Strawberry Yoghurt Hearts Chiffon Cake Pops (no special moulds required)

This is my first teaching demo for Apr's Culinary Arts Ministry (CAM) in church with hands-on for the participants! I am really humbled and blessed to have the opportunity to serve in this ministry and know this community. The last few sessions have been really fun and a great learning experience for me! It's free and you can bring home your yummy bakes! I will be sharing how to make heart-shaped Strawberry yoghurt chiffon cake pops that are fondant-free, yummy, so soft and fluffy, but does not need special moulds for the shape. These are simple and great treats to make for your loved ones, or mummy for Mother's day!

I will be sharing the a 8 cake pop recipe (1 egg yolk recipe) here as it is easier to follow. Due to logistics constraints, the CAM session will using 1/2 the recipe and also a stable temperature of 140°C. I will also share it below for the participants to refer to after the session =).

Strawberry yoghurt hearts cake pops (makes 8 cake pops)

1 egg yolk

9g castor sugar

18g vegetable/corn oil

25g strawberry yoghurt or yoghurt drink

2g vanilla extract

3g strawberry paste/emulco

26g cake flour, sifted

A pinch of salt

Meringue

2 egg whites

1/4 tsp cream of tartar

20g castor sugar

1. Prepare heart shapes from waxed paper cupcake liners by using finger to push in one edge and pinching the other edge. You may open the liner and the sharp edge to get a more 'V' shape.

2. Preheat oven to 160°C.

3. Prepare egg yolk batter:

a. Whisk egg yolk with sugar using hand whisk until light and well-mixed.

b. Add in oil first, then yoghurt, vanilla extract and strawberry paste and mix well.

c. Whisk in sifted cake flour and a pinch of salt. Mix well. *Ensure no lumps are formed. 

4. Prepare meringue (sorry I made the picture really huge so you can see the peaks =p):

a. In a grease-free, dry bowl, using electric mixer, whisk egg whites with cream of tartar till frothy (top left pic). *do not use plastic bowls.

b. Add in ½ castor sugar for meringue and whisk at high speed till soft peaks form - peaks slope downwards forming a hook (top middle pic).

c. Add in rest of the castor sugar for meringue and whisk till firm peaks form - peaks point up but slightly hooked at the tip (top right pic). *Firm peaks give a finer, softer texture than stiff peaks where peaks point straight up.

5. Fold in meringue gently into egg yolk batter 1/3 at a time. *Fold in unidirectional, gentle strokes and do not overfold (middle left: egg yolk batter before folding; middle right: final batter after meringue folded into egg yolk batter).

6. Spoon into cupcake liners. Gently tap to remove air bubbles and bake at 160°C for 10 min then 140°C for 10-15 min, or until skewer inserted into centre of cake comes out clean (bottom left pic). Or 140°C for 30-35 min.

7. Allow to cool completely on wire rack (bottom middle pic - after cooling).

8. Unmould the hearts chiffon pops by gently opening up the waxed paper liners (bottom right pic). 

9. Prepare cake pop sticks by cutting them to desired length and insert them into the base of the cake pops.

Here's the CAM version (with 1/2 recipe and stable temperature at 140°C):

Strawberry yoghurt hearts cake pops (makes 4 cake pops)

1/2 egg yolk (9 g egg yolk)

5g castor sugar

9g vegetable/corn oil

13g strawberry yoghurt or yoghurt drink

1g vanilla extract

2g strawberry paste/emulco

13g cake flour, sifted

A pinch of salt

Meringue

1 egg white

1/4 tsp cream of tartar

10g castor sugar

Baking temperature and time: 
140°C for 30-35 min, or until skewer comes clean.

Equipment needed per set:

Cupcake liners (4-5)

1 handwhisk

1 hand mixer

1 spatula 

1 normal spoon (for spooning in batter)

Straws cut to length (4-5, around 10 cm)

Airtight box to store the cake pops

Oh yes, not every heart may be perfect depending on how well you fold the liner, but they pretty much look like hearts. You can enhance the heart shape further by pinching the base (will show how to do it). But it's fun to unravel your unique heart from the cupcake liners, especially for the kids!

