Kyoho Grapes, Strawberries n Cream Longevity Peach Chiffon Cake

 I made this longevity peach cake for my grandma's birthday!

Vanilla chiffon sponge with my version of Chantilly cream, kyoho grapes and strawberries

It has been a few years since I made longevity peach themed cakes when there was a time early in my baking journey that I made them so often for requests!

I couldn't resist taking a photo of the chiffon peaches in a steaming basket 

Although I stuck with my default vanilla chiffon cake recipe for the main cake, I decided to use more egg yolk for the peaches for richer taste but it needs more white colouring to compensate. You may refer to my past longevity peach chiffon cake peaches for reference if you wish. I used to make other flavours like lychee rose, which is really yummy too!

Here are the heart silicone moulds and cookie cutters I used for the small and medium sized peaches. The minis are bite-sized. The medium-sized ones are about three bite-sized. I used lemon juice to make the longevity peaches but feel free to replace with water if you want plain vanilla flavour.

Vanilla lemon longevity peaches

Ingredients (makes 12 med & 12 small peaches, one thin 10x12 inch sheet cake):

Egg yolk batter

3 egg yolks

15g caster sugar 

56g vegetable oil

28g lemon juice

28g water

80g cake flour

1tsp white powder colouring (or use gel colouring)

1/8 tsp salt

1tsp vanilla extract

More white gel colouring as needed

1/4-1/2tsp pandan paste

Meringue

4 egg whites

1/4 tsp cream of tartar

85g caster sugar 

Steps:

1. Line 10x12" tray with teflon sheet. Parchment paper will do as well but it may wrinkle. Lightly grease the silicone molds with oil. Preheat oven to 170C, top and bottom heat only.

2. Make egg yolk batter. Whisk together egg yolks, sugar and salt until pale. Add oil and whisk until smooth. Add lemon juice, water and vanilla and whisk together. Gradually sift in cake flour and white powder until no trace of flour is seen. Add more white colouring if desired.

3. Make meringue. In a clean metal bowl, use electric mixer to beat egg whites with cream of tartar until firm peaks form, gradually adding sugar once the egg whites are foamy. Take your time to slowly build up the meringue so that it is stable with tight compact air bubbles.

4. Quickly but gently fold meringue into egg yolk batter in 3 additions. Transfer about 2/3 of batter into large piping bag and fill the silicone moulds until full. 

5. Bake for 5 min at 160C, reduce temperature to 140C and bake for 20min, reduce to 130C for another 10-15min or until skewer comes out clean. Cool completely before carefully unmoulding by hand. Preheat oven to 170C again.

6. Add pandan paste to the remaining batter. The batter would have deflated a little by now but it is ok. Just gently fold in pandan paste. Smoothen out the batter until it is a very thin layer in the 10x12" tray. Bake for 8-9 min or until done. Immediately flip the cake out onto fresh sheet of parchment paper. Cool completely before cutting out the leaves with cookie cutter.

Important note:

Adjust baking temperature and time according to your oven as each oven behaves differently even if they are the same model and batch.

Decorating and assembling longevity peaches

I used cake glue to stick the leaves on instead of melted marshmallows out of convenience. I sprayed the ombre pink coating on the hearts with pink coloured water and a toothbrush. Spray the hearts pink before assembling the leaves. You may pipe on the eyes with melted black candy melts or chocolate. The red cheeks were added on using red edible marker.

Filling

Instead of using a stabilized whipped cream, what I used for this cake is even simpler as it doesn't include gelatin stabilization but tastes just as good as it is stable.

I used a ratio of 2:3 for Whip topping: double-cream by weight. Whip topping is a non-dairy whipping cream that is pre-sweetened and very stable. Double cream is more stable than regular dairy cream that has lower fat percentage, but still as delicious but richer. Simply whip the whip topping until stiff peaks, no danger of overwhipping here. Loosen the double cream with a hand whisk until it is smooth and thick but not able to hold a peak. Gradually fold the whip topping into the loosened double cream. Transfer into piping bag for cake assembly. Be careful not to overwhisk the double cream or it will split. You may add some vanilla extract if you wish.

I made some syrup by using kyoho grape juice squeezed from some grapes, sugar and hot water. This syrup was used to brush the vanilla sponge surfaces to keep it moist as well as add flavour. There is no fixed ratio of sugar: liquid, up to personal preference. I usually use about 1:2 sugar: liquid by weight.

Just to share some pictures of the layers in the cake.

Even without the longevity peaches, the cake looks inviting!

So glad it was very well received and everyone loved it!

If you would like to know how I make such neat fruits n cream cake, you may refer to my Instagram post:

https://www.instagram.com/p/CjmC-w8Pfvq/?igshid=NjZiMGI4OTY=

with lots of love,

Phay Shing