Sunday 5 March 2017

Unicorn Rainbow Tier Chiffon Cake


Unicorn Rainbow Tier Chiffon Cake, for my friend's very sweet daughter!

I've made many Rainbow chiffon cakes, but this is the first time I tried one with even thickness across 2 tiers. I was really nervous but thankful it panned out well. The challenge is to estimate and scale, and also divide the batter correctly for different pan sizes. The scaling comes from experience and I've sharing a scaling index across different pan sizes at the back page of my 2nd book Deco Chiffon Cakes.

Recipe for 6-colour Rainbow chiffon cake is in my 1st book Creative baking: Chiffon Cakes; it's on the cover of the book. Very happy that the Rainbow chiffon cake has been trending Singapore and Asia since the release of the book! 



Recipe for the Tri-colour chiffon cake is below for you to try. It's a 4 egg recipe unlike the Rainbow chiffon, and uses a moister base formula. Do tag me if you try! Will love to see.

Tri-colour Chiffon Cake (7-inch chiffon tin) 
4 egg yolks
27g sugar
53g vegetable oil
58g water
7 g vanilla extract
80g Prima cake flour
Wilton or food colouring

Meringue
5 egg whites
60g 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). *You may omit steam baking; I like to use it for moister cake.

2. Beat egg yolks with sugar with whisk till light before stirring in oil, milk/water and vanilla extract.

3. Add in sieved flour and whisk till no trace of flour found. Divide the batter into 3 parts. Add respective wilton or food colouring.

4. Meringue: Beat the egg whites with ¼ tsp cream of tartar till firm peaks form or just to the point of reaching stiff peak, mixing in caster sugar in 2 additions.

5. Divide the meringue into 3 parts for each of the 3-coloured egg yolk batter above. Gently but quickly fold in the meringue into each batter 1/3 at a time.

6. Spoon the pink batter into the chiffon tin evenly, followed by the orange batter, and then lastly the yellow batter, leaving around 2 cm from the tip.

*Resist the urge to pour! =p

7. Gently tap the tin on table 3x to remove air bubbles

8. Bake the chiffon cake for 15 min at 160°C and then at 140°C for 30 min.

9. Invert immediately once out of the oven to cool

10. Unmould by hand after the cake is cool. Gently pull the cake from the sides of the tin at each angle and push the removable base up to unmould the sides. To unmould the cake from the base, gently lift up the cake from the base using hands, repeating this at each angle before turning the base over (see 'Hand Unmoulding Chiffon Cakes for a Smooth Finishing' video tutorial).


For the 9-inch pan, it's divide the recipe by 4 times 7. 

The unicorn is also diy from chiffon cake! It's different from my other two versions of unicorns, and the hair is cut from strips of chiffon cake! You can imagine the work (and work of love involved =p). Briefly, I joined chiffon cake from an egg shell to chiffon cake from cone, and arms and feet are from swissrolls.

Have a sweet week ahead!

With lots of love,


In addition to scaling guide, Deco Chiffon Cakes also has an extended 6-page troubleshooting section for basic and deco chiffon cakes (not in the 1st book). Hope these will be very helpful to those attempting chiffon cakes.





21 comments:

  1. Hi, it is a very nice cake. Thank you very much for the recipe. One question though, how do you cut out the letter? Do you use cookie cutters for that? Thanks!

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  2. Hi! I have a 9 inch pan. You mentioned that I need to divide by 4 and multiply with 7 to get the ratio correct. Ended up with the following:

    7 egg yolks
    47.25g sugar (rounded to 47g)
    92.75g vegetable oil (rounded to 93g)
    101.5g water (rounded to 101g)
    12.25g vanilla extract (rounded to 12g)
    140g Prima cake flour

    Meringue:
    8.75 egg whites
    105g sugar
    0.4375tsp cream of tartar 

    How do you equate the eggs to grams and as well as the cream of tartar?

    By the way, can I bake the cake in a normal pan with a removable base?

    Thanks!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hi! Egg whites can round up to 9 egg whites. Water round up instead of rounding down (102g).
    Cream of tartar: around less than 1/2 tsp.
    Yes you can bake in a normal pan, but baking time will be longer and you will need to scale up to times 8 as the volume is bigger. Thanks!

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  4. Thanks! How would you equate the following to teaspoons?

    7g vanilla extract
    12.25g vanilla extract
    0.4375tsp cream of tartar

    By the way, can I use things like strawberry or blueberry pastes in lieu of vanilla? Would it be the same quantity?

    Thanks again.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi yes you can. Sorry for late reply! totally didn't get any notification. Thanks!

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  5. Hi! I tried baking it in a 10" pan with the recipe for the 9". However, despite baking for a longer time, the middle part doesn't seem to cook that well. Also, my cake unmolded by itself! Any idea why it happens?

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    Replies
    1. It sounds like the cake is underbaked. Because the oven's internal heat and design is always different. Good to check with bamboo skewer in the middle first before stopping. Thanks!

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    2. I did check with a bamboo skewer; it came out clean. Surprisingly, when I cut the cake, somes parts on the top of the cake is cooked through , some parts are still 'damp'. Strange, considering the oven I used only has a top heating element. What would your recommendation be for the baking time if it is a 10" pan as I would like to try again...

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    3. Hi usually I bake with both top and bottom heating element. Is that why your cake is not evenly cooked? For 10-inch pan, I increase the total baking time by 15 min. Thanks

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  6. Dear Suzanne, why my cake the side color always turn out brown and not as nice as yours where the color so vibrant?

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  7. Hi, different ovens have different internal temperatures. So it is important for everyone to calibrate their ovens to get an accurate and even temperature for chiffon cakes to be nicely baked. You can try baking longer at a lower temperature. And only use top and bottom heat without fan. Usually 140-150 deg will be quite a safe temperature to try. Thank you!

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  8. Hi how did you stick the name on the chiffon cake? Thanks.

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    Replies
    1. Hi sorry to miss out your question Yin Yani. I used melted marshmallows to stick. Thanks!

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  9. Hi Suzanne, is the cake short got 7 inch? I tried the recipe but 2 tone and my cake was rather short. Will it be the same height as your Pandan chiffon recipe for 7 inch pan?

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    Replies
    1. Hi! It could be that you overfolded or your eggs were smaller. You can use the recipe in a 6-inch pan if the cake is short. Alternatively, scale the recipe to a 5-egg recipe by (divide by 4 times 5). Hope this helps!

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    2. Hi! Thanks! I will give it a try. Thanks for replying!

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  10. Hi. If i want to bake in a 5 inch pan. How do i get the ratio? Thanks.

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    Replies
    1. Hi! It will be roughly divide by 2, but also depends on the height of your pan =) thanks!

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  11. Hi, thanks for the reply. But do i need to multiply by seven?
    Or just divide by 2?

    ReplyDelete