Piggy (McMug) Chiffon Cake

This is a simple and special chiffon cake creation for my dear hubby’s birthday! I loved piggies during my school days and Mcmug was my favorite among them (we have at least 3 Mcmugs and a dozen other piggies during our courtship =p). And now we are blessed with 3 little.. kids (I was tempted to write pigs =p). I got the idea from spacing out at our display cabinet the other day.

This cake is a small cake for our small family and so measures about 7-8 inches tall and 4 inches wide. We finished it just nice with the kids. The piggy is made from strawberry yoghurt chiffon cake. I baked the piggy face and body in oval bowls and cut the arms and ears from another oval bowl chiffon cake. The cute little feet are from chiffon cake baked in round cake pops molds.

Strawberry Yoghurt Chiffon Cake
2 egg yolks
17g caster sugar
33ml vegetable/corn oil
33ml strawberry yoghurt drink
52g cake flour, sifted
1/3 tsp vanilla extract
1/3 tsp strawberry paste

Meringue
3 egg whites
30g caster sugar
¼ 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, strawberry yoghurt and vanilla extract.
3. Next add in sieved flour and whisk till no trace of flour found. Scoop out 6 tsp and add a few drops of yellow coloring (I used Queen’s natural coloring). To the rest, stir in the strawberry paste.
4. Meringue: Beat the egg whites with ¼ tsp cream of tartar till firm peaks, mixing in caster sugar in 2 additions. Scoop out 12 tbsp meringue and gently fold into the yellow batter.
5. Gently fold in the rest of the meringue in 3 additions into the strawberry batter.
6. Divide the pink batter into 2 oval bowls and 2 cake pop moulds. Fill another oval bowl with yellow batter.
7. Bake the chiffon cakes in the bowls for 15 min at 160°C and then 5-10 min at 150°C, or when skewer comes clean.
8. Invert the chiffon cakes once removed from oven and unmould by hand when cool.

For the nose snout and nostrils, prepare another 1 egg yolk batter (divide the above recipe by 2), then divide into 2 for the dark brown and dark pink batters. Scoop them side-by-side in a baking paper-lined 9-inch tray. Bake the chiffon cake at 14 min at 160°C.

I cut out the snout and nostrils from the dark brown and pink layer cake using oval and round cutters. The ears, arms and face were cut using a combination of cutters and knife. I had to slice the cake into half to make the ears thinner. Lastly, everything was glued together using melted marshmallows (sprinkle some water on a few marshmallows then pop it into the oven).

My baby loved it very much hehe. Happy birthday to GY!!

With lots of love,
Susanne