Vanilla chiffon filled with mangoes, balsamic strawberries, and yogurt whipped cream

Yield
8-10 slices
Prep time
1 hour + cooling
Cook time
35 minutes
Total time
2 1/2 hours
RecipeVideoPrint

This cake is what I call my "hybrid" chiffon cake because I've combined the airy texture of a chiffon with the stability of a classic vanilla layer cake. It has the lightest texture of all my cakes and this one has a classic vanilla flavor that goes great with any type of fruit and whipped cream.

Traditionally, chiffon cakes are baked in chiffon cake pans and then cooled upside down. These baking pans are large and tall, and contain a central hole. It kind of looks like a large donut, which facilitates even heat transfer throughout the batter. Cooling upside down allows the cake to remain tall so the weight of gravity doesn't push down on it. 

I've designed my chiffon cake recipe so that it is a tad sturdier; this allows us to reliably bake chiffons in different cake pans in the Cakeculator. Cupcakes and mini cakes bake well with this recipe and I've also used this chiffon to make tall stacked layer cakes.

A few notes on baking this cake in rounded cake pans:
I have cooled these cakes both right side up and upside down. If you cool them right side up - they will shrink down to a level surface and kind of be wrinkly on the tops. It didn't affect the inner texture of the cake at all, really. I feel like it's more of an apperance thing. (If it concaves or pulls away from the sides of the pan when you take it out of the oven, however, the cake is underbaked. The cake should level, but not collapse.)

If you cool them upside down, they will look slightly higher. Watch my video and you can see the little bit of difference. As far as the texture, I couldn't really tell - but the finished cake looks prettier. Though the appearance doesn't really matter if you're stacking layers inside a cake. I still let them cool upside down even though it is nerve wracking the first few times you do it. But don't worry, if it's fully baked - and I give you lots of visuals in the video on how to tell - it won't fall out.

Note that I use 2" high pans, which after turning the pans upside down kinda just barely smooshes the cake. If you use a 3" high pan, maybe you'll likely get noticeably higher cakes.

To make other cake sizes, such as cupcakes or mini cakes, you can select "Vanilla Chiffon" in my cakeculator by going here.

If you'd like to make the exact cake I show in my YouTube video, I've written it out below.

Step by step:

Video

Read this before you begin

Measure by weight, if possible.

Measuring by weight is the best way for you to replicate my recipes. I develop recipes using ingredients (even liquids) measured in grams, which is why you see them listed first in the recipe cards. For measurements under 5 grams, I will typically only list the volumetric measurements (teaspoons, etc.), as most home scales are not precise for such small weights.

In most cases, I have converted grams to volumetric measurements (aka US customary units) for bakers who prefer this method. However, the measurements are not as precise and may have awkward proportions. The recipes should still work, but for the ultimate precision, try to use weight.

This is the OXO scale I use daily. I also purchased this budget version of a good scale, which I keep at my Mom’s house for baking. If you’re interested in other tools I use for my baking, I’ve compiled a list here.

Use room temperature ingredients.

All my ingredients should be used at room temperature, or 65-75 °F/18-24 °C. I will always indicate if you need something outside this range. If no details are given, room temperature is the default. 

Pay attention to the ingredient descriptions.

I try not to be brand-specific, but I will always note an interesting result from a type of ingredient, be it negative or positive. 

A specific note regarding salt: I use Diamond Crystal Kosher salt for everything on this site except for frostings. In frostings, you want the salt to dissolve more easily, and kosher salt tends to leave granules behind. If you substitute table salt (more finely granulated) for recipes that list kosher salt, you must use half the volume indicated in my recipes.

Substitutions are hard.

That’s not to say they’re impossible, though. For instance, in many cases, substituting reduced fat for whole milk (and thus reducing fat by less than 2%) will probably be fine. Using applesauce for oil or even Greek yogurt when sour cream is listed will definitely alter the fat content and adversely affect the crumb texture and density of the cake.

