Elephant Birthday Cake: Vanilla Chiffon with Rainbow Fruits and Cookie Birthday Message

This birthday cake is for a little boy who loves elephants, pink color and fruits :). He called elephants Dan Dan when he started to talk so his mummy thought this personal birthday message for him will be nice. Aquila also has some level of dairy and soy intolerance so some special care was taken in choosing the ingredients for this bake. Presenting my cutie pie pink vanilla chiffon elephant packed with rainbow colored fresh fruits and special cookie birthday message!

It is our baking philosophy to minimize the use of fondant and buttercream to cover and decorate whole cakes (unless requested) so it's quite a challenge to decorate the cake. I made my trial bakes for the elephant cake and brown sugar cookies a few weeks ago. I used the same recipe for the cookies but changed the flavor of cake from black sesame to vanilla as Aquila's mum requested for a color change. No point sticking with black sesame flavor then. So I will only type out the recipe for the vanilla chiffon and assembly instructions.

I baked the cookies and kept them in an airtight container two days before assembly.

 There is a lot of leftover cookie dough but I prefer it that way as I didn't have to re-roll the dough to cut out more letters. So what did I do with the excess dough? Keep a lookout for my next blog post ;). You may half the recipe for cookie dough if you don't intend to use the cookie dough for another bake.

Ingredients:
Vanilla chiffon sponge for 10" square pan
3 egg yolks
15g caster sugar
36g canola oil
54g fresh milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
60g cake flour
1/8 tsp salt
1/5 tsp baking powder
Few drops liquid red food coloring

4 egg whites
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
48g caster sugar

Vanilla sponge for 7" round pan
2 egg yolks
10g caster sugar
24g canola oil
36g fresh milk
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
40g cake flour
Pinch of salt
1/8 tsp baking powder
Few drops of liquid red food coloring

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

Meringue for pattern
1 egg white
15g caster sugar
Pinch of cream of tartar

Black pattern
2 tsp egg yolk batter
3/4 tsp cake flour
1/4 tsp charcoal powder
6-8 tbs meringue

Red pattern
1 tsp egg yolk batter
1/2 tsp cake flour
Red gel food coloring
3-4 tbs meringue

White pattern
1 tsp egg yolk batter
1/2 tsp cake flour
White food coloring
3-4 tbs meringue

Cream
200ml whip topping (you may use dairy cream but if you do, add 2tbs of icing sugar and 1 tsp vanilla essence when whipping the cream)
1 tsp gelatin powder
1 tbs cool water

Some fruits like strawberries, peaches,  kiwi and blueberries, cut to small pieces.

Steps:
1. Line bottom of 10" square pan with elephant template.

Place a silicone mat (or baking sheet if you don't have) over the template and grease with oil. Line base of 7" round pan with baking sheet. Preheat oven to 160 degrees Celsius.
2. Prepare the egg yolk batter for 10" square pan. Whisk egg yolks and sugar until pale and creamy. Whisk in oil, milk and vanilla essence. Sift in flour, salt and baking powder gradually to avoid lumps.
3. Scoop out the egg yolk batter for the black, white and red patterns. Mix everything in the colored batters well. Add red and white coloring until desired shade is reached.
4. Prepare meringue for pattern. Beat egg white until foamy. Add cream of tartar and beat until soft peaks form. Gradually add sugar and beat until stiff peaks form.
5. Fold meringue into pattern batters in three additions.

