Mandarin Orange “吉” Chiffon Cake

It was fun experimenting with my first Chinese New Year chiffon! While admiring an angpow with the character  "吉", I had the sudden idea that the centre of the chiffon tin could make up the "口". After trying out the Junko recipe for kawaii decoroll, I realized that the key to get a patterning batter of good consistency (not runny) was to add a little bit of cake flour into the patterning batter! This helped a lot in the patterning of subsequent chiffon cakes. After...

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Mandarin Orange Chiffon with Orange Peel Decorations

A neighbor wanted to learn how to make chiffon cakes because I have been offering her some and she loves these soft cakes that are full of flavor and not too sweet. Since it is the Chinese New Year season and we are flooded with mandarin oranges, I thought why not make a mandarin orange chiffon. As she wanted to learn the basics and I wanted to play around with my bakes at the same time, I decided on using pre-cut orange peel to pretty up the cake so that my baking session with her will...

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Honey Pear Tea Chiffon "Pears"

Hubby bought some honey pear tea jam on offer so I made some chiffon cake with this flavor. Before I began, I thought why not make them pear shaped. It will be really cute and fun! Here's my chiffon pears, big and small :).

I baked the big pears in the glass bowls that they are sitting in and the little ones in egg shells. Since the batter is already nicely golden yellow in color, there is no need to add any food coloring to make them look more pear-like. I adapted the recipe from Yuzu chiffon cakes, which are more common than honey pear tea.

Ingredients:
Egg yolk batter
3 egg yolks (65g eggs)
80g cake flour
20g caster sugar
52g honey pear tea jam
40g Canola oil
50g hot water
1/4 tsp vanilla essence (optional)
1/3tsp baking powder

Meringue
4 egg whites
45g caster sugar
1/4 tsp cream of tartar

Leaves and stems decoration

Chocolate coated biscuit sticks

Green tea powder

White compound chocolate
 

Steps:
1. Dissolve pear jam in hot water. Set aside to cool.
2. Preheat oven to 160°C
3. Whisk egg yolks and caster sugar until well combined. Add in oil, followed by pear jam dissolved in water. Mix in vanilla essence.
4. Whisk sifted flour and baking powder bit by bit until there is no trace of flour.
5. In a clean bowl, beat egg whites and cream of tartar with an electric mixer. When soft peaks are formed, gradually add in sugar and beat until stiff peaks are formed and the bowl can be overturned without the meringue falling out.
6. Add 1/3 of the meringue into the egg yolk batter and mix well. Fold in gently but quickly the rest of meringue in 2 additions until there is no trace of egg whites. Tap the bowl a few times on the table to release any trapped air bubbles in the batter.
7. Spoon batter into round-bottomed glass bowls (for the big pears) and egg shells* (for the small pears). Fill the glass bowls until they are about slightly more than half full and the eggshells until they are about 1/2- 2/3 full.
8. Bake for 15 minutes, then lower the temperature to 150°C for another 10-15 minutes.
9. Let the cakes cool completely before unmolding by hand. Store the cakes in an airtight container to prevent them from drying out.

10. Shape the small pears by wrapping each cake with cling wrap and tying a rubber band about 1/3 from the top as shown in the picture. Leave the rubber band on overnight.

 

11. Melt some chopped white compound chocolate over a double boiler and add in some green tea until the desired shade of green is reached. Keep stirring the mixture with a spoon until it is smooth. Transfer the green tea white chocolate into a piping bag with a No.3 Wilton piping tip. Lay out some biscuit sticks on a baking sheet and pipe leaves onto the sticks. When the chocolate has set, gently peel off the sticks. If the leaves break off the stems by accident, you may melt some milk chocolate to "glue" them back or use Nutella if you are feeling lazy.

12. Assemble the big pears by joining 2 cakes baked in glass bowls to form a sphere. Use a toothpick to make a hole from the top of the pear. Insert a biscuit stick with leaf attached. Break off the lower portion of the biscuit stick if it is too long.

13. Assemble the small pears by using a toothpick to make a hole at the top of each pear and inserting a biscuit stick.

I find the flavor of the honey pear tea in the cake not as strong as Yuzu even though the recipes are similar, probably because the honey pear tea jam is milder in flavor to begin with. Nevertheless, my neighbors had some of these and thought they are really cute!

With love,
Phay Shing

* Prepare the eggshells using the example shown by Susanne here.

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Mandarin Orange Chiffon "Oranges"

As I was preparing to visit my in-laws for Chinese New Year, I wondered what I could bake for my MIL. It was only the day before my family had to leave for the visit that I decided to bake mandarin orange chiffon cake for her, since we have so many mandarin oranges lying around during this season. So in the midst of cooking and spending time with my kids, I quickly whipped up some chiffon cupcakes. Suddenly, I had the inspiration to decorate them to look like oranges after the morning bustle died down and the kids were in school. Here's my mandarin orange look-alike :)

This was an unexpected bake that totally wowed everyone! Everyone remarked how real these looked. Can you tell the difference between the cakes and the real mandarin oranges? :P

I baked the cakes in multipurpose round-bottomed glass bowls that are microwave/ oven safe. Dimensions are: height ~ 6.5cm and diameter ~ 9cm. You may also bake them in round metal or silicone molds.

