Coconut Gula Melaka Ah Mah Sponge Cake

My grandma loves Ah Mah sponge cake and I thought of making it for the extended family this Christmas instead of my usual log cake. But because it's my first time trying it, I thought I better do a trial bake. As I wanted to make a healthier but yummier version of the cake, I came up with this --- coconut Gula Melaka Ah Mah sponge cake!

Pardon the poor photography as I wasn't planning on blogging this at first. But the reviews from my guinea pigs were so good I had to share this!

Pardon the lengthy post as I want to share the rationale of choice of ingredients and the ratio. The original Ah Mah sponge cake or commonly known as Castella sponge cake nowadays (although this is different from the original Japanese Castella cake) contains just five basic ingredients: low protein flour, sugar, eggs, milk and corn oil (or canola oil). I decided to modify the recipe by replacing some of these ingredients with healthier options.

Coconut palm sugar (Gula Melaka), coconut cream and coconut oil

I replaced white sugar with coconut palm sugar, which has a glycemic index of only about a third of white sugar and contains extra vitamins and minerals that white sugar doesn't have. This makes the cake much more fragrant and tasty but healthier and diabetic friendly at the same time! I replaced corn oil with coconut oil. This also has the effect of imparting a wonderful coconuty aroma, as well as provide various health benefits that are too many for me to list here. You may click on this link to find out what health benefits there are. Replacement of milk with coconut cream or coconut milk adds flavour to the cake. If you are really health conscious, you may stick with low fat milk or coconut milk which is lower in fat content. Coconut cream has a higher fat content but keeps your cake really moist.

I studied quite a few recipes and found that Ah Mah cake is really just cooked dough chiffon cake. There are various ratios of ingredients that different recipes have but I came up with my version of what I think is the best compromise between stability and moistness of the cake. Most recipes use a flour: liquid ratio of around 0.67. Liquid includes oil and milk. A fellow homebaker Angela Low shared with me her favourite recipe for cheese Ah Mah cake with ratio of around 0.56 but with the cheese powder considered part of the "liquid" portion. She shared that it's the most moist she has tried. Higher ratio results in cakes with better structural stability but also drier texture. I decided to use a ratio of 0.6 as a compromise.

Just a note, the cake I baked is actually scaled to a 5-egg recipe as I didn't want to "waste" too much resources on a trial bake. The cake could have been taller if I used a 6-egg recipe for this size of baking tray. Just in case you wonder how come my cake doesn't appear that tall 😅.

There are variations in the method of baking from the recipes I researched. Some use water bath method to steam bake. Some line the sides of the baking tray with cardboard pieces to insulate the walls of the baking tray. I choose to do what I always do with my chiffon cake bakes, which is to place a tray of water at the base of the oven to create steam as well as allow the cake to rise more slowly.

Coconut Gula Melaka Ah Mah sponge cake
Ingredients (makes one 7x7" cake):
Egg yolk batter
84g coconut oil
108g cake flour
1/8 tsp fine sea salt
1/4 tsp baking powder (optional)
96g coconut cream/coconut milk (I used one 65ml (63g) packet of coconut cream and topped up the rest with fresh milk)
6 egg yolks

Meringue
6 egg whites
1/4 tsp cream of tartar (or a few drops of lemon juice)
66g Gula Melaka (you may finely chop from those in block form or buy the powdered version. You may increase up to 78g if you have a sweet tooth. Mine is a less sweet version)

Steps:
1. Line the baking tray with parchment paper. Place a tray of water at base of oven. Set oven rack to lowest or second lowest position. Preheat oven to 145℃.

2. Sift flour, salt and baking powder together in a large bowl. Set aside.

3. Heat oil in small saucepan to 70℃ (or for two minutes in microwave oven as I have seen from a recipe). Pour into flour mixture. Whisk until smooth. Gradually add coconut cream and whisk/ beat with electric mixer at low speed until well combined. The batter will become thick and dough-like at this stage. Add one egg yolk at a time into the mixture and beat until well combined and smooth.

Egg yolk batter

4. Prepare the meringue. Beat egg whites with cream of tartar until foamy. Gradually add Gula melaka and beat until firm peaks form.

Gula melaka meringue

5. Add about a third of the meringue into egg yolk batter and fold in with a whisk until smooth. Pour the mixture into the rest of the meringue. Use a spatula to gently fold the meringue into the egg yolk batter until batter is smooth.

