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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Tsum Tsum Chip and Dale Earl Grey Macarons

I was making a batch of Earl grey cocoa cross shaped macaron shells as one of the items for the dessert table for an event. I couldn't resist the chance to use some of the batter to make these for my kids who have been badgering me to make something Earl grey flavoured for them!

I made only 3 of each but will type out the recipe as if it were for a bigger batch.

Do checkout my Creative Baking: Macarons book as it brings you through the basics to the various techniques required for creating complex shaped macarons!

Recipe for Chip n Dale macaron shells
Ingredients (makes about 40-45 macarons):
200g almond meal (preferably superfine)
200g icing sugar
200g caster sugar
160g egg whites, divide into two equal portions (aging is not necessary but I do it to save time separating eggs on actual day of baking)
75ml water

Colouring and flavouring**:
Beige: 2g Earl grey powder + tiny drop of yellow gel food colouring
Brown: 1g Dutch processed cocoa powder + 2g Earl grey powder + yellow and orange gel food colouring
Dark brown: 5g Dutch processed cocoa powder + pinch of charcoal powder + orange and yellow gel food colouring.

** replace with gel food colouring or more cocoa powder if Earl grey powder is unavailable

Steps:
1. Prepare baking trays with Chip n Dale template under baking paper. Stick the corners of baking paper with Italian meringue when you have made the meringue.

2. Make the mass. Sift almond and icing sugar together in a large mixing bowl. Add 80g egg whites and mix well to form a thick paste. Divide the paste into 3 equal parts. Add food colouring/ flavouring until desired shade is obtained.

3. Prepare the Italian meringue. Boil caster sugar and water in a small saucepan until 115°C. Use a candy thermometer to monitor the temperature. In the mean time, beat the rest of the egg whites in a clean metal bowl at medium low speed until soft peaks form. Do not beat past this stage. Reduce mixer speed if necessary. Once temperature of syrup is reached, remove from heat, turn up mixer speed to medium high speed and carefully pour syrup into egg whites, avoiding the beaters. Continue beating for another 10 minutes until cool, stiff and glossy. Divide the Italian meringue into three equal portions.

4. Macaronage. Fold the Italian meringue into the mass in two additions until the consistency is like slow-moving lava. The first addition is about a third of the meringue. You may refer to this post for video tutorials of the macaron basics.

5. Transfer the batter into piping bags fitted with round piping tips of appropriate sizes. Use a toothpick to nudge the batter into place where necessary. You may refer to this post for video tutorials on how to pipe complex shaped macarons. Bang the tray hard on the table top a few times to release trapped air bubbles.

Piping out in stages!

6. Let the shells dry under a fan or in an air-conditioned room until no longer sticky to touch. About 1-2 hours, depending on humidity. Preheat oven to 140°C towards end of drying time. Set oven rack to lowest position.

7. Bake for 17-20 minutes, rotating the tray halfway through baking. If the feet of the shells still appear wet, bake for another 5 minutes at 115°C. Cool completely before peeling the baking sheet away from the shells.

Freshly baked and starting to decorate with royal icing, edible marker and lustre dust! Yes I was baking some bears concurrently as well!

Recipe for whipped Earl grey white chocolate ganache

I chose to use a ratio of 3:1 for white chocolate : cream + butter for a firm ganache. You may play around with this ratio or replace the butter with cream if you want a softer ganache.

Ingredients (fills approximately 40 macarons):
180g white chocolate, chopped
45g heavy cream
15g unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
1.5-2 tbs Earl grey tea powder*
1/4 tsp fine sea salt
1/4 tsp vanilla bean paste

* you may infuse 3 Earl grey tea bags in hot heavy cream if you are unable to obtain Earl grey tea powder. Prepare about 60g of cream instead and steep teabags in hot cream for 5 minutes. Squeeze out the bags and measure out 45g of Earl grey infused cream.

Steps:
1. Place chopped white chocolate and butter in a microwave safe bowl and melt using medium power in 10-20 seconds heating cycles, stirring well in between.

2. Place cream in small saucepan and heat over low heat until it starts to bubble. Remove from heat and pour over melted chocolate.

