Elephant Birthday Cake: Vanilla Chiffon with Rainbow Fruits and Cookie Birthday Message

This birthday cake is for a little boy who loves elephants, pink color and fruits :). He called elephants Dan Dan when he started to talk so his mummy thought this personal birthday message for him will be nice. Aquila also has some level of dairy and soy intolerance so some special care was taken in choosing the ingredients for this bake. Presenting my cutie pie pink vanilla chiffon elephant packed with rainbow colored fresh fruits and special cookie birthday message! It is our baking...

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Azuki "Hidden Rainbow Hearts" Chiffon Cake

I had been rather busy with family lately, and almost forgot that the next day was 28th May, our wedding anniversary. My little baby Charissa was also going to be 3 months on the same day! I decided to combine rainbows (inspired by Charissa) and hearts (for hubby) into a chiffon cake. I choose azuki flavour as it was my hubby's favourite.

I made the chiffon rainbows according to Hidden Rainbow Strawberry Chiffon for Baby Shower and cut out hearts from the slices of the rainbows. Then I baked these into an azuki chiffon cake according to Valentine's Day Hearts-in-all-directions Strawberry Chiffon Cake, an earlier cake I made for Valentines' Day.

Azuki Chiffon Cake
3 egg yolks
20g sugar
38g vegetable oil
42ml azuki milk (32 g azuki in 10 ml warmed milk)
60g cake flour

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

1. Preheat oven to 160°C. Prepare a tray of water at the bottom of the oven (I used the lowest rack to bake the cake).
2. Beat egg yolks with sugar with whisk till pale yellow before stirring in oil and azuki milk.
3. Next add in sieved flour and whisk till no trace of flour is found.
4. Meringue: Beat the egg whites with ¼ tsp cream of tartar till stiff peak, mixing in caster sugar in 2 additions.
5. Fold in the meringue gently into the batter 1/3 at a time.
6. Cover the rainbow at the bottom and side, and the rainbow hearts in centre and cover with batter.
7. Run a chopstick around the sides of the hearts to ensure there are no trapped bubbles.
8. Bake the cake for 15 min at 160°C then 35 min at 150°C.
9. Invert immediately once out of the oven to cool.
10. Unmould after the cake is cool.

I always have a lot of joy making cakes for the family. This year we couldn't do much because of 3 kids but it was a simple but meaningful celebration. The cake was made with lots of love and my hubby said the cake was very nice :)

With love,

Susanne

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Wu Pao-Chun Champion Loaf with Purple Sweet Potato and Matcha Swirl

I am always on the lookout for good bread recipes. Following Priscilla Poh's recommendation, I tried the Wu Pao-Chun champion toast! I made a loaf with some purple sweet potato and matcha powder added to make it pretty naturally. It's indeed soft, moist and fluffy! That's despite the fact that I knead the dough by hand and did not seem to be able to pass the windowpane test with flying colors even after kneading for 25 minutes. I am usually able to pass the windowpane test after...

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Matcha Azuki Bean Magic Custard Cake with Painted Designs

After seeing Susanne's chocolate pandan magic custard cake, I couldn't wait to try out the same trick on a pair that go well together -- matcha and azuki beans! Instead of dusting the final product with icing sugar like everyone else, I decided to decorate it by painting with milk powder based homemade paint like my painted swiss roll. Presenting possibly the world's first matcha azuki magic custard cake! Dainty looking with a six-petaled Sakura painted on :) I made this for...

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Orange Chocolate Chiffon Digger Cake

This is a birthday cake for my dear nephew who's turning 3 today! He is a little cutie who loves digger and loves chocolate! So I made a digger out of orange chiffon cake and placed it on a chocolate chiffon cake filled with chocolate rocks in the centre hole! :) I sifted cocoa powder on top of the chocolate chiffon for some "authentic" dirt. Now imagine the digger digging out rocks over the rubble :p *vroom* I hope he likes it! Here's how I crafted the cake out of chiffon...

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Custard and Kaya Wassants -- Second Attempt

Following Priscilla Poh's comment for my first attempt at making wassants, I made my second attempt using the bread recipe from Awayofmind Bakery House and studied the traditional way of shaping wassants, but kept to my recipe for the fillings which can't be found elsewhere on the internet. Here's my homemade version of my kids' favorite buns from Petit Provence :). Looks more like what you see in the shops but still have lots of room for improvement in the shaping department! Love...

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Chocolate-Pandan Triple Magic Custard Cake

Yippee! My crazy experiment worked! Presenting to you the world's first "Triple Magic Custard Cake"! A magical cake with 3x the magic that separates on its own into 3 layers with 3 flavours, 3 colours and 3 textures! :) Yes, you heard me right! The top is a brown, pillowy chocolate chiffon, the middle a yellow, soft, chocolate-pandan custard, and the bottom our favourite green pandan kueh! :) It all started the day my sister-in-law tried the delicious Pandan magic...

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Purple Sweet Potato Painted Swiss Roll

The concept of painting cakes is not new but is usually done on cakes covered with fondant or some form of icing, and with artificial coloring powder (Luster dust). I bought Junko's Deco Roll Cakes sold at Kinokuniya recently and found that she uses cocoa powder or green tea powder to touch up small features on patterned swiss rolls after the cake has been rolled. Because of that, I am wondering if swiss rolls can be painted with other colors, preferably with natural ingredients and what's...

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World's Smallest Chiffon Cake -- Purple Sweet Potato Piggies made in Mini Donut Pan

Elder kid requested for chiffon cakes to be made in the mini donut pan that he wanted me to buy a while ago. Experienced bakers will say that's a definite no-no since donut pans have non-stick coatings and I was afraid the black pan would heat up differently from my regular aluminum pans or glass bowls. Now that I am less afraid to make mistakes, I thought you might appreciate it if I did the experiment on your behalf ;). Here are my teeny purple sweet potato piggies baked in a mini donut...

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