6. Pour into prepared baking tray and smooth the top of the batter with a spatula. Tap the tray on the table a few times to release trapped air bubbles. Bake for 60-70 minutes or until skewer comes out clean.

7. Remove from baking tray and cool completely before slicing.

Cutting the cooled cake!

The person who was my willing guinea pig shared the cake with her mother in law, colleagues and boss. This was the combined feedback I got:

"I gave my mother in law and colleagues to eat. Feedback all said very nice. Can taste the distinct gula melaka, not too sweet and also not oily. Two say taste like steam cake. My boss likes it and had two. I like it very much and took two myself because the aftertaste not sweet, didn’t trigger phlegm."

She also added that the cake was really moist, unlike most chiffon cakes that she has eaten which she finds dry and hard to swallow.

How can I not share this recipe after I receive this feedback :p. Do give this a try if you love Gula Melaka flavoured cakes!

Update: the cake is so good the boss wanted to order more from me but I don't have the capacity to squeeze in 😅

With love,
Phay Shing

Chalkboard Brown Sugar Cookies

This is the fourth and final in my series of cookie baking classes for kids --- chalkboard brown sugar cookies!

What better way to kick start a new school year than to learn how to make these yummy and fun 100% edible treats! The chalkboard and chalk are made of edible materials and trust me, all who have received my iced brown sugar cookies over the past few years that I have been baking for sale have given very good reviews in terms of taste.

Kids will learn how to make yummy brown sugar cookies, how to make royal icing and ice the cookies, and how to make the edible chalk. This awesome idea is inspired by Ashlee Marie so I can't take credit for it. But nothing beats having a live demo and having a hands-on session to learn how to make this!

This class is open for kids aged 5-12 years old with an adult accompanying. Please click on this link to register for the class at ToTT.

With love,
Phay Shing

Sushi Platter Chiffon Cake

This was one crazy cake to make! And I made two of it! Lol

Instead of just 'Sushi' Chiffon Cake, this round is a 'Sushi Platter' haha. In total I made over 45 sushi!

I have already shared the recipe for 'Sushi' and the 'Wood-style' design chiffon cake in my previous Sushi Chiffon Cake post. I only add in some 'tuna' this round =p.

Hope you have a blessed week ahead!

With lots of love,
Susanne

Updates

*New Deco Chiffon Cake Basics Book launch event on 2nd Dec 2018, 4pm at Kinokuniya, Ngee Ann City! 

Taken from kinokuniya instagram. Book will be on 20% discount at Kinokuniya that day =)

*Deco Chiffon Cake Basics book on 20% discount at Popular for Popular member now!

Deco Chiffon Cake books

Superhero Themed Vanilla Macarons (Tips on how to colour shells deep red and black)

I have a request for superhero themed macarons for a little boy!

He loves vanilla so I filled the shells with vanilla Swiss meringue buttercream

The purpose of this blog post is to share how I achieve a deep shade of black and red when making black and red macaron shells. Certain shades of colour may be difficult to achieve if you don't know how to and these two colours are examples. I will also share how I decorated the shells with adequate precision by hand.

I used the reduced sugar recipe for the macaron shells here. Both regular and reduced sugar recipes can be found here. You may refer to my Creative Baking: Macarons book for a systematic presentation of the basics and complex shaped macarons. You may refer to my video tutorials for macaron basics and piping of complex shapes on the blog too.

Although I used the Italian method, the ratios specified here should be applicable for French and Swiss methods as well.

For black colour, add 1g of charcoal powder for every 10g of almond meal along with an additional generous chopstick dip of black gel food colouring for every 30g of almond meal.

For red colour, use 1/2 tsp red yeast powder* for every 45g almond meal, and 1/8-1/4 tsp red powder colouring for every 90g almond meal. I use the red powder colouring easily available from supermarkets that is more for local desserts such as Ang Ku Kuih as a little bit goes a long way. I use in combination with gel as I find powder alone tends to stain my fingers and baking paper. This is more of personal preference so you may stick with just powder colouring. I add a drop of red gel colouring for every 30g almond meal.

*Red yeast powder doesn't colour the batter much but serves to dull down the brightness of super red artificial colouring and give it a more earthy tone. Note that too much red yeast powder will cause meringue to deflate and results in denser macaron shells. Omit this if you are unable to obtain it. I prefer using natural sources wherever possible.

Just to share some photos of the process...

Piping the various shapes

Freshly baked shells. Check out the feet!