My MIL found the cake very soft, smooth and fragrant :). The orange flavor is really intense because I don't stinge on the orange zest. I adapted the recipe from Small Small Baker (makes about 6-8 "oranges", depending on the size of your molds):

Ingredients:
Egg yolk batter
2 egg yolks (I used 65g eggs)
13g caster sugar
20g Canola oil (or any other vegetable oil)
28ml fresh mandarin orange juice
Zest of 1.5 large mandarin oranges
37g cake flour
1/4 tsp baking powder
Orange gel food coloring

Meringue
3 egg whites
32g sugar
1/4 tsp cream of tartar

Decoration

Compound white chocolate, finely chopped

Green tea powder

Steps:
1.Preheat the oven to 160 degrees Celsius.
2. Whisk egg yolk and caster sugar until well combined. Add in oil, followed by orange juice and zest.
3. Whisk sifted flour and baking powder into the batter bit by bit until there is no trace of flour.
4. Add orange food coloring bit by bit until a desired shade of orange is reached. Take note that the shade will lighten up considerably when the meringue is added in so you may want to make it a darker shade than desired.

5. In a clean metal bowl, beat egg whites and cream of tartar with an electric mixer. When soft peaks are formed, gradually add in sugar and beat until stiff peaks are formed and the bowl can be overturned without the meringue falling out.
6. Add one third of the meringue into the egg yolk batter and mix well. Fold in gently but quickly the rest of meringue in 2 additions until there is no trace of egg whites. Tap the bowl a few times on the table to release any trapped air bubbles in the batter.
7. Spoon batter into round-bottomed glass bowls. Fill the bowls until they are about slightly more than half full.
8.  Bake for 15 minutes, then lower the temperature to 150°C for another 10-15 minutes.
9.  Invert the bowls immediately onto a cooling rack. (Update: this step of inverting the bowls is optional as I have realised from subsequent bakes.) Let the cakes cool completely before GENTLY unmolding by hand as the cakes are very soft and fragile. Store the cakes in an airtight container to prevent them from drying out.
10.  You may refer to my photo tutorial for shaping the cakes into orange shapes. Begin by using a citrus juicer to make an indent at the top of the hemisphere. Hold the juicer in place for several seconds before releasing it. If you find that the indent is not deep enough, repeat this step.
11.  Next, gently gather/ pinch in the bottom of the hemisphere if it flares outwards too much to look like an orange, and place the cake on a paper cupcake liner.
12.  Make the "wrinkles" at the top of the orange by using the back of a butter knife to imprint 5 indents. Hold the cake by cupping it with one hand and press the back of the knife firmly on the cake. Rock the knife gently forwards and backwards, and side to side to make the imprint. Repeat if necessary to ensure that the imprints do not disappear.
13. Divide the white chocolate into 2 portions and place them in small bowls. Place the bowls in a small saucepan of hot water and keep stirring until the chocolate melts and flows easily. Add some green tea powder to one of the bowls and stir until the powder and chocolate are well combined and smooth. You may pipe the "stem stubs" onto the oranges using piping bags but I prefer to use a toothpick to apply the chocolate for such a small volume. Draw a star in the middle of the orange using the green tea white chocolate. When it has set, add a drop of plain white chocolate at the center of the "star". 

I had lots of fun making these and I hope that you will too if you intend to make these to bless your family and friends during the next Chinese New Year. They are really cute and yummy!

Check out my updated post for these "mandarin oranges" in yummy cookie basket ;)
Check out the appearance of these delectable oranges together with other "fruits" in my "basket of fruits" chiffon cake made for my dad's birthday :)
If you need more visuals for shaping the oranges, check out here for a video tutorial!


With lots of love,
 Phay Shing

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Strawberry Yoghurt Chiffon "Watermelon" and "Strawberry" Pops

I woke up one morning and had the sudden inspiration to dress up my chiffon pops as fruits! This was the very first of the chiffon fruit pops created!

I had a very close group of mummy friends whose kids had just started N1, and wanted to gift these chiffon fruit pops to the kids for being so brave! Since these were for kids, I went for strawberry yoghurt chiffon which is healthy and popular with kids.

I baked the chiffon cakes in paper cones and egg shells similar to that of the rainbow chiffon cake pops to make the "watermelon" slices and "strawberries" respectively.

I used food marker to draw on the seeds of the watermelon and let it dry.

The kids had fun guessing what fruits they were :p One of my happiest bakes! :)

With love,

Susanne

My recipe is now in Creative Baking: Chiffon Cakes book, out at all major bookstores!

And here's a video tutorial for making the Watermelon Chiffon Cake pops! Very privilege to be shot by the pros at Smart parents.sg, mediacorp!

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Orange Milo Horse Chiffon Cake Pops

When I saw Susanne's rainbow cake pops baked in eggshells, I was so inspired that I decided to try it! I quickly emptied a few eggs, washed the shells and wondered what I should bake. Since this is the Year of the Horse, I decided to do some horsey cake pops :). Next, I had to decide which flavors I should use that go well together and color the cake the right way, naturally if possible. So here's my orange Milo chiffon cake and horse cake pops :) I ran out of chocolate Pokey sticks...

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Rainbow Piggy Char Siew Bao

Before I began my adventure with chiffons, I was on a mission to find the best bao (steamed bun) skin recipe. This is my second time using this recipe and I love it! I decided to kick start a new year with rainbow piggy char siew baos, partly because we had some left over char siew from dinner the day before. Here's my set of mini piggy baos :) I adapted the bao skin recipe from Guai Shu Shu with some modifications. I love it for it's simplicity (straight dough method), mild sweet...

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