The texture is really soft and moist (provided you do not overbake it)! And I forgot to take a picture of the cross-section of the texture as usual! The kids walloped everything down before I had the chance. But it must mean it's good that the 3 wiped everything out before I could grab my phone =p. Praying for God's grace and help for the session.

With lots of love,

Susanne

Just in (I got a surprise myself =p), riding on my only post for this week..

Book event on 2nd April, 2pm at Times Punggol Waterway! Demo on Rainbow Surprise Chiffon Cake, Q&A and book signing! See you there!

Peter Rabbit Macarons with Dark Chocolate Ganache (template provided)

I have a request for Peter Rabbit macarons and got really excited about having a chance to work with such a classic cute character!

Peter Rabbit falls under public domain so I am able to share the template freely here. I edited line drawing images from DragoArt to create the template. Please acknowledge the sources if you are using the template as I have taken time to work on it. The original Peter rabbit drawing is narrower but for macarons, it is preferable to have something rounder so I stretched the image horizontally for a "chubbier" Peter. You may print out the template on an A4 sheet.

Half of the images are mirror-imaged for the bottom shells.

Prior to baking macarons, I usually have to do some prep work planning e.g. drawing the details like the inner ears, white belly and complete the outline of Peter's coat to have a better idea of how the macaron should look like. I also work out the order in which the various features should be piped and the size of round piping tips for each feature. The numbers indicated are for Wilton tips. #5 tip is approximately 3mm in diameter, #6 is about 4mm and #8 is about 5mm.

Pardon the messy writing. I scribble :p

You may refer to my video tutorials on macaron basics and techniques for piping complex shapes. Grab a copy of my Creative Baking: Macarons book for a more organized write-up too!

Recipe for Peter rabbit macaron shells
Ingredients (makes about 35-40 rabbits):
200g almond meal, preferably superfine
200g icing sugar
200g caster sugar
75ml water
160g egg whites, divide into two equal portions

Colouring:
White: 1/4 tsp white powder food colouring (optional)
Brown: 1/3 tsp Dutch processed cocoa powder + 1 drop yellow + 1 drop orange gel food colouring
Blue: 1/4 tsp white powder colouring (optional) + 2 drops sky blue + 1 drop royal blue + 1 drop purple gel food colouring

Steps:
1. Prepare baking trays with template on and baking paper over it. Stick the baking paper down on the tray with Italian meringue when you have made it.

2. Prepare the mass. Sift together almond and icing sugar. Add 80g egg whites and mix well to form a thick paste. Divide the mass according to the estimated surface area for each colour as follows:

I had to do the working on the go. Pardon the messy handwriting again

3. Add the respective colouring ingredients listed in the ingredient list to the masses. Sift the powdered ingredients before adding to masses. Mix well with a spatula.

4. Prepare the Italian meringue. Place caster sugar and water in a small saucepan and heat it without stirring until temperature reaches 115°C. In the meantime, beat 80g egg whites with electric mixer at medium low speed until soft peak stage. Do not beat past the soft peak stage. Reduce mixer speed if necessary. Once syrup reaches 115°C, turn mixer speed to medium high and slowly pour syrup into the egg whites, taking care to avoid the beaters. Continue beating for another 10 minutes until meringue is stiff, glossy and cool.

5. Portion the Italian meringue according to the formula: weight of meringue = 0.55 x weight of mass. I wrote down the weight in the handwritten table above. Fold the Italian meringue into the masses in two additions, with the first addition about a third of the meringue. Fold until the batter has a lava-like consistency. Transfer batter into piping bags fitted with respective tips. Prepare toothpicks for pulling/nudging the batter.

6. First, pipe the rabbit head. Bang tray on table. Remember to bang the tray after piping each subsequent feature.

Next, pipe the ears and body

Pipe the blue coat

Pipe the whites of the ears and chest/belly. You may find it handy to place a picture of Peter next to the macaron shells so that you know where exactly to pipe the white parts.

