Paw Patrol Orange Chiffon Cake

This is a Paw Patrol chiffon cake made especially for Chace who loves Paw Patrol! :) Because of him, my kids also started watching the cute series. My favorite scene is when the pups glide down the slide into their vehicles LOL! This cake is inspired by the Paw patrol crest on the tower, and to make it more special, I put his name on the bone ;).

This is a fun cake with paws and bones running all over the cake! I made a total for 4 vanilla chiffon layer cakes (red, grey, blue and white) to cut them out. And to make it even more fun, I even hid a few bones inside the chiffon cake (just some cake trivia) :p.

The base was orange chiffon cake adapted from sakura orange chiffon cake. This is an updated recipe in which I increased the orange juice and modified the baking temperature to further reduce to 140°C to reduce browning, which was important here as I needed a light orange cake as base for the blue paws.

Orange chiffon cake (17 cm chiffon tin)
3 egg yolks
20g sugar
39g vegetable oil
48ml orange juice (freshly squeezed)
60g cake flour
Orange emulco (few drops, will add to the flavour)
Orange zest (from 2 oranges)

4 egg whites
45g sugar
1/4 tsp cream of tartar

1. Preheat oven to 160°C. I use steam baking with a thin layer of water in a pan under the lowest rack (optional but helps to control oven temperature).
2. Beat egg yolks with sugar with whisk till pale and light before stirring in oil and orange juice.
3. Next add in sieved flour, orange zest and a few drops of orange emulco and whisk till no trace of flour is found.
4. Meringue: Beat the egg whites with ¼ tsp cream of tartar till firm peaks or close to stiff peaks, mixing in caster sugar in 2 additions.
5. Fold in the meringue gently into the batter 1/3 at a time.
6. Gently tap the tin on table 3x to remove air bubbles
7. Bake the cake for 15 min at 160°C then 30 min at 140°C, or until skewer comes out clean.
8. Invert immediately once out of the oven to cool
9. Unmould by hand (video tutorial) after the cake is cool.

Here's the top view of the Paw Patrol Chiffon Cake!

Happy blessed birthday to Chace!

With lots of love,

Susanne

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Strawberry Yoghurt Chiffon Cupcake 'Strawberries'

I have a request for some cupcake strawberries for a birthday so here they are :)

I made cupcake strawberries for my younger kid's Children's Day celebration at school recently. The recipe for this batch of "strawberries" is adapted from that. I replaced half of the strawberry puree with strawberry yogurt and used chocolate paste made from cocoa powder for the seeds instead of white chocolate as the white chocolate tends to absorb some of the red colouring from the cake. I used the same silicone cakepop mould as the one for soccer ball mini chiffon cupcakes.

Dissolve some cocoa powder in hot water to form a paste with the consistency of melted chocolate. Transfer the chocolate paste into a piping bag (or ziplock bag) and snip a tiny hole at one end. Pipe dots for the strawberry seeds onto the cakes. Dry the decorated cakes in airtight container.

Looking pretty in little cups!

It's been a busy couple of days with many cupcakes to make! But I still find time for my kids. Here's one way...

Playing with leftover chocolate paste and extra cakes!

So thankful that my mum was around to help to pack the strawberries in individual packets. It sped things up a bit :).

With love,
Phay Shing

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Milk and Honey Vanilla Soccer Ball Chiffon Cupcakes

My younger kid's busmate would like some soccer ball cupcakes for his birthday so I made these mini soccer balls!

Soccerballs resting on a pandan flavoured chiffon turf!

I adapted the recipe from the soccer ball cupcakes I made a few months ago but with honey added for extra flavour and moisture.

Susanne lent me her set of silicone cakepop moulds and I had the honor of being the first one to use it :p. As chiffon cakes cling to the sides of the ungreased container they are baked in, I didn't dare to try baking spherical balls of chiffon cupcakes as it would be really challenging to unmould the cakes from the mould. I decided to bake them as hemispheres instead. You may use glass or metal moulds with round bottoms to make these too.