I experiment for hours to get these recipes to work for us. First, try to make them as written or use one of my tested substitutions, which I often dedicate a section to. Then, if necessary, you can make modifications afterward. Even then I would be pretty cautious, as substitutions are one of the hardest things to investigate in recipe development.

Read all the recipe instructions before beginning.

I’m in the “Pre-read the Chapter before Class Lecture” club... and I invite you to join! Baking new recipes can be intimidating, so let’s set you up for success. I want you to think about timeframes. Most fillings and frostings can be made ahead of time, and give you an extra day for mental space. Also, as you become a more proficient baker, you can anticipate and recognize steps. (“Oh, this has a meringue step, so I’ll need an extra clean bowl…” etc.) Ensure you go down the ingredient list and have everything at the right temperature.

Vanilla Chiffon cake with chopped mangoes, balsamic strawberries, and honey whipped cream

Yield
8-10 slices
Prep time
1 hour + cooling
Cook time
35 minutes
Total time
2 1/2 hours
Download PDFSave to Pinterest

Ingredients

Vanilla Chiffon Cake

  • 2/3 cups (162g) water, room temperature*
  • 8 tablespoons (112g) oil, either canola or other veg
  • 4 large (80g) egg yolks
  • 1 tablespoon (15g) vanilla extract
  • 1 1/2 cups (180g) cake flour**
  • 1/2 cup (56g) cornstarch***
  • 1 cup (200g) white granulated sugar (for flour)
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon kosher salt (I use Diamond Crystal Kosher)
  • 4 large (120g) egg whites
  • 1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar****
  • 1/4 cup (50g) white granulated sugar (for meringue)

Mango and Balsamic Strawberries (for filling and decoration)

Honey Whipped Cream Frosting

  • 3 cups (680g) heavy whipping cream, cold
  • 3 tablespoons of honey
  • 1/4 cups (50g) granulated sugar
  • 1 tsp of Whip-It (Sahnesteif)

Vanilla Chiffon Cake

  • 2/3 cups (162g) water, room temperature*
  • 8 tablespoons (112g) oil, either canola or other veg
  • 4 large (80g) egg yolks
  • 1 tablespoon (15g) vanilla extract
  • 1 1/2 cups (180g) cake flour**
  • 1/2 cup (56g) cornstarch***
  • 1 cup (200g) white granulated sugar (for flour)
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon kosher salt (I use Diamond Crystal Kosher)
  • 4 large (120g) egg whites
  • 1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar****
  • 1/4 cup (50g) white granulated sugar (for meringue)

Mango and Balsamic Strawberries (for filling and decoration)

Honey Whipped Cream Frosting

  • 3 cups (680g) heavy whipping cream, cold
  • 3 tablespoons of honey
  • 1/4 cups (50g) granulated sugar
  • 1 tsp of Whip-It (Sahnesteif)