3. Use a spatula or whisk to mix the cream into the melted chocolate, stirring in one direction until well combined.

4. Gradually add sifted tea powder and mix well. Add salt and vanilla and mix well. Adjust amount of tea powder according to taste.

5. Chill the ganache for about 10 minutes in the fridge. Use an electric mixer, hand whisk or spatula to whip the chilled ganache for a couple of minutes until texture lightens up. If you prefer a denser filling, you may skip this step and use the ganache once it firms up to toothpaste consistency after sitting at room temperature for half an hour to an hour.

Whipped Earl Grey White Chocolate ganache! 

6. Transfer to piping bag and pipe onto shells.

 Sandwich the shells and refrigerate for half an hour or overnight. This ganache is firm enough to leave the macarons in cool air-conditioned room temperature for a few days. Perfect as gifts :). If you are storing them in the fridge, leave them out at room temperature for 15 minutes before serving or the ganache will be too firm to eat.

Take a peek at the insides! I only get to take these photos when my kids eat the macarons! Excuse the blur image. My kid's hand was shaking. Can't wait to eat the macarons!

Yums!

Strong flavour without being too sweet! The Earl grey makes the whole package fragrant but less sweet. I made this filling because I have the privilege of making some macarons for the staff of Marshall Cavendish and Earl grey flavour was requested. They were very well received so do give this recipe a try if you are looking at not-so-sweet macarons that need to stay out of the fridge for a few days.

With lots of love,
Phay Shing

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Rabbit and Squirrel Coconut Chiffon Cake

Happy birthday to my dearest Charissa! She turns 2 years old today! I thank God for this sweet cute little bub who brightens up my day! This cake was inspired by a picture shared by a friend.. when she saw it, she said she wants ‘Tabeet’ =D. So she got her rabbit cake! It was a joint celebration with my SIL, so I made another squirrel, one for each of them! =) I tried out Coconut Chiffon Cake this time as coconut butter cookies posts by Enne Ty and other coconut posts recently really got me salivating! The coconut chiffon cake is yummy (to me =p)! I used reduced egg yolks for whiter cake for the rabbit.

Coconut Chiffon Cake (also for 7-inch chiffon tin)
1 egg yolk
20g castor sugar
38g liquid coconut oil (you can substitute with vegetable or corn oil but the taste may be less strong)
50g coconut milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
60g cake flour

4 egg whites
45g castor sugar
¼ tsp cream of tartar

1. Preheat oven to 160°C.

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

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

4. Meringue: Beat the egg whites with ¼ tsp cream of tartar till firm peaks form or just to the point of reaching stiff peak, mixing in caster sugar in 2 additions.

5. Gently fold meringue into egg yolk batter 1/3 at a time.

6. Pour the batter into a ball cake pan till ½ full (for rabbit head), small glass bowl (for rabbit body), 2 cake pops (for ears) and into a 23-cm baking paper-lined baking pan (swissrolls for ears and arms).

*You can also use this recipe for a normal 7-inch tube pan. Fill the pan leaving 2-cm from the rim.

7. Bake the ball cake pan and small glass bowl at 160°C for 15 min then 140°C for 15 min. Bake the cake pop mould and 23-cm baking pan at 160°C for 12 and 15 min respectively. Invert ball cake pan and glass bowl to cool. Leave the rest upright to cool.

*If you are using this recipe for a normal 7-inch tube pan, baking temperature as follows 160°C for 15 min then 140°C for 30 min.

8. Unmould by hand after cakes have cooled completely. *Remember to roll up the 23-cm layer cake while cooling to prevent cracking later.


Same recipe is used for squirrel except 1/3 tsp cocoa powder is added for the brown colour.
Bake the face in an oval glass bowl for face (160°C for 15 min then 140°C for 10 min, small glass bowl (as above), 6 cake pops (as above), and 23-cm baking paper-lined pan for the curly tail (as above).

In addition, I baked 3 sheet cakes using recipe as above. Divide egg yolk batter into 3 parts. Add ½ tsp charcoal to one portion, a dip of pink gel colouring to another portion, and leave last portion untouched. Bake the black, pink and white layer cakes in 23-cm baking pans for cutting out features. Spoon 2 tsp pink batter into cake pop moulds for the hands.

