Ninja Turtles Pandan Chiffon Cake

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.. Heroes in a half-shell.. Turtle power! LOL.. this familiar song brings a smile to my face =). I grew up in the era where TMNT was popular. A decade later, I'm amazed it is still around and loved. 

This cake is for Caleb who loves Ninja turtles particularly Raphael (the red one) and pandan chiffon cake. A Ninja turtles pandan chiffon cake just seemed so right together! I transformed the whole pandan chiffon cake into the Ninja turtles' face ^_^.

The red mask and black mouth are pandan chiffon cake colored naturally with red yeast powder and charcoal powder. They were cut from chiffon cake baked in trays swissroll-style. I filled the centre tube hole with honey stars to 1/2 cm above the top so that the nose would be ‘pop-out’, and then I covered the hole with the green pandan chiffon cake (cut into an oblong nose using knife). Below I share more in detail the steps =).

Pandan Chiffon Cake

5 egg yolks
33g sugar
67g vegetable/corn oil
40 ml coconut milk
14 ml pandan juice
3 ml vanilla extract
13 ml pandan paste
100g cake flour
A pinch of salt

Meringue:
7 egg whites
75g 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. Prepare a 17 cm chiffon tin, a baking-paper lined 9-inch and two 6-inch trays.
3. Beat egg yolks with sugar with whisk till pale yellow before stirring in oil, milk and pandan juice.
4. Add in sieved flour and salt and whisk till no trace of flour found. Scoop out 9 tsp and add red yeast powder for red, and another 6 tsp and add charcoal powder for black, and 1 ml of pandan juice to each. To the remaining batter, add in the pandan paste.
5. Meringue: Beat the egg whites with ¼ tsp cream of tartar till stiff peak, mixing in caster sugar in 2 additions. Scoop over 18 tbsp and 12 tbsp to the red and black batter respectively and fold in the meringue gently into each batter 1/3 at a time.
6. Fold in the rest of the meringue gently into the green batter 1/3 at a time.
7. Pour the green batter into the chiffon tin from a height till ¾ full. Spread the red batter into a 9-inch tray and the black batter into a 6-inch tray. Spread the remaining green batter into a 6-inch tray.
8. Gently tap the tin and trays on table 3x to remove air bubbles
9. Bake the chiffon tin for 15 min at 160°C then 31 min at 140°C, and the trays for 14-16 min at 150°C.
10. Invert the chiffon tin immediately once out of the oven to cool.
11. Unmould the cakes after they are cool.

The letters were cut out using alphabet cutters. These were then stuck on to the cakeboard using melted marshmallows. Brush the small pieces with a bit of syrup to prevent them from drying out and always keep them in an airtight container in between working. I cut out the mask and mouth from the red and black cakes using a sharp knife, which were fastened similarly using melted marshmallows.

Here's another look at the TMNT pandan chiffon cake!

Happy birthday to Caleb! =)

With love,
Susanne