Instructions

Make the Vanilla Chiffon Cake

  1. Move your oven rack to the middle position. Preheat the oven to 350 °F/177 °C.
  2. Line the bottoms of two 8" (not non-stick) cake pans with a circle of parchment paper. Don't add anything (oil or flour or paper) to the sides of the pan. The cake needs to stick a little to sides as it rises to create height and ensure it doesn't deflate.
  3. In a measuring cup, mix together room temperature water, oil, egg yolks, and vanilla (or almond) extract with a fork. Mix until you see no separation of the oil and milk - the egg yolk helps emulsify these liquids and it will look homogenous in color. Set that aside for now.
  4. In a mixing bowl, sift in the cake flour, cornstarch, white granulated sugar (labeled "for flour"), and baking powder. Add the kosher salt to the bowl and whisk for about 30 seconds.
    Make a small well in the middle of the flour mixture and slowly pour in the milk mixture from the previous step while whisking at the same time. As you whisk, you'll see the liquid slowly pulling in the flour mixture from the outer ring. (This is to prevent lumps.) Once you've poured in all of the milk, keep whisking and stop just when all the flour has been incorporated. Set this bowl aside for now.
  5. To another mixing bowl, add the egg whites and cream of tartar. Pour the white granulated sugar (labeled "for meringue") into a small bowl so it's easy to add to the egg whites while mixing.  
    With a hand or stand mixer and the whisk attachment, beat on medium high speed until it's thick and foamy. It will look like men's shaving cream (you know the kind they make at a fancy barber shop with a whisk?) Pour in about a couple teaspoons of sugar, continue to whisk, and then pour another couple teaspoons. No need to be precise on the amount of sugar, but wait about 5-10 seconds between additions to allow the sugar to dissolve a little before adding more.
    Once all the sugar has been added, continue to whisk until you reach stiff and glossy peaks. When you pull up some meringue with the whisk attachment, you should see a point when you hold it upside down. It shouldn't be runny or drooping off the whisk.
  6. Take a spatula sized small scoop of meringue and stir it into the batter using the whisk - this just lightens the batter a tad.
    Now take 1/3 of your freshly whipped meringue and fold it into the cake batter. Use swooping motions to scoop the batter from the sides and pile it towards the center. Make sure you scrape the bottom of the bowl once in a while. (My video shows this technique much better than I am able to describe it.) Once all the batter contains no more steaks of meringue, add the second third and continue to fold. Finish with the final third of meringue. The batter should not have any steaks of meringue, be slightly tan in color, and much lighter in texture.
  7. Evenly distribute the batter into the prepared pans.
  8. Bake for about 30-35 mins.
    This is how you know a chiffon cake is done and won't collapse too much when you remove it from the oven: during the last 5 mins of baking, watch the tops of your cake. They will rise very high, then shrink down to almost the level of the pan. This is a sign your cake is done. You can double check with a skewer (no crumbs should come out) or the internal temp of the cake (around 205-210 °F/96-99 °C).
  9. Move the pans to a wire rack and let them sit for about 3-5 minutes. Take the wire rack and place over the cake pan and flip the cake pan over. (It may be a little taller than the pan if your pan is only 2 inches tall. It's ok, just put the wire rack on top.) And don't worry, it won't fall out. Because we didn't treat the sides of the pan with any fat or paper, the cake will stay inside the pan until you use a knife to loosen the cake from the pan.
  10. Loosen the edges of the cakes using an offset spatula or butter knife, and flip the cakes out onto a cooling rack so you can peel off the parchment bottom. I like to wrap mine in plastic wrap until I'm ready to frost the cake. You can leave them like this for 2-3 days at room temp - just make sure the plastic is airtight. Not tight enough to deform the cake, but it should have no holes.

Prep the Fruit

  1. Peel and chop your mangoes into 1/2 inch chunks. You can slice half a mango thinly and make little roses for the top of the cake like I did, or just use bigger chunks for decorating.
  2. Slice the strawberries and place them into a bowl along with the sugar and balsamic vinegar. Give it a good stir and let that sit (macerate) for at least 30 minutes. Taste the strawberries for sweetness and vinegar, then drain off the juice. (I just used the strawberries to fill the cake.)

Make the Honey Whipped Cream

  1. Place your mixing bowl and whisk attachment in the freezer for about 15 minutes. A cold bowl helps the whipped cream develop nice peaks.
  2. Add heavy whipping cream and whisk on medium speed until slightly thickened.
  3. Add in your granulated sugar and vanilla and continue to whisk on medium speed with a stand mixer (or you can remove the bowl and use a hand whisk, which is what I do)
  4. Sprinkle the Whip-It stabilizer and continue to whisk until it thickens very slightly. (I have other ways of stabilizing whipped cream listed here.)
  5. Set that in the fridge while you prep the cakes.

Assemble the Cake

Be sure to watch my video to see how I put this cake together.

