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!

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Kawaii Neko Landscape-Camou Chiffon Cake (Matcha, Charcoal, Cocoa, Vanilla)

This is one of my favourite creations because I love Japanese art and all things kawaii!!

The base cake is a Camouflage marble design, made from natural colouring using Matcha (light green), Bamboo Charcoal (grey), Cocoa (brown) and Vanilla, inspired by the Japanese landscape art my friend sent me. The colour scheme and ingredients chosen are also very Japanese. I had long stripes of brown and grey running down diagonally across the base, inspired by the planks and river in the landscape. And these are filled with green and cream colour from the greenery and house. This is also one of my bigger cakes, being baked in a 10-inch (or 25-cm) chiffon tube pan and uses a 10-egg recipe for a tall cake.

I also made some cute features from chiffon cake requested from my friend, a dish of sashimi, a ball and cute cushions for the cats to play with!

Landscape-Camou Chiffon Cake (Matcha, Charcoal, Cocoa and Vanilla) (10-inch chiffon tin)
10 egg yolks
67g castor sugar
132g vegetable/corn oil
127g water
200g cake flour
18g vanilla extract
Matcha paste (2 tsp matcha powder in 10g hot water)
Charcoal paste (1/4 tsp charcoal powder in 10g hot water)
Cocoa paste (1 tsp alkalized cocoa powder in 10g hot water)
*Making the paste helps prevent the chiffon cake from have uneven specks of the powder.

13 egg whites
150g castor sugar
1/2 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 to control my oven temperature rise and for ogura-like texture.

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

3. Next add in sieved flour and whisk till no trace of flour found.

4. Divide the batter into 4. To three of the portions, add matcha paste, charcoal paste and cocoa paste respectively. To the remaining portion, add 10 g hot water.

5. Meringue: Beat the egg whites with cream of tartar till foamy. Add in ½ castor sugar for meringue and beat till soft peaks form. Add in the remaining castor sugar and beat till firm peaks form (or just to the point of stiff peak). This helps for finer and softer texture.

6. Divide the meringue into 4. Gently but quickly fold in the meringue into the 4 colours batter in 2 additions. You need to work fast for the meringue not to deflate.

7. Alternate the spooning of different coloured batter randomly into the tin (I tried to make the blobs longish by spooning diagonally across the base). Repeat the alternate spooning of coloured batter till 2-cm from the rim. Gently tap the tin on the counter top 3x to remove air bubbles.

8. Bake the chiffon cake at 160°for 15 min then at 150°C for 10 min, then at 140°C for 30 min, then at 130° for 15 min, or until skewer inserted into centre of cake comes out clean.

9. Invert the chiffon cake once removed from oven to cool completely on a wire rack.

10. Unmould the chiffon cake by hand (watch Video tutorial 'Hand Unmoulding Chiffon Cakes for a Clean Finishing').

My Japanese Landscape/flavours-inspired Camouflage Chiffon Cake! Freshly unmoulded =). It smelled really good out of the oven!

For the cute neko (or cats), I baked a reduced egg yolk vanilla chiffon in 5-cm silicone cake pop moulds (silkomart) for the white cat, and a normal vanilla-chocolate chiffon for the cream/brown-coloured cat. The body of the white cat was just nice to cover the tube hole in which I hid a hidden surprise! I cut the ears and limbs from layer chiffon cake and cake pops and affixed them onto the cake using melted marshmallows.

Thankful it was well-received, just today! =)

With lots of love,
Susanne

More Loving Creations here..

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Camouflage Chiffon Cake with Chiffon Army Tank (Pandan, Matcha, Chocolate Chiffon)

This is a Camouflage-themed Chiffon Cake I made for a dear friend's son a while ago! The cake is entirely naturally colored, made from pandan, matcha and chocolate chiffon cake which are perfect for army colours! ;) The army tank, trees, trenches and rocks are also made from pandan and chocolate chiffon cake. I have previously shared how to make the Army Tank from chiffon cake, and the yummy honey matcha chiffon cake (on top). The tier cake is made like normal tier cakes using dowel supports. I used melted marshmallows to glue on all the chiffon cake decor. This is an SG50 year so what more apt to top it with our very own SG50 Army Lion :)!

One thing to note about making patterned or dual-or more-coloured chiffon cakes is that you really need to work very quickly for the meringue not to deflate so as to not compromise the quality and height of your chiffon cake. So plan and prepare everything well in advance.

Thank God my friend shared everyone loved the cake!