Dissolve some cocoa powder and charcoal powder in cool boiled water to make black paint. Make the soccer ball designs on the cakes using the carrot stamper, a toothpick and fine brush. Store the painted balls in air tight container to let the paint dry. I didn't have huge flat containers so I left the balls on a tray placed in jumbo ziplock bag.

Aren't they cute? The baking part is easy but to print many soccer balls is quite a lot of work and requires much patience. I had to make 28 balls but there was enough batter for 40.

All packed and ready to party!

With love,
Phay Shing

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'Cow' Low Sugar (10%) Pandan Chiffon Cake for Diabetics

I was very touched when a friend asked me if I could make a sugar-free or very low-sugar pandan chiffon cake for her diabetic MIL who was recovering from an operation. When I googled, I was surprised that there were no sugar-free recipes for pandan chiffon cake! Only two existed for lemon chiffon cake by the British company, Splenda (a sugar substitute). With so many elderly I know suffering from diabetes, I was motivated to try making a low sugar pandan chiffon cake that diabetics can enjoy.

I could only find Equal, the sugar substitute, at the time of my bake in NTUC. Thankfully, I managed to find the conversion chart online that 1 packet Equal = 2 teaspoon sugar (= 8g) in sweetness. The recipe should be considered a success as my friend shared that the pandan cake was very nice and had good pandan taste, and best of all, could be enjoyed by everyone, especially her diabetic MIL! I tasted it myself and thought it was sweet enough too.

*A friend later shared that Splenda can be found at Guardian and Stevia at Cold Storage and some NTUCs now. These two substitutes are healthier and superior substitutes to Equal. The conversion is the same as Equal, meaning 1 packet Splenda/Stevia = 2 teaspoon sugar, and so can be substituted similarly into the recipe.

On a side note, she wanted a cow on top of the cake looking like the giraffe chiffon cake I had previously made (as her MIL was born in the year of the cow). We had a good laugh previously because she thought that the giraffe was a cow! This time round, we had another good laugh as she was pleasantly surprised and exclaimed her cow looked like a cow! :D

As meringue needs a little bit of sugar preferably to be happy, I reduced the sugar to 1/10th of the original amount, from 75g to 8g (thanks to Phay Shing too for her input). The meringue was stable, but I needed to work quickly as I noticed it broke down faster. The cake also looked a little more "holey" than I was used to as the meringue was less stable. But overall, I would say it was fine, both texture and taste-wise, thank God! So here goes!

Low Sugar (10% original) Pandan Chiffon Cake (for 17cm tin)
3 egg yolks
5.5 packets of Equal/Splenda/Stevia (sugar substitute)
39g vegetable oil
24 ml coconut milk
11 ml pandan juice
2 ml vanilla extract
5 ml pandan paste
60g cake flour
A pinch of salt
1/5 tsp baking powder

Meringue:
4 egg whites
8g sugar
1/4 tsp cream of tartar

Method:
1. Prepare fresh pandan juice by blending fresh pandan leaves (10-15 leaves cut into small pieces, omitting the tips) with 50 ml water. Strain with a sieve and press out all the liquid with a spoon.
2. Preheat oven at 160°C (I used steam baking, i.e. put a tray of water at the lowest rack in the oven but it's optional).
3. Beat egg yolks with Equal/Splenda/Stevia (sugar substitute) before stirring in oil, coconut milk and pandan juice.

4. Add in sieved flour, salt and baking powder and whisk till no trace of flour found.
5. Meringue: Beat the egg whites with ¼ tsp cream of tartar till stiff peak, mixing in caster sugar in 2 additions.

6. Fold in the meringue gently into the batter 1/3 at a time.
7. Scoop the batter into the chiffon tin.
8. Gently tap the tin on table 3x to remove air bubbles
9. Bake the cake for 15 min at 160°C then 30 min at 150°C.
10. Invert immediately once out of the oven to cool
11. Unmould after the cake is cool.