  1. Cut each cake round into two thinner layers.
  2. Assemble your cake by adding a cake layer, fresh fruit (mangoes and strawberries) followed by a layer of whipped cream to "cement" the fruit. I use around 1 cup of frosting in between each cake layer.
  3. After all the cake layers have been stacked, do a super thin crumb coat, followed by a thicker top coat using up almost all of the frosting. You can save about 1/2 cup of frosting for piping designs like I did in my video.
  4. Top the cake with decorative fruit and flowers.

‍

Adriana's Notes

*My older versions of this cake use milk, but I've since changed the liquid to water. I've found that this creates a much softer crumb than milk because it is pure moisture and no milk proteins. However, if you want, you can use milk, although I didn't find any taste benefit from doing so.

**Cake flour is best for this recipe. It is finely milled and contains less gluten-forming proteins than all-purpose flour. This gives chiffon a delicate, very fine crumb that is extremely tender. I use King Arthur Flour's Unbleached Cake Flour, but you can use bleached versions if you like.

***Cornstarch (aka corn flour) or potato starch can be used. This ingredient further decreases the amount of gluten forming proteins in the total amount of starches needed for the cake.

****If you can't find or don't have cream of tartar, sub double the amount of lemon or lime juice. Don't worry, it won't flavor the meringue.

‍

Ingredients
Instructions

Vanilla Chiffon Cake

  • 2/3 cups (162g) water, room temperature*
  • 8 tablespoons (112g) oil, either canola or other veg
  • 4 large (80g) egg yolks
  • 1 tablespoon (15g) vanilla extract
  • 1 1/2 cups (180g) cake flour**
  • 1/2 cup (56g) cornstarch***
  • 1 cup (200g) white granulated sugar (for flour)
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon kosher salt (I use Diamond Crystal Kosher)
  • 4 large (120g) egg whites
  • 1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar****
  • 1/4 cup (50g) white granulated sugar (for meringue)

Mango and Balsamic Strawberries (for filling and decoration)

Honey Whipped Cream Frosting

  • 3 cups (680g) heavy whipping cream, cold
  • 3 tablespoons of honey
  • 1/4 cups (50g) granulated sugar
  • 1 tsp of Whip-It (Sahnesteif)

Vanilla Chiffon Cake

  • 2/3 cups (162g) water, room temperature*
  • 8 tablespoons (112g) oil, either canola or other veg
  • 4 large (80g) egg yolks
  • 1 tablespoon (15g) vanilla extract
  • 1 1/2 cups (180g) cake flour**
  • 1/2 cup (56g) cornstarch***
  • 1 cup (200g) white granulated sugar (for flour)
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon kosher salt (I use Diamond Crystal Kosher)
  • 4 large (120g) egg whites
  • 1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar****
  • 1/4 cup (50g) white granulated sugar (for meringue)

Mango and Balsamic Strawberries (for filling and decoration)

Honey Whipped Cream Frosting

  • 3 cups (680g) heavy whipping cream, cold
  • 3 tablespoons of honey
  • 1/4 cups (50g) granulated sugar
  • 1 tsp of Whip-It (Sahnesteif)