Transfer colored batter into piping bags fitted with wilton #3 tip for black and white, and #5 for red.
6. Pipe the black features and bake for 1.5 minutes. Pipe the white and red features and bake for 2.5 minutes. Bake for half a minute more if patterns are not dry.
7. Add red food coloring to main egg yolk batter until desired shade of pink is reached.
8. Prepare meringue for main batter in a similar manner as the pattern meringue. Fold meringue into egg yolk batter in three additions. Pour batter into 10" square pan and tap on the table a few times to release air bubbles.
9. Bake for 15 minutes then reduce the temperature to 150 degrees Celsius and bake for another 12 minutes. Remove from oven, invert the cake onto a baking sheet placed onto cooling rack. Gently peel off silicone mat and cool the cake with another baking sheet over the patterns.
10. Bake 7" round cake in a similar manner as the bigger 10" square cake. Baking time is 160 degrees Celsius for 15 minutes followed by 150 degrees Celsius for 10 minutes. Invert to cool.
** You may wish to bake both square and round cakes together if you have a big oven. Just prepare one batter using 5 egg yolk recipe and portion the batter accordingly into the pans.
11. Cut out the elephant and body parts from the square cake with a serrated knife at right angles to the cake surface. Cut a 6" circle (for the bottom piece of the elephant's body) from the cake baked in 7" round pan with the serrated knife.
12. Prepare the cream. (If you are not assembling the cake on the same day, store in airtight container or in freezer if you are assembling more than 2 days later). Sprinkle gelatin powder over the water in a small microwavable bowl and let it sit for 2 minutes.  Microwave on medium-high for 20 seconds or until gelatin is dissolved and set aside. Take 2 tbs of whip topping (or dairy cream) and heat until warm. Add this to the gelatin mixture and set aside. Whip the whip topping until firm peaks form. Gradually add in gelatin mixture and keep whipping until all the gelatin has been added.
13. Transfer the cream into a piping bag. Assemble the bottom layer of the elephant ( trunk, legs, tail and round 6" cake) onto a 12 x 12" cake board. Pipe the cream onto the cake, following the contour of the elephant.

14. Prepare the fruits and place them on the cake.

Pipe another layer of cream over the fruits and top with the elephant cake.

15. Prepare some royal icing. I used the just-add-water type. Apply a bit of royal icing onto the base of the cookies and stick them around the elephant onto the cake board.

Refrigerate the cake for at least 2 hours and it's finally done!

Thank God I received good reviews for the cake!

For those of you who can't read Chinese, "越吃越好吃" means "the more you eat, the nicer it tastes".

I had leftover cookie dough, 3 egg yolks, some cream and fruits from this bake. I made some matcha ice-cream with the leftover cream and a yummy fruit tart with the rest of the leftovers. Will blog about the tart next :).

With love,
Phay Shing

Azuki "Hidden Rainbow Hearts" Chiffon Cake

I had been rather busy with family lately, and almost forgot that the next day was 28th May, our wedding anniversary. My little baby Charissa was also going to be 3 months on the same day! I decided to combine rainbows (inspired by Charissa) and hearts (for hubby) into a chiffon cake. I choose azuki flavour as it was my hubby's favourite.

I made the chiffon rainbows according to Hidden Rainbow Strawberry Chiffon for Baby Shower and cut out hearts from the slices of the rainbows. Then I baked these into an azuki chiffon cake according to Valentine's Day Hearts-in-all-directions Strawberry Chiffon Cake, an earlier cake I made for Valentines' Day.

Azuki Chiffon Cake
3 egg yolks
20g sugar
38g vegetable oil
42ml azuki milk (32 g azuki in 10 ml warmed milk)
60g cake flour

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

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. Beat egg yolks with sugar with whisk till pale yellow before stirring in oil and azuki milk.
3. Next add in sieved flour and whisk till no trace of flour is found.
4. Meringue: Beat the egg whites with ¼ tsp cream of tartar till stiff peak, mixing in caster sugar in 2 additions.
5. Fold in the meringue gently into the batter 1/3 at a time.
6. Cover the rainbow at the bottom and side, and the rainbow hearts in centre and cover with batter.
7. Run a chopstick around the sides of the hearts to ensure there are no trapped bubbles.
8. Bake the cake for 15 min at 160°C then 35 min at 150°C.
9. Invert immediately once out of the oven to cool.
10. Unmould after the cake is cool.

I always have a lot of joy making cakes for the family. This year we couldn't do much because of 3 kids but it was a simple but meaningful celebration. The cake was made with lots of love and my hubby said the cake was very nice :)

With love,

Susanne

Wu Pao-Chun Champion Loaf with Purple Sweet Potato and Matcha Swirl

I am always on the lookout for good bread recipes. Following Priscilla Poh's recommendation, I tried the Wu Pao-Chun champion toast! I made a loaf with some purple sweet potato and matcha powder added to make it pretty naturally.

It's indeed soft, moist and fluffy! That's despite the fact that I knead the dough by hand and did not seem to be able to pass the windowpane test with flying colors even after kneading for 25 minutes. I am usually able to pass the windowpane test after a 20-25 minute workout with the bread dough. But having said that, the dough is easy to handle as it is not sticky.

