Sleepy Cat Deco Swiss Roll

I have tried various deco swiss roll recipes on and off eversince I made my first one in late 2013. But after seeing Keem's ( Instagram account: keempossible_2) amazing intricate patterned/painted chiffon cake work and seeing Melly (Instagram account : mellyeatsworld) replicate the technique flawlessly on her first try using Keem's recipe and technique, I was intrigued enough to purchase her video tutorial and give it a try myself. Verdict? It is the best so far! Previous attempts I often encountered the pattern being stuck to the parchment/Teflon sheet or the pattern not stuck to the base sponge as the texture differences is too great, or simply struggling to work fast enough on the patterns before the meringue breaks down. 

Here's my first attempt using Keem's recipe and technique that is different from what I tried previously! 

Sleepy cat swiss roll with coconut diplomat cream and pulut hitam jelly! I tried to make the cat head silhouette but the jelly was too soft to hold the shape well during rolling🤣. Here's the top view of the roll! 

Although it was a failed attempt at the pulut hitam jelly in cat head shape, I will record it here for reference. You can make a firm plain agar instead and it will work better. 

I created my own homemade cat head cutter using the disposable aluminium trays sold at supermarkets. 

You may refer to this post for the pulut hitam recipe and this post for the coconut diplomat cream recipe. I added 5g monkfruit sugar, 1g pandan powder (from Scoop wholefoods) and 16g unsalted butter to the diplomat cream and used 110g of non-dairy whipping cream. 

I made the pulut hitam agar by dissolving 1 packet (12g) of agar powder in 400g water with 40g sugar. I brought the liquid to a boil and kept stirring until agar powder and sugar is dissolved. I mixed in the pulut hitam (300g) with the agar base, pour it into a lined tray and chill until firm. I cut the jelly using the homemade cutter and chilled the cut pieces until assembly time. 

The diplomat cream can be made in advance too and kept in a piping bag. Keem shared a cream cheese based filling for her swiss roll. I decided to use my own filling as I didn't have cream cheese on hand. As the roll needs to stay at room temperature for some time while the painting is going on, the filling needs to be stable at room temperature so dairy whipped cream would not be suitable in Singapore's weather. I chose diplomat cream as it is light and stable at room temperature. 

I decided not to be too ambitious on my first try so the pattern only involved 4 colours, excluding the base. 

Piping on teflon sheet! I used a 10x12 inch tray instead of 9x11 inch as mentioned in the tutorial and it works fine too. 

Freshly baked patterned chiffon sponge! 

Preparing to roll the sponge with the filling! Note to self, the row of jelly should be placed about an inch towards the center of the roll. After this picture was taken, I piped more cream to cover the jelly before rolling. 

Rolled up swiss roll before chilling! 

I used a mixture of painting with diluted gel colouring and edible marker to add in the fine details and outlines. 

I couldn't resist taking photos with my sleepy cat macarons! The source of my inspiration for this swiss roll design! 

With love,

Phay Shing

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We Bare Bears on Pulut Hitam (Black Glutinous Rice) Cake

My friend requested for a We Bare Bears themed birthday cake for her son's 10th birthday. She wanted the bears to be made out of chocolate macarons, but the cake with an Asian flavour of pulut hitam. So here's what I came up with! 

I used the Swiss meringue method for the macarons. Due to my busy schedule in May, I baked the macarons along with some naturally coloured dinosaur macarons. And froze the undecorated macaron shells. 

Sharing some photos of the process... 

Piped batter. I always prepare an extra set in case of butter fingers damaging the macarons. 

Baked shells are decorated with edible markers and royal icing

The macarons are filled with a ring of vanilla white chocolate buttercream and dark chocolate ganache in the middle. You may refer to this post for vanilla white chocolate buttercream. Just omit the fruit jam and add vanilla bean paste/extract. 

Here's the assembled product, looking very much like a goofy version of the Beatles' Abbey Road crosswalk 🤣. 