Leave it to dry for 15 minutes under the fan or in an aircon room until a sticky membrane forms. Pipe the blue sleeves, followed by the feet and paws. Have the picture handy for this step too for the arm positions.

Leave it to dry until shells are dry to touch. About 1-2 hours depending on humidity. I must stress that the finger test is a more reliable indicator than actual resting time. Yours may be less than an hour or more than two hours.

7. Preheat the oven to 135°C towards end of resting time. Set rack to lowest position. Bake for 10 minutes, rotate the tray and bake for another 7-8 minutes. Check to see if the feet on the shells are dry. If they are still wet, reduce temperature to 120°C and bake for another 5 minutes before checking again. Cool completely before removing the shells from baking sheet.

Freshly baked shells! I was so charmed by these already even though the faces have not been drawn on.

Use a really fine tipped black edible marker to draw the facial features.

I filled the shells with firm dark chocolate ganache as requested. I used 10g of unsalted butter instead of 15g. You may use a different chocolate: cream ratio for your ganache. In Singapore's hot and humid climate, ganaches have to be made pretty firm. Refrigerate for at least 24h before serving. Let the macarons sit at room temperature for about 10-15 minutes before consuming.

Packing these individually took some time too!

Although it was a challenge to make so many complexed shaped macarons, it's a joy to see the results!

With love,
Phay Shing

Pusheen Cat Macarons with Dark Chocolate Ganache

I had some extra batter while rushing out a batch of bears with beer mugs macarons so I decided to make something simple and cute. So here are my Pusheen cat macarons done the lazy way! No 3D pop up features using macaron batter and no royal icing add-ons. All details are added on using edible marker!

Aren't we cute??

You may refer to this post for video tutorials for macaron basics and this post for video tutorials on how to pipe complex shapes. If you are able to, do grab a copy of my newly launched Creative Baking: Macarons book as the techniques are presented in a more systematic way.

The basic recipe I use is the same for all macarons, with variation in flavouring and colouring ingredients.  Briefly,

Basic macaron shell recipe
Ingredients:
200g almond meal (preferably superfine)
200g icing sugar
200g caster sugar
160g egg whites, divide into two equal portions
75ml water
1/2 tsp white powder food colouring or several drops of white gel food colouring. (Optional)

Steps:
1. Prepare mass. Sift almond, icing sugar and white powder together. Add half of egg whites and mix well with spatula.
2. Prepare Italian meringue. Beat remaining egg whites in a clean metal bowl on medium low speed until soft peaks while boiling caster sugar and water until 115°C without stirring. Increase mixer speed to high and carefully pour syrup into egg whites. Beat for another 10 minutes or until cool and stiff glossy peaks form.
3. Fold Italian meringue into mass in two additions until batter flows in a slow moving lava-like manner. Check the video on how to fold and check consistency.
4. Transfer to piping bag and pipe the shape of Pusheen onto baking tray with template under baking sheet. Bang the tray hard a few times to release trapped air.
5. Rest the shells until dry to touch (about 1-2 hours). Bake in preheated oven at 130°C on lowest rack for 17-22 minutes or until feet no longer wet, rotating tray halfway. Cool completely before removing shells from baking tray.

Just to share some pictures of the process...

Piping the cats! Toothpick is used to pull the ears.

Freshly baked shells!

I only had time to decorate the shells almost a week after baking and even then, I did it in a rush as I had other more important things to work on since these cats were for fun.

Just a tip here on how to create more hues than the number of coloured edible markers you have. The light brown shade of the pizza slice crust was created by using a brown marker to dot the surface, and then quickly using the yellow marker to colour over. Remember not to accidentally smudge the features. I love the Wilton fine tipped marker! Much finer than the Americolor set I have although the latter has a wider range of colours.

