Soccer Ball Vanilla Chiffon Cupcake

Now that World Cup is ongoing, I thought it would be fitting to turn plain vanilla chiffon cupcakes made from my previous bake's leftover batter into cute little soccer balls!

You may use any of our vanilla chiffon recipes for this but for your convenience, I shall type it out here. I baked these in glass bowls with round bottoms that are about 8.5cm in diameter and 6.5cm in height.

Ingredients (makes 6-8 soccer ball cupcakes):

2 egg yolks (65g eggs)

10g caster sugar

26g canola oil

46g fresh milk

1/8 tsp salt

3/4 tsp vanilla extract

48g cake flour

3 egg whites

1/5 tsp cream of tartar

24g caster sugar

Charcoal powder*

Milk powder

Hot water

Steps:

1. Preheat oven to 160 degrees Celsius.

2. Whisk egg yolks and sugar until pale and foamy. Add in oil and whisk until well combined. Add in milk, salt and vanilla extract. Gradually whisk in flour until no trace of flour is seen.

3. In a grease-free metal bowl, beat egg whites until foamy with electric mixer. Add cream of tartar and beat until soft peaks form. Gradually add sugar and beat until stiff peaks form and the bowl can be overturned without the meringue falling out.

4. Fold meringue into egg yolk batter in three additions gently but quickly. Tap the bowl on table to release any air bubbles. Fill the glass bowls until they are about 2/3 full.

5. Bake for 15 minutes followed by 150 degrees Celsius for 10-15 minutes. Invert the bowls on cooling rack. If the peak of the cake is above rim of bowl, wait for it to shrink a bit before overturning it to cool.

6. Unmould the cakes by hand when cooled.

7. Prepare black milk powder paint by mixing some charcoal powder with milk powder in a small bowl. Gradually add hot water until desired consistency is reached. Cut a small pentagon from a slice of carrot and use a small brush to apply some paint on it. Stamp the carrot stamper on the middle of the cake to make the first imprint. Add more black paint onto cake if the imprint is faint. Draw black lines extending outwards from each corner of pentagon. Use the carrot stamper to make a ring of imprints at the end of each line. Continue painting lines until you get a soccer ball pattern covering the whole cake. Let the paint dry in an air tight container before placing in cupcake liners and serving.

My kids had fun eating these "balls" now that they have finished the black glutinous rice cake I made yesterday :).

With love,
Phay Shing

*If you can't get hold of charcoal powder easily, you can still make the soccer ball print using cocoa powder dissolved in a bit of water until you get the right consistency for painting.