In preparation to see if this bread is suitable for the older folks of my family who prefer less buttery flavored bread and preferably made with less sugar, I adapted the recipe from Aunty Young.

Ingredients:
300g bread flour
15g caster sugar
3g salt
15g unsalted butter
200g fresh milk
3g instant yeast

1/2 tsp matcha powder dissolve in 1tsp water to make a paste
25g purple sweet potato puree (steam sweet potato until soft and mash)

Steps:
1. Combine all dry ingredients excpet yeast in a large bowl and mix well. Add in yeast and mix well.
2. Pour milk into the dry mixture and mix with a wooden spoon until a rough dough is formed. Pour onto a non-stick mat and knead until smooth. About 5 minutes. *(Alternatively you may use a breadmaker or stand mixer to do the hard work for you).
3. Gradually knead the butter into the dough and continue kneading unil the dough is smooth and elastic and passes the windowpane test. Mine was somewhat stretchy and able to form a membrane but not as elastic as my previous attempt at breadmaking. I kneaded for 25 minutes and decided to stop.
4. Proof the dough in a lightly greased bowl and covered loosely with cling wrap for an hour.
5. Punch down the dough and knead a few times to expel trapped air. Take 60g of dough and knead the matcha paste into it. Take 100g of dough and knead the purple sweet potato puree into it. Add a bit of bread flour if the purple dough gets too sticky to knead. Set aside all three balls of dough to rest for 10 minutes.

Love the natural colors!

6. Roll the plain dough into a long rectangle with the width about 3cm shorter than the length of a loaf pan, and the length as long as possible.
7. Divide the purple dough into 5 balls and green dough into 2 balls (this is a little arbitrary so you don't have to follow. You can choose not to divide the colored balls at all). Roll these into logs or rectangles with the length equal to the width of the rolled out plain dough. Place the colored dough at regular intervals along the plain dough and roll the plain dough into a log.

8. Place the log into a loaf pan lined with baking sheet. Proof for 50 minutes at room temperature (Singapore's room temperature in the kitchen is about 28-30 degrees Celsius) and covered loosely with cling wrap.
9. Brush the top of the loaf with some milk (optional) and bake in preheated oven at 190 degrees Celsius for 30 minutes.
10. Cool on a cooling rack before slicing the loaf.

While the bread was still a little warm, I couldn't resist slicing it to see how it looks like and hubby couldn't resist trying a slice after commenting that it looks pretty....and he didn't stop at one slice! The bread is still soft and moist the next day. I will definitely try this recipe again and pay more attention to my kneading technique.


With love,
Phay Shing


* Check out my second attempt at this recipe. Added a bit more sugar and the bread is tastier. Detailed instructions for assembly of a rose loaf can be found there too.

Matcha Azuki Bean Magic Custard Cake with Painted Designs

After seeing Susanne's chocolate pandan magic custard cake, I couldn't wait to try out the same trick on a pair that go well together -- matcha and azuki beans! Instead of dusting the final product with icing sugar like everyone else, I decided to decorate it by painting with milk powder based homemade paint like my painted swiss roll. Presenting possibly the world's first matcha azuki magic custard cake!

Dainty looking with a six-petaled Sakura painted on :)

I made this for my mum's birthday. It was a cosy celebration at a Japanese restaurant with the immediate family and we had the cake as part of the dessert course. Perfect flavor of cake to go with a Japanese meal and everyone loved the cake! Mum said the cake is not too sweet and dad who doesn't necessarily like all kinds of desserts liked it too. I made a small cake as mum can't really take much sugar.

I did not know what to expect since this is something no one else has tried before. I am pleasantly surprised that the matcha layer showed up most clearly in the middle! The bottom layer is a nice soft red bean kueh layer with azuki bean puree and whole beans, middle layer is a thin green tea souffle layer and top layer is a light matcha sponge. The custard layer seems to be missing from this experiment but I still ended up with three distinct layers! I made another one for a neighbor who was moving out too! Painted with a combination of matcha powder and milk powder.

I found the video tutorial by Baking Taitai very helpful so do check it out if you are a newbie like me.

