‘Rocket’ Blue pea flower & Charcoal-Pandan Chiffon Cake

This is a ‘Rocket’ Blue pea flower & Charcoal-Pandan Chiffon Cake for my friend's boy who loves rockets! The chiffon cake is naturally coloured with blue pea flowers and bamboo charcoal for the night sky and pandan for the green grassland.

I have shared how to make 'waves' in Creative Baking: Chiffon Cakes. Here I made the waves landscape more gradual for the 'launch-off' and also more night sky to enhance the feel! I made the blue pea flowers & charcoal batter and pandan batter separately and then combined them in the chiffon tin (recipe below!) =).

For 8-inch Chiffon tin
Blue pea flower-Charcoal Chiffon
3 egg yolks
20g caster sugar
39g vegetable/corn oil
48g blue pea flower tea, filtered (100 dried blue pea flowers simmered in 48g hot water)
60g cake flour, sifted

1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp charcoal powder* (may be omitted if you do not want the dark shade)
Pinch of baking powder

Meringue
4 egg whites
45g caster sugar
¼ tsp cream of tartar

Pandan Chiffon
2 egg yolks
9g castor sugar
24 g vegetable/corn oil
30g coconut milk
½ tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp pandan paste
40g cake flour, sifted
A pinch of salt

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

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). *You may omit steam baking; I like to use it to control my oven temperature rise and for moister ogura-like texture.

2. Prepare blue pea flower-charcoal and pandan chiffon batter separately.

Blue pea flower-charcoal chiffon:

- Whisk egg yolks with castor sugar until dissolved and till pale and fluffy.

- Add oil, blue pea flower tea and vanilla extract and mix well. 

- Add in sieved flour, charcoal powder and a pinch of baking powder and whisk swiftly till no trace of flour is found (make sure no lumps are formed).

Pandan Chiffon:

- Whisk egg yolks with castor sugar until dissolved and till pale and fluffy.

- Add in oil, coconut milk, vanilla extract and pandan paste and mix well. 

  - Add in sieved flour and a pinch of salt and whisk swiftly till no trace of flour is found.

- Meringue: Beat the egg whites with ¼ tsp cream of tartar till foamy, add in caster sugar in 2 additions and beat till firm peaks form (firm peaks give a finer texture).

- Gently fold in the meringue into the respective batter 1/3 at a time.

3. Spoon blue pea flower-charcoal batter into base of the tin till 2/3 full. Deposit mounds to make waves. Fill with pandan batter (waves in Creative Baking: Chiffon Cakes).

4. Bake the chiffon cake for 160°C for 15 min, then 150°C for 10 min, 140°C for 15 min, then 130°C for 10 min, or until skewer comes clean.

5. Invert the chiffon cake immediately once out of the oven to cool

6. Unmould by hand after the cake is cool. (see 'Hand Unmoulding Chiffon Cakes for a Smooth Finishing' video tutorial).

Tall and fluffy!

I made the rocket from a vanilla swissroll and a strawberry Tokyo banana and combined the two! My friend shared the rocket survived a launch off lol! And he was especially delighted to find marshmallows hidden beneath the rocket! =) Thankful it was well-received!

With lots of love, wheeee...
Susanne