Turtle Matcha Ogura Cakes

Having been won over by the ultra soft and flexible ogura cake, I had the sudden inspiration to make ogura turtles to delight my kids! Kitchen Tigress's post on ogura cakes is a must-read before trying! It has lots of useful tips.

I pre-baked a 9-inch cake according to the recipe from matcha ogura cake and saved 1/3 of the cake for creating the turtle patterns (alternatively, you can use the scaled-down recipe below for a 6-inch tray). The lighter-coloured portion of the turtle uses the same matcha ogura cake recipe but scaled down to 2 eggs and only 1/4 tsp matcha powder to achieve the contrasting colours. I lowered the baking temperature to 150°C to reduce browning so that the turtle patterns could be seen.

Ingredients (makes three 4-inch round bowls)
2 egg yolks + 1/3 whole egg
22g corn oil
27ml milk
22g cake flour
1/12 tsp salt
1/4 tsp matcha in 10 ml hot water

2 egg whites
25g castor sugar
1/6 tsp cream of tartar

Method
1. Pre-cut the dark green matcha ogura cake into squares and arrange at the bottom of the round bowls.
2. Preheat oven to 150°C. Prepare a tray of water at the bottom of the oven (I used the lowest rack to bake the cake).
3. Whisk egg yolks, whole egg, corn oil, milk, salt and matcha tea until well combined.
4. Sift in flour and stir till smooth batter formed.
5. Beat egg whites and cream of tartar until foamy using an electric whisk. Add in sugar in 2 additions and beat until firm peaks are formed. The peak formed doesn't flop over but it's not overly stiff either.
6. Fold in 1/3 of the beaten whites into matcha batter and mix evenly. Pour into balanced whites and fold evenly.
7. Pour batter into a 3 glass bowls till 1/2-2/3 full. Bang on the counter top 3 times each side to get rid of big air bubbles (top left image on picture below).
8. Steam bake at 150°C for 40 min or when skewer comes out clean.
9. Remove from oven and invert immediately on cooling rack (top right image on picture below).
10. Unmould when cakes have cooled completely.

11. Carve out the turtle head, limbs and tail from the dark green matcha cake using a butter knife (bottom image).

12. Melt compound white chocolate and apply it on the different parts to "glue" them together (I used candy eyes, they work great but run after one day).

You can use the following recipe for Matcha ogura for a 9-inch square pan (same recipe, triple all ingredients). See my original post.

Ingredients
6 egg yolks + 1 whole egg
65g corn oil
80ml milk
65g cake flour
1/4 tsp salt
1 tbsp matcha in 30ml hot water

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

Method
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).

2. Whisk egg yolks, whole egg, corn oil, milk, salt and matcha tea until well combined.

3. Sift in flour and stir till smooth batter formed.

4. Beat egg whites and cream of tartar until foamy using an electric whisk. Add in sugar in 2 additions and beat until firm peaks are formed. The peak formed doesn't flop over but it's not overly stiff either.

5. Fold in 1/3 of the beaten whites into matcha batter and mix evenly. Pour into balanced whites and fold evenly.

6. Pour batter into a baking paper-lined (only at the bottom) 9" square pan. Bang the tin on the counter top 3 times each side to get rid of big air bubbles.

7. Steam bake at 160°C for 55-60 min or when skewer comes out clean.

8. Remove from oven and invert immediately on cooling rack for 10 min. Unmould, peel off baking paper and cool completely.


Useful notes:
*Some recommend baking at 160°C for 40 mins then reducing temperature to 140°C for 25+ mins to prevent cracks.
*It is important not to overfill the tin, leaving about 1 inch from the top.
*Steam baking helps to prevent cracks so ensure sufficient boiling water in the bottom pan.
*Do not overwhip the meringue for smooth fine pores in your ogura.


I was thrilled my daughter's first response was "wah!" and the cake was so soft and melt-in-the-mouth, you could really tell the difference from chiffons! This is my first "fun" loving creation with ogura cakes!

With love,

Susanne

The Creative chiffon cake books actually feature some ogura recipes eg the Froggy Pandan Ogura cakes.