Freshly unmoulded low sugar pandan chiffon cake!

Thanks to Joey for this wonderful learning experience!

With lots of love,

Susanne

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Orange Digger Pandan Chiffon Cake

This is a happy digger made out of chiffon cake for a really cute boy who loves digger! This is my second digger cake; the last time I made a chiffon digger was for my nephew who's also crazy about diggers. After a few generations of vehicles, my digger now has a smile after my chiffon bus as I think it makes the vehicle look happier hee ^_^. The digger is placed atop a pandan chiffon cake so that the backdrop is brighter and sweeter (than chocolate in my previous digger cake). I further added in some cocoa soil and m&m's rocks so that the digger looks happily busy at work!

The digger is cut out from orange chiffon cake baked in a big square tray. My previous post Orange chocolate chiffon digger has pictures and details on its construction. The pandan chiffon cake is baked in an 8-inch square chiffon tin (borrowed from my dear friend Evon.. thank you!). The same pandan chiffon cake recipe is used in Peppa Pig chiffon cake, but scaled up to 7 egg yolks for the big tin. For your convenience, the scaled up recipe is below :).

Pandan Chiffon Cake (for 20 cm square chiffon tin)
7 egg yolks
47g sugar
91g vegetable oil
56 ml coconut milk
26 ml pandan juice
5 ml vanilla extract
13 ml pandan paste
140g cake flour
A pinch of salt

Meringue:
9 egg whites
105g sugar
1/4 tsp cream of tartar

Method:
1. Prepare fresh pandan juice by blending fresh pandan leaves (10 leaves cut into small pieces, omitting the tips) with 50 ml water. Strain with a sieve and press out all the liquid with a spoon.

2. Preheat oven at 160°C.
3. Beat egg yolks with sugar with whisk till pale yellow before stirring in oil, milk and pandan juice. Add pandan paste, vanilla extract and a dip of green food coloring if desired (optional). Mix well.
4. Add in sieved flour and salt and whisk till no trace of flour found.
5. Meringue: Beat the egg whites with ¼ tsp cream of tartar till stiff peak, mixing in caster sugar in 2 additions.
6. Fold in the meringue gently into the batter 1/3 at a time.
7. Pour the batter into the chiffon tin from a height.
8. Gently tap the tin on table 3x to remove air bubbles
9. Bake the cake for 15 min at 160°C then 35 min at 150°C.
10. Invert immediately once out of the oven to cool
11. Unmould by hand after the cake is cool. For square chiffon tin, a spatula is needed for the corners to get sharp edges.

Freshly unmoulded cake!

I filled the hole with some m&m rocks and flowers, and decorated with more around the digger :).

Here's a final look at the cake!  

Thank God my friend shared that the kids loved it and asked for second helpings :).

Happy belated birthday Isaac!

With lots of love,

Susanne

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Longevity Peach Pandan Kaya Gula Melaka Cake

I made a longevity peach pandan kaya gula melaka cake for grandma's birthday! What a mouthful to say :p. All 12 peaches are mini snowskin mooncakes with lotus paste filling :).

This is one of those bakes where I decided to change design halfway so I will provide the recipe for how I would have done it. It is basically almost the same recipe as my previous longevity peach pandan kaya cake with a few modifications and the replacement of some sugar with gula melaka. I will highlight the changes here but will not replicate parts of the recipe that is exactly the same. My previous pandan kaya cake was endorsed by a pastry chef so of course I will use the same recipe again :p. Now that I have added gula melaka into the cake, it is even more delectable!


Sequence of making the cake:

1. Prepare pandan juice.

My kids helped to prepare this!

2. Bake two 9" round pandan chiffon layer cakes.

My original design was a 10" square cake. I decided to change it to a 9" round one like my previous bake. This can be baked ahead of time and kept in the freezer after wrapping it well.

Love the natural green!

3. Bake layer cake with "寿" design.

Due to the design change, I cut the patterned cake to reveal the "寿" without a black border. I changed the source of red colouring and portion to avoid too much cake wastage. See the change in recipe below*.

