In 2007, when this website was still in its infancy, I shared a recipe for a layered strawberry chiffon shortcake. I’d never made a chiffon cake before, but I brought it to a friend’s rooftop birthday BBQ, correctly assuming that no one would be unhappy with a towering, featherweight cake sandwiched with whipped cream and fresh strawberries, however inexpertly made.
While I could appreciate a chiffon cake back then, I wasn’t a superfan. Chiffon cakes seemed a little stiff and lean. Plus, they’re fussy: there’s sifting; cake flour instead of all-purpose flour; superfine sugar instead of regular granulated; an uneven number of egg whites and egg yolks; cream of tartar; and a minimum of three bowls just for the cake layers. Oh, and chiffon cakes have a tendency to dip in the center as they cool. Gosh, where do we sign up!?
Nineteen years later, when the cake resurfaced in the “Could Use a Refresh” queue, I knew Deb of 2026 wanted to eliminate as much of that rigidity as possible to create a chiffon cake recipe for real life — this one, even. Along the way, late to the game as ever, I fell deeply in love with chiffon cakes. [I’ve told friends I’m now in my Chiffon Cake Era and they were so sweet to wait until I turned around to roll their eyes.] But I get it now, I really do. Not only are they light as air, so glorious as a summer dessert, but the layers keep phenomenally well, as good on day six as they are the day they’re baked.
At my birthday party on Friday night, I blew out the candles on a supersized version of this and walked my mom out to her car. When I came back, only a single piece was out on the tables and the plates were untouched. I panicked. “Where is the rest? Are they still cutting it? Did you get any? Did you?” Apparently, in the minutes I was outside, the cake had been “devoured frantically directly from the serving platters” the moment they were set down, bypassing patience and plates. A friend described it as a “weightless, melt-in-your-mouth dessert.” Another friend told me to make twice as much next time, because she was unable to have thirds. I think we know what needs to be done.