Quite a few people have expressed interest in my recipe for the cake. Although I have made pulut hitam chiffon sponge numerous times in the past, this is the first time I am pairing it with coconut diplomat cream and more generous helpings of bubur pulut hitam (black glutinous rice porridge). I must say this is the best pairing so far, compared with my plain chiffon sponge or sponge and pudding versions. I made the coconut diplomat cream less sweet and slightly savoury to complement the sweet black glutinous rice porridge. When all 3 elements (sponge , cream and porridge) are eaten in one bite, it is really heavenly with the burst of flavours and textures. This whole cake can be made totally dairy free too, which I have done. 

To begin, prepare bubur pulut hitam the way you like it according to your preference, but with less coconut milk/coconut cream than you would normally use. If you are clueless, you may refer to this post for how I make mine. I like to use gula melaka (coconut palm sugar) as the sweetener and some pandan leaves for added aroma. You may prepare this in advance, blend it and freeze in packets of 200 to 300g. Make sure it is thawed and at room temperature when using it to make the chiffon sponge. 

You may refer to this post for the chiffon sponge recipe. You may bake it in a chiffon tin, tin with removeable base or as a sheet cake to make swiss roll. Adjust baking temperature and time according to your oven and type /size of cake you are baking. For this request, I baked in a 17cm chiffon tin with another sheet cake to cut circles to cover the hole in the middle. I used caster sugar in the meringue of the chiffon cake batter instead of granulated coconut palm sugar as suggested in my reference recipe as I wanted the cake to be as black as possible without too much brownish tinge to match the zebra crossing macaron. 

Coconut diplomat cream

Ingredients :

220g coconut milk

20g cornflour 

5g Coconut cream powder (optional but I added for extra coconut flavour) 

1/8 tsp salt

25g caster sugar or gula melaka (omit, use less or more according to taste. I omitted because I pair with non dairy whipping cream which is presweetened. Use gula melaka if you want that added flavour and don't mind the brown colour). 

2 egg yolks 

1/2 tsp vanilla extract 

100g whip topping (or dairy whipping cream if you wish*) 

* dairy whipping cream needs to be sweetened and stabilized if you are using. To do so, heat dairy whipping cream with some sugar to dissolve the sugar. Don't bring to a boil. In the meantime, bloom 1 sheet (2g) gelatin in ice water. Melt the gelatin in warm cream and press cling wrap on surface. Chill until firm or overnight. Use electric heating mixer to whip until firm /stiff peak before using. For non-dairy whipping cream, simply whip until firm/stiff peak with electric mixer. 

Steps:

1. Place egg yolks, salt, cornflour, coconut cream powder (if using) and sugar (if using) in a heavy bowl or heavy glass measuring jug. Whisk until well combined. 

2. In the meantime, heat coconut milk with vanilla extract until steaming but not boiling. Pour warm milk in a thin stream into egg yolk mixture while whisking the egg yolk mixture continously. This is to temper the egg yolks. Pour everything back into saucepan. 

3. Heat the mixture over medium-low heat while whisking continuously. Be careful to watch the consistency. Once it starts to thicken, remove from heat and whisk continuously until smooth. Place saucepan back on heat and continue stirring and cooking until the custard is able to hold a firm peak. 

4. Transfer custard into a bowl and press cling wrap on the surface. Refrigerate overnight or at least 1 h. 

5. Prepare whipped cream of choice. Remove custard from fridge and use a spatula to whip it briefly to loosen it. Fold in the whipped cream. Transfer into piping bag for assembly. 

You may assemble it as a swiss roll by coating the sheet cake with diplomat cream and piping/spooning generous amount of porridge in the middle before rolling. Make sure you cook to porridge until quite thick if you are doing thia version. 

For the layered cake version like mine, slice your sponge into 3 layers with a serrated knife. You may assemble without an acetate sheet if you don't have one. Just pipe neat dollops of cream around the circumference of the sponge cakes for an equally aesthetically pleasing look. Fill the space between sponge layers with generous helping of the porridge and some cream. Here is a photo of how I did it. 

You may fold a little blended porridge into the diplomat cream if you wish to increase the black glutinous rice profile but I was going for aesthetics that matches the zebra crossing that the bears are on. 

I topped off the cake with more coconut diplomat cream and bubur pulut hitam. 