Do they look happy like they are bouncing on the cloud? Thank God all the kids loved the cute cakes! The kids were fighting over the which part to eat hehe.

With lots of love,
Susanne

Happy Baking!

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Totoro Assorted Macarons

I made this set of Totoro macarons because I have always wanted to make a set of them :). Finally macarons that I choose to make :p.

A better view of the feet!

I didn't make that many as I was working on other macarons at the same time but I will just type out the ingredients for making a larger batch of each type of shells for your reference. I used natural ingredients to colour the shells as far as possible. Do checkout my first ever video tutorial for making macarons! Includes videos of macaronage and how to test to see if your batter is ready.

Ingredients:
200g superfine ground almonds/almond meal
200g icing sugar
200g caster sugar
75g water
160g egg whites, divide into one 80g portion and three 26g portions
1/2 tbs dried blue pea flowers (optional)
3/4 tsp charcoal powder
3/4 tsp cocoa powder
A drop of royal blue gel food colouring
1/8 tsp white powder food colouring (optional)

Steps:
1. Prepare templates and place under baking sheet on a baking tray. Steep blue pea flowers in one 26g egg white portion for an hour. Remove the flowers and add extra egg white to make it 26g again. If you find this too troublesome, just stick with using gel food colouring.

2. In three separate bowls, sift together almond, icing sugar and any other powdered form of color/ favour. Charcoal and cocoa powder for grey and white powder for white shells.

3. Add egg whites to the sifted dry ingredients to form a mass.

As you can see, the mass coloured with blue pea flowers is dull coloured so some artificial colouring is needed.

4. Make the Italian meringue. Heat caster sugar and water in a small saucepan until 115°C. As the syrup is being heated up, beat 80g of egg whites in a clean metal bowl until soft peaks form. Make sure you don't beat past the soft peak stage. Reduce mixer speed if necessary to keep egg whites moving. Once the syrup reaches 115°C, take it off the heat, turn mixer speed to high and slowly pour the syrup into the egg whites, taking care to avoid the beaters. Keep beating on high for 10-12 minutes until the meringue is stiff, glossy and cool. Leave about 1/4 cup of meringue unused. You may use this excess to help to hold the baking sheet down to the baking tray.

5. Fold the meringue into the masses in two additions with a spatula, with about 1/3 of the portion for the first addition to lighten up the batter. Use the fold and press motion to fold in the meringue. Once no trace of meringue can be seen, start testing the consistency of the batter to see if it is ready. It should be slightly underfolded as a non-round shape is piped here. Keep folding until the batter moves in a slow lava-like manner but falls off the spatula in a slightly discontinuous way.

6. Transfer the batter into piping bag fitted with a Wilton #12 round tip for grey and blue shells, #10 tip for white shell. Pipe the ears using Wilton #5 tip and pull it until it is more pointy with a toothpick. Tap the tray hard on the table a few times to release trapped air bubbles. Let the blue and grey shells dry for about 15 minutes before piping on the white patch and the arms. Use a toothpick to add on the blue/grey ticks on the body. Dry the completed shells in aircon room for 1.5-2 hours or until it is no longer tacky to touch when you run a finger across the shell.

Completely piped shells

7. Bake the small white shells at 120-130°C for 17-20 minutes at the lowest rack in the oven, rotating the tray halfway through baking. Bake the blue shells for about 18-22 minutes at 130°C and the grey shells for 20-23 minutes at 130°C. Note that temperature and time is a gauge. Every oven behaves differently. You should be able to lift the shells off easily if it is done. Cool the shells on the tray for 5-10 minutes before removing them. I have different baking times for different shells as I made them of different sizes. You may check out this post for more details on how to make sure your shells are baked through without browning in my comments.

I used royal icing to add on the eyes, nose, whiskers and leaf. Use very stiff royal icing (by adding more icing sugar until you get the right consistency) for the leaf so that the stem is able to stick out.

Wait for the icing to dry completely before filling the shells. I filled them with whatever filling I had on hand from my other macaron bakes (Yes, bakes! I also made soccerballs, snowflakes, a few bears, Mickey Mouse, car tyres and Lightning Mcqueen!)