Camouflage Chiffon Cake
Ingredients (for 23 cm chiffon tin)
8 egg yolks (I used Chew's medium eggs)
53g sugar
106g vegetable oil
117ml water
160g cake flour
5 ml pandan paste
10g coconut cream powder
1.25 tsp matcha powder
1 tsp cocoa powder (extra dark)
½ tsp cocoa paste
A pinch of salt

11 egg whites
120g sugar
1/4 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 because it makes my chiffon cakes soft and ogura-like.
2. Beat egg yolks with sugar with whisk till pale yellow before stirring in oil and water.
3. Next add in sieved flour and whisk till no trace of flour found.
4. Divide the batter into 3 (scoop out 25 tsp into another 2 bowls for matcha and chocolate chiffon). To the first bowl, add 1.25 tsp matcha powder dissolved in 1 tsp warm honey. To the second bowl, add 1 tsp cocoa powder (extra dark) and ½ tsp cocoa paste. Mix well. To the rest of the egg yolk batter, add 5 ml pandan paste, 10 g coconut cream paste and a pinch of salt for the pandan chiffon. Mix well.
5. Meringue: Beat the egg whites with ¼ tsp cream of tartar till stiff peak, mixing in caster sugar in 2 additions.
6. Divide the meringue into 3 (approximately 50 tbsp into matcha and chocolate batter). Gently but quickly fold in the meringue into the 3 batter.
7. Transfer 3 tbsp of the final matcha and chocolate batter into 2 piping bags. Cut a 3-5mm hole in each piping bag and pipe light green and brown camouflage spots at the base and sides of the tin. Bake for 2 min. *You need to work very fast for the meringue not to deflate.
8. Scoop and fill the remaining spaces with the pandan batter. *You may use up the remaining matcha and chocolate batter to create more patterns at the top.
9. Bake the chiffon cake for 15 min at 160°C and then at 150°C for 10 min, 140°C for 20 min and 130°C for 15 min. *The temperature decrease is to prevent browning from hiding the camou patterns.
10. Invert the chiffon cake once removed from oven.
11. Unmould the chiffon cake by hand gently (see 'Hand Unmoulding Chiffon Cake for Clean Finishing' Video tutorial).

Freshly unmoulded cake! Still very tall (phew!).

Happy belated birthday to Devon!

With lots of love,

Susanne

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Army Tank Chiffon Cake (Pandan, Matcha and Chocolate)

This is an Army Tank made out of Pandan, Matcha and Chocolate chiffon cake for my dear Daddy who loves war films!

It just so happens that my parents’ favorite flavours, pandan, matcha and chocolate are army colours and provides natural food colour! The tank body itself is made of Pandan chiffon cake with Matcha and Chocolate chiffon cake patterns. I baked it in a rectangular dish/tray which is the smallest tray I have. Alternatively, you can bake it in a 6-inch thick tray and slice the cake in half. The top is chiffon cake baked in a small glass bowl. The rubber belt is Pandan chiffon cake with added Charcoal powder to darken the shade of green baked as a layer in a 10-inch tray.

5 egg yolks
33g sugar
65 corn oil
62ml water
8 ml vanilla extract
100g cake flour
½ tsp pandan paste
1 tsp cocoa powder
1 tsp matcha powder

Meringue for Patterns (matcha and cocoa spots)
1 egg white
11 g sugar
1/6 tsp cream of tartar

Meringue for cake
7 egg whites
75g sugar
1/4 tsp cream of tartar

1. Preheat oven to 160°C. Line the base of the trays with baking paper.
2. Beat egg yolks with sugar with whisk till pale yellow before stirring in oil and water.
3. Next add in sieved flour and whisk till no trace of flour found.
4. Piping batter: scoop over 1 tsp into two bowls. To one, add 1 tsp matcha powder. To another, add 1 tsp cocoa powder (top left pic in collage).
5. Cake batter: Add ½ tsp pandan paste to the remaining batter. Scoop out 11 tsp and add ½ tsp charcoal powder for the belt (top right pic in collage).
6. Meringue for pattern: Whisk 1 egg white for meringue with cream of tartar and sugar till stiff peak. Scoop over 3 tbsp to the matcha batter and charcoal batter respectively. Fold in the meringue gently, taking care not to deflate the egg whites. I used a small teaspoon to deposit small spots of batter on the baking paper in the tray and in the small round bowl for the army patterns (you can also pipe in but I was feeling lazy). Bake for 1.5 min.
7. Meringue for cake: Beat the egg whites with ¼ tsp cream of tartar till stiff peak, mixing in caster sugar in 2 additions. Scoop over 22 tbsp to the pandan/charcoal batter.
8. Fold in the meringue gently into the respective pandan and pandan/charcoal cake batter in 3 additions.
9. Scoop the pandan cake batter gently over the spots in the tray and bowl till 80% full. Scoop the pandan/charcoal batter into a baking-paper lined 10-inch tray. Gently tap the trays/bowl on table to remove air bubbles.
10. Bake the tank body tray and bowl for 15 min at 160°C then 10-15 min at 150°C. Bake the 10-inch tray for 15 min at 160°C.
11. Place the trays/bowl on a cooling rack to cool and then unmould when cool by peeling off the baking paper or from bowl (bottom left pic in collage).
12. Cut the darker coloured pandan chiffon layer cake into strips and then stick it onto the block using melted marshmallows. Cut slits in the strip to create a rubber belt (bottom right pic in collage).
13. Place the bowl cake inverted onto the tank cake to form the turret.
14. Insert a straw covered with a thin layer of cake or pocky into the turret to form the gun.
15. Cut circles from the dark pandan layer cake to form the wheels and stick them on using melted marshmallows. Do likewise for the round hatch on top.

Kids had fun cutting the cake and it got a thumbs up!

Happy birthday to my dear daddy and Happy Father’s day! I thank God for you.

With lots of love,
Susanne 

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