4. Make longevity peach snowskin mooncakes.

Works in progress!

Pretty peaches!

I used the updated snowskin mooncake recipe which stays soft for a longer time. See below for the recipe**.

5. Make pandan kaya and gula melaka fudge.

My original recipe had no gula melaka added. This addition would enhance the flavour of the cake. See below for recipe***.

6. Assemble cake.

The assembly is almost the same as my previous cake, except that I added a sandwich layer of gula melaka fudge between the 2 pandan chiffon cakes. The gula melaka fudge (3rd picture) is topped with a layer of pandan kaya fudge before putting the second pandan cake on top (4th picture).

After unmoulding the cake, I outlined the word with charcoal powder dissolved in some water to make the word stand out more. Dessicated coconut is applied only to the sides of the cake this time.


*Recipe for patterned "寿" layer cake
Ingredients:
Egg yolk batter
1 egg yolk
5g caster sugar
13g vegetable oil
6g clear pandan juice (clear layer of pandan juice after letting it settle for a day or 2)
11g coconut milk
1/8 tsp vanilla extract
1/8 tsp pandan flavouring
19g cake flour
Pinch of salt

Meringue (make one portion for red pattern and one portion for base)
1 egg white
12g caster sugar
Pinch of cream of tartar

Red pattern
1.5 tsp egg yolk batter
1/4 tsp beetroot powder
1/8 tsp red yeast powder
1/10 tsp red coloured powder
5 tbs meringue

Steps:
1. Preheat oven to 160°C. Position rack to second lowest position. Place inverted "寿" template under a greased silicone mat in a 6" square pan. You may use baking sheet instead of silicone mat but the pattern may wrinkle a bit.

2. Prepare the egg yolk batter. Whisk egg yolk and sugar until pale and all the sugar has dissolved.  Add oil and whisk until well combined. Add pandan juice, coconut milk, vanilla extract and pandan flavouring and whisk until combined. Gradually add sifted flour and salt and whisk until no trace of flour can be seen.

3. Scoop out 1.5 tsp of egg yolk batter and mix well with red colouring ingredients. Prepare one portion of meringue by beating an egg white until stiff peaks form with sugar and cream of tartar. Fold in 5 tbs of meringue into red batter in 3 additions. Transfer to piping bag with wilton #5 tip and pipe out the pattern. Try to pipe a thick layer to ensure good transfer of colored batter to base cake.

4. Bake for 1.5-2 minutes or until dry. Prepare another portion of meringue and fold into main batter together with any leftover meringue for the red batter. Pour over red pattern and bake for 13-15 minutes or until skewer comes out clean.

5. Immediately remove from pan and cool with a fresh sheet of baking paper covering it. Cut out the word from the cake using a small knife.  You may freeze the cake if baked in advance. Just make sure that it is lined with baking sheet, cling wrapped and stored in airtight container/ ziplock bag.


**Recipe for longevity peach snowskin mooncakes (makes 12 minis)
Ingredients:
13g cooked glutinous rice flour or kou fen (糕粉)
13g icing sugar
52g snowskin premix (alternatively you may substitute with half icing sugar and half kou fen)
13g vegetable shortening
65g water
1/4 tsp pandan flavouring

83g lotus paste
Green liquid food colouring
Pink gel food coloring dissolved in 1 tbs water

Steps:
Refer to my longevity peach snowskin mooncake post for making the snowskin and assembling the mooncakes using heart shaped ice cube tray. Use 9g of snowskin and 7g of lotus paste filling for each mooncake. Colour the remaining snowskin green for the leaves and stem. You may end up with a bit of extra snowskin. Remember to secure the peaches to the cake with toothpicks.


***Recipe for Pandan Kaya and Gula Melaka fudge

Begin by preparing pandan water. Boil a few pandan leaves cut up to small pieces in 1L of water. Remove the leaves. You may choose to replace all the sugar with gula melaka for a stronger flavour and retain the natural brown colour instead of using food colouring. I wanted the peaches to be resting on a green field (not on browned "grass") so I still used white sugar and some food colouring.

