'Police Gun' Navy Stripes Chiffon Cake (using Blue Pea Flowers)

This is a police gun chiffon cake with navy stripes that I made for a dear friend’s hubby who is a policeman. I think the police is a very noble profession! The gun is cut out purely from charcoal chiffon cake (baked in a 6-inch tray) and it's my first time trying something so different. I certainly hope it looks like one! The top of the cake is designed to resemble a target board for the gun, but I added in 5 stars later inspired by the 5 stars of the police crest.

The navy stripe layers were requested by my friend, but I remember someone from one of the food groups had asked me before whether I could share recipe for a chiffon cake with only 2 colours in the layers, instead of a full out rainbow chiffon cake that was more difficult for beginners. So for this cake, I had the opportunity to bake it and share.

I used blue pea flowers here for the layers to reduce the amount of blue colouring used. I used a total of 35 flowers for the blue layers and used charcoal powder to turn the blue into navy blue, but I still had to use a toothpick dip of wilton blue gel to get a darker shade.

Navy Stripes Chiffon Cake (using Blue pea flowers + charcoal for navy blue)
Ingredients:
Blue pea flower extract: Infuse 35 dried blue pea flowers in 10 ml hot water. Press the flowers with a spoon to ensure they are fully submerged. Allow to soak for 15-30 min, then use a sieve to remove the flowers, using a teaspoon to press out all the liquid.
4 egg yolks
27g sugar
52g vegetable oil
51ml water
7ml vanilla extract
8ml blue pea flower extract
80g cake flour

5 egg whites
60g sugar
1/4 tsp cream of tartar

1. Preheat oven to 160°C (I used steambaking but it is optional).
2. Beat egg yolks with sugar with whisk till pale yellow before stirring in oil and water.
3. Next add in sieved flour and whisk till no trace of flour found.
4. Divide the batter into 2 (approximately 24 tsp). Add blue pea flower extract to one portion and vanilla extract to the other. Add a dip of charcoal powder and wilton blue gel to the blue portion.
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 2 and gently fold in the meringue into each batter ½ at a time.
7. Scoop the plain vanilla batter into the chiffon tin, gently level the batter. Then alternate with blue.
8. Gently tap the tin on the counter top to remove air bubbles.
9. Bake the cake for 15 min at 160°C, then 32 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.
*I put the leftover blue batter into a 9-inch tray with baking paper lined at the base to cut out circles for the top of the cake.

Here's the side profile of the navy stripes chiffon cake!

May we start our coming year with a bang!

And happy belated birthday to Fu Sin!!

With love,
Susanne