Someone saw these shells I posted on Facebook and requested for them! I filled the cats with dark chocolate ganache. Butter + heavy cream : dark chocolate ratio used is 1:2. Added a pinch of salt and some vanilla bean paste to enhance the flavour. Briefly,

Dark chocolate ganache recipe
Ingredients:
150g dark chocolate, chopped
50g heavy cream
15g unsalted butter
1/2 tsp vanilla bean paste
1/8 tsp fine sea salt

Steps:
1. Heat cream until bubble starts to appear in small pan. Remove from heat. Melt chocolate and butter in microwave, stirring between 20 seconds of heating at medium power.

2. Add cream to chocolate. Stir in one direction with a spatula. Add vanilla and salt. Mix well.

3. Let the ganache sit at room temperature for half an hour or until toothpaste like consistency. Transfer to piping bag and pipe onto shells.

Refrigerate for at least 24 h before serving. Let the macarons stay at room temperature for at least 15 minutes before serving. As the ganache I used is a firm one, you may package these as gifts with storage at aircon temperatures for a couple of days.

Feedback was that these were yummy and less sweet than some macarons sold outside :).

Checkout my other version of Pusheen macarons over here!

With love,
Phay Shing

Yoghurt Pink Ombre 'Cross' and ‘Easter Eggs’ Chiffon Pops

Blessed Easter to all!

"He is not here, but He has risen. Remember how He spoke to you while He was still in Galilee," Luke 24:6

Just sharing a simple chiffon ‘cross’ and ombre ‘Easter eggs’ chiffon pops I made. The bake wasn’t intentional as I had leftover batter from another ombre bake for my friend Karen and some empty egg shells lying around, and Easter was around the corner. I will be sharing the Yoghurt Pink Ombre recipe soon in normal pan in another post for my friend Karen =).

I first made rainbow chiffon egg pops around 2.5 years back. I remember sharing how soft and fluffy these egg pops were and kids loved them. These chiffon egg pops are now shared in Creative Baking: Chiffon Cakes. 

Just sharing some tips and pictures of important steps here.

How to prepare egg shells: Gently poke a hole with a chopstick and drain the egg. Wash the insides thoroughly and make sure the slippery non-stick membrane inside the egg is removed.

Unmoulding the eggs: Do it gently by cracking the shell into small pieces first using the back of a metal teaspoon. It was really fun and exciting to peel off the shells to unravel the eggs!

The kids further decorated the Easter eggs with colorful confetti before chomping them down! Use melted marshmallows to stick them on.

With lots of love,

Susanne

Have fun baking!

Happy Easter!

Korilakkuma and Kiritori Strawberry Yoghurt Chiffon Cake

I love Korilakkuma and Kiritori! I made this adorable pair from chiffon cake for my old church friend’s daughter! KRK and Kiritori are good friends of Rilakkuma. Last year I made for her Rainbow Little Twin Stars =), maybe she likes things in pairs!

The recipe for Strawberry Yoghurt Chiffon Cake is from here, same as Miffy’s. Here, I doubled the recipe for a 9-inch chiffon tin and instead of straight lines, I made wavy lines by depositing mounds (more details on waves in Creative baking: Chiffon Cakes). I used a Reduced egg yolk Vanilla chiffon recipe for the Korilakkuma by baking it in 2 glass bowls for the body, and 4 cake pops for the ears and feet, and a swiss roll for the arms. I used the Lemon Chiffon recipe in Miffy’s for the Kiritori by baking in the same glass bowls. All other details are cut from layer chiffon cake.

My friend shared they looked just like the stuffed toys and everyone wow-ed! =p Very thankful it was well-received!

With love,
Susanne

Naturally Coloured Rainbow Iced Gems Biscuits

I have the honour of baking some items for the dessert table at one of my church's event :). Rainbow coloured iced gems is one of them. All coloured naturally with purees, juices or plant extracts!!