Ingredients:
Pandan kaya fudge
(A)
478g coconut milk
250ml pandan water
70g caster sugar
45g gula melaka
1/2 tbs + 3/8 tsp agar powder
1/2 tsp liquid green food colouring
1/4 tsp liquid yellow food colouring
Pinches of salt

(B)
47g custard powder
250ml pandan water

Gula melaka fudge
(A)
100g coconut milk
52g pandan water
30g gula melaka
1/3 tsp agar powder
A pinch of salt

(B)
10g custard powder
52ml pandan water

Steps:
1. For both types of fudge, mix (B) well and set aside. I find it helpful to prepare this in a jug that I can pour from.

2. Mix (A) in a saucepan and bring to a boil, stirring continuously. Use medium low heat.

3. Stir (B) as the powder would have settled. Gradually pour (B) into (A) and keep stirring. Cook until mixture thickens.

I prepared the gula melaka fudge first then set aside, stirring it now and then as I worked on the pandan kaya fudge. If you find it too lumpy, reheat the fudge and stir until it is smoother.

Here's a peek at the insides....

The cake was light, refreshing and not too sweet. For those of you with a sweet tooth, you may want to increase the amount of sugar. But the older folk in my family prefer it this way, not too sweet :).

Happy birthday 婆婆!

Update: Checkout my updated recipe for Pandan kaya gula melaka cake over here! I made two logcakes of this flavour and both were very well received!

With love,
Phay Shing

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Paw and Hat Pastel Rainbow Chiffon Cakes

Somewhere over the rainbow :)

I just wanted to share two loving pastel rainbow creations I made over the week..

This is a pastel rainbow chiffon cake creation for a little boy who loves Paw patrol...

 and a dear auntie who loves line dancing (erm.. cowboy hat ^_^)!

Both are 7-colour Pastel Rainbow Chiffon Cakes with hidden surprises in them, based on the original pastel rainbow chiffon cake recipe.

I baked extra chiffon cakes to cut out a cute blue paw, as well as hat. The hat is made baking chiffon cake in purple and yellow layers in a paper baking cup, with the base cut from a layer cake using a big round cutter.

Happy birthday to Auntie and Chace!

With lots of love,
Susanne

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Mickey and Minnie Mouse Oreo Cookies N Cream Macarons

I was supposed to make a batch of Mickey and Minnie cookies for a little boy's birthday party but a very talented baker friend inspired me to try macarons instead! Presenting my Mickey and Minnie Mouse Oreo cookies and cream macarons!

I must admit that I was pretty nervous about making macarons after a break from making them for half a year. Thank God they turned out well! All nicely smooth, no cracks and having beautiful feet!

My friend kindly provided the recipe that she used and tips on making the macarons. I adapted the recipe from Cakelets and Doilies.

I printed some Mickey mouse templates to help with getting consistent shapes and sizes. The templates were placed under the baking sheets.

Recipe for macaron shells (makes about 94 shells or 47 macarons)
Ingredients:
200g almond meal (preferably superfine)
200g icing sugar
10g charcoal powder
1 tsp cocoa powder
Black gel food colouring
200g caster sugar
75ml water
160g egg whites (about 4-5 eggs), divided into 2 equal portions, preferably aged for at least 1 day

Steps:
1. Sift together almond meal, icing sugar, charcoal and cocoa powder in a large bowl. Add 80g of egg whites and mix well until a thick paste forms (first picture in collage).

2. Beat the remaining 80g of egg whites in a clean metal bowl until soft peaks form while bringing caster sugar and water to boil in a small saucepan without stirring. Make sure that the egg whites don't get beaten beyond the soft peak stage. Keep the beaters at low speed until syrup reaches 115°C.

3. Turn the mixer speed to high and carefully pour the syrup down the side of the bowl slowly, avoiding the beaters. Keep beating for another 10 minutes at medium-high speed until the meringue cools and stiff peaks are formed (second picture).

