Watermelon Fruits-themed Tier Chiffon Cake (Watermelon & Pandan-flavored)

This was made for my dear friend’s daughter, Eva! Last year I made Tinkerbell Tier Chiffon Cake for her. This cake may look effortless but it was really a lot of work! So I'm really thankful managed to pulled it off and it was well-received.

This is the first time I’m trying out Watermelon-flavoured Chiffon Cake for the Chiffon ‘Watermelon’. The watermelon taste is a bit subtle I have to admit, but nice and light according to my friend. Fruity flavours without zest are harder to come through as compared to tea or chocolate flavours.

I made watermelon juice from fresh watermelons for the chiffon cake. The green chiffon layer making the skin was pandan-flavoured, that was really yummy. I think you can also replace the watermelon flavour with strawberry that is stronger tasting with strawberry paste. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find any watermelon extract to enhance the subtle flavour.


Watermelon-flavoured Watermelon Chiffon Cake (with Pandan Chiffon ‘skin’)
5 egg yolks
33g castor sugar
65g vegetable/ corn oil
79g watermelon juice (freshly blended) – you may wish to replace with strawberry puree + paste
100g Prima cake flour, sifted
A pinch of salt
Natural red coloring from PME
Pandan paste

7 egg whites
¼ tsp cream of tartar
75g castor sugar

Freshly squeezed watermelon juice and natural coloring from PME

1. Preheat oven to 160°C. *Optional: I used steam baking.

2. Whisk egg yolks with sugar until light, fluffy and well-mixed.

3. Add in oil and mix well. Then add in oil and watermelon juice and whisk till well-combined.

4. Whisk in sifted cake flour and mix till well-combined.

5. Divide the batter into 3:1:1. Add respective colour/flavour (pandan paste and natural PME red) into each batter.

6. Prepare meringue:

a. In a grease-free, dry metal bowl, using electric mixer, whisk egg whites with cream of tartar till frothy.

b. Add in ½ castor sugar for meringue and whisk at high speed till soft peaks form.

c. Add in rest of the castor sugar for meringue and whisk till firm peaks form, or just the point of stiff peak. Firm peaks give finer, softer texture.

7. Divide meringue 3:1:1 and gently fold into respective egg yolk batter.

8. Fill the pink batter into an ungreased 7-inch chiffon tube pan, followed by light green batter, and then dark green batter.

9. Bake at 160°C for 15 min, 140°C for 31+ min, or until skewer inserted into centre of cake comes out clean. **If you use steam baking, you may need to bake for a few more minutes.

10. Invert pan to cool on a wire rack completely.

11. Unmould the chiffon cake by hand (see video tutorial ‘Hand unmoulding Chiffon cakes for a clean finishing’).

*Updated (20/10/16) 
Step-by-step picture guide for Watermelon Chiffon Cake is now found in Deco Chiffon Cake Basics, a new step-by-step picture guide.

Base pandan chiffon cake

Pandan Chiffon Cake recipe from here. I used a 9-inch tube pan in this cake, hence the recipe is doubled, with one batter having ½ amount of pandan paste. Here, I made the pandan chiffon more ‘pang’ by using liquid coconut oil (from cold storange/iherb).


Fruits

Watermelon: You may find the watermelon familiar. These watermelons are in Creative baking: Chiffon Cakes; you can find a video tutorial for watermelons below. Here, I added a light green layer. I also folded the paper cone from SKP to make it pyramidal so that it looks more like a wedge.

Folded the paper cone into a pyramidal shape to look like a wedge

Video tutorial for watermelon cake pops in Creative baking: Chiffon Cakes

Banana: Similar to Tokyo banana here by Ochikeron, it’s made from a swiss roll with the ends tighter to make the tips pointed. Lemon-flavoured.
Pear: I made it similar to the Tokyo Banana too from a swiss roll, but rolled the centre tighter to make a waist. It's made with the same pandan batter as the base cake. I cut the leaves from pandan sheet cake using a leaves cutter. Stems are from rolled cake.
Tangerines: These small sweet oranges were from 5-cm silicone cake pops moulds. I rounded up the base by cupping with my thumb and index finger. Orange-flavoured.
Apple: From Iwaki brand glass bowl, Strawberry yoghurt flavoured, you may also be interested in marbled ones here by Phay shing. Here I used the same recipe as watermelon cake pops.
Cherries: From 3-cm cake pops moulds, cup at the base to round it.
Grapes: From 3-cm cake pop moulds, cup at the base then pinch it to make it oval (similar technique will be in Deco chiffon cakes).

I used melted marshmallows to glue the fruits and letterings which I cut out from chiffon sheet cake using alphabet cutters from SKP/Phoon Huat. Simply sprinkle some water and pop the marshmallows into the oven! =)

Thankful cake was well-received! Happy birthday to Eva!

With lots of love,

Susanne

Creative Chiffon Cookbooks with Marshall Cavendish:

Creative Baking: Chiffon Cakes

Great news for Malaysians, the cookbook can be found in Popular KL and selected outlets now =).

and Deco Chiffon Cakes (photoshoots)