I thought this fits the event theme of "Colour God's world" well as I colour these little treats with items from God's creation. These treats are also flavoured naturally, unlike Khong Guan types that are vanilla flavoured only. As Victoria of Victoria Bakes can attest, these iced gems taste really close to what you get commercially except that you can tell it's homemade with the rustic biscuit base. These biscuits were served along with Pandan kaya gula melaka flower pot cupcakes and Christian themed Easter macarons.

I have made naturally coloured iced gems before. You may check out my orange iced gems and mixed berry iced gems. I strongly recommend you to refer to my original old school iced gems biscuits post for more notes on what you have to take note of when making these little treats.

There's
Pink: raspberry puree
Orange: concentrated orange juice
Yellow: concentrated lemon juice
Green: Pandan juice
Blue: lychee puree coloured with blue pea flower
Purple: blackberry and blueberry puree with blue pea flower

The orange and yellow colours needed some help to get a stronger hue so I added a few drops of natural liquid food colouring from Queen's.

Biscuit recipe (makes about 100 biscuits cut out with 2cm round cookie cutter)
Ingredients:
105g plain flour
15g icing sugar
1/16tsp salt
1.5 tsp baking powder
36g vegetable shortening (you may replace with unsalted butter if you prefer buttery flavour but original iced gems is not buttery)
42g fresh milk (may not use up all of it)
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Steps:
1. Sift the first 4 items together. Preheat oven to 170°C fan mode.
2. Rub in shortening until mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs.

3. Add vanilla to milk. Gradually add milk to mixture until a dough is formed. You may not need all of the milk.
4. Roll dough to about 3mm thick. Use a 2cm round cutter to cut out circles and place on baking tray lined with baking paper.

5. Bake for 13-15 minutes or until golden brown, rotating tray halfway through baking. Cool completely before icing or storing in airtight container.

Freshly baked! Looking rustic!

Royal icing
190g icing sugar
14g meringue powder
1.25 tsp of juice or puree for each colour.

Purees/juices
Raspberry puree:
Press fresh or frozen thawed raspberry through sieve

Concentrated orange juice:
Squeeze orange juice and let it sit in fridge for a couple of days with paper towel covering. This allows water to evaporate from the juice. Add a few drops of orange emulco.

Concentrated lemon juice:
Boil juice of a large lemon for a few minutes with its zest using low heat. Sieve the juice. Add a few drops of lemon paste

Pandan juice:
Blend and sieve Pandan leaves with some water. Let the liquid settle in fridge for a few days. Use the dark green liquid settled at bottom

Lychee puree with blue pea flower:
Blend and sieve some canned lychees. Soak some blue pea flowers in puree overnight in fridge. Remove flowers and squeeze out puree from flowers

Blackberry and blueberry puree:
Same preparation as raspberry. You may want to mix in a little blue lychee puree and raspberry puree to liven up the purple hue.

Note: orange zest can't be used in royal icing due to the oil in the zest. The icing won't be able to harden.

Steps:
1. Sift together icing sugar and meringue powder. Divide into six equal portions.

2. Add 1.25 tsp of puree or juice into each portion. Use a hand whisk to whisk continuously for 6 minutes. Stiff peaks should form. This will give your arm a good workout! You may use electric mixer for this if you prefer but it's optional.

3. Transfer icing into piping bags fitted with a star tip. Pipe small dollops onto biscuits and some on baking sheet.

4. Dry in oven with fan on at 60°C for a few hours or until icing is dry. Take a piece of icing on the baking sheet and bite into it. If it is dried all the way to the center, it should be done. Do taste test the iced biscuits as well. If they are not crispy, dry for a longer time in the oven.

Piping icing with star tip

I had plenty of extra icing as I used about 1.5x the recipe I typed here.

All packed!

Extra candy!!

Thank God that these were very well received! This is the last post for my series on high tea bakes for the theme "Colour God's world". Hope these colourful and meaningful bakes have delighted you as much as it had delighted the recipients!

With lots of love,
Phay Shing

Pandan Kaya Gula Melaka Flower Pot Cupcakes

These dainty pots of flowers contain a delectable hidden treasure inside! Pandan Kaya Gula Melaka cake!