Notice that some of my instructions are vague and with many suggested variations in this recipe as I would encourage you to adjust according to your taste preference and presentation style preference. If you are a fan of bubur pulut hitam like I am, this is THE CAKE to eat! But make sure all 3 elements are in the right proportions and start off by making the best bubur pulut hitam. 

With love,

Phay Shing 

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Peppa Pig and Paw Patrol Purple Sweet Potato and Pulut Hitam Sponge & Pudding Cake

When your little one has a variety of characters that she loves, and you would like to try a unique cake flavour, you get a cake that looks like this :)

Peppa Pig meets some representatives from the Paw Patrol squad on top of a black glutinous rice and purple sweet potato sponge and pudding cake!

I have shared the recipe for the black glutinous rice chiffon with purple sweet potato pudding in detail in another blog post. It is a more diabetic friendly cake without compromising flavours and aroma. I didn't use any white sugar in the black glutinous rice chiffon cake, but used coconut palm sugar (Gula melaka) instead. The pretty purple sweet potato pudding contains only a fraction of white sugar as compared to the reference recipe I adapted from. There isn't a need to use a lot of white sugar in the pudding as the coconut milk, fresh milk and sweet potato imparts some natural sweetness to the dessert. The harmonious mix of coconut milk, Gula melaka, pandan, black glutinous rice and purple sweet potato is really nice if you love all these.

What I would really like to share here is the recipe for the macaron shells. As all macaron bakers know, it is a pain to work with many colours within a single batch of batter, and even more so when the quantity of macarons required is so few. That makes it not economical to use Italian method although it is my preferred method for multiple colours of batter within a single batch. I prefer the Italian method when working with multiple colours as it is easier to adjust the colour of the batter without risking overfolding as much as French and Swiss methods because you add the colouring to the batter base before the meringue is added. If you split a single batch of macaron batter into many colours made from French or Swiss method, you have less folds to make before you risk overfolding, because the colouring is added to the batter after the meringue is folded in. The French method also has a less stable meringue than Italian or Swiss meringues as the egg whites are not cooked at all. This means you have to try to work really quickly with the French method if you want to make designs with multiple colours, or resort to using a lot of sugar in the meringue. You could choose to use the Swiss method to make the meringue more stable but you still have to be careful not to overfold the batter while adjusting the colours to the desired shade.

How do I overcome this dilemma? I decided to stick with the French method as it is the simplest logistically and suitable for small batches. But I tweaked the regular recipe to make the meringue stable for a longer time. The key ingredient I added here is cornflour. Much as cornflour helps the macaron shells to dry faster, be less prone to cracking during baking and slows down the breaking down of meringue, adding too much of it will make the batter very thick and the texture a lot more chewy. The slightly higher icing sugar to almond flour proportion used also helps with the stability. Care still needs to be exercised when colouring the batter to prevent overfolding.

Here is the French method recipe for making a more stable macaron batter. Feel free to halve the recipe for an even smaller batch.

Ingredients (makes about 24-28 macarons):
Dry ingredients
90g superfine almond meal
110g icing sugar
1/4 tsp cornflour
1/4 tsp salt (optional)

Meringue
80g egg whites
75g caster sugar
1 tsp cornflour
1/8 tsp cream of tartar

Gel food colouring as needed

Steps:
1. Sift all the powdered ingredients together. Set aside. Prepare baking tray with template and parchment paper. Set oven rack to lowest or second lowest position.

2. Make the meringue. In a small bowl mix cornflour together with caster sugar. Set aside. In a clean metal bowl, beat egg whites with cream of tartar until stiff peaks form, gradually adding caster sugar and cornflour mixture once the egg whites are foamy. Make sure the meringue is really stiff, like whipped cream consistency.

3. Make the batter. Scatter half of dry ingredients into meringue. Gently fold in with a spatula until just combined. Scatter the rest of the dry ingredients. Gently fold in until just combined. Divide the batter to to the number of desired colours. Carefully add as much gel colouring as is needed and gently fold in until the batter is homogeneous. If the batter consistency is still too thick at this point, continue folding until it is able to flow like slow-moving lava.

4. Transfer into piping bag and pipe away! Dry the shells before baking. You may find the details of the basics of making the batter, piping and baking in my Creative Baking: Macaron Basics and Creative Baking: Macarons books.

