Tuesday 3 February 2015

Minnie Mouse Strawberry Yoghurt Chiffon Cupcakes (& Heart Cakepops)

This is quite an intensive bake for me with 24 Minnie Mouse cupcakes, 30 heart cakepops, 15 Mickey and 15 Minnie cookies in one order! Thank God I managed to pull it off with His help!...including all that individual packaging for the cookies and cakepops!

Minnie cupcakes. Fondant-free!

Sweet lil' chiffon heart cakepops! Mounted on cupcake liners instead of sticks.

A horde of mice! 

You may refer to my old post on how to make the Mickey and Minnie mouse shortbread cookies.

I chose strawberry yoghurt as the cupcake flavour to impart the maximum fruitiness of fresh strawberries, and fragrance and moisture of yoghurt into the cakes. As usual, we use extra egg whites to give our cakes the signature soft and fluffy texture. I adapted the recipe from my strawberry yoghurt chiffon "strawberries."

Strawberry yoghurt chiffon cupcakes (makes about 27 small cupcakes)
Ingredients:
5 egg yolks
25g caster sugar
70g canola/ vegetable oil
41g strawberry puree
42g strawberry yoghurt
1/2 tsp strawberry paste
100g cake flour
1/8 tsp salt

7 egg whites
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
75g caster sugar

Steps:
1. Make the strawberry puree by blending fresh strawberries with a bit of boiled water. This can be made ahead of time and frozen.


2. Whisk egg yolks and sugar until pale and thick. Gradually add oil and whisk until consistency is like mayonnaise. Gradually add puree, yoghurt and strawberry paste and whisk until well combined. Gradually whisk in sifted flour and salt until no trace of flour is seen.

3. Beat egg whites with an electric mixer in a clean metal bowl with cream of tartar until soft peaks form. Gradually add sugar and beat until stiff peaks form.

4. Fold the meringue into egg yolk batter in three additions. You may wish to transfer the batter into a jumbo ziplock bag fitted with piping tip adapter to fill all the cupcake liners quickly if you don't have a batter dispenser.  Fill until the batter is about 1cm away from the rim.

5. Bake in preheated oven with tray at second lower rack at 160°C for 8 minutes and 140°C for another 9- 15 minutes or until skewer comes out clean.

Freshly baked!

You may wish to keep the cakes in air tight container/bag in the fridge to keep it fresh for up to a few days.


Heartpops/layer cakes (for decoration)
Ingredients:
1 egg yolk
15g caster sugar
40g canola oil
42g water
Flavouring and colouring (1/4 tsp vanilla extract or 1 tsp strawberry paste. Red gel colouring or charcoal powder)
Pinch of salt
60g cake flour

4 egg whites
1/6 tsp cream of tartar
40g caster sugar

Steps:
Same as the above except bake the layer cakes at 160°C for 8-10 minutes. I baked very thin layers to mimic fondant, thus the short baking time. These layer cakes can be baked in advance and frozen after wrapping it in double layers of cling wrap. To bake the heartpops, place the heart tray in preheated oven at 160°C then turn the temperature to 140°C immediately. Bake for 13-15 minutes or until skewer comes out clean. Carefully unmould the heartpops when completely cooled. You may wish to lightly grease the heart silicone ice cube tray mould to make it easier to unmould.

Looking sweet already!


Assemble the cupcakes by using cookie cutters to cut out the shapes and glue on using melted marshmellows. Brush the assembled cupcakes with simple syrup (1:1 ratio of sugar and water) to keep them moist as they will be out in the open for display at the party. Brush the heart cakepops with syrup too as they are very small and tend to dry out more easily.

All packed!

The lady who requested these bakes for her dear daughter's birthday kindly took a photo of the bakes at the table.

The bakes at the party!

My kids had the extra cupcakes and cookies and they loved it! Perks of having a mama who bakes :p.


For the first time, we are joining 16 fabulous cooking bloggers to bring you the chance to start the Year of the Ram in the best way - by winning an ang pow! Leave a comment in the Combined CNY Giveaway Post for a chance to win!



With love,
Phay Shing





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