‘Dragonite’ Medieval Castle Chiffon Cake

I was really excited to make this Dragon-themed Medieval castle for my friend’s son! I’ve made lots of Princess castle chiffon cakes so I felt it was really refreshing to try something different. Most of the medieval castles are square castles with 4 towers protecting the fortress. So I was happy to try out my first square castle, baked using an 8-inch square chiffon tube pan (thank you Evon for it again!).

I used bamboo charcoal to colour the castle grey, and used the recipe from my Graduation cap Charcoal Chiffon Cake, multiplied by 3 (9 egg recipe). The volume of an 8-inch square chiffon cake (length x width x height) is much bigger than an 8-inch round chiffon cake (Pi x radius squared), ie 256 cubic inches (for square pan) versus 201 cubic inches (for round pan), hence much more eggs are required. 8-inch round tube pan only requires a 5 egg recipe, while 8-inch square tube pan requires a 9 egg recipe! So that’s something to take note when using a square pan. 

Another point to note, I usually do not use baking powder in my chiffon cake recipes, but charcoal powder has the dampening effect on chiffon batter, so baking powder is required.

Very thankful the cake was well-received and the kids asked for seconds! So I will share the recipe for the yummy charcoal chiffon cake! =)

8-inch square tube pan

Bamboo Charcoal Chiffon Cake (8-inch square chiffon tube pan)
9 egg yolks
60g sugar
117g vegetable/corn oil
117 ml water
15 ml vanilla extract
Bamboo charcoal (to colour desired, around 1.5-2 tsp)
*You can also substitute with extra dark cocoa powder in part
168g cake flour
1/2 tsp baking powder

Meringue:
12 egg whites
135g sugar
1/4 tsp cream of tartar

1. Preheat oven to 160°C (I used steam baking but it is optional).

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

3. Add in sieved flour, bamboo charcoal powder and baking powder and whisk till no trace of flour found.

4. Meringue: Beat the egg whites with cream of tartar till firm peaks, mixing in caster sugar in 2 additions.

5. Fold in the meringue gently into the batter 1/3 at a time.

6. Pour the batter into the chiffon tin from a height.

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

8. Bake the cake for 15 min at 160°C, 10 min at 150°C, 20 min at 140°C then 15-20 min at 130°C.

9. Invert immediately once out of the oven to cool

10. Unmould by hand (video in link) 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. 

For the dragonite, I baked a lemon chiffon in an egg and an oval bowl for the head and body, with some cutting/sculpting, and the arms, feet and tail are from small swissrolls, sliced into halves. For the claws, instead of baking them in paper cones like the Durian Cottony Cake, I was lazy and cut them from small round cake pops (sliced at the edges). Dragonite was really difficult to do! I doubt I will want to make it again haha. 

The details are all cut from chiffon cake. A special detail to share, for the fire holder, I actually baked a darker-coloured charcoal chiffon in a paper cone to make the nice conical holder shape. I also painted the inside of the fire red using food markers =).

Hope you will enjoy this nice chiffon cake! The texture is very light and fine.

With lots of love,

Susanne =)

More loving creations here (poured my heart into it, hope you will love too!):