Make the Vanilla Chiffon Cake

  1. Move your oven rack to the middle position. Preheat the oven to 350 °F/177 °C.
  2. Line the bottoms of two 8" (not non-stick) cake pans with a circle of parchment paper. Don't add anything (oil or flour or paper) to the sides of the pan. The cake needs to stick a little to sides as it rises to create height and ensure it doesn't deflate.
  3. In a measuring cup, mix together room temperature water, oil, egg yolks, and vanilla (or almond) extract with a fork. Mix until you see no separation of the oil and milk - the egg yolk helps emulsify these liquids and it will look homogenous in color. Set that aside for now.
  4. In a mixing bowl, sift in the cake flour, cornstarch, white granulated sugar (labeled "for flour"), and baking powder. Add the kosher salt to the bowl and whisk for about 30 seconds.
    Make a small well in the middle of the flour mixture and slowly pour in the milk mixture from the previous step while whisking at the same time. As you whisk, you'll see the liquid slowly pulling in the flour mixture from the outer ring. (This is to prevent lumps.) Once you've poured in all of the milk, keep whisking and stop just when all the flour has been incorporated. Set this bowl aside for now.
  5. To another mixing bowl, add the egg whites and cream of tartar. Pour the white granulated sugar (labeled "for meringue") into a small bowl so it's easy to add to the egg whites while mixing.  
    With a hand or stand mixer and the whisk attachment, beat on medium high speed until it's thick and foamy. It will look like men's shaving cream (you know the kind they make at a fancy barber shop with a whisk?) Pour in about a couple teaspoons of sugar, continue to whisk, and then pour another couple teaspoons. No need to be precise on the amount of sugar, but wait about 5-10 seconds between additions to allow the sugar to dissolve a little before adding more.
    Once all the sugar has been added, continue to whisk until you reach stiff and glossy peaks. When you pull up some meringue with the whisk attachment, you should see a point when you hold it upside down. It shouldn't be runny or drooping off the whisk.
  6. Take a spatula sized small scoop of meringue and stir it into the batter using the whisk - this just lightens the batter a tad.
    Now take 1/3 of your freshly whipped meringue and fold it into the cake batter. Use swooping motions to scoop the batter from the sides and pile it towards the center. Make sure you scrape the bottom of the bowl once in a while. (My video shows this technique much better than I am able to describe it.) Once all the batter contains no more steaks of meringue, add the second third and continue to fold. Finish with the final third of meringue. The batter should not have any steaks of meringue, be slightly tan in color, and much lighter in texture.
  7. Evenly distribute the batter into the prepared pans.
  8. Bake for about 30-35 mins.
    This is how you know a chiffon cake is done and won't collapse too much when you remove it from the oven: during the last 5 mins of baking, watch the tops of your cake. They will rise very high, then shrink down to almost the level of the pan. This is a sign your cake is done. You can double check with a skewer (no crumbs should come out) or the internal temp of the cake (around 205-210 °F/96-99 °C).
  9. Move the pans to a wire rack and let them sit for about 3-5 minutes. Take the wire rack and place over the cake pan and flip the cake pan over. (It may be a little taller than the pan if your pan is only 2 inches tall. It's ok, just put the wire rack on top.) And don't worry, it won't fall out. Because we didn't treat the sides of the pan with any fat or paper, the cake will stay inside the pan until you use a knife to loosen the cake from the pan.
  10. Loosen the edges of the cakes using an offset spatula or butter knife, and flip the cakes out onto a cooling rack so you can peel off the parchment bottom. I like to wrap mine in plastic wrap until I'm ready to frost the cake. You can leave them like this for 2-3 days at room temp - just make sure the plastic is airtight. Not tight enough to deform the cake, but it should have no holes.

Prep the Fruit

  1. Peel and chop your mangoes into 1/2 inch chunks. You can slice half a mango thinly and make little roses for the top of the cake like I did, or just use bigger chunks for decorating.
  2. Slice the strawberries and place them into a bowl along with the sugar and balsamic vinegar. Give it a good stir and let that sit (macerate) for at least 30 minutes. Taste the strawberries for sweetness and vinegar, then drain off the juice. (I just used the strawberries to fill the cake.)

Make the Honey Whipped Cream

  1. Place your mixing bowl and whisk attachment in the freezer for about 15 minutes. A cold bowl helps the whipped cream develop nice peaks.
  2. Add heavy whipping cream and whisk on medium speed until slightly thickened.
  3. Add in your granulated sugar and vanilla and continue to whisk on medium speed with a stand mixer (or you can remove the bowl and use a hand whisk, which is what I do)
  4. Sprinkle the Whip-It stabilizer and continue to whisk until it thickens very slightly. (I have other ways of stabilizing whipped cream listed here.)
  5. Set that in the fridge while you prep the cakes.

Assemble the Cake

Be sure to watch my video to see how I put this cake together.

