I used blue pea flowers, strawberry paste and natural pink food colouring, and blueberry to colour the cakes blue, pink and purple. Some artificial colouring is still needed for blue and purple but less is needed.
Natural sources of food colouring
I was puzzling over how to make the horns on the heads without carving. Suddenly I thought of using paper cones! As I have to make many horns but they are all small, I cut the paper cones and used the cut-off portions as paper cone stands. This method does away with the need for aluminum foil holder and you can squeeze lots of cones into the oven in one single round of bake ;). I managed to fit 36 cones into the oven at once!
Paper cones with diy paper cone stand
Recipe for egg shell cakepops with paper cone horns
Ingredients (makes about 18 cakepops, 36 small cones):
2 egg yolks
20g caster sugar
56g canola/vegetable oil
48g milk
1/2 tsp vanilla bean paste/ vanilla extract
1/8 tsp salt
80g cake flour
1/2 tsp blue pea flower extract (steep 1/2 tbs dried flowers in 1 tbs hot water for half an hour. Strain and squeeze out the water)
1/2 tsp strawberry emulco
1 tsp Queen's natural source pink powder food colouring (optional)
1/2 tsp blueberry puree (made from dissolving 1/2 tsp blueberry powder in 1 tbs hot water, filter through filter paper)
1/2 tsp charcoal powder
A drop each of blue and purple gel food colouring
5 egg whites
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
52g caster sugar
Steps:
1. Prepare eggshells for baking. Poke a small hole at pointy end of egg. Empty the egg, wash thoroughly and remove the inner lining from the shell. Air-dry thoroughly. Prepare paper cones. Preheat oven to 160°C with oven rack at second lowest position. Prepare a baking tray of water at bottom of oven (optional).
2. Prepare egg yolk batter. Whisk egg yolks and sugar until pale and thick. Gradually add oil and whisk until well combined. Gradually add milk and vanilla bean paste. Mix well. Gradually whisk in flour. Whisk until no trace of flour is seen. Divide the batter into 4 equal portions.
3. Add charcoal powder + 1/2 tsp water to one portion, blue pea flower extract and blue colouring to one portion, strawberry emulco and pink powder into one portion, and blueberry puree and purple colouring into the last portion.
4. Prepare meringue. I baked the cones and shells in two separate rounds so I divided the meringue ingredients accordingly. In a clean metal bowl, beat egg whites with cream of tartar until stiff peaks form, gradually adding in sugar along the way when the egg whites become foamy and opaque. Do not overbeat.
5. Fold the meringue into egg yolk batter in three additions gently but quickly.
6. Scoop about 1 tsp of black batter into each cone as fast as you can. Bake for 10-11 minutes. Cool completely before gently removing the cake from the paper cone.
Filled cones
Freshly baked!
7. Fill egg shells to about 2/3 full. Bake at 160°C for 5 minutes, 150°C for 5 minutes, 140°C for 10-15 minutes or until skewer comes out clean. Note that baking times are approximate as each oven is different. Cool completely before removing egg shells. Use the back of metal spoon to tap on shells to crack the whole surface. Gently peel the shell off. Slice off the rough portion of the cake that protrudes out of the shell.
Freshly baked and unmoulded.
8. Melt some marshmellows with sprinkling of water to make glue. Use round cutters and straws to cut out the parts for the monster eye. I used Yakult straw to cut out the tiny white highlight in the eye. Use a knife wherever necessary to trim parts of the cakes. Stick the parts on with marshmellow glue.
Freshly assembled!
9. Brush the surface of the cakepops with syrup (5g sugar dissolved in 20ml hot water). Store in airtight condition in the fridge.
Individual wrapping was requested...
Hope these one-eyed monsters bring a smile to your face :).
With love,
Phay Shing
Wow ha ha ! Cutie one-eyed monsters !
ReplyDeleteThanks Karen! Nice to hear from you again :)
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