Macaron Foodcart on Strawberries n Cream Chiffon Cake

My friend requested for a birthday cake for her daughter who loves playing with her foodcart. Since Korean strawberries are in season, I made strawberries n cream chiffon cake for the cake base and a foodcart macaron structure filled mainly with strawberry filling!

Birthday girl's name is Love! 

A closer view of the foodcart. The food items are made out of macarons too! 

A better view of the strawberries n cream cake below. Doesn't it look inviting? 

I have made strawberries n cream cake a few times and I always use the same default recipe for the chiffon cake base. You may refer to this post for detailed recipe of the vanilla chiffon cake. I used to use Italian method as my default meringue method for making macarons but I seldom work with large quantities now so I switch to using Swiss meringue method. You may refer to this post for the recipe. Please refer to the updated version in the blog post as I have been using it.

Just to share some photos of the process...

Piping the roof and panels of the foodcart. I piped 2 different variations so I could choose which roof to use. 

Freshly baked mini hotdogs, pretzels, ice-cream cones and macarons! They are all macaron shells of course 🤣. I decided not to use the chocolate rice sprinkled vanilla cone as I thought it looked a little smudged. 

I filled the mini food items with white chocolate melted with a little vegetable shortening, either plain vanilla flavoured or with pandan paste added. I filled the larger section of the foodcart with strawberry filling. You may refer to this post for detailed recipe of the jam. For the purpose of buidling macaron structures, I reduced the amount of jam added but increased the amount of emulco a little.

Strawberry white chocolate buttercream
Ingredients:
85g white chocolate
12g cocoa butter
20g vegetable shortening/unsalted butter
1/8 tsp salt
1 tsp strawberry emulco
10g jam

Steps please follow this post.

Filling up the foodcart! Total of 5 alternating layers of macaron shells and strawberry filling! 

I completed the assembly of the foodcart before I began on the cake because it can be kept for a longer time, up to a week or two in the fridge. Let it sit at room temperature before consuming as the filling may be too firm.

Here is the freshly baked vanilla chiffon cake!

I used the same old recipe 

I made some tweaks to the cream filling and love it! It is the best compromise between taste and good stability so far. Please refer to this post for assembly steps but use the updated cream filling in this blog post. I use double cream instead of heavy cream as it has higher fat content, which helps in stability in hot Singapore. You may use heavy cream if you are unable to get double cream. Using heavy cream should be fine especially if you live in temperate climates and didn't make this at the height of summer.

Cream filling
Ingredients:
200g double cream (I used Bulla)
100g whip topping  (non-dairy whipping cream)
2 gelatin sheets **
Some ice water**
1 tsp vanilla extact

** you may use 1.5 tsp of powdered gelatin bloomed in 1.5 tbs of cold water instead. My preference is to use gelatin sheets as powdered gelatin tends to have an odour.

Steps:
1. Soak gelatin sheets in some ice water for 10 min. Squeeze out excess water and heat in microwaveable bowl until melted.

2. Put double cream, whip topping and vanilla into a mixing bowl. Scoop out 1tbs of cold cream and add into melted gelatin and mix well.

3. Use electric mixer to beat cream on low speed until soft peaks form. Gradually add the gelatin mix while whisking the cream by hand to incorporate it in. If the cream isn't stiff peak by this time, use the mixer to beat for a few seconds and check the consistency again. You want it to be firm enough to work with but smooth and not clumpy.

Here is a picture of assembly in progress.

I was salivating as I was assembling 🤣

Thank God the cake was very well received!

The foodcart was kept for another round of celebrations for Love in school so it wasn't consumed at the family celebration where the strawberries n cream cake was consumed.

With love,
Phay Shing