  1. Cut each cake round into two thinner layers.
  2. Assemble your cake by adding a cake layer, fresh fruit (mangoes and strawberries) followed by a layer of whipped cream to "cement" the fruit. I use around 1 cup of frosting in between each cake layer.
  3. After all the cake layers have been stacked, do a super thin crumb coat, followed by a thicker top coat using up almost all of the frosting. You can save about 1/2 cup of frosting for piping designs like I did in my video.
  4. Top the cake with decorative fruit and flowers.

‍

Recipe Card - Adriana's Notes

*My older versions of this cake use milk, but I've since changed the liquid to water. I've found that this creates a much softer crumb than milk because it is pure moisture and no milk proteins. However, if you want, you can use milk, although I didn't find any taste benefit from doing so.

**Cake flour is best for this recipe. It is finely milled and contains less gluten-forming proteins than all-purpose flour. This gives chiffon a delicate, very fine crumb that is extremely tender. I use King Arthur Flour's Unbleached Cake Flour, but you can use bleached versions if you like.

***Cornstarch (aka corn flour) or potato starch can be used. This ingredient further decreases the amount of gluten forming proteins in the total amount of starches needed for the cake.

****If you can't find or don't have cream of tartar, sub double the amount of lemon or lime juice. Don't worry, it won't flavor the meringue.

‍

Recommended Sugar Lab Recipes + Experiments

Red Velvet Cake with Ermine Frosting

No dye black cake (that tastes like Oreos)

Homemade Funfetti Cake (A Delicious Sprinkle Cake!)

There’s more where this came from!

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Vanilla Chiffon cake with chopped mangoes, balsamic strawberries, and honey whipped cream

Yield
8-10 slices
Prep time
1 hour + cooling
Cook time
35 minutes
Total time
2 1/2 hours

Ingredients

Vanilla Chiffon Cake

  • 2/3 cups (162g) water, room temperature*
  • 8 tablespoons (112g) oil, either canola or other veg
  • 4 large (80g) egg yolks
  • 1 tablespoon (15g) vanilla extract
  • 1 1/2 cups (180g) cake flour**
  • 1/2 cup (56g) cornstarch***
  • 1 cup (200g) white granulated sugar (for flour)
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon kosher salt (I use Diamond Crystal Kosher)
  • 4 large (120g) egg whites
  • 1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar****
  • 1/4 cup (50g) white granulated sugar (for meringue)

Mango and Balsamic Strawberries (for filling and decoration)

Honey Whipped Cream Frosting

  • 3 cups (680g) heavy whipping cream, cold
  • 3 tablespoons of honey
  • 1/4 cups (50g) granulated sugar
  • 1 tsp of Whip-It (Sahnesteif)

