Thursday 10 July 2014

Banana Chocolate Giraffe Chiffon Cake

Do you like the giraffe sitting or resting its head? :) My kids liked both!

My kids go bananas over bananas, so it was inevitable that I would try a banana chiffon cake someday! It so happened that the kids asked for a giraffe cake when I had some leftover chocolate cake from my previous day bake. I took the opportunity to use the chocolate chiffon cake to create giraffe patterns using the double-baked method in Turtle Matcha Ogura Cakes, my earlier post. Basically it involves baking patches of chocolate chiffon cake into the banana chiffon cake. The level of difficulty or complexity for this kind of bake is higher than other types of chiffon small cakes e.g. the ice cream pop because it involves baking twice and ensuring there are no air bubbles in the patterns.

If you would like to attempt the banana chocolate giraffe chiffon cake from scratch, you can pre-bake a chocolate chiffon cake using the chocolate chiffon recipe from Vanilla Chocolate Bus Pinata Chiffon Cake but scale it down to 2 egg yolks (divide everything by 3 times 2) and bake the batter in a 15 cm chiffon tin with slightly shorter baking time. After the cake is cool, unmould the cake and proceed to slice it up and cut out random brown patches for the giraffe body patterns, as well as mouth patch (semicircle) and eyes (small circles). Arrange the chocolate cake patches at the base of the glass bowls to be used for baking the banana chiffon cake later.

Following this, bake the banana chiffon cake in the glass bowls using the recipe below. For each giraffe, you will need 2 oval bowls for the head and body. and 2 round bowls for the 4 limbs. I bought the round glass bowls from robinsons (Iwaki, 11 mm OD) and got the oval glass bowls as gifts from my parents. The recipe for the banana chiffon cake is adapted from Christine's recipes. You can also use this recipe to bake a round banana chiffon cake in a 17 cm chiffon tin.

Banana chiffon cake (makes two giraffe cakes or one 17 cm chiffon cake)
3 egg yolks
20g sugar
40g vegetable oil
40 ml milk
80g cake flour
2 ripe bananas
1/8 tsp salt

4 egg whites
40g sugar
1/4 tsp cream of tartar


1. Mash 2 ripe bananas into puree (top left pic in collage).
2. Preheat oven to 160°C. Prepare the lowest rack for baking the cakes.
3. Beat egg yolks with sugar with whisk till pale yellow before stirring in oil, milk and banana puree.
4. Next add in sieved flour and whisk till no trace of flour is found (top row, middle pic).
5. Meringue: Beat the egg whites with ¼ tsp cream of tartar till stiff peak, mixing in caster sugar in 2 additions.
6. Fold in the meringue gently into batter in 3 additions (top row, right pic).
7. Gently tap the tin on table 3x to remove air bubbles.
8. Bake the cake for 15 min at 160°C then 15 min at 150°C.
9. Cool the cakes on a cooling rack once out of the oven (bottom row, left and middle pics show the cakes cooling on the racks).
10. Unmould after the cakes are cool using hand to gently peel away from the bowls (bottom row, right pic).

After this comes the fun part of preparing the different parts of the giraffes! I used a hearts cutter to cut out the ears from the chocolate chiffon cake. Cut out a heart and slice it into halves (top left pic in collage below). Make some cocoa paste by adding a spoonful of cocoa powder in a teaspoon of water (top right pic) and draw on the giraffe's nose using the cocoa paste with a fine brush (bottom left pic). Lastly, cut out the limbs from the round cakes, first by using a round cutter to cut a donut and then slicing the donut into halves (bottom right pic).


Assembling the giraffe chiffon cakes is somewhat like an engineering problem of making sure the cakes are placed structurally in the correct place :p. I used the limbs to support the body by wrapping around the body (imagine a photo frame with 4 limb supports). I used melted chocolate to fix the cakes in place. Then I used the choco-banana pocky to attach the head to the body, using more melted chocolate to fix them in place. The pocky also serves as the giraffes ossicones or "antennas". Do note that the pocky will become soft after absorbing moisture from the cakes after a while, so do place them right before serving if you don't want the head to slope off. If you are afraid the structure may fall, you can use one quarter of the chiffon tube cake to support from behind but it is not essential. The resting position is much easier in terms of engineering support. I broke the pocky sticks shorter just for the giraffe's ossicones, using just the limbs to support both the body and the head. 

Tada! My sitting and resting giraffes! Aren't they cute? Hee..


Check out the soft, moist, lovely texture of the cake!


My son said it was yummy and he likes the banana chiffon more than the chocolate chiffon cake which was his previous fave! :) This was a fun and happy bake for me and the kids!