Ingredients (makes one 4.5" round cake):
28g unsalted butter
120g milk
4g water
1 egg yolk
36g icing sugar
20g plain flour
12g Azuki bean puree (skins removed)
25g canned azuki beans
A few drops red liquid food coloring
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1 egg white
7g caster sugar
1/10 tsp cream of tartar
4g Matcha powder

Steps:
1. Preheat oven to 160 degrees Celsius. Line the bottom of a 4.5" round pan with baking paper and grease the sides. Mine had a removable base so I wrapped the pan with aluminum foil.
2. Melt butter and set aside to cool slightly. Warm the milk to lukewarm and mix in azuki bean puree and vanilla extract. Set aside.
3. Sift the flour and matcha powder separately.
4. Use an electric mixer to beat the egg white until foamy. Add cream of tartar and beat until soft peaks form. Gradually add caster sugar until stiff peaks form. Gently and gradually fold in sifted matcha powder with a whisk to avoid lumps of green tea powder in meringue.

5. In another bowl, beat egg yolk and icing sugar until light and fluffy. Add melted butter and water and beat for 2 minutes or until evenly incorporated. Mix in flour until evenly incorporated.
6. Use a hand whisk and gently whisk in milk mixture until everything is well mixed. Add in canned azuki beans. Add a few drops of red liquid food coloring until desired shade of pink is reached.  Final cake color will be similar to the batter so there is no need to over compensate for color lightening when meringue is added.

7. Fold in matcha meringue one third at a time. Batter will be curdy so fold until no big curds are seen.

8. Pour batter into 4.5" pan and bake for 35-40 minutes until top is golden. Cool cake completely before unmoulding and cutting it to flower shape with large cookie cutter.

Freshly unmoulded cake!

Just cut with cookie cutter! I can do with better cutting skills :p

9. You may wish to decorate the cake like I did by painting with milk powder based paint, either with a stencil or by free-hand painting. When the paint is dry, it will still look a little glossy. Be careful not to let it touch any surface or it may stick to it and peel off from the cake. This type of paint will not become runny and smudge after chilling in the fridge, unlike icing sugar based cake decorations.

Here's a closer look at the sliced section from the trimmings...

Yums!

This post is linked to the event, Little Thumbs up organised by Bake For Happy Kids, and My Little Favourite DIY, hosted by Tze of Awayofmind Bakery House.

With love,
Phay Shing

Orange Chocolate Chiffon Digger Cake

This is a birthday cake for my dear nephew who's turning 3 today! He is a little cutie who loves digger and loves chocolate! So I made a digger out of orange chiffon cake and placed it on a chocolate chiffon cake filled with chocolate rocks in the centre hole! :) I sifted cocoa powder on top of the chocolate chiffon for some "authentic" dirt. Now imagine the digger digging out rocks over the rubble :p *vroom* I hope he likes it!

Here's how I crafted the cake out of chiffon :)

Ingredients

Orange chiffon cake (7-inch "thick" orange chiffon and 6-inch "thin" cake for black patterns)

3 egg yolks
20g sugar
38g vegetable oil
42ml orange juice
60g cake flour
Orange emulco

Black wilton colour/charcoal powder

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

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. Beat egg yolks with sugar with whisk till pale yellow before stirring in oil and orange juice.

3. Next add in sieved flour and whisk till no trace of flour found.
*4. Scoop over 4.5 tsp into another bowl and add a tiny dip of black colour/charcoal powder. *You may omit this step if you do not want to do black patterns.
5. To the rest of the batter, add 2 drops of orange emulco.
6. Meringue: Beat the egg whites with ¼ tsp cream of tartar till stiff peak, mixing in caster sugar in 2 additions.
*7. Scoop over 9 tbsp meringue for black. Fold in the meringue gently, taking care not to deflate the egg whites.  *You may omit this step if you do not want to do black patterns.
8. Fold in the rest of the meringue gently into the orange batter in 2 additions.
9. Gently tap tray on table to remove air bubbles (top left picture on top row, right before entering the oven).
10. Bake the tray for 15 min at 160°C then 20 min at 150°C (centre picture on top row, right out of the oven).
11. Cool upright for 10 min, then unmould and invert to cool further on a clean baking sheet (right picture on top row, after unmoulding and cooling).