These cupcakes were at the same high tea event as the Christian themed Easter macarons and naturally coloured rainbow iced gems. Feedback was really good for these cuppies so do give the recipe a try! I used the same recipe as my Pandan kaya gula melaka logcakes which were very well received too. You don't have to make the chiffon flowers if you would like a simple but yummy bake. To make this cake extraordinary, some patience is required as you want to use homemade concentrated Pandan juice which takes a few days to settle in the fridge. This is a key to impart a strong Pandan flavour to the cake. Some of the essence labeled as optional in the recipe add an extra oomph to the cake too but you may omit if you can't find them. The actual work takes about an hour or so if you have everything ready.

Recipe for Pandan chiffon cake (makes one 10 x 10" cake meant for sixteen- twenty 44x35mm cupcakes)
3 egg yolks
30g gula melaka, finely chopped
35g coconut oil or any other vegetable oil
20g Pandan juice (blend about 25 Pandan leaves in 100ml water. Sieve and let it settle for a few days in fridge. Use dark green layer settled at the bottom).
31g coconut milk
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp Pandan paste (optional)
1/4 tsp coconut flavouring (optional)
57g cake flour
1/16 tsp salt

4 egg whites
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
40g caster sugar

Steps:
1. Preheat oven to 160°C. Line a 10x10" tray with baking paper. Set oven rack to second lowest position.

2. Prepare egg yolk batter. Whisk egg yolks and gula melaka until all the gula melaka has dissolved and mixture is thick and pale. Gradually add oil and whisk until well combined. Add Pandan juice, coconut milk, vanilla extract, pandan paste and coconut flavouring. Whisk until combined. Gradually add in sifted flour and salt and whisk until no trace of flour is seen.

3. Prepare the meringue. In a clean metal bowl, beat egg whites until foamy with electric mixer. Add cream of tartar and beat for a while before gradually adding sugar and beat until stiff peaks just start to form.

4. Fold meringue into egg yolk batter quickly but gently in three additions. Slowly pour batter into prepared tray. Tap tray on table a few times to release air bubbles.

5. Bake for 10 minutes followed by 140°C for 15 minutes or until skewer comes out clean. Note that baking time varies from oven to oven so use it as a guide. Let the cake cool in the tray for a couple of minutes before removing from tray. Cover with a baking sheet to cool.

6. Use a 4cm and 5 cm diameter round cutters to cut out two layers of sponge cakes for each cupcake. As the baked 10" cake is quite thick, you may use a serrated knife to cut each circular cut-out into half. Store the cake cutouts in airtight container while you prepare the pudding. Use whatever round cutters you have if you don't have the exact sizes.

Cutting circles from freshly baked Pandan chiffon cake.

Pandan Gula Melaka pudding
(A)
480g coconut milk (I used a combination of coconut milk and evaporated milk)
250g Pandan water (boil several Pandan leaves cut into 2cm strips in 1L of water for a few minutes. Remove the leaves. You will need this water for (A), (B) and sugar syrup during assembly.)
125g gula melaka, finely chopped
2 tsp agar agar powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp caramel essence (optional)
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp coconut flavouring (optional)
(B)
46g custard powder
250g Pandan water

Steps:
1. Combine ingredients in (B) in a jug and stir. Set aside.

2. Place all ingredients in (A) in a saucepan and bring to a boil using medium heat, stirring now and then.

3. Stir ingredients in the jug again and slowly pour into (A), stirring the contents in the saucepan continuously. Bring to a boil while stirring continuously. Keep boiling and stirring for a minute. Remove from heat. Pour mixture through a sieve into a large bowl to remove any lumps that may be present.

You have to stir the pudding mixture now and then during assembly as it will begin to set when left sitting out for sometime.

Assembly
1. Place the 4cm round cake cut-out at bottom of cupcake case.