Instructions

Make the Vanilla Chiffon Cake

  1. Move your oven rack to the middle position. Preheat the oven to 350 °F/177 °C.
  2. Line the bottoms of two 8" (not non-stick) cake pans with a circle of parchment paper. Don't add anything (oil or flour or paper) to the sides of the pan. The cake needs to stick a little to sides as it rises to create height and ensure it doesn't deflate.
  3. In a measuring cup, mix together room temperature water, oil, egg yolks, and vanilla (or almond) extract with a fork. Mix until you see no separation of the oil and milk - the egg yolk helps emulsify these liquids and it will look homogenous in color. Set that aside for now.
  4. In a mixing bowl, sift in the cake flour, cornstarch, white granulated sugar (labeled "for flour"), and baking powder. Add the kosher salt to the bowl and whisk for about 30 seconds.
    Make a small well in the middle of the flour mixture and slowly pour in the milk mixture from the previous step while whisking at the same time. As you whisk, you'll see the liquid slowly pulling in the flour mixture from the outer ring. (This is to prevent lumps.) Once you've poured in all of the milk, keep whisking and stop just when all the flour has been incorporated. Set this bowl aside for now.
  5. To another mixing bowl, add the egg whites and cream of tartar. Pour the white granulated sugar (labeled "for meringue") into a small bowl so it's easy to add to the egg whites while mixing.  
    With a hand or stand mixer and the whisk attachment, beat on medium high speed until it's thick and foamy. It will look like men's shaving cream (you know the kind they make at a fancy barber shop with a whisk?) Pour in about a couple teaspoons of sugar, continue to whisk, and then pour another couple teaspoons. No need to be precise on the amount of sugar, but wait about 5-10 seconds between additions to allow the sugar to dissolve a little before adding more.
    Once all the sugar has been added, continue to whisk until you reach stiff and glossy peaks. When you pull up some meringue with the whisk attachment, you should see a point when you hold it upside down. It shouldn't be runny or drooping off the whisk.
  6. Take a spatula sized small scoop of meringue and stir it into the batter using the whisk - this just lightens the batter a tad.
    Now take 1/3 of your freshly whipped meringue and fold it into the cake batter. Use swooping motions to scoop the batter from the sides and pile it towards the center. Make sure you scrape the bottom of the bowl once in a while. (My video shows this technique much better than I am able to describe it.) Once all the batter contains no more steaks of meringue, add the second third and continue to fold. Finish with the final third of meringue. The batter should not have any steaks of meringue, be slightly tan in color, and much lighter in texture.
  7. Evenly distribute the batter into the prepared pans.
  8. Bake for about 30-35 mins.
    This is how you know a chiffon cake is done and won't collapse too much when you remove it from the oven: during the last 5 mins of baking, watch the tops of your cake. They will rise very high, then shrink down to almost the level of the pan. This is a sign your cake is done. You can double check with a skewer (no crumbs should come out) or the internal temp of the cake (around 205-210 °F/96-99 °C).
  9. Move the pans to a wire rack and let them sit for about 3-5 minutes. Take the wire rack and place over the cake pan and flip the cake pan over. (It may be a little taller than the pan if your pan is only 2 inches tall. It's ok, just put the wire rack on top.) And don't worry, it won't fall out. Because we didn't treat the sides of the pan with any fat or paper, the cake will stay inside the pan until you use a knife to loosen the cake from the pan.
  10. Loosen the edges of the cakes using an offset spatula or butter knife, and flip the cakes out onto a cooling rack so you can peel off the parchment bottom. I like to wrap mine in plastic wrap until I'm ready to frost the cake. You can leave them like this for 2-3 days at room temp - just make sure the plastic is airtight. Not tight enough to deform the cake, but it should have no holes.

Prep the Fruit

  1. Peel and chop your mangoes into 1/2 inch chunks. You can slice half a mango thinly and make little roses for the top of the cake like I did, or just use bigger chunks for decorating.
  2. Slice the strawberries and place them into a bowl along with the sugar and balsamic vinegar. Give it a good stir and let that sit (macerate) for at least 30 minutes. Taste the strawberries for sweetness and vinegar, then drain off the juice. (I just used the strawberries to fill the cake.)

Make the Honey Whipped Cream

  1. Place your mixing bowl and whisk attachment in the freezer for about 15 minutes. A cold bowl helps the whipped cream develop nice peaks.
  2. Add heavy whipping cream and whisk on medium speed until slightly thickened.
  3. Add in your granulated sugar and vanilla and continue to whisk on medium speed with a stand mixer (or you can remove the bowl and use a hand whisk, which is what I do)
  4. Sprinkle the Whip-It stabilizer and continue to whisk until it thickens very slightly. (I have other ways of stabilizing whipped cream listed here.)
  5. Set that in the fridge while you prep the cakes.

Assemble the Cake

Be sure to watch my video to see how I put this cake together.

  1. Cut each cake round into two thinner layers.
  2. Assemble your cake by adding a cake layer, fresh fruit (mangoes and strawberries) followed by a layer of whipped cream to "cement" the fruit. I use around 1 cup of frosting in between each cake layer.
  3. After all the cake layers have been stacked, do a super thin crumb coat, followed by a thicker top coat using up almost all of the frosting. You can save about 1/2 cup of frosting for piping designs like I did in my video.
  4. Top the cake with decorative fruit and flowers.

‍