4. Add one-third of meringue into almond mixture and mix until well combined. Add the remaining two-thirds of meringue in two additions, taking care to press the meringue into the mixture while folding it. When the batter reaches a consistency that is right, I.e. falls off the spatula in a slow, continous lava-like motion, stop folding. This takes practice and is the most tricky part of making macarons. Watching video demos several times is helpful to get the idea of what is the correct consistency. (Update 20/8/2015: do checkout my video tutorial for macaronage and testing of batter consistency)

5. Transfer batter into piping bag fitted with a 5-8 mm tip. Pipe the large round circle for the head, followed by two small circles for the ears. Lightly tap the tray on the table to remove air bubbles (fourth picture).

6. Let the macarons dry until the surface is dry to touch. I left the trays of macarons to dry in an air-conditioned room for 2 hours. This is important. If the shells are still sticky to touch, do not send them into the oven. Bake the macarons at 140°C for 17-22 minutes at the second lowest rack of the oven. Let it cool for 5 minutes on the tray before removing them.

Freshly baked!

Check out the feet!

Arrange the macaron shells in pairs. Store the macaron shells in an air tight container if you are not icing them immediately.

Recipe for royal icing*
Ingredients:
110g icing sugar
8g meringue powder
2 tbs water (more as necessary)
1 tsp beetroot powder
1/2 tsp red yeast powder
1/8 tsp red powder
Some red gel coloring

2 tbs royal icing sugar, sifted
A bit of water

* You may prepare the royal icing using raw egg whites or royal icing premix. You may also choose to prepare one batch of royal icing, then set aside about 1.5tbs of icing for white and colouring the rest red. I prepared both colours separately as I wanted to use as little artificial red colouring as possible so the natural ingredients have to be added in near the beginning of whipping the icing.

Steps:
1. Sift icing sugar and meringue powder into mixing bowl and let the electric mixer mix at low speed for about a minute. Add water and gradually increase speed. 

2. Add in beetroot powder, sifted red yeast powder and red powder coloring and continue to beat for several minutes at medium high speed, adding water a bit at a time as necessary until the right consistency for flood work of icing. I.e. any peaks on the icing disappears after several seconds and the consistency is like thickened cream. Add red gel colouring if desired shade of red is not yet reached.

3. Transfer the royal icing into a piping bag fitted with a Wilton #2 tip (or cut a small hole in the bag). Begin by piping Minnie's bow. Pipe 2 heart shapes at the forehead with pointy ends touching each other. Pipe the red semi circle for both Mickey and Minnie. Finally, pipe the red circles for the center of Minnie's bow. This is piped last so that the heart shapes have time to dry and this gives the bow a better defitinion.

4. You may air dry the maracons but I prefer to dry in the oven at 70°C with the fan on while I prepare the white icing. Mix the royal icing premix with water. Add water until desired consistency is reached. If at any point the royal icing becomes too runny, just add more icing sugar. Stir the mixture for several minutes with a teaspoon. This volume is too small to use the electric mixer.

5. Transfer the white icing into a pioimg bag. Snip off a small bit and pipe small dots for Mickey and Minnie. Air dry or oven dry the icing.

Starting to look good!

 You may store the macarons in an airtight container when the royal icing has dried completely or continue working on the filling. Getting tired by now!

Recipe for cookies and cream buttercream
Ingredients:
3 egg yolks
60g caster sugar
2 tbs water
60g unsalted butter, softened and cubed
65g vegetable shortening, cubed (may replace with butter but may cause filling to melt faster in hot climate)
60g Oreo cookies
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Steps:
1. Scrape off cream filling from Oreos. Crush the cookies in food processor or do it the primitive way (but less washing up) like me. Place cookies in a ziplock bag and use the flat side of a meat tenderizer to hammer the cookies until finely ground.

2. Using a whisk attachment on electric mixer,  beat egg yolks and vanilla extract until pale and creamy on high speed for about 10 minutes.

