layer cake pans. The bottoms lined with parchment paper. Have an empty bottle, like a wine bottle, ready to invert the cake to cool.
  4. In a large mixer bowl, beat the egg whites and the cream of tartar until foamy. Gradually add ½ cup of the sugar as you beat on high. Continue to beat until stiff glossy peaks form.
  5. In a separate bowl, add the egg yolks, vegetable oil, milk, vanilla, salt, and the remaining half of the sugar. Whisk well to combine.
  6. Sift the flour and baking powder into the egg yolk mixture in three batches. Fold after each time until well combined. Avoid over-mixing.
  7. Add half the beaten egg whites to the egg yolk mixture. Fold gently to combine, then add the remaining half. Fold gently again to avoid deflating the batter. The batter should be light, airy, and fluffy.
  8. Quickly, but carefully, fold in the chopped chocolate, trying not to mix very much to keep the air bubbles in the batter.
  9. Pour the batter into the pan.
  10. Bake for 60 minutes. The cake should have risen to the top and be golden brown but may still not entirely spring back when pressed. A cake tester should come out clean such as a toothpick. If you are using 2 nine-inch cake pans, bake for 45-50 minutes.
  11. If using an angel food cake pan, immediately invert the pan onto the neck of a bottle to cool upside down and cool completely (about 1-2 hours). Let the nine-inch cake pans cool for 30 minutes before inverting them onto a cooling rack and running a knife around the edge to release them.
  12. Once the cake in the angel food cake pan has cooled, flip over the pan and carefully run a knife or long flat metal spatula along the sides of the pan to help remove it. Then run a knife or spatula along the bottom of the pan to remove it from the base.
  13. Invert the cake again so the flat side faces up, and dust on powdered sugar if desired. Slice and serve.