In order to get nice identical logo prints on the shells, I made stencils out of paper by cutting out the shapes with a craft knife. I traced the outlines using edible marker (yellow colour to match the royal icing colour), and then decorate with royal icing. Feel free to use a toothpick to nudge the icing where necessary. To give it a slightly glittery effect, I brushed on a little gold dust on the yellow icing after it is dried.

Decorating Superman shells

Decorating Batman shells

The fine webbing of Spiderman was done using a fine tipped edible marker.

Really tedious to draw by freehand. I took on an average of 8-10 minutes for each one!

Keep a picture of Spiderman's head right next to your macaron shell so that you can copy each line as accurately as possible. I treated the web pattern like a complicated Chinese character and "wrote" it as such :p. After a couple of heads, I get the hang of it and memorized the steps to "write" the web pattern.

Spiderman's eyes were added on with royal icing.

I filled the shells with reduced-sugar vanilla Swiss meringue buttercream.

With love,
Phay Shing

Camouflage Soldier Chiffon Cake

Anyone watched Ah Boys to Men 4 yet?? =)

I was just reminded of my cute Camouflage Soldier Chiffon Cake from my 2nd book, Deco Chiffon Cakes with the super funny movie out! I made it from my nephew's birthday but didn't have a chance to post it before the cake went into the cookbook. Its made from yummy cocoa and pandan chiffon cake and now with the step-by-step pics, you can try making your own cute army soldier hehe.

With lots of love,
Susanne

Book cover of 2nd book Deco Chiffon Cakes

Updates

New Deco Chiffon Cake Basics Book launch event on 2nd Dec 2018, 4pm at Kinokuniya, Ngee Ann City! Cu there :) (taken from kinokuniya instagram). Thankful it was in Top 10 Non-fiction bestsellers in Kinokuniya!

Two-Tiered Lychee Rose Longevity Peach Sponge and Pudding Cake

I had a request some time back for lychee rose longevity peach cake. The requester saw the longevity peach cake I made for my grandma two years ago and loved it very much. I decided to make something similar but two-tiered this time :)

This is a refreshing dessert that goes well as the last dish for a sumptuous birthday celebration meal. Alternating layers of light lychee rose sponge and pudding, served with succulent lychees stuffed with pudding. The longevity peaches are light and refreshing chiffon sponge cakes too!

I won't go into details of the bake as the detailed recipe can be found in the blog post for my grandma cake. The thing that I did differently here is in the assembly. I used flexible plastic meant for wrapping around cakes as shown in the photos below. I did this for my Ondeh-Ondeh pandan kaya Gula Melaka chiffon cake for my dad too.

6.5" and 4" cakes

The edges of the cake is much cleaner this way than using springform pans like I used to.

Unmoulded cakes

I don't have a picture of the cut slice of this cake but I made one for my grandma two years ago so it looks something like this:

Alternating layers of soft lychee rose chiffon sponge with refreshing pudding, eaten along with succulent lychees!

Give this cake a try if you love lychee :).

With love,
Phay Shing

Mermaid Tail Chiffon Cake

I love turquoise colour very much so it was a joy to make this Mermaid Chiffon Cake with pretty mermaid tail and purple shells, inspired by the Little Mermaid. I was a little reminded of Legend of the Blue Sea show which I loved earlier =p.

Briefly, it was made by sculpting and cutting a chiffon cake into the shape of a tail, and then covering it with scales cut from chiffon sheet cakes of different colours. I used marshmallow cream to stick the pieces on. It was very tedious as you can imagine, to assemble the scale piece by piece from circle cut-outs from chiffon sheet cakes. It was a lot of work but thankful cake was very well-received, which brings the most joy =).

This is actually the 2nd time I am making a Mermaid Tail Chiffon Cake! The last cake was pink in scheme for a close mummy friend a year ago, still in my backlogs.. oops!

I've been really busy with kids, so sorry for less posts lately. Thank God for his grace in sustaining daily!

With lots of love,
Susanne

PS: Story of the behind the scenes on my IG @susanne.decochiffon (20/11/17)

Updates

New Deco Chiffon Cake Basics Book launch event on 2nd Dec 2018, 4pm at Kinokuniya, Ngee Ann City! Cu there :) (taken from kinokuniya instagram). Thankful it was in Top 10 Non-fiction bestsellers in Kinokuniya!

