Asian Fruit Basket Cake

Last week was my uncle's birthday. We didn't celebrate in big way, just his family plus my mom and I. I've been wanting to try making an Asian Fruit Basket Cake. I don't even know if anyone know what I'm talking about...anyone? Say so and it will make me feel better. When we order birthday cakes in my family, oftentimes it's this one...fluffy, with layers of whipped cream and fresh fruit. Here we go...

Chiffon Cake
adapted from kingarthurflour.com
fills one 9" cake pan

3 eggs, separated
1/4 cup vegetable oil
3/8 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
3/4 cups sugar
1 cup cake flour
1 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
3/8 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar

1 1/2 cups chopped fruit
1 pint heavy cream
1/4 - 1/2 cups powdered sugar

1. Preheat the oven to 325. Beat oil, milk, egg yolks, and vanilla until the mixture is pale yellow.

It almost looks like art!

2. Sift in the flour, baking powder, salt, and 1/2 cup sugar. Beat until well blended.

3. In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites with the cream of tartar on high speed. When it gets foamy, start adding 1/4 C sugar a little at a time (it separated into three additions). Keep going and it will transform into stiff peaks--when you flip the whisk upside down, the egg whites will stand up and doesn't wilt onto itself. It took me around 5 minutes.

Weird how it looks like whipped cream...but I wouldn't eat it.

4. Fold the egg whites into the batter. First, take 1/4 of the egg whites and mix it into the batter with a spatula like you normally would. Then, dump the rest of the egg whites into the batter. Gently scoop the spatula underneath all of that batter and you sort of slip the batter on top of the egg whites. The point is not to deflate all of the air you just incorporated in the egg whites. It took me around 8 or so turns to mix the whites into the batter. It's okay if there are small bits of white left.

5. Pour into an ungreased pan and bake at 325 for about 20 minutes. Then, bake at 350 for 10 minutes. When the cake is done, it will be golden brown and springy when you press on the center of the cake.


6. Cool the pan upside down for thirty minutes. I was really skeptical of this step, because I thought the cake would slide down for sure. But, it didn't, so thirty minutes later, I took the cake out and let it cool on the rack until it was room temperature.


7. Chop up your fruit. Use whatever you want...I used dragonfruit, bananas, canned peaches, and oranges. Also, get your whipped cream made. Beat the heavy cream on high until it almost looks like whipped cream, then add enough powdered sugar (or regular sugar) until it's sweetened to your liking.

8. Slice your cake into however many layers you want it to be. I was really horrible at this...they were not level at all. And I kept hacking at it too...first I sliced it in half, parallel to the board. It was so horribly unlevel, I kept trimming more and more off. Oh and as an afterthought, I should have trimmed as much browned stuff as possible. No waste though...the trimmings became breakfast.


9. Spread the first layer with some whipped cream. Sprinkle your fresh fruit on top of the whipped cream. Then add your next layer of cake. Keep going until you have all of your layers.

Told you it wasn't level

10. Frost the outside of the cake. Put a big glob on the cake, and then smooth it out. You have to put enough on it the first time, because if there isn't enough, and you try to add more, you'll get a mess and the crumbs will show through. As illustrated in my cake.

Doesn't look too bad huh?