After this was time for some "art and craft"! :) I cut orange chiffon cake into 1 big block and 1 small block for the digger (left picture in middle row). Then I cut out a "triangle" for the front of the digger (right picture in middle row). Does it look more like a digger now? :) Do use a sharp clean cake knife for these steps, cleaning them after every cut. Next I used circular cutters to cut "wheels" from the black cake and carved out some other parts using the knife (left picture in bottow row). Now that looks almost like a digger now! :) Now to bake the chocolate chiffon cake below the digger.


Chocolate chiffon cake (17 cm chiffon tin).
3 egg yolks
20g sugar
38g vegetable oil
20 ml milk
22 ml water
60g cake flour
15g cocoa
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

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

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. Beat egg yolks with sugar with whisk till pale yellow before stirring in oil, milk, water and vanilla extract.

3. Next add in sieved flour and cocoa powder and whisk till no trace of flour/powder found.
4. Meringue: Beat the egg whites with ¼ tsp cream of tartar till stiff peak, 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. I further ran a chopstick because the chocolate batter is thicker.
7. Bake the cake for 15 min at 160°C then 30 min at 150°C.
8. Invert immediately once out of the oven to cool (centre picture in bottom row shows the chocolate cake right before unmoulding).
9. Unmould after the cake is cool.

The right picture in the bottom row shows the chocolate chiffon right after unmoulding. I further sifted cocoa powder on top of the chiffon for some chocolate "dirt" from the digging :) I added chocolate rocks I found from Cold Storage to fill the chiffon hole, representing a hole the digger has dug and melted some chocolate to affix the digger cake onto the big cake. Now the digger is ready to go!! *vroom* :)

I had fun with the leftover orange cake. The texture was good! Very soft and melty. I love this kind of texture and how it feels when it goes into the mouth! :)

Happy birthday to Yisheng! You are dearly loved by God and us!

This post is linked to the event, Little Thumbs up organised by Bake For Happy Kids, and My Little Favourite DIY, hosted by Tze of Awayofmind Bakery House at this post. 

With love,

Susanne

Custard and Kaya Wassants -- Second Attempt

Following Priscilla Poh's comment for my first attempt at making wassants, I made my second attempt using the bread recipe from Awayofmind Bakery House and studied the traditional way of shaping wassants, but kept to my recipe for the fillings which can't be found elsewhere on the internet. Here's my homemade version of my kids' favorite buns from Petit Provence :).

Looks more like what you see in the shops but still have lots of room for improvement in the shaping department!

Love the swirls from a sliced wassant!

The bun is soft and fluffy in the inside and has a thin crispy crust on the outside when freshly baked. And it smells heavenly!

I made the custard and kaya paste, and the Tangzhong the day before. This time round I used 2 tbs of kaya spread for the kaya paste and cooked both pastes until they are of a soft dough consistency before packing them into ziplock bags to set in the fridge.

The kaya paste is much easier to handle this time round as it is not too runny. Here's a pic of kaya wassant shaping-in-progress.

For your convenience I will type out the recipe for the pastes and bread here, and will provide more details for making the pastes since you can't find it elsewhere.

Recipe for custard paste (adapted from Kristy)
Ingredients:
1 egg white
30g cake flour
5g cornflour
1 tbs custard powder
2 tbs milk
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
2 drops of yellow liquid food coloring (optional)
75g white chocolate, chopped

Steps:
1. Combine all the ingredients except white chocolate and mix well with a whisk.
2. Melt chopped white chocolate in a non-stick saucepan using double-boiling method. Be careful not to over-heat the chocolate or it will become hard. White chocolate has a burning point of 44 degrees Celsius so take it off the heat to stir once most of the pieces have melted.
3. Pour egg white mixture into the saucepan and mix well. Heat over low heat and keep stirring until a soft dough is formed. This is to ensure that the paste is stiff enough to handle after cooling in the fridge.
4. Cool completely. Transfer paste into a small ziplock bag and shape it into a sheet of approxomately 10 x 12cm. (If you are doubling the recipe for each flavor of paste, you may follow the size of sheet that other bloggers used, like Vivian Pang used 16 x 16 cm.) Refrigerate overnight.

Recipe for kaya paste
Ingredients:
1 egg white
30g cake flour
5g cornflour
2 tbs pandan kaya spread/jam
1/4 tsp pandan paste
2 drops green liquid food coloring (optional especially if your pandan paste is already green.)
75g white chocolate, chopped

Steps are same as the custard paste.