3. After the egg yolks have been beaten for a few minutes, heat up water and sugar in a small saucepan until it boils. Simmer until temperature reaches 121°C.

4. With the mixer on high speed, slowly pour the syrup into the creamed yolks in a steady stream but away from the beaters. Continue beating at high speed for 10 minutes until cool (picture on the left).

5. With the mixer on medium speed, add softened butter and shortening a cube at a time allowing each piece to mix in before adding the next one. Beat at high speed for 2 minutes. Add crushed oreos and beat for another 2 minutes (picture on the right).

6. Transfer the buttercream into piping bag fitted with a 5-8mm tip. Pipe the buttercream onto the shell with no designs and place the shell with designs on top.

Finally done!

Refrigerate the macarons in an airtight container for at least 24 hours before serving.  They can keep in the fridge for a week or more.

I still find it a challenge to make macarons but it is so satisfying to see the handiwork at the end of all the hardwork!

All packed and ready to party! Many thanks to Susanne for printing the stickers! 

Do checkout my updated version of this macs with the use of more natural ingredients to colour the shells black and change in shell-drying technique.

With love,
Phay Shing

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'Elsa's Castle' Blue Ombre (Blue Pea Flower) Chiffon Cake

My power flurries through the air into the ground
My soul is spiraling in frozen fractals all around
And one thought crystallizes like an icy blast.
I'm never going back, the past is in the past
Let it go, let it go

This chiffon cake is inspired by the beautiful Frozen castle that was created as Elsa sang “Let it go”. As I shared previously, I love Frozen very very much myself and was hoping to revisit it someday, so I was really happy my friend requested for a Frozen cake for her daughter’s and hubby’s joint birthday. I always dreamt of building the Frozen castle, but I probably wouldn’t have attempted it if not that snowflake cutters were out of stock island-wide (must be the Frozen craze!) and we couldn’t find any Frozen toppers in time. Thus all the “snowflakes” on the cake were hand-cut from vanilla chiffon cake, really time-consuming and not as beautiful as the complex snowflakes from God’s creation. The Frozen castle was cut from layers of blue ombre (blue pea flower) chiffon cake to resemble the ice making up the castle.

Similar to my previous Frozen-inspired blue pea flower chiffon cake, I used blue pea flowers for natural blue food coloring for the blue ombre chiffon cake here. I managed to get hold of more dried flowers from a very kind friend so this time I used 30 over flowers in 25 ml water to make a very deep blue dye. However, I found that the natural blue food dye was still not vibrant enough for the darker layers; I needed to top up at the very last stage after the meringue was added.

Blue Ombre Chiffon Cake using Blue Pea Flowers (17 cm chiffon tin)

Ingredients:
Blue pea flower dye: Infuse 30 dried blue pea flowers in 25 ml hot water for 15-30 min. Stir well, sieve and press out all liquid from the flowers.

5 egg yolks
33g sugar
65g vegetable oil
63ml water
100g cake flour
8 ml vanilla extract

7 egg whites
75g sugar
1/4 tsp cream of tartar

1. Preheat oven to 160°C.
2. Beat egg yolks with sugar with whisk till pale yellow before stirring in oil, water and vanilla extract.
3. Next add in sieved flour and whisk till no trace of flour found.
4. Divide the batter into 4 (approximately 13 tsp). Add blue pea flower essence + cake flour in dilution roughly as follows: 8 ml + ¾ tsp cake flour, 6 ml + ½ tsp flour, 4 ml + ¼ tsp flour, 2 ml).
5. Meringue: Beat the egg whites with ¼ tsp cream of tartar till stiff peak, mixing in caster sugar in 2 additions.
6. Divide the meringue into 4 and gently fold in the meringue into each batter ½ at a time.
*Optional: The colour may not be very vibrant, I topped up with more blue coloring at this step but be careful not to overfold.
7. Scoop the darkest blue batter into the chiffon tin, gently level the batter. Then repeat with subsequent lighter colours respectively.
8. Gently tap the tin on the counter top to remove air bubbles.
9. Bake the cake for 15 min at 160°C, then 10 min at 150°C and 22 min at 140°C.