Filled some with strawberry swiss meringue buttercream

Filled others with dark chocolate

Store the filled shells in the fridge for at least 24h before serving.

With love,
Phay Shing

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Guinea Pig Macarons with Peppermint Milk Chocolate

I had some leftover batter from making horse macarons so I made these guinea pig wannabes :)

These are modelled after my cute guinea pig 流沙包 (liu sha bao, salted egg custard steamed buns) that I made a year ago. Instead of filling them with Milo swiss meringue buttercream like the horses, I filled them with peppermint milk chocolate for my friend along with the clownfish macarons. She needed something that won't soften too much in Singapore's hot weather so cream filling will not do.

Please refer to my horse macaron post for the recipe and detailed steps.

Just to share some pictures...

Piping the batter 

Lesson learnt. I should have waited for 15 minutes before piping on the white parts. I ended up with a chubbier guinea pig! I piped the ears on 15 minutes after piping the body.

I prepared a small portion of white batter for the guinea pig face and clownfish macarons. If it's too much hassle for you to prepare 3 different batters, you may add on the ears and white part of the face using royal icing after baking the shells with light brown batter. I was trying to take up the challenge of minimizing the use of icing.

Freshly baked shells

Prepare some light pink, dark pink, white, black and brown royal icing for the little critter's nose, eyes and feet. I happen to keep a container of royal icing in the fridge. So when I need small amounts like this I can just take out a teaspoon worth to work on.

Freshly iced!

Dab a little peppermint essence on the inner sides of the shells to infuse some peppermint flavour.

Peppermint chocolate*
45g milk/dark chocolate chips
1/8 tsp (or 2-3 drops) peppermint essence

Melt chocolate chips in microwave oven using 10 second bursts at medium power, stirring in between heating until chocolate melts completely. Alternatively, you may melt by double-boiling. Add peppermint extract and keep stirring until chocolate is smooth.

*I only prepared enough for about 8-10 macarons. Do increase portion if you make a bigger batch. Or change to another filling if refrigeration is not an issue.

Piping chocolate onto shells

Store in airtight container at room temperature in a cool and dry place after chocolate has set. You may refrigerate for half an hour to speed up the process.

With love,
Phay Shing

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Horse Milo Macarons

I have a request for horse macarons with Milo filling along with crab macarons with salted egg yolk filling. Here are my horsey macarons!

This is not the first time that horses make an appearance. I made horse macarons along with giraffe a couple of months ago. But the shell does not have Earl grey flavour in it this time as the filling is not salted caramel.

Recipe for macaron shells*
Ingredients (makes about 26-30 horses, 52-60 shells):
100g ground almond
100g icing sugar
100g caster sugar
37g water
80g egg whites, divide into 40g, 30g and 10g, portions, preferably aged
7g + 1g cocoa powder

*You may end up with excess light brown batter but I find this ratio easier to work with. You may double the recipe for the Italian meringue preparation to be easier.

Steps:
1. Prepare horse template on baking tray with baking sheet over it. Use italian meringue to hold the baking sheet down if it is not lying flat. Sift together almond, icing sugar and cocoa powder. Divide almond and icing sugar into 3:1 ratio by weight, adding 7g cocoa powder to bigger portion and 1g cocoa powder to smaller portion. Picture on the left below.

2. Add 30g egg white to bigger portion and 10g egg white to smaller portion. Mix well with spatula until a thick paste is formed (middle picture).

3. Make the Italian meringue. Boil caster sugar and water in a small saucepan while beating the rest of the egg whites in a clean metal bowl with electric mixer at medium low speed at the same time. Make sure the egg whites are not beaten past soft peak stage. When syrup temperature reaches 115°C, remove from heat, increase mixer speed to high and slowly pour syrup into the egg whites. Keep beating for 10-12 minutes on high speed until stiff, glossy and cool. Portion out the meringue in 3:1 ratio, leaving about 2 tbs of meringue unused.

4. Fold the meringue into the masses in two additions using the fold and press motion. Fold in 1/3 meringue for first addition until batter is even. Fold in the rest until the batter falls off the spatula in a slightly discontinuous manner. Do watch my video tutorial for the macaronage process.