Recipe for wassant bread dough
Ingredients:
250g bread flour (plus extra for dusting if necessary)
50g cake flour
24g milk powder
30g sugar
4g salt
6g instant yeast
100g Tangzhong
1 egg
80g fresh milk
30g unsalted butter

Steps:
1. Prepare the Tangzhong ahead of time. I combined 30g of bread flour with 150g of water and cooked over low heat on the stove, kept stirring until I saw swirl lines appear. I cooled the TZ and kept in the fridge with clingwrap covering it and touching the surface to prevent it from drying out.
2. In a large bowl, combine all dry ingredients and mix well. Add instant yeast only after everything has been thoroughly mixed.
3. Add egg, milk and Tangzhong and mix with a wooden spoon until a dough is formed. Pour onto a non-stick mat and knead until smooth (you may make the bread dough using breadmaker or stand mixer). Gradually add butter and knead until the dough is smooth and elastic and passes the windowpane test. Mine took about 20-25minutes of kneading. The dough is soft and sticky so I had to throw the dough quite a bit and dust with a bit of flour during kneading.
4. Let the dough proof in a lightly greased bowl and covered in cling wrap until doubled in size. About half an hour in Singapore's weather.
5. Punch down the dough and knead a few times to expel trapped air. Divide the dough into two portions, one for kaya and one for custard flavor.
6. Shape the wassants. Do have a look at Do what I like and Vivian Pang's blogs for the pictorial steps to shape the wassants. I halved the dimensions since I worked with half the quantity.
7. Proof again for 45-50minutes, apply milk glaze (or egg wash if you prefer) and bake in preheated oven at 175-180 degrees Celsius for 14-15 minutes.

This post is linked to the event, Little Thumbs up organised by Bake For Happy Kids, and My Little Favourite DIY, hosted by Tze of Awayofmind Bakery House at this post. 

With love,
Phay Shing

Chocolate-Pandan Triple Magic Custard Cake

Yippee! My crazy experiment worked! Presenting to you the world's first "Triple Magic Custard Cake"! A magical cake with 3x the magic that separates on its own into 3 layers with 3 flavours, 3 colours and 3 textures! :) Yes, you heard me right! The top is a brown, pillowy chocolate chiffon, the middle a yellow, soft, chocolate-pandan custard, and the bottom our favourite green pandan kueh! :)

It all started the day my sister-in-law tried the delicious Pandan magic custard cake. For the un-inclined, the magic custard cake is a magical cake that separates into 3 layers of different textures: a chiffon layer, a middle custard layer, and a dense kueh-like bottom. It was originally a Romanian cake called prajitura desteapta, which allegedly means "intelligent cake". She loved the different textures and asked if I could make a magic cake with 3 colours! At that time, I just smiled and told her its really hard to control "magic". However, the idea of understanding and/or manipulating the magic (or really the science) behind the cake really appealed to my "scientist" bones :p So I began my journey.

To be honest, when I put the cake batter into the oven to bake, I felt pretty sure it was a failed bake, because the batter looked like it was all mixed up. I thought I would end up with a homogeneous cake with 3 textures. I was in a for wonderful surprise when I cut open the cake! The cake ended up with 3 distinct colours, brown, yellow and green. I was in for a greater surprise when I tasted the cake! The top was soft chocolate chiffon, the middle a melty custard with both chocolate and pandan taste, and the bottom, our familiar kueh rich in pandan flavour! Everyone who sampled the cake was impressed! Even my dad who does not usually give compliments, let loose a "wow! It's good!". Everyone loved the cake, especially the melty custard layer :).

The recipe below details my journey into the "Triple Magic Custard Cake" :). As I was experimenting, I scaled my previous recipe for Pandan magic custard cake by 1/4 to make a small cake. My small 6-inch tray was very shallow, so I used big baking paper cups. Following Baking Taitai's lovely post on Magic Custard Cupcake that the cupcake liners were too small and formed 2 layers, I made sure I used paper cups that were big and deep.

Ingredients (makes a 6-inch tray or four 2.5" paper cups)
28g unsalted butter
120g milk
4g water
1 egg yolks
28g plain flour
36g icing sugar
1.25 ml tsp pandan paste
Icing sugar or dessicated coconut

1 egg white
7g caster sugar
1/8 tsp cream of tartar
10g cocoa

Method
1. Preheat the oven to 160°C.
2. Prepare paper cups or, for a 6-inch tray grease and line the bottom with baking paper.
3. Melt the butter and set aside. Warm the milk to lukewarm and set aside.

