Rhubarb Chiffon Cake

4.75 from 4 votes

Layers of light and fluffy chiffon cake, an orange maple white chocolate ganache, and a rhubarb compote, this Rhubarb Chiffon cake is light and fluffy but still creamy and tart!

Prep Time2

Cook Time1

Setting8

Total Time11

Course: Afternoon Kaffee, Dessert

Cuisine: American, German

Keyword: chiffon cake, funfetti, rhubarb, white chocolate whipped cream

Servings:

Calories: 503kcal

Equipment

7" Metal Springform Cake Pan
Adjustable or 7" cake ring Optional but helpful!

Ingredients

White Chocolate Whipped Cream

50 grams water cold
1 packet powdered gelatin 7 grams
320 grams white chocolate
600 grams heavy cream
2 strips orange peel
65 grams maple syrup
1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste or vanilla extract

Rhubarb Compote

500 grams rhubarb once the ends have been chopped off, closer to 600/650 originally
50 grams granulated sugar
1 orange zested
1 orange juiced

Chiffon Cake

3 eggs standard large, cold
100 grams granulated sugar
1 orange zested you can use the rest of the orange zest from the whipped cream!
1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
100 grams buttermilk or 50 grams greek yogurt, 50 grams milk
60 grams oil I use olive oil but any other neutral oil will work too
85 grams all purpose flour
15 grams corn starch or tapioca/arrowroot starch
1 teaspoon baking powder
50 grams sprinkles optional

Instructions

White Chocolate Ganache

In a small bowl, add in 50 grams of cold water. Sprinkle one 7 gram packet of powdered gelatin on top and stir to combine. Set aside.
In a sauce pot, add in 400 grams of the heavy cream along with two strips of orange peel. Heat over low heat until steamy but not boiling.
While the cream heats up, chop up the white chocolate and add it into a medium heat safe mixing bowl.
Pour the hot heavy cream through a sieve into the bowl with the white chocolate. Cover the bowl with a lid (can literally be anything) and leave it to sit for one minute.
After one minute has passed, use a whisk to stir the white chocolate and heavy cream together until smooth. Then add in the bloomed gelatin and whisk again until it has melted in.
Pour in the maple syrup, salt, vanilla and then the rest of the cold heavy cream. Whisk once more to combine. Cover the surface with a layer of plastic wrap and put it in the fridge until firm. This can take around 6 hours so be patient!

Rhubarb Compote

Rinse and chop the ends off of the rhubarb stalks. Chop the rhubarb into 1"-2" chunks and add them into a medium pot.
Pour in the sugar and then add in the orange zest and juice.
Place over medium low heat and cover with a lid. Cook covered for about 5 minutes or until the mixture starts to bubble. The lid on will keep the rhubarb from burning.
Once it starts to bubble, remove the lid and continue to cook, stirring every five minutes until you are left with a thick syrupy type of sauce.
Pour the compote into a large shallow bowl and leave to cool to room temperature. Use same day or store covered in the fridge until you're ready to use it.

Chiffon Cake

Preheat the oven to 325 F and place a rack in the center of the oven. Line the bottom of the 7" springform cake pan with a piece of parchment paper but don't grease the sides of the pan!
Separate the three eggs, putting the egg yolks in one medium mixing bowl and the egg whites into another medium mixing bowl.
Add 50 grams of the sugar into the bowl with the egg yolks and 50 grams of the sugar into the bowl with the egg whites.
Whisk the egg yolks and sugar together until light and ribbony. Add the orange zest, salt, and vanilla into the egg yolks and whisk again.
Pour the buttermilk and oil into the egg yolk bowl and whisk again.
Sift the flour, corn starch, and baking powder into the bowl with the egg yolks and whisk until just smooth. It'll seem lumpy at first, keep whisking but once smooth, stop whisking!
Using an electric mixer whip the egg whites and sugar together until almost stiff peaks form. The mixture should hold it's shape but not be rock solid.
Spoon one third of the egg white mixture into the bowl with egg yolks and use a large flat rubber spatula to fold the meringue into the yolk mixture. Be careful not to stir vigorously as it will knock all of the air out of the meringue.
Continue adding and folding the meringue in, in two more additions. Just before you finish mixing the last addition, add in the sprinkles if using. Finish with about two more folds and then pour the cake batter into the prepared pan.
Bake in the preheated oven for 25 minutes. Then rotate the cake 180 degrees and bake for another 15-20 minutes until golden brown on the edges.
Once baked, immediately take the pan out of the oven and place a wire rack upside down over the top. Flip the pan and the wire rack over and set it on the counter like this until it has fully cooled. About an hour or two.