Just to share some photos of the process...

Freshly baked macaron shells. Checkout the awesome feet!

I made only 9 characters in total with a little leftover batter to spare. But it was tedious! Fine details were added in using edible marker and royal icing.

I filled the macarons with dark chocolate ganache and homemade salted caramel as requested.

I mounted the macarons on cake pop sticks so it is easier to display on top of the cake.

I have a few photos to share for the sponge and pudding cake too. Some people are hesitant to replace all the white sugar with coconut palm sugar in the meringue as they are afraid that the meringue will not whip as well. This is to prove that it can!

Egg whites beaten to firm peak with only coconut palm sugar added

Folding in the egg yolk batter and meringue. The black bits are black glutinous rice grains that I didn't process until superfine to provide some bite to the cake.

Nice and tall pulut hitam chiffon!

Layering the sponge and pudding layers. I love the natural colours!

I added on simple deco with white chiffon sheet cake

With love,
Phay Shing

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Pulut Hitam and Purple Sweet Potato Chiffon Sponge and Pudding Cake

My mum has diabetes so I have to be creative in coming up with birthday cakes that are tasty but yet low in GI. It is my preference to use wholesome natural ingredients without resorting to artificial sugar and so I came up with this cake that you most probably can't find elsewhere :)

Pulut hitam (black glutinous rice) chiffon cake with purple sweet potato pudding and topped off with sweet potato Ondeh-Ondeh! Absolutely no artificial colouring is used.

I used only Gula melaka or coconut palm sugar as the sweetener in the chiffon cake, and the pudding is adapted from here with only 20% of caster sugar that the original recipe suggested. You may think that this cake will be bland tasting but far from it, it is really flavourful from the harmonious blend of black glutinous rice, coconut milk, pandan, Gula melaka and sweet potato, but yet it is not too sweet!

This cake may appear simple but it is made from scratch with a lot of love. I began by cooking the black glutinous rice porridge. You may refer to this post for the recipe for the porridge. Although I provided the recipe for the pulut hitam chiffon sponge in that post, I tweaked it to make it suitable for baking in a chiffon tin as it needs to be more structurally stable than when you bake a flat layer cake. You may choose to use a recipe that uses black glutinous rice flour but the flour as not as easily available as the raw black glutinous rice grains and I find the flour sold in Singapore isn't as fragrant as the ones from Indonesia that my friend gave me a few years ago. Personally I prefer the version baked by using the porridge. I also usually sneak a bowlful to eat as it is one of my favourite Asian desserts!

Recipe for pulut hitam chiffon cake
Ingredients (for one 17cm chiffon tin or one 15cm chiffon tin + one 7" square sheet cake):
3 egg yolks
33g Coconut oil
180g black glutinous rice porridge
15g coconut cream or coconut milk
80g cake flour
1/8 tsp salt
1/2 tsp charcoal powder (optional)

4 egg whites
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
50g granulated coconut palm sugar (use more if you have a sweet tooth as mine is not a very sweet version)

Steps:
1. Set oven rack to second lowest position. Place a tray of water at base of oven (optional). Preheat oven to 150℃.

2. Whisk egg yolks until pale and thick. Add oil and whisk until well combined. Add coconut cream and porridge and whisk until well combined. Gradually add in sifted flour, salt and charcoal powder and whisk until no trace of flour is seen.

3. In a clean metal bowl, beat egg whites with cream of tartar until firm peaks form, gradually adding in Gula melaka once the egg whites are foamy.

4. Quickly but gently fold the meringue into the egg yolk batter in three additions. Pour into the prepared chiffon tin (and square tray if you are baking a sponge cake to cover the hole of the chiffon cake). Use a chopstick to run through the batter to pop any trapped air bubbles

5. Bake for 15 minutes and then reduce the temperature to 130℃ and bake for another 30 min. Reduce the temperature to 110℃ and bake for another 10-20 min or until skewer comes out clean. Bake the sheet cake for 15 min or until skewer comes out clean.

6. Invert immediately when removed from oven to cool. When completely cooled, carefully unmould the cake from the chiffon tin by hand.

