Hello Kitty Ombre Chiffon Cake

My little sweetie is finally turning 3! I made this Hello Kitty pink purple ombre chiffon cake that I had promised her for a long time. I wanted to make this special and memorable so I combined her favourite colours with her favourite character all together into one sweet cake! =)

The Hello Kitty face is made by baking soft chiffon cake in a Hello Kitty mould!

This is how the soft ombre layers look like. Aren't they sweet? I can't wait to see her expression when she sees it!

I actually had some difficulty with the ombre chiffon cake getting the shades right, this being my second try. Do remember that the meringue severely dilutes the colours, so do make sure that the different shades are distinct enough. The top of the chiffon cake is pink and the bottom purple. The middle layer has equal amounts of pink and purple, but I deliberately made them lighter so that it will resemble a bow after construction =).

I wonder if you have guessed by now.. but yes! This is another pinata cake because the kids loved it! =)

The recipe for ombre chiffon cake is below. I used pink and purple but you can substitute any colours that you like.

Ombre Chiffon Cake (17 cm tin)

5 egg yolks
33g sugar
65g vegetable oil
65ml water
100g cake flour
7 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 5 (approx 12 tsp). Mix in respective ombre shades (pink to purple).
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 5. Gently but quickly fold in the meringue into the 5 colours batter. You need to work very fast for the meringue not to deflate.
7. Scoop the pink batter into the chiffon tin, gently level the batter. Then repeat with the other colours. Gently tap the tin on the counter top 3x to remove air bubbles. *The level of the batter should approximately be 2 cm from the top.
8. Bake the chiffon cake for 15 min at 160°C and then 30 min at 150°C, or when skewer comes clean.
9. Invert the chiffon cake once removed from oven.
10. 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. (Watch The Baking Biatch for an excellent video tutorial on hand unmoulding chiffon cakes).

And here's the final Hello Kitty ombre chiffon cake!

*Updated pictures from her celebration!
That's my happy girl =)

And here's a pretty ombre cake slice!

Happy 3rd birthday to my little Tintin! May you grow to be a woman after God's heart!

This post is linked to the event, Little Thumbs Up organised by Bake for Happy Kids and My Little Favourite DIY, and hosted by Diana from the Domestic Goddess Wannabe.

With love,

Susanne

**Updated: I've written up how to pattern the Hello Kitty face. If you would like to read more, hop on to here.