4. Cocoa meringue: beat the egg white and cream of tartar until soft peaks form. Add in the castor sugar slowly in 2 additions and beat until peaks are stiff and glossy. Fold in the cocoa till well-incorporated (top, left). Set aside.
5. In another bowl, beat the egg yolks and icing sugar (on medium-high) until light yellow and fluffy (top, centre). Add in the melted butter and water and beat (on medium-low) for about 2 min until well incorporated (top, right). Sift in the flour and mix well on medium-low (second row, left).
6. Add in the milk and pandan extract slowly and gently beat on low (to prevent splashing as the batter is runny) until everything is well mixed (middle row, centre). Batter will be runny.
7. Fold in the cocoa meringue, 1/3 at a time, until no big curds are found (middle row, right).
8. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake at 160ºC for 35-40 min until skewer comes clean. The centre of the cakes will be slightly jiggly.
9. Let the cake cool totally before unmoulding (bottom row, left). Cut the cake and dust with icing sugar or dessicated coconut (bottom row, centre and right).

I used a hearts cutter to cut out sweet hearts for my hubby :). You need to take note that its really tricky to cut out hearts with the soft custard and souffle layer, so the trick is to handle only the cutter and kueh layer and try not to touch the top 2 layers. My parents thought the dessicated coconut went very well with the pandan kueh and custard, and the chocolate just made the whole cake richer!

Hope you have been touched by the "Triple magic"! :)

This post is linked to the event, Little Thumbs up organised by Bake For Happy Kids, and My Little Favourite DIY, hosted by Tze of Awayofmind Bakery House.

With love,

Susanne

Purple Sweet Potato Painted Swiss Roll

The concept of painting cakes is not new but is usually done on cakes covered with fondant or some form of icing, and with artificial coloring powder (Luster dust). I bought Junko's Deco Roll Cakes sold at Kinokuniya recently and found that she uses cocoa powder or green tea powder to touch up small features on patterned swiss rolls after the cake has been rolled. Because of that, I am wondering if swiss rolls can be painted with other colors, preferably with natural ingredients and what's the effect of painting the whole cake.

I had some left over layer cake that is really bendy from my previous purple sweet potato bake so I decided to make a mini swiss roll out of it. Here's my purple sweet potato painted swiss roll with purple sweet potato cream!

First make the swiss roll by spreading some purple sweet potato cream on the layer cake, leaving about 1.5 cm from the further edge clear. Roll the cake carefully with a baking sheet below to help with shaping. Twist the ends of the baking sheet and refrigerate until firm. About 1 hour. As my portion was really small, I whipped up only about 100ml of whip topping (non-dairy whipping cream) and folded in about 26g of potato puree. I still have some leftover cream despite filling some mini chiffon donuts and this swiss roll.

If you are making a regular sized roll in a 10 x 10" square tin, simply double the recipe from my previous blog entry and bake at 170 degrees Celsius for 14 minutes. Whip up about 200ml of whipping cream (add 2 tbs of icing sugar if you are using dairy whipping cream) and fold in 60g of purple sweet potato puree.

I experimented with my own homemade paint (for colors other than brown and earthy green) by using milk powder and a bit of water as the base, with a teeny bit of gel food coloring added. Gradually add water until a desired consistency is reached and add a bit of food coloring until a desired shade is reached.

I played around with a stencil too since they come in handy for those who are artistically challenged. Use a small food brush to apply the paint on the cake. Remove the stencil carefully to avoid smudging the pattern.

I painted another flower on a stem without a stencil. Store the painted roll in an airtight container without wrapping it up and place it in the fridge until the paint dries up. I left mine in the fridge for a few hours. The milk powder based paint dries up nicely although it leaves a glossy sheen instead of the matt surface of green tea.

Here's a closer look at a slice of the mini roll...

The kids loved the mini chiffon donuts and this swiss roll so much that they were asking how come I made so few!