7. Slice the chiffon cake horizontally using a long serrated knife into two, three or even four slices as you wish. I use a ruler and toothpicks as markers to indicate where to slice horizontally. Keep the sliced cake in airtight container while you prepare the pudding.

Recipe for purple sweet potato pudding
Ingredients:
A)
400g pandan water (boil a several torn up pandan leaves in water for 10 min)
16g Caster sugar (please use more sugar if you prefer it sweeter)
1/3 tsp salt
1 tsp agar powder

B)
147g purple sweet potato puree (steamed and mashed)
180g coconut milk

C)
40g cornflour
67g fresh milk
1 and 1/3 tsp coconut oil (optional)

Steps:
1. Place all ingredients in A) in a saucepan. Mix together B) ingredients in a bowl. Mix together C) ingredients in a jug.

2. Bring A) to boil, stirring frequently. Make sure that all the agar powder is dissolved.

3. Add B) to A) and bring to boil while stirring.

4. Stir C) again as the cornflour would have settled to the bottom. Slowly pour in a small and steady stream into the saucepan while stirring the contents in the saucepan. Continue stirring while heating over medium-low heat for another 2-3 minutes. The mixture will thicken.

5. Pour the contents of the saucepan through a sieve to remove any lumps that may be there.

Assembly
You may use a springform pan or flexible clear cake plastic rings like what I used. If using the plastic rings, make sure that you prepare the bottom layer of sponge on the cakeboard with the plastic ring secured before you make the pudding.

1. Place a layer of sponge on cakeboard with the cake plastic ring. You may cover the hole with a round sheet cake cutout from the sheet cake if you wish.

2. Use a ladle to scoop some pudding to cover the sponge. You may layer it as thick or thin as you want.

3. Place the second layer of sponge on top of the pudding carefully. Gently but firmly press it down such that the pudding comes into contact with the sponge.

4. Repeat steps 2 and 3 until you have the desired number of alternating layers.

5. Cover the top of the assembly with cling wrap. Refrigerate for 2h or overnight. Carefully remove the plastic cake ring.

I chose to decorate with some purple sweet potato pudding flower cutouts and sweet potato Ondeh-Ondeh. You may refer to this post for the recipe for Ondeh-Ondeh.

This cake is really lovely for those of you who love pulut hitam and coconut milk combi but want something not so sweet. My friend who took some extra cake that I made let her parents-in-law try. They loved it so much that she wants me to bake that for her father-in-law’s birthday!

Needless to say, my family enjoyed the cake too! Here's a peek at the cross section of the cake

Update: this is the cake I made for my friend's father-in-law. I put the pudding on top instead of the sponge 😊

The freshly baked chiffon cake looks so inviting I just had to take a photo of it!

I made a bigger 17cm chiffon cake.

With lots of love,
Phay Shing

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Ondeh-Ondeh and Pulut Hitam Sheep Macarons (New recipe!)

I have the privilege of baking for Victoria's little girl's first month celebration. I am a fan of Victoria's bakes and am really happy and excited for this chance to bake for her! She requested for sheep macarons as the little one is her little lamb given by God, and her name is Love :)

Ondeh-Ondeh and Pulut Hitam flavours!

Victoria challenged me to make macarons with these two unique Asian flavours and I think I rose up to the challenge :p. I have made Ondeh-Ondeh macarons before but using the French method, and it was delicious! For a larger batch, Italian method would be better so this is the first time I adapted my original recipe for this method. Pulut Hitam (black glutinous rice) on the other hand was totally new. But I am so glad the experiment turned out fine!

In order to create macarons with these flavours, it is only fitting that I use some coconut to replace some almond meal in the macaron shells. The resulting shells are not as smooth looking as my regular macarons but they are so fragrant with a slightly chewy coconuty bite! The ratio of dessicated coconut: almond meal could do with some refinement but it's more for cosmetic purposes because the taste and texture is still awesome with my current recipe!

Note
Do scale the recipe accordingly as I was catering for a large batch of macarons. During this macaron mania, I catered for a few other smaller requests concurrently. My recipe is reduced sugar as well so if you don't want the hassle of using rice flour and corn flour, simply replace those items with icing sugar.

