Transformers (Bumblebee) Chiffon Cake (Vanilla-choc, naturally colored)

This is a special cake for my dear sil. I made a 4-flavour Lego chiffon cake for him last year and it was one of my first cakes so very memorable. On to this year, my friend requested for Vanilla-chocolate, safe flavours for kids, and a very handsome theme, bumblebee Transformers.

I was inspired to make a version of bumblebee bursting out from the chiffon cake to make good use of its tube hole! In order to do that, I had to make a chiffon cake layer that was 2 coloured – yellow below and black above – to make it look like he had torn the cake. I did this by the swissroll patterning method – first prebake the chocolate layer pattern for 1.5 min, then pour the yellow batter over. 

The chiffon cake is all naturally colored. Thanks to Phay Shing’s Queen’s natural yellow turmeric-based coloring, I was able to colour the vanilla batter yellow easily naturally. The dark brown/black is coloured by using the Bakeway Extra dark cocoa powder from Phoon Huat. I have both the normal cocoa powder and this version which I use to colour the batter dark brown while adding some yums to the cake.

Yellow-Dark Brown Vanilla Chocolate Chiffon Cake (9-inch chiffon tin)
6 egg yolks
40g sugar
78g corn/vegetable oil
74 ml water
10 ml vanilla extract
120g cake flour
Queen’s natural yellow coloring
Cocoa powder (extra dark)
¼ tsp baking powder (added to the cocoa batter)

Meringue:
8 egg whites
90g sugar
1/4 tsp cream of tartar

1. Preheat oven to 160°C. Prepare a tray of water at the bottom of the oven (I used the lowest rack to bake the cake). *You may omit steam baking; I like to use it to control my oven temperature rise.
2. Beat egg yolks with sugar with whisk till pale yellow before stirring in oil, water and vanilla extract.
3. Add in sieved flour and whisk till no trace of flour found. Divide the batter 2/3 and 1/3. To the 2/3 portion, add a few drops of Queen’s yellow coloring. To the 1/3 portion, addition 1 tsp extra dark cocoa powder and 1/4 baking powder.
4. Meringue: Beat the egg whites with ¼ tsp cream of tartar till stiff peak, mixing in caster sugar in 2 additions. Divide the meringue into 2/3 and 1/3.
5. Fold in the meringue gently into the each batter 1/3 at a time.
6. Pour the yellow batter into the chiffon tin till 2/3 full, then scoop the dark brown batter over.
7. Bake the chiffon cake for 15 min at 160°C and then at 150°C for 10 mins and 140°C for 20 min, then 130°C for 15 min.
8. Invert immediately once out of the oven to cool.
9. To the remaining dark brown batter, spread it thinly on a baking-paper lined 8-inch tray. Bake the tray for 1.5 min at 160oC. Then pour the yellow batter over (to 1 cm thick) and bake for 14 min at 160oC. This layer cake is used to make the strips bursting out of the chiffon tube hole.
10. Unmould the chiffon cake by hand after the cake is cool (see my humble video "Hand Unmoulding Chiffon Cakes for a Clean Finishing").

I cut out the Transformers face using a grey layer cake and grey-brown layer cake (both 1 egg yolk recipe, using charcoal powder for the grey and charcoal + cocoa powder for the brown shade).

Thankful it was well-received by the kids and her hubby (who usually doesn’t like cake!).

With lots of love,
Susanne