With love,
Phay Shing

World's Smallest Chiffon Cake -- Purple Sweet Potato Piggies made in Mini Donut Pan

Elder kid requested for chiffon cakes to be made in the mini donut pan that he wanted me to buy a while ago. Experienced bakers will say that's a definite no-no since donut pans have non-stick coatings and I was afraid the black pan would heat up differently from my regular aluminum pans or glass bowls. Now that I am less afraid to make mistakes, I thought you might appreciate it if I did the experiment on your behalf ;). Here are my teeny purple sweet potato piggies baked in a mini donut pan!

It's pretty tough to take a photo with the donuts on my hand using a phone camera but I did it so you can see how teeny the chiffon cakes are with the signature hole in the middle :). The inside looks just like a miniaturized version of a chiffon cake!

Very soft and fluffy mini donut chiffon cake sitting in a Chinese soup spoon

The kids love it coated with a bit of white chocolate and the hole filled with purple sweet potato cream too!

I can just imagine doing a batch of these for class parties with different flavors and toppings!

I adapted the recipe from Vivian Pang as I prefer a smoother textured purple sweet potato cake for such tiny cakes. Some recipes call for potato chunks in the cake. I increased the amount of puree, oil and egg whites for my recipe. The quantity is really small as I was experimenting and didn't want to waste too much resources so feel free to double or triple the recipe if you have bigger donut pans or more than one pan.

Ingredients (makes 12 mini donut chiffons and one thin 6 x 6" flat layer cake):
1 egg yolk
5g caster sugar
28g fresh milk
25g purple sweet potato puree (Steam sweet potato until soft then mash. Pass through sieve to remove big lumps)
12g vegetable oil
1/4 tsp vanilla essence
20g cake flour
1/8 tsp baking powder
Pinch of salt

1.5 egg whites
20g caster sugar
1/10 tsp cream of tartar

Steps:
1. Prepare sweet potato puree.  I portioned mine into 25g packets and freeze any unused portions.

2. Preheat oven to 160 degrees Celsius. Place a tray that can fit the donut pan in it with some space around it into the oven. You will need to sit the donut pan in a water bath. I didn't do this so my donut chiffon rose and browned very fast. I prepared a tray to put hot water at bottom of oven instead which provided the steam but didn't insulate the donut pan. Boil some water. Line the 6" pan with baking sheet.
3. Whisk egg yolk and sugar until it turns pale. Whisk in oil, sweet potato puree, milk and vanilla essence in that order. Gradually whisk in sifted flour, salt and baking powder.

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 caster sugar until stiff peaks form.
5. Add 1/3 meringue into egg yolk batter and mix until no trace of egg white is seen. Quickly but gently fold in the remaining meringue in two additions. Tap the bowl a few times on the table to remove any trapped air. Spoon the batter into ungreased donut pan till about slightly more than 3/4 full and the 6" pan.
6. Place the donut pan into the tray in the oven and carefully pour boiling water into the tray using a jug or kettle. The water level doesn't have to be too high as baking time is short. Place the 6" pan in the oven. Turn the temperature down to 150 degrees Celsius after the oven door is closed and bake for 15 minutes.
7. Invert the donut pan immediately over cooling rack and unmould when cooled using a flexible spatula for the sides and a toothpick for the center.

8. Remove the flat layer cake from the pan as soon as possible and invert to cool with fresh piece of baking sheet covering it.
9. Use small round cutters or a jumbo straw to cut out the snouts of the piggies from the layer cake. Cut small slices for the ears. Melt some white compound chocolate the glue the parts onto the donut chiffons. You may melt some dark compound chocolate to draw in the eyes and nostrils but I was feeling lazy and just used food marker to draw them on.
10. Store the cakes in an airtight container.

I had plenty of leftover layer cake since I only made a total of 4 piggies (too lazy to make more :p). I topped and filled the rest with white chocolate and purple sweet potato cream (add some purple sweet potato puree to freshly whipped cream). Out of curiosity, I rolled it up and found it to be really soft and bendy!

Perfect candidate for a swiss roll! I rolled it up when it was completely cooled and left lying around for a while. Stay tuned for my next post for purple sweet potato swiss roll!

Overall quite satisfied with this experiment although baking conditions have to be tested again and fine-tuned. This type of mini cupcakes should be popular with kids as it is really soft, fluffy, handy to eat and can be topped or filled with the kids' favourite flavors. I will most likely be making this for my kids' children's day party in school unless some other better idea comes up.

With love,
Phay Shing