The sheep templates can be found in my Creative Baking: Macarons book.

Recipe for coconut macaron shells
Ingredients (makes about 65-75 macarons, 130-150 shells):
Mass
170g superfine almond meal
70g dessicated coconut, sifted (I would reduce to 60g next time)
10g coconut cream powder (you may replace with dessicated coconut. I added to enhance flavour)
4g cornflour
13g rice flour
233g icing sugar
1/8 tsp fine sea salt
100g egg whites, preferably aged
A few drops of colourless Pandan flavouring (optional)
1/2 tsp Dutch processed cocoa powder

Meringue
240g caster sugar
96g egg whites, preferably aged
88g water
1/4 tsp cream of tartar (optional)

Steps:
1. Prepare baking tray with template and baking paper over the template.

2. Prepare the mass. Sift almond, dessicated coconut, coconut cream powder, corn flour, rice flour, icing sugar and salt. You may choose not to use some of the dessicated coconut bits that are coarser or grind the dessicated coconut before sifting. Add egg whites and Pandan flavouring (if using). Mix well to form a thick paste.

3. Prepare the meringue. Place caster sugar and water in a small saucepan. Stir a little to wet the sugar thoroughly. Heat the sugar and water until 115℃ on the candy thermometer. In the meantime, beat the egg whites with cream of tartar until soft peaks form. Reduce mixer speed if necessary. Once the temperature is reached, increase the mixer speed to high and carefully pour the syrup into the egg whites in a thin stream. Keep beating on high speed for another 15 minutes or until cool (about body temperature).

4. Fold the meringue into the mass in two additions until the batter flows in a slow-moving lava-like way. You may refer to this post for video tutorials on how to fold the batter and how to test the consistency of the batter. Scoop out about 2-3 tbs of batter and add sifted cocoa powder. Mix well.

5. Transfer batter into piping bags and pipe away! Bang the tray on the table to release trapped air.

Piped shells

6. Dry the shells in air con room or under the fan until you are able to slide a finger across the shells without feeling any stickiness.

7. Bake in preheated oven at 140℃ on lowest rack for 10 minutes. Reduce temperature to 115℃ and bake for another 10-12 minutes or until the feet does not appear wet. Cool completely before carefully removing the baking paper away from the shells.

Freshly baked!

Checkout the awesome feet!

Fluffy, soft and chewy interior!

Victoria requested for no artificial colouring to be used at all so I coloured the pink parts of royal icing with a natural source of food colouring from PME.

The heart-shaped pendants were made by piping royal icing on baking paper with heart template under it. I dried the icing overnight and gently peel it off the baking sheet.

Charcoal powder was used to colour the icing black for the eyes. I used edible marker for the nose.

Decorated shells!

I made the black glutinous rice porridge and froze it earlier on ahead of this macaron mania. Do note that I omitted coconut milk (so as not to have an overpowering coconut flavour as the macaron shells already have coconut, and to improve the shelf life of the filled macarons) and reduced the amount of gula melaka in the porridge to cater for macarons.

Recipe for black glutinous rice porridge
Ingredients:
150g black glutinous rice
750g water
3 Pandan leaves, knotted or cut into big pieces
75g gula melaka, chopped
1/2 tsp salt
1/8 tsp coconut flavouring (optional)

Steps:
1. Wash the rice and soak for 2hours. Drain the water and wash and drain again.
2. Place rice, water and Pandan leaves in a saucepan. Bring to boil and simmer for 15 minutes, stirring now and then. Remove Pandan leaves.
3. Add gula melaka , salt and coconut flavouring (if using). Stir until sugar dissolves.
4. Continue to simmer and stir until the porridge is thick.
5. Remove from heat and blend until as finely as you can. You may cool and freeze this porridge. Simply thaw when you want to use it.

I use a less sweet whipped white chocolate ganache as the base for these macarons. The ganache will taste weird on its own but paired with the sweet shells, it will be just right. The Ondeh-Ondeh filling is flavoured with extra Pandan paste and the pulut hitam filling has a substantial portion of the porridge added in.