Deco Chiffon Cake books

  

Happy Bunny Reduced-Sugar Coconut Macarons

Hubby and I use Wechat to communicate because we simply love the range of expressive and cute emojis. One of our favourite is this happy bunny that is absolutely adorable. You can't help but smile or even laugh looking at the range of emojis :). And since I was fine-tuning the recipe for my upcoming reduced-sugar coconut snowflake macaron class, I thought of squeezing in a few cute macarons for hubby's birthday :).

I had so much fun playing the pieces for photography!

I used the Swiss method to make these macarons. As I will be conducting the class using this macaron shell and filling recipe, I won't type it out in detail here. I tweaked my original recipe for making Gudetama coconut macarons to make these bunnies.

Just to share a couple of photos...

Piping out the bunny

Filling the shells with less sweet coconut white chocolate ganache

My hubby loved the coconuty taste of the macarons and said it's not overly sweet. And of course can't help but smile looking at the cuties :).

With lots of love,
Phay Shing

Christmas Snowman, Reindeer, Hat Chiffon Cakes

As promised, here's the recipe for the Christmas chiffon pops that I did for the demo at Courts on Sunday 12th Nov =). Thanks to those who came and gave encouraging words as well!

These chiffon cake pops are made entirely fondant-free, so are soft, fluffy and low in sugar, suitable for kids and the elderly alike! The Snowman and Reindeer are actually miniature versions of the cakes in my cookbooks, Deco Chiffon Cake Basics and Deco Chiffon Cakes. If you like bigger cake versions, you can check out the books.

The Snowman and Reindeer are baked from cake pops molds (below), while the Snowman hats and Trees are from baking in paper cones (from SKP, I trimmed it so that they are shorter).

Snowman and Hats Chiffon Cake Pops
(makes 3-4 snowman from 6 cake pops and 3 hats)

Egg yolk batter
10g egg yolk
5g castor sugar
10g vegetable/corn oil
14g milk
1g vanilla extract
15g cake flour
Orange and red icing colours or natural food powders (pumpkin and red yeast powder)

Meringue
1 egg white
11g castor sugar
¼ tsp cream of tartar

1. Preheat oven to 140°C.

2. Prepare egg yolk batter:

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

b. Add in oil first, then milk and vanilla extract and mix well.

c. Whisk in sifted cake flour and whisk well, ensuring that no lumps are formed.

3. Divide the batter into 3 parts: 1 tsp for orange, 3 tsp for red, and leave the rest plain. *You can use pumpkin and red yeast powder for orange and red, or icing colours.

4. Prepare meringue:

a. In a grease-free, dry 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 - peaks slope downwards forming a hook.

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.

5. Divide the meringue into 3: 2 tbsp for orange, 6 tbsp for red and the rest for plain.

6. Fold in meringue gently into each colored egg yolk batter 1/2 at a time. *Fold in unidirectional, gentle strokes and do not overfold.

7. Fill the cake pops molds with plain batter till almost full (6 cake pops). Fill orange (1 cone) and red batter (3 cones) into paper cones till around an inch tall.

Pour the rest of the red batter into a large cupcake liner to bake sheet cake (thin layer) for cutting out scarves and buttons.

*For Christmas hats, leave some plain batter for sheet cake in a cupcake liner.

8. Bake all at 140°C for 28 min, or until skewer inserted into center of cakes come out clean.

9. Allow to cool completely on wire rack, before unmolding by hand (picture tutorials of unmoulding can be found in my cookbooks).

Assembly

Snowman

1. Round up the base of the round cake pops and stack using marshmallow glue in between (melt some marshmallows with a sprinkle of water for 30s microwave)

2. Cut a thin strip from red sheet cake for scarf. If you are not confident, you can use string candy.

3. Trim off the orange cone, and stick on using marshmallow cream.

4. Trim off the red cone and stick on using marshmallow cream.

5. Pipe on the eyes and mouth using melted chocolate or draw using food markers.

6. Cut buttons from red sheet cake using a small circle plunger, stick on using marshmallow cream.

7. Stick on hands using fried pasta sticks or pocky.

Christmas hats

1. Prepare a red cone chiffon cake.

2. Cut a thin white strip from plain sheet cake and stick around the base using marshmallow cream.

3. Cut a round circle from plain sheet cake and stick on top.

Reindeer Chcocolate Chiffon Cake Pops
(makes 10 cake pops/reindeers)

Egg yolk batter
10g egg yolk
5g castor sugar
10g vegetable/corn oil
14g milk
1g vanilla extract
15g cake flour
Chocolate paste (<1/4 tsp), or 1 tsp cocoa powder in 4 ml water

Meringue
1 egg white
11g castor sugar
¼ tsp cream of tartar

1. Preheat oven to 140°C.

2. Prepare egg yolk batter:

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

b. Add in oil first, then milk and vanilla extract and mix well.

c. Whisk in sifted cake flour and whisk well, ensuring that no lumps are formed.

d. Add in cocoa paste (cocoa powder in water or store bought) and mix well.