I'm linking this post to Bake Along for this week's theme of Chiffon Cakes jointly hosted by Joyce of Kitchen Flavours, Zoe of Bake for Happy Kids and Lena of Frozen Wings.

With love,
Susanne

24 comments:

  1. Hi Suzanne,
    I love your creations, this will come in handy for my baby's party on Saturday. I'm trying to understand your step by step instructions. Hope i still have time to make it. Thank you for sharing !

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    1. Hi Miss B! So fun! How old is your baby? I have a baby who's 4 months too! :) I'm sure you will be able too! Let me know whichever way I can help! :) Thanks for your sweet encouragement too ^_^

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    2. Really, I finally know someone who still has time to bake when baby is still so small, haha. My baby just turned 5 months, but I still have another 2 older kids, oldest is 5 yrs old. So it is difficult for me to bake peacefully without them turning the whole house upside down! Btw, I find you familiar, not sure whether if we were from the same year same batch, I was previously also a "yellow city" student :p

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    3. Oh my!! We're so similar! I also have 2 elder kids too! My eldest just turned 5 and my #2 is a cheeky active 2+! Same!! Find it so chaotic and hard to bake nowadays You're also from there? Haha! I thought you were not in SG!

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    4. Hehe, my eldest is a boy, middle one is a 2.5 yr old girl and youngest is also a girl! I am not living in SG now, but that doesnt mean I wasn't from SG previously! Nowadays when I bake, I have to bake super fast, before my baby wakes up and cry, or before the other two starts fighting when I am not watching. It is really quite a challenge! :D

      I am gonna sleep ZZZzzz now, tomorrow still has to continue my baking marathon day 2 :)

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    5. Hehe we're really so similar! And I can totally understand haha! Jia you! U're one amazing mummy!

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    6. Susanne,
      You should submit this to Zoe (Bake for Happy Kids) 's chiffon bake along event, I am sure it will be a hit! Deadline is 19 July.

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    7. Thanks so much for letting me know! I just linked up! :)
      To be honest, I'm quite new to the whole blogging thing.. took a while to read about all the events! :D There is still so much to learn.. and it sounds really fun! Thanks again Miss B! :)

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    8. You can check with Zoe if you can submit your chiffon cakes done in early July such as the chiffon pinata bus and the chiffon cake pops :)

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    9. Thanks Miss B! You're super kind and sweet! I guess it's fine :) Dun wanna bend any rules and anyway I will have more bakes coming up! :) All the best for your party!

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  2. Hi Susanne,
    Your chiffon cake is really, really cute! You have such patience to assemble the cake into a piece of art!
    Thanks to Miss B for informing you regarding Bake-Along. I'm glad that you have linked up with us. Feel free to join us anytime for all future bakes! It's nice to "meet" another blogging friend! :)

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    1. Thanks Joyce! You have a very lovely blog! Nice to make a new blogging friend! Still so much for me to learn :) Thank you!

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  3. Hi Susanne,

    Seeing your conversation with Ms B, I must thank Ms B to refer you to bake along with us. We are also happy to have you baking along with us :D

    You are super amazing baking chiffon cake in the shapes of giraffe... Wow!

    Zoe

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    1. Thanks Zoe!! Still so much for me to learn.. will love to bake along in more future events! :) Thank u!

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  4. Hi Susanne,
    You are so creative!
    That is a lovely piece of art :)
    Chiffon with banana and chocolate flavor is my kids favorite too.
    Thanks for sharing .
    mui

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    1. Thanks Mui Mui! Hope your kids like too! They certainly enjoyed it! :D My son went for the choco-banana pocky first and then the head :p I find banana makes the cake moist!

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  5. This is so creative. I saw your post on FB group and already liked it so much.

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  6. Hi Susanne, you could make cute giraffes using chiffon cake, so creative ^-^!

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    1. Thanks for your encouragement Karen! You did a lovely attempt too! Jia you!

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  7. hi susanne! i just had a look at your previous bus chiffon and the turtle ones..wow, i must say that this is very creative making something out of chiffon..you have such good patience too! i am nvr good at making things like this but it's always good to know and to learn! thx so much for your participation, sorry for coming by late , i just got back from a short getaway and now catching up with the rest. Cheers!

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    1. Hi Lena! Thanks your encouragement!! I really like making cute things that make ppl smile and get a lot of joy making and sharing them! Much to learn from you looking at your blog! Thanks for dropping by! :)

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  8. This looks awesome, i love banana, so anything with them in gets my attention, thanks for sharing this...

    Simon

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    1. Welcome! It's a family favourite and a healthy snack! :)

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