Safari Animals Giraffe Chiffon Cake (Chocolate-Orange)

This was one super difficult cake to make! Both in terms of the giraffe patterns for the chiffon cake as well as the detailing for the different animals! I had to work OT for this cake :p. So I’m so super thankful it was well-received, thank God!

The Giraffe Chiffon Cake was made from Chocolate Chiffon Cake with Orange Chiffon patterns (chosen by my friend). It is also a super big 10-inch chiffon cake using a total of 15 eggs! I had to work super quickly with the piping and there was so much to pipe as it was so big. I’m also really thankful that my freehand piping of giraffe patterns more or less ‘passed’ as I’m not really artistically inclined and was never good at drawing apart from cute pigs =p.

Chocolate-Orange Giraffe Chiffon Cake

Chocolate Chiffon Cake (10-inch tin)

10 egg yolks

82 g sugar
149 ml vegetable/corn oil

165 ml boiled water
17 ml vanilla extract
198 g cake flour, sifted
66 g Dutch-processed Cocoa powder
1/4 tsp baking powder
A pinch of salt

Meringue
13 egg whites
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
150g sugar

Orange Chiffon Cake (lines)
Egg Yolk Batter
1 egg yolk
10 g sugar
20 ml vegetable/corn oil
23 ml orange juice
31 g cake flour, sifted
1 drop orange emulco

Meringue
2 egg whites
23 g sugar
1/4 tsp cream of tartar

1. Preheat oven to 160°C. *I used steam baking for oven temperature control and it makes the chiffon more moist but it is optional.
2. Prepare batter for chocolate chiffon cake.
a. Beat egg yolks with sugar with whisk till pale yellow before stirring in oil, water and vanilla extract.
b. Add in sieved flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt, and whisk till no trace is found. *If you are using natural cocoa powder (not Dutch-processed), please add 1/3 tsp baking soda for the acidity to prevent big holes.
3. Prepare batter for orange chiffon cake (for lines).
a. Beat egg yolks with sugar with whisk till pale yellow before stirring in oil, juice and a drop of orange emulco.
b. Add in sieved flour and whisk till no trace is found.
4. Prepare meringue for orange chiffon cake (2 egg whites). Beat the egg whites with ¼ tsp cream of tartar till frothy, add in ½ of the castor sugar and beat the egg whites till soft peaks. Add the remaining castor sugar and beat the egg whites till firm peaks.
5. Gently but quickly fold in the meringue into the orange chiffon batter 1/3 at a time.
6. Transfer the batter into a piping bag and cut a 2 mm hole. Pipe giraffe lines at the bottom and sides of the tin. Bake at 160°C for 2 min.
7. Prepare meringue for chocolate chiffon cake (13 egg whites). Beat the egg whites with ¼ tsp cream of tartar till frothy, add ½ of the castor sugar and beat the egg whites till soft peaks. Then add the remaining castor sugar and beat the egg whites till stiff peaks.
8. Gently but quickly fold in the meringue into the chocolate chiffon batter 1/3 at a time.
9. Pour the chocolate chiffon batter into the tin, covering the patterns, and bake the chiffon cake for 15 min at 160°C and then at 150°C for 10 min, 140°C for 30 min and 130°C for 15 min. *Temperature gradient helps prevent browning.
10. Invert the chiffon cake once removed from oven.
11. Unmould the chiffon cake by hand gently (see 'Hand Unmoulding Chiffon Cake for Clean Finishing' Video tutorial).

For the giraffe, I made an orange chiffon swissroll with chocolate polka dots using the same orange chiffon recipe as above. I inverted the patterns to use chocolate spots instead of the other way around as I thought the giraffe was cuter with brown spots instead of realistic lines. I aliquoted out 1 tsp of batter and added 1/3 tsp cocoa powder for the spots. I made a big roll for the giraffe body and 4 small rolls for the feet. The head was cut out from excess roll cake. 

For the rest of the animals, I had the benefit of using animal cake molds that a dear friend helped me to get from overseas. Using the same orange chiffon recipe from above, I prepiped the orange chiffon cake batter in the faces, and then baked chocolate chiffon over them. The hippo was made using orange batter coloured with charcoal powder. I added in eyes and other details using chiffon cake cut-outs and some carving.

Thankful it received lots of good feedback, together with Phay Shing's safari macarons!

With lots of love,
Susanne