'Moomin' Reduced Egg Yolk Taiwanese Castella Cake

Posting one of my of super back logs =p. I made this Moomin somewhere near Chinese new year, near the time of my Culinary arts ministry "Doggy Castella cakes" class. I had joked that this was Moomin after eating too much pineapple tarts LOL.

This is optimized based on my previous "Doggy Castella cake" recipe. It is a special reduced egg yolk recipe for white Castella cake as Moomin was requested. The use of egg whites in the egg yolk batter also adds moisture and a slightly "yoga-like" quality to the cake texture.

The Castella batter is more runny than the chiffon batter, so is more suitable for more single tone cakes (or when marbling is needed), than for precisely-controlled patterns. You can read my previous post on more details.

Reduced Egg Yolk Castella Recipe
1.5 whole egg
70g warm oil or melted butter
72g whole milk
108 g Top flour, or Cake flour (Prima)
A pinch of salt
4g vanilla extract

6 egg whites
½ tsp cream of tartar
120g castor sugar

1. Preheat oven to 160°C with a tray of water under the lowest rack (steam baking).

2. Heat the oil or butter in a microwave (40 sec for mine). Add a pinch of salt and milk, then whisk in sifted Top flour or cake flour. *I checked the temperature was less than 60°C as you don't want to end up cooking your egg yolks.

3. Add in 1.5 whole egg (i.e. about 80g) and mix to silky smooth batter (do not overmix). Add in vanilla extract and stir well.

4. In a separate bowl, using an electric mixer, whisk egg whites with cream of tartar till foamy. Add in the sugar gradually and whisk till firm peaks are formed.

5. Fold in the meringue into respective egg yolk batter in 3 additions.

6. Pour into a doll cake pan. Bake at 160°C for 15 min then 150°C for 10 min, 140°C for 40 min, or until skewer inserted into the centre of the cakes come out clean). *Note that individual oven vary, do check for doneness yourself using skewer.
*You also use this recipe for a 7-inch square pan lined with baking paper and cardboard at the side (like normal Taiwanese Castella).

7. Give the cake a knock once out of the oven and unmould by hand when cool (similar to normal tube pans, see video).

This is for the body of the Moomin. The head was also made using the same recipe in 2 glass bowls (1/6 the recipe above), baking time (160°C for 15 min then 140°C for 15 min). The arms and feet were also from the same recipe, from cake pop molds and roll cakes (160°C for 15 min). The Moomin was assembled by carving out the parts from the cake pop molds and assembling with melted marshmallow glue (see my Deco Chiffon Cake Basics).

Have a moo-vellous week ahead!

With lots of love,
Susanne



More Creative Chiffon Cake ideas here!