Stack the Cake

Once all the elements are ready and the cake has cooled off it's time to stack the cake.
Add the chilled white chocolate whipped cream into the bowl of a stand mixer or a large mixing bowl and whip until stiff peaks/lines form.
Lay a piece of parchment paper on a flat tray that can fit in your fridge (I use the round lids from my mixing bowls). Use a long serrated knife to level off the top of the cake. Then cut the cake into 3 or 4 even layers. I did 3 but if I were to make it again, I personally would do 4! That being said, it's totally up to you!
Place the bottom layer of the cake, cut side up onto the parchment paper. Then place and adjust the cake ring (see the tips section for two link options!) around the cake layer. *Note - after the cake has assembled and chilled you either need to use a kitchen torch or let it sit out for a little so that the cake ring will release from the whipped cream. This is my favorite way to stack the cake but if that makes you nervous, place the cake ring onto the parchment first, then line the whole thing with plastic wrap and then press the bottom layer of cake into the cake ring.
If you don't have a cake ring, clean and reuse the springform pan. The pan will be a little big now that the cake has baked but it will still work!
Use a piping bag or a ziptop bag with the corner cut off to pipe a 3/4" thick border around the bottom layer of cake. Then spoon a thin layer of whipped cream onto the cake layer - this layer should be between 1/4" and 1/2" thick.
Spoon a thick layer, about 1/2" thick, of the rhubarb compote over the cream. It should still be within the height of the whipped cream wall. *Note in the video of this recipe I did compote and then the whipped cream but this won't be as stable and I wouldn't recommend it.
Place the second layer of cake on top of the rhubarb layer and press down evenly on the cake.Repeat the filling process one or two more times depending on how many cake layers you've cut.
After placing the last layer on top, add a thin layer of the whipped cream on top just to seal the cake. Place a layer of plastic wrap or parchment over the top of the cake to keep it from drying out.
Put the stacked cake into the fridge to set. Ideally for at least 4 hours or up to overnight. Store the remaining whipped cream in a bowl in the fridge.

To Decorate

Once the cake has set and you're ready to decorate, take the cake out of the fridge. If you lined the ring with plastic wrap, simply lift the ring. If not, let it warm up a little at room temperature or use a kitchen torch quickly in short bursts to release the whipped cream from the ring.
This cake looks beautiful with or without frosting the sides so it's totally up to you! Frost and decorate the cake as you please.
I like to make a kind of well on top with the back of a spoon and fill it with more of the rhubarb compote. If you want to decorate the top with fresh flowers just be sure to wait and cut them until right before serving.
Store any leftovers of the cake in the fridge.

Notes

Tips for making a Rhubarb Chiffon Cake

If you don't have access to rhubarb I recommend cooking down a mixture of peaches and raspberries. White peaches are ideal and start with about half the sugar.
If you don't have forced rhubarb aka the super pink one, I would make this compote. It includes raspberries to create that beautiful pink color!
To make a larger version of the cake, you'll want to double everything and bake it in a 9" pan.
Be sure to bake this cake in a springform pan with tall sides, a standard cake pan is too short and the cake will overflow.
When assembling the cake, you can use the same springform pan as the "form" to stabilize it. However, the cake shrinks when it cools so I prefer to use a ring like this one or this one to stack my cakes!
This recipe uses gelatin in the whipped cream, if you want to make it without, simply leave out the gelatin. That being said, please be aware that the cake won't be as stable and should not be left out at room temperature.
If you need the cake to be more stable, use this Swiss meringue butter cream instead of the whipped cream. You can add orange zest and maple syrup to the buttercream to replicate the flavors.
Be sure to cool the cake upside down and don't grease the sides of the cake pan. Greasing the cake pan will make it too slippery and the cake won't rise properly.
Eggs are easiest to separate when they're cold but egg whites whip best when at room temperature. So I recommend separating the eggs and then make the cake batter with the yolks before starting on the meringue.
If sprinkles aren't your thing, feel free to leave them out it won't affect the cake at all!
Instead of buttermilk stir together half greek yogurt and half milk to create the right consistency.
To release the cake ring after you've stacked the cake, you could have either lined it with plastic wrap first or use something like a kitchen torch to release it from the whipped ganache.
Unless you make this cake with Swiss Meringue buttercream instead of whipped cream, the cake should always be in the fridge.

Nutrition