Koala Bear Neopolitan Chiffon Cake

It’s my first chiffon Koala Bear, here’s my cute Koala Bear sitting atop a Neopolitan Chiffon Cake (Strawberry, Vanilla, Chocolate), hiding a hidden surprise in the tube hole which also helps to support the weight! The Strawberry/Vanilla/Chocolate Neopolitan chiffon flavours were requested. I was pretty happy/thankful making this cake as the Koala bear was a delight and I loved the overall effect of the 3 flavours/colour. It's a reduced egg yolk recipe for whiter cake.

Neopolitan Chiffon Cake (7-inch chiffon tin)
1 egg
26 g castor sugar
52 g vegetable/corn oil
58 g fresh milk/water (I used 50:50)
80g cake flour
7ml vanilla extract

1 tsp cocoa powder + pinch of baking powder

1/2 tsp strawberry paste/emulco

5 egg whites
60g castor sugar
¼ 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 for moister cake.

2. Beat egg yolks with sugar with whisk till pale yellow before stirring in oil, milk/water and vanilla extract.

3. Add in sieved flour and whisk till no trace of flour found. Divide the batter into 3 parts. To the first portion, add 1 tsp cocoa powder (and a pinch of baking powder). To the second, add ½ strawberry paste. Leave the 3rd untouched.

4. Meringue: Beat the egg whites with ¼ tsp cream of tartar till firm peaks form or just to the point of reaching stiff peak, mixing in caster sugar in 2 additions.

5. Divide the meringue into 3 parts for each of the 3-coloured egg yolk batter above. Gently but quickly fold in the meringue into each batter 1/3 at a time.

6. Spoon the strawberry batter into the chiffon tin evenly, followed by the plain vanilla batter, and then lastly the chocolate batter, leaving around 2 cm from the tip.

7. Gently tap the tin on table 3x to remove air bubbles

8. Bake the chiffon cake for 15 min at 160°C and then at 140°C for 30 min.

9. Invert immediately once out of the oven to cool

10. Unmould by hand after the cake is cool. 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 (see 'Hand Unmoulding Chiffon Cakes for a Smooth Finishing' video tutorial).

*Tip if you are using natural cocoa powder (not Dutch-processed), you need to add ¼ baking soda to the chocolate egg yolk batter to prevent formation of bigger air pockets.

The Koala bear uses the same base recipe. I used 1/4 tsp of charcoal powder to colour the bear grey. The Koala bear was baked in glass bowls and cake pop molds. Picture tutorial and recipe of the Koala bear is now in Deco Chiffon Cakes cookbook.

The review was 'very nice!' =) Thank God.

With lots of love,
Susanne