Less-sweet whipped white chocolate ganache recipe
Ingredients:
168g White chocolate, chopped
84g Unsalted butter
84g Vegetable shortening
105g Heavy cream
3/4 tsp Fine sea salt
1.5 tsp Caramel flavouring (or vanilla extract if you prefer)
1 tsp lemon juice (to counter the sweetness)
1/2 tsp coconut flavouring

Steps:
1. Place white chocolate, shortening and butter in a microwave-safe bowl. Heat on medium power for 20 seconds and mix well. Repeat until mixture is smooth and melted.

2. Heat cream, lemon juice and flavourings in a small saucepan on low heat until it starts to bubble. Pour over melted chocolate. Mix well with spatula.

3. Add salt and mix well.

4. Freeze the mixing bowl with the ganache for 2 minutes. Mix well with spatula. Repeat until mixture starts firming up. You may switch to electric mixer and beat until creamy.

Whipped white chocolate ganache

Pandan caramel ganache
Add 1/2-1 tsp Pandan paste for every 200g or whipped white chocolate ganache

Pulut Hitam ganache
Use a ratio of 1:1 for whipped ganache : black glutinous rice porridge. I used a ratio of 2:1 for this batch and feel that the flavour is a little understated so you may want to increase the proportion of pulut hitam. Gradually add the porridge into the ganache and mix well.

Whipped Pulut Hitam ganache

Assembly
Pulut Hitam:
Pipe a ring of pulut hitam ganache. Fill the center with the porridge. Place top shell on.

Ondeh-Ondeh:
Pipe a ring of Pandan caramel ganache. Pipe a thin layer of ganache in the middle of the ring to coat the base shell. Fill the "well" with gula melaka syrup. Pipe some ganache over the syrup. Place top shell on.

These Asian flavoured macarons are truly yummy and fragrant! So give it a try if you are fans of Ondeh-Ondeh or pulut hitam!

Here's a sneak peek of the inside of the Ondeh-Ondeh macaron. Forgot to take photo of the pulut hitam one 😅.

Yummy!

With lots of love,
Phay Shing

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'Tang yuan' White Glutinous Rice Flour Chiffon Cake

We’ve heard of Black glutinous rice chiffon cake (Pulut hitam chiffon cake), but what about White glutinous rice chiffon cake? This is one experimental flavour that I had been wanting to try for a long time, as I love 'Tang yuan' (sweet glutinous rice balls). I made the glutinous rice flour chiffon cake with pandan ‘Tang shui’. The resulting flavour is very fragrant, with glutinous rice and pandan fragrance/flavour, and sticky chewy feel of glutinous rice! My 2-year old loved it so much she finished 3/4 of the plain 6-inch cake herself! It may be a great way to clear leftover glutinous rice flour from making 'Tang yuan'.

Glutinous Rice Flour Chiffon Cake

Very soft slice

Last year, a sifu friend had also challenged me to make a chiffon version of ‘tang yuan’ but I was too busy then. So this year, I finally tried making a chiffon “Tang yuan”, and with Glutinous rice flour chiffon flavour as it’s so apt. I actually made this for my own birthday cake =p. Everything including the bowl and spoon is made from chiffon cake, and my kids had such fun digging into it!

My simple birthday cake for my small family of 5 =p

In my first trial of the recipe, I used all (100%) white glutinous rice flour. The resulting chiffon cake was really soft and yummy, full of glutinous rice flavour, however, the cake dented easily (glutinous rice is sticky, so when compressed, the cake sticks together and doesn’t spring back). So finally I used mixture of glutinous rice flour and cake flour so that the texture is more bouncy, but still has the sticky chewy feel of glutinous rice and lovely fragrance. I used pandan water which further enhances the flavour! I feel nostalgia eating this chiffon cake!

Here I’ve shared first the White Glutinous Rice Flour Chiffon Cake recipe for a normal tube pan (6-inch) first for those who are interested in the flavour. Then followed by the fun ‘Tang yuan’ version. Hope you will like this interesting creation!

Glutinous Rice Flour Chiffon Cake (6-inch tube pan)
2 egg yolks
13g castor sugar
26g coconut/vegetable oil
32g pandan water (water boiled with pandan leaves) or pandan juice
30g white glutinous rice flour
10g cake flour (Prima)
Pandan flavoring (few drops, will be more fragrant)

3 egg whites
30g castor sugar
¼ cream of tartar

*You can also use all (100%) white glutinous rice flour, but the texture won’t be so bouncy.