4. Prepare meringue:

a. In a grease-free, dry 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 - peaks slope downwards forming a hook.

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.

5. Fold in meringue gently into each colored egg yolk batter 1/3 at a time. *Fold in unidirectional, gentle strokes and do not overfold.

6. Fill the cake pops molds with cocoa batter till almost full.

7. Bake at 140°C for 28 min, or until skewer inserted into center of cakes come out clean.

9. Allow to cool completely on wire rack, before unmolding by hand.

Assembly 

1. Using some white compound chocolate or candy melts, pipe on the eyes.

2. Use a food marker (brown or black) to draw on the eye balls.

3. Add a dip of red coloring to the white chocolate, mix well and pipe on the nose (alternatively, you can use store bought dragees or icing candy that are round and red, stick on using melted chocolate).

4. Stick on pretzels for the ears or chocolate sticks or fried pasta sticks.


Pandan Christmas Trees Chiffon Cake Pops

Shared in Creative baking: Chiffon Cakes (first chiffon book below).


Hope you enjoy these cute creations (video taken before the demo for fun) =)

With lots of love,
Susanne

                                  NEW!

  

Updates:

New Deco Chiffon Cake Basics Book launch event on 2nd Dec 2018, 4pm at Kinokuniya, Ngee Ann City! Cu there :) (taken from kinokuniya instagram)

(13/11/17) Deco Chiffon Cake Basics in Top 10 Non-fiction Bestsellers in Kinokuniya! Thank God and thank you!

(13/11/17): Thankful that Deco Chiffon Cake Basics is a Bestseller in Periplus (Indonesia) and Naiise (Malaysia/SG) too!! Thank you!

(12/11/17) Thanks to those who came for my demo today!! Heartfelt thanks!

Matcha Azuki & Chocolate Salted Caramel Mini Chiffon Cupcakes

This is the second part in my series of wedding bakes. Sorry for the long delay because I had more pressing bakes and ToTT class registration announcements to make 😅. Here are some simple but yummy mini cupcakes that are tasty but not too sweet. I stress the "not too sweet" part because the bride was very specific about the bakes being not too sweet 😅. Chiffon sponge that is soft, fluffy and packed full of flavour, and Swiss meringue buttercream that compliments the sponge cake flavour. I made tea flavoured heart shaped macarons in pastel rainbow shades along with these cupcakes.

Matcha chiffon cupcake with Azuki bean Swiss meringue buttercream and Azuki bean jelly hearts

My matcha chiffon cupcake recipe here uses same number of egg yolks and egg whites, which is what I don't normally practice (usually I use less egg yolks than whites for a lighter texture). I do so here to help to make the cake richer and stay more moist as the size of the cakes are small. Resulting texture is not noticeably different from my usual chiffons and the key to this is a well made meringue and good technique of folding in meringue into egg yolk batter.

I love making cake deco that is yummy and compliments the cake flavour, such as my macaron decorated cakes and Ondeh-Ondeh pandan kaya Gula Melaka chiffon cake. For these minis, I made simple Azuki bean jelly that totally goes well with the Azuki bean cream and Matcha chiffon. This is not the first time I made jelly as deco to compliment the cake. You may take a look at my mango cupcakes with vanilla cream and mango jelly over here.

Matcha chiffon cupcakes recipe

Ingredients (makes about forty 30x38mm cupcakes):

Egg yolk batter

5 egg yolks 

10g caster sugar

56g canola/vegetable oil

65g Matcha milk (dissolve 4-5tsp (about 7-8g) of matcha powder in 60g of hot milk, sieve to remove lumps. You may not use all of it)

1 tsp vanilla extract

75g cake flour

1/8 tsp salt

Meringue

5 egg whites

70g caster sugar

1/4 tsp cream of tartar

1. Preheat oven to 140℃, set oven rack to second lowest position and place a tray of water at the base of the oven (optional).

