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A soft, fluffy, and moist cake with a tropical guava glaze.
Guava cake is my favorite type of cake growing up. It was rare to come by since I’ve seen it commonly served at weddings or special events. Sometimes we would splurge and buy a cake from a local bakery. I love pink glaze the most since it was sweetest and went well with the soft cake texture.
Cake Batter
When making this cake, I learned the importance of how to make the cake springy and soft. The most important part to achieve this is when you beat the eggs. The eggs are what gives those airy hole texture which gives that nice springiness. First of all, make sure that your egg is at room temperature. It shouldn’t be a chilled egg or the egg whites will not properly form. I’ve made that mistake before. I was stubbornly trying to beat the eggs for over an hour until I gave up and figured the eggs really had to be at room temperature. There are three types of peaks when beating the egg whites:
- Soft peaks
- Firm peaks
- Stiff peaks
And of course there are over-beaten eggs, which could be easily fixed just by whisking in more egg whites. You can definitely beat the eggs by hand, but trust me, you will be beating those eggs for awhile and your hand or arm will start to cramp. So, I would recommend using a standup mixer or a hand mixer. Use whisks to do beat the egg. You want to start off at the lowest speed and slowly increase the speed to medium after a couple of minutes. When the eggs start to look frothy like soap duds, that’s when you add in the cream of tartar. Keep beating and checking every so often if it starts to form a soft peak. To check, simply stop the mixer and pull out the whisk and it will have a tail hanging from the whisk. Turn the whisk up and if that tail holds a peak and slopes over, that is a soft peak. If holds a peak and doesn’t slope entirely but the tail end slopes slightly, that is a firm peak. Lastly if the peak doesn’t slope over at all that is a firm peak. What we are looking for is a firm peak.
Glaze
The flavor of the cake can be very flexible. It doesn’t always have to be guava (just most locals love that flavor). It can strawberry, lilikoi (passion fruit), cherry, mango, or just anything you want. Simply just change out the type of concentrate you are using for a different one. I enjoy using the guava concentrate for this cake. Normally they sell these cans in the frozen aisles. You can also check on Hawaii’s Own page to see if they are selling it in your state. But if they are not selling it near you, you can always use guava nectar. The only difference between concentrate and nectar is that the concentrate is purely the fruit’s juice. The fruit’s nectar is extracted from the fruit but just purely from that, sometimes it will be thicker. So what businesses do is add in more water and additives like sugar to make it similar to the fruit’s juice. In the end, you can definitely substitute the guava juice for guava nectar. Or vice versa.
Video Tutorial
Check out this video to help you gain more insight on how to make Guava Chiffon Cake. Also, subscribe to myYouTubeto help support me so I can continue making more of these contents. Mahalo!
Guava Chiffon Cake
A soft, fluffy, and moist cake with a tropical guava glaze.
Print Recipe
Prep Time:2 hours hrs
Cook Time:30 minutes mins
Total Time:2 hours hrs 30 minutes mins
Equipment
Oven
Standup Mixer/Hand mixer
Ingredients
Cake Batter:
- 3/4 cup egg whites
- 1/4 tsp cream of tartar
- 1/2+3/4 cup sugar
- 1 1/2 cup cake flour
- 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/4 cup oil
- 2 eggs
- 1/2 cup water
- 1/4 cup guava concentrate *guava nectar works too
- 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
Guava Glaze:
- 2 cups guava concentrate
- 2 tbsp cornstarch
Frosting
- whipped cream
Instructions
Cake Batter:
Add room temperature egg whites to a standup mixer. Attach the whisk to the mixer and start beating the egg whites at the lowest speed. Slowly increase the speed to medium after a couple of minutes. Continue beating until it starts to look frothy. Then add in the cream of tartar.
Check to see if the egg whites start to form a soft peak. Then continue to beat it and slowly add in the (1/2 cup) sugar. Let it mix for another couple of minutes and check to see if it has formed a stiff peak. Add the egg whites to a large mixing bowl and set aside.
Whisk the dry ingredients in the standup mixer's bowl; cake flour, (3/4 cup) sugar, baking powder, and salt. Transfer it to the mixer and add in the oil, eggs, water, nectar concentrate, and vanilla extract.
Preheat the oven to 350°. Mix it on medium low speed for a minute then increase the speed for two more minutes until it is combined well enough.
Pour batter into the bowl with the whipped egg whites and gently fold everything together. Do not stir vigorously because it will deflate the the air bubbles in the egg whites. The air bubbles are needed to give the cake that fluffy texture.
Line parchment paper on a 9x13 inch baking pan. Pour the batter into the pan and bake it for 30-35 minutes.
Check to make sure the cake has thoroughly been baked by poking a toothpick into the middle of the cake. If it comes out clean, the cake is done. Set the cake on a hot pad and let it cool completely.
Guava Glaze:
In a small sauce pot, combine the cornstarch and guava concentrate by whisking. Heat the pot over medium heat and let it cook until it begins to bubble and thicken. Set aside the glaze in a bowl and let it cool down to room temperature. Cover it and let it chill in the fridge for 20 minutes.
Frosting the Cake:
After the cake has cooled down, flip the pan over to take out the cake. Peel away the parchment paper and cut the cake in half. Brush both halved layers with guava concentrate. Then layer one half with whipped cream. Combine the halves together.
Frost the whole cake except the bottom with whipped cream. Chill the cake in the fridge for a couple of hours or until the frosting has set.
Stir the glaze until it looks smooth then apply it to the top of the cake. Be careful to try not to get the whipped cream smeared or mixed with the glaze. Cover the cake and let it chill again in the fridge for an hour. Cut up the cake and serve! Enjoy!
Servings: 24
Ono Hawaiian Recipes
i would love to make this cake! But can I adjust the recipe to serve 12 or even 10? We are a very small family and it’s too much! Please include what size pans I can use if I make a smaller batch. Thank you!
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You could probably cut the recipe in half and use a 9×9 square pan. I hope that helps!
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Any oil ?
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Yes, there is oil when making the cake batter. It should be when you are mixing dry ingredients with the wet ingredients.
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Can you substitute a boxed cake
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Yes you definitely can. Just follow the instructions on the box.
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How long can I store the left over guava paste? Fridge or freezer? Would like to use it next time instead of throwing it away
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Guava paste is highly concentrated, and shelf stable. Always use clean utensils on it, and it’ll last ages in the fridge. Freezing it will force the sugar syrup out of suspension, and should avoided.
I keep mine in the pantry, and it’s fine for a year, if I don’t use it all. I have no idea why you’d even think of throwing something so stable away.Reply
What guava concentrate product do you recommend? Thanks.
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I like to use this guava concentrate.
http://www.hawaiisown.com/assets/hawaiisown/image/juice-cans/hawaiis-own–guava-passion-orange–small.pngReply
Hi, the recipe sounds dellicious and as a guava lover, I’d definitely try it. But since I live in Europe there’s no way I can get anything similar to the guava concentrate you use. We do have guava beverages that haave 25% fruit puree in them. the rest is water and sugar. the one you’re referrng to is meant to be diluted 1:3 with water (with the concentrate having 10% juice and the rest being corn syrup). Do you think it would be beneficial to boil the one i have down to bring the water content down to a more similar level as to what you’re using?
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