Here’s a picture of the glutinous rice flour I used (same as for 'Tang yuan'):

1. Prepare pandan water (boil a small saucepan of water with a bunch of pandan leaves) like how you prepare ‘tang shui’, omitting the rock sugar.

*You can also use leftover ‘tang shui’, ie pandan water boiled with rock sugar, but you will need to omit the sugar for egg yolk batter and reduce sugar for meringue accordingly, so that the cake will not be too sweet.

*Other substitutes: you can also use pandan juice, or water with pandan flavouring (1g).

2. Preheat oven to 160°C.

3. Whisk egg yolks with sugar until light and well-mixed.

4. Add in oil and mix well. Then add pandan water/juice and whisk till well-combined.

5. Whisk in sifted glutinous rice flour and cake flour. Mix till well-combined and no more lumps. 

6. Prepare meringue:

a. 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.


7. Gently fold in meringue into egg yolk batter 1/3 at a time. *Fold in unidirectional, gentle strokes and do not overfold.

8. Pour the batter into the tube pan. Gently tap to remove bubbles.

9. Bake at 160°C for 15 min, then 140°C for 20-25 min, or until skewer inserted into centre of cake comes out clean.

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

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


Texture is really soft! I love the light fragrant smell of the pandan with glutinous rice.

‘Tang yuan’ version of Glutinous Rice Flour Chiffon Cake (one ‘bowl’)
2 egg yolks
13g castor sugar
26g coconut/vegetable oil
32g pandan water (water boiled with pandan leaves) or pandan juice
20g white glutinous rice flour
20g cake flour (Prima)
Pandan flavoring (few drops, will be more fragrant)

3 egg whites
30g castor sugar
¼ cream of tartar

*I used 1:1 white glutinous rice flour: cake flour here, so that texture is more bouncy and easier to handle.

1. Preheat oven to 160°C. Prepare a small glass/metal bowl (4-5 inch), silicone cake pop mold, and a baking paper-lined 8-inch baking tray.

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

3. Add in oil and mix well. Then add pandan water/juice and whisk till well-combined.

4. Whisk in sifted glutinous rice flour and cake flour. Mix till well-combined and no more lumps. I used a slightly higher ratio of cake flour here so that the cake is easier to handle.

5. Spoon out 5 tsp batter to make the ‘soup’. Add a dip of cocoa powder or chocolate paste to colour the batter slightly browner. Spoon out 5 tsp batter to make the ‘tang yuan’ cake pops. Add desired ‘tang yuan’ color eg pink or green (using pandan paste). You can also leave the ‘tang yuan’ cake pops plain-colored.


6. Prepare meringue:

a. 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.


7. Transfer out 10 tbsp meringue for the brown ‘soup’ batter, and 10 tbsp meringue for the ‘tang yuan’ batter. Leave the rest of the meringue for the plain batter.

8. Gently fold in meringue into respective egg yolk batters 1/3 at a time.

9. Spoon the plain batter into the bowl till 80% full. Bake at 160°C for 15 min, then 140°C for 20 min or until skewer comes clean. Pour the rest of the plain batter side-by-side with the brown batter into 8-inch baking pan to make sheet cake. Bake at 160°C for 15 min. Lastly spoon the ‘tang yuan’ batter into small cake pop molds and bake at 160°C for 12 min.

10. Allow the cakes to cool completely on a wire rack before unmoulding by hand.

11. To assemble, use a large round cutter to cut a depression into the bowl cake. Use the same round cutter to cut a circle from the brown sheet cake to fill the hole (to make the ‘soup’).

12. Cut the ‘tang yuan’ cake pops into halves and place them on the ‘soup’. Cut a ‘spoon’ shape (oval plus long strip) from plain sheet cake and gently insert a bamboo skewer in.


Happy Winter Solstice! Hope you will like this new flavour and cute creation! May this be a meaningful and special day of "reunion" for you with your families. Here are my kids having some fun.. =)

With lots of love,
Susanne

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