2. Spoon some pudding in to cover cake.

3. Place 5cm round cake cut-out over the pudding layer.

4. Spoon enough pudding to cover the Pandan cake below.

5. Chill in fridge for 30 minutes-1hour or until set.

I baked some coloured layer cakes using the clear layer of Pandan juice after settling in fridge for a few days. I used flower and leaf cookie cutters to cut out the flowers and leaves of the cupcakes and glue on using melted marshmellows. I made white chocolate ganache(1:2 for cream:white chocolate) and piped them on as flower centers. Brush the surface of the flowers and leaves with sugar syrup made with Pandan water to keep them moist. These cakes can keep for 4-5 days in the fridge.

All packed!

Looking sweet!

Enjoy this lovely treat! I had the theme of the event "Colour God's world" in mind when I chose this design, thinking about how God colours His world with beautiful flowers of various colours. Prayerfully hoping that the people who enjoyed the taste of these cupcakes took time to reflect on our wonderful Creator :).

With lots of love,
Phay Shing

‘Rocket’ Blue pea flower & Charcoal-Pandan Chiffon Cake

This is a ‘Rocket’ Blue pea flower & Charcoal-Pandan Chiffon Cake for my friend's boy who loves rockets! The chiffon cake is naturally coloured with blue pea flowers and bamboo charcoal for the night sky and pandan for the green grassland.

I have shared how to make 'waves' in Creative Baking: Chiffon Cakes. Here I made the waves landscape more gradual for the 'launch-off' and also more night sky to enhance the feel! I made the blue pea flowers & charcoal batter and pandan batter separately and then combined them in the chiffon tin (recipe below!) =).

For 8-inch Chiffon tin
Blue pea flower-Charcoal Chiffon
3 egg yolks
20g caster sugar
39g vegetable/corn oil
48g blue pea flower tea, filtered (100 dried blue pea flowers simmered in 48g hot water)
60g cake flour, sifted

1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp charcoal powder* (may be omitted if you do not want the dark shade)
Pinch of baking powder

Meringue
4 egg whites
45g caster sugar
¼ tsp cream of tartar

Pandan Chiffon
2 egg yolks
9g castor sugar
24 g vegetable/corn oil
30g coconut milk
½ tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp pandan paste
40g cake flour, sifted
A pinch of salt

Meringue
3 egg whites
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
30 g sugar

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 and for moister ogura-like texture.

2. Prepare blue pea flower-charcoal and pandan chiffon batter separately.

Blue pea flower-charcoal chiffon:

- Whisk egg yolks with castor sugar until dissolved and till pale and fluffy.

- Add oil, blue pea flower tea and vanilla extract and mix well. 

- Add in sieved flour, charcoal powder and a pinch of baking powder and whisk swiftly till no trace of flour is found (make sure no lumps are formed).

Pandan Chiffon:

- Whisk egg yolks with castor sugar until dissolved and till pale and fluffy.

- Add in oil, coconut milk, vanilla extract and pandan paste and mix well. 

  - Add in sieved flour and a pinch of salt and whisk swiftly till no trace of flour is found.

- Meringue: Beat the egg whites with ¼ tsp cream of tartar till foamy, add in caster sugar in 2 additions and beat till firm peaks form (firm peaks give a finer texture).

- Gently fold in the meringue into the respective batter 1/3 at a time.

3. Spoon blue pea flower-charcoal batter into base of the tin till 2/3 full. Deposit mounds to make waves. Fill with pandan batter (waves in Creative Baking: Chiffon Cakes).

4. Bake the chiffon cake for 160°C for 15 min, then 150°C for 10 min, 140°C for 15 min, then 130°C for 10 min, or until skewer comes clean.

5. Invert the chiffon cake immediately once out of the oven to cool

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

Tall and fluffy!

I made the rocket from a vanilla swissroll and a strawberry Tokyo banana and combined the two! My friend shared the rocket survived a launch off lol! And he was especially delighted to find marshmallows hidden beneath the rocket! =) Thankful it was well-received!

With lots of love, wheeee...
Susanne