5. Fill piping bag with dark brown batter fitted with Wilton #12 tip for horse head. Fill piping bag with dark brown batter fitted with Wilton #5 tip for the ears. Fill piping bag with light brown batter fitted with Wilton #10 round tip. Use a toothpick to pull the batter a bit for the ears after piping a small dollop. Pipe top and bottom shells as shown below.

Tap the tray hard a few times after piping.

6. Dry the shells in aircon room for 1.5-2h or until the shells are dry to touch. You should be able to run a finger across the shell surface easily.

7. Bake at 130-140°C with rack at second lowest position for 17-22 minutes. Rotate the tray halfway through baking.

Freshly baked shells

8. Prepare brown royal icing by adding some cocoa powder to plain icing and a bit of brown gel colouring. Too much cocoa powder may cause the royal icing to have difficulty drying. Pipe the horse hair using the same template and baking sheet for macaron shells.

Horse hair royal icing

Dry the icing in oven with fan on but heat turned on only for a few seconds. It may take about an hour to dry completely. Alternatively you may air dry overnight. Carefully lift off the hair and stick onto the horse head with more royal icing.

Use black edible marker or black royal icing to draw on the eyes and nostrils.

Completed shells!

Milo swiss meringue buttercream (smbc)
Ingredients:
40g egg whites
27g caster sugar
72g unsalted butter, cubed and softened but cool
Pinch of salt
35g Milo powder
10g hot water
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Steps:
1. Prepare the smbc. Place egg whites, salt and sugar in a metal bowl that can be fitted over a saucepan. Fill the saucepan with about 1" of water. Make sure the water does not touch the base of the metal bowl. Heat the saucepan and whisk the egg whites with a hand whisk until foamy. Keep the egg whites moving as you monitor the temperature.

2. When temperature reaches 71.1°C, remove from heat and beat with an electric mixer at high speed for about 10 minutes until stiff, glossy and cool. I like to place a damp cloth under the bowl to cool the meringue down faster.

3. Add in butter one piece at a time as you beat the mixture. Don't worry if it appears to curdle. Just keep beating and it will come together towards the end and form a smooth cream.

4. Dissolve Milo in hot water to form a paste. Add vanilla to smbc and beat until well combined. Add Milo mixture gradually and beat until well combined.

Milo paste and smbc

Milo smbc!

You may prepare the filling ahead of time and freeze it. Just thaw and rewhip before filling the shells.

Filling the horses with Milo smbc

All packed!

Thank God that they were well received along with the crab macarons! Keep a lookout for cute guinea pig macarons that I made with leftover batter!

The recipient has kindly shared a photo of the horses at the party :).

With love,
Phay Shing

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Giraffe & Horse Earl Grey and Cocoa Macarons with Whipped Caramel Filling

I made these horse and giraffe macarons for fun with leftover batter from my Rilakkuma bake :). Please refer to that post for the recipe.

I tried to use macaron batter to create these animals as far as possible in order to reduce the amount of royal icing used to fill in the details. Macarons are already sweet enough on their own!

Here's the homemade template I used...

Here are the freshly piped shells along with Rilakkuma! The light brown batter is Earl Grey flavoured and the dark brown shell is cocoa flavoured. I used a 3mm round tip for the the ears, horn and spots. Use a toothpick to pull the batter to the shape that is desired.

Leave out the details for the bottom shells.

Freshly baked shells!

A closer look at the feet!

I used royal icing for the horse's hair and the nostrils.

In order to create features that stick out from a character's face, I usually prepare the part separately on a baking sheet first. Here's an example for the horse's hair. I used cocoa powder and some brown gel food colouring to get the dark brown colour. Too much cocoa powder may cause the royal icing to have difficulty drying due to the oil present.

Always dry the pre-iced features thoroughly before attempting to remove from baking sheet or they will break. I dried mine in the oven at 60°C fan mode to speed things up.

Stick the hair on with some royal icing. Add on brown nostrils with royal icing. Draw the eyes using edible marker or black royal icing.

Fill the shells with whipped caramel.

I actually made all these in one session!

My kids got to enjoy the extras!

With love,
Phay Shing

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