2. Prepare egg yolk batter. Whisk egg yolks and sugar until pale and thick. Add oil and whisk until well combined. Add matcha milk and vanilla and whisk until combined. Gradually whisk in sifted flour and salt until no trace of flour is seen.

3. Prepare meringue. In a clean metal bowl, beat egg whites with cream of tartar until firm peaks form, gradually adding in sugar when the egg whites are foamy.

4. Quickly but gently fold the meringue into the egg yolk batter in 3 additions. 

5. Carefully fill the cupcakes until about 80% full. Bake for 10 minutes and reduce temperature to 130℃ and bake for another 15-20 minutes or until skewer comes out clean. Cool completely before adding cream.

Azuki bean Swiss meringue  buttercream recipe

Ingredients:

160 Reduced-sugar vanilla Swiss meringue buttercream

100g Mashed canned Azuki beans

1/8 tsp salt

Steps:

1. If using frozen thawed Smbc, rewhip the cream before adding in mashed azuki beans and salt. Whip everything together with electric mixer until light and fluffy.

2. Transfer cream into piping bag fitted with star tip.

You may prepare the cream ahead of time and freeze in freezer Ziploc bags. Simply defrost at room temperature and rewhip before using. Pipe a simple swirl on top of cooled cupcakes.

Azuki bean jelly recipe

Ingredients:

120g Azuki bean puree (press canned Azuki bean through sieve or buy Koshian from Japanese section of supermarket)

120g water

20g white sugar (or to taste. Mine is considered less sugar)

1/8 tsp salt

1.5 tsp agar powder

Steps:

1. Combine everything into a small saucepan and bring to a boil while stirring continuously. Boil for a minute while stirring to ensure agar powder is fully dissolved as we are making a firm jelly here.

2. Pour into silicone moulds till about 5-10mm thick layer. Chill in fridge for 30 minutes or until firm. You may prepare this a day before assembly time.

3. Use a small heart cookie cutter to cut out small hearts.

Top the Azuki bean cream with a dainty Azuki bean heart :).

All done!

Chocolate chiffon cupcakes with Salted caramel Swiss meringue buttercream

When you have a tried and tested recipe where recipients from more than one party say that it is yummy, you go back to it :).  The chocolate chiffon recipe I use here is a tried and tested recipe that I have used for log cakes, bigger chiffons as well as cupcakes, all with very good reviews. I tweaked the recipe slightly, omitting the Kirsch and  instant coffee but substituting these two with Kahlua coffee liqueur. I also replaced the baking powder with baking soda and find that the batter is more stable so this tweak shall stay for my future chocolate cake bakes. I decided to do this replacement as I still notice some deflating of the batter due to the use of cocoa powder (even with Dutch processed) so an alkaline-based leavening agent such as baking soda will help to balance the pH of the batter better.

Chocolate chiffon cupcake recipe
Ingredients (makes about thirty-five 30x38 cupcakes):
Egg yolk batter
4 egg yolks
10g caster sugar or brown sugar
56g canola or vegetable oil
60g fresh milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
1.5 tsp Kahlua coffee liqueur
26g Dutch processed cocoa powder (if using regular cocoa powder, add 1/2 tsp baking soda)
52g cake flour
1/8 tsp fine sea salt
1/3 tsp baking soda

Meringue
5 egg whites
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
70g caster sugar

Steps:
Follow the same steps as Matcha chiffon recipe above. Just sift together all powdered ingredients and mix all flavourings with the milk.

Salted caramel Swiss meringue buttercream
Ingredients:
180g Reduced-sugar vanilla Swiss meringue buttercream
70g Homemade salted caramel

Steps:
Similar points to take note of as Azuki bean smbc above. Mix salted caramel with vanilla smbc using an electric mixer until light and fluffy.

Piping salted caramel smbc on chocolate cupcakes

Sprinkle the salted caramel cream with some chocolate rice and top with a red heart sprinkle.

Packed and ready to party!

Here's a peek at the insides of the cupcakes. I baked extra so I could do a taste test :).

Soft, moist and fluffy! The lower flour to liquid ratio plus lower temperature steam baking helps to retain the moisture of the cakes.

Like the macarons at the wedding, these were very well received too! The bride said that the chocolate cake with salted caramel was rich and tasty without being too sweet, which was what she wanted. The Matcha Azuki cupcakes however, she felt could do with stronger flavour although she loved the fact that it is also not too sweet, so I have amended the recipe shared here to include more Matcha powder and Azuki bean.


With love,
Phay Shing