10. Invert once removed from oven and leave to cool on a cooling rack.
11. Unmould the chiffon cake by hand. 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.

 Happy birthday to the little sweetie and daddy! Have a wonderful Frozen one!

With love,

Susanne

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Strawberry Chiffon Cupcake 'Strawberries' -- Children's Day Special

"What would you like to bring to school for Children's Day?"

"Strawberry cupcakes!"

And so I made some "strawberries" for my younger kid's Children's Day celebration at school :)

I made use of heart-shaped ice cube trays to make the really mini strawberries. The bigger strawberries were baked in eggshells that have been thoroughly cleaned. If you happen to have cakepop pans you could bake in them too! I was experimenting here :p.

I began by making some strawberry puree. Strawberries are in season now so it's cheaper to buy in bulk :). I actually made this earlier so I froze the puree and defrosted it when I was ready to bake.

Ingredients (makes about 24 "strawberries"):
Egg yolk batter
2 egg yolks
16g caster sugar
26g vegetable oil
32g strawberry puree
40g cake flour
A pinch of salt

Food colouring/ flavour
1/2 tsp pandan paste
Green gel food colouring
1/2 tsp strawberry paste
1/2 tsp beetroot powder
1/4 tsp red yeast powder
1/8 tsp red powder food colouring

Meringue
3 egg whites
32g sugar
1/5 tsp cream of tartar

Syrup
5g sugar
20ml hot water

Steps:
1. Preheat oven to 160°C. Position the rack to second lowest position.  Line two 6" square pans with baking paper. Prepare mould or eggshells for baking. Place the eggshells in mini muffin pans.

2. Whisk together egg yolks and sugar until pale and sugar has dissolved. Add oil and whisk until thick like mayonnaise. Add in puree and whisk until well combined. Gradually add in sifted flour and salt and whisk until no flour can be seen.

3. Divide the egg yolk batter into the ratio of 1:2 for green:red batter. Add the above food colouring/flavour into the respective batters and mix well.

4. Prepare the meringue.  In a clean metal bowl, beat egg whites until foamy. Add cream of tartar and beat until soft peaks form. Gradually add sugar and beat until stiff peaks form and the bowl can be overturned without the meringue falling out.

5. Fold the meringue into the coloured batters in 3 additions.

6. Pour the green batter into the 6" trays. Fill the moulds/ eggshells with red batter. I filled the eggshells with 2 heaping teaspoonful of batter and the ice cube tray with 1 heaping teaspoonful of batter. Try to work quickly to prevent the egg whites from breaking down too much.

7. Bake the green cakes for 10 minutes,  ice-cube tray cakes for 15 minutes and eggshell cakes for 19 minutes.  Baking times are approximate timings as it may differ for different ovens and mould size. Immediately remove the baking sheet and cover the green cakes with another sheet to cool. Invert the ice cube tray to cool. Carefully and gently unmould by hand. To remove cake baked in eggshells, use the back of a metal spoon to crack the eggshells and gently peel the shells off. Pinch the side of the round cakes to make it more strawberry shaped.

8. Use a calix shaped cutter (or star cookie cutter) to cut out leaves for the strawberries. Assemble the leaves by using melted white compound chocolate as glue. Use a toothpick to dot the surface of the strawberries with melted white chocolate to make the "seeds".

9. Dissolve 5g of sugar in 20ml of hot water. Use a small brush to gently apply some syrup onto the cakes to moisten it some more. You may skip this step but I am doing it as a precaution to prevent the cakes from being too dry when consumed. As these cakes are really tiny, they may dry out as you work on it in open air.  Store assembled cakes in airtight container.

Sitting in cupcake liners...

Happy Children's Day! May all of you grow up to be people of wisdom and compassion. The world sorely lacks people of these qualities.

With love,
Phay Shing

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