Yuzu Honey Ginger Chiffon Sponge and Pudding Cake

My brother requested for a simple birthday cake for his colleague. After discussing what flavour options to go for, we decided on yuzu. I took the liberty of adding other subtle flavours into the cake as well... Honey, ginger and a little lemon juice! I am a foodie of sorts so I love to focus on bringing an interesting touch to tantalize the senses with flavours and textures that are not one-dimensional, especially when called to create bakes that are simple in design. Here's my take on a simple, no-frills chiffon sponge and pudding cake with no artificial colouring added. The decorative motifs are made entirely out of yuzu peel. Pudding and jelly layers contain no added refined sugar too!

This cake is made of two yuzu chiffon sponge layers, two yuzu ginger honey pudding layers and one layer of yuzu ginger honey jelly. The added yuzu peel decoration adds to the citron flavour and provides an extra bite as well. Although I made yuzu chiffon cake a number of times, I used a reduced egg yolk recipe as a white chiffon was needed. There is no need for that over here so I took the chance to experiment with another recipe and used the cooked dough method. Recipe is adapted from Neo Sook Bee's Instagram post (IG: neo_sook_bee). Do check her awesome account full of delicious looking sponge cakes! The refined sugar-free pudding and jelly layers were inspired by another awesome lady who specializes in coming up with vegan recipes that are keto friendly. Do check out Mei Yee’s Instagram account and be blown away by the beautiful photography and delicious looking food and bakes (IG: nm_meiyee)!

One of the ingredients I used here, yuzu juice concentrate, may not be easily available. I bought a bottle of it during a seasonal offer at Isetan as I was really impressed with the intense flavour without artificial undertones. The only ingredients were sugar and yuzu in the juice concentrate. Substitute juice concentrate with blended and sieved yuzu marmalade and water using equal parts of jam and water if you are unable to get the juice concentrate. The flavour may not be as intense. I use a combination of marmalade/jam and juice concentrate to impart the different intensity, flavour and texture that either jam or juice has. The juice concentrate has an intense yuzu flavour with some sweetness from the sugar added. The jam has pieces of yuzu peel that provides extra bite and a little bitterness that offsets the sweetness of the jam.

Recipe for yuzu chiffon cake, cooked dough method
Ingredients (makes one 17cm chiffon and a 7x7" thick sheet cake. You may use a 7" round pan with removable base but without the central tube. I don't have that so I had to resort to using another cake to cover the hole in the middle of the chiffon 😆):

Egg yolk batter
58g Canola or vegetable oil
95g Cake flour
90g Yuzu tea*
5g Lemon juice
1/8 tsp salt
5 egg yolks

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

* Dissolve 60g of yuzu jam in 80g of hot water. Blend it until you get your preferred coarseness of yuzu peel. Measure out 90g of yuzu tea.

Steps:
1. Preheat oven to 150℃. Set oven rack to second lowest position. Place a tray of water at base of oven (optional). Line 7x7" tray with parchment paper or Teflon sheet if using.

2. Sift cake flour and salt into mixing bowl. Set aside. In a small saucepan, heat oil until 80℃ and pour into mixing bowl. Whisk until well combined. Add yuzu juice and whisk until you get a thick smooth paste. Add egg yolk one at a time, mixing well after each addition.

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

4. Quickly but gently fold meringue into egg yolk batter in three additions. Pour batter into prepared tin/tray.

5. Bake for 15 minutes. Remove the 7x7" thin sheet cake from oven and unmould immediately onto a parchment paper to cool. Reduce temperature to 140℃ and continue to bake the 17cm chiffon cake in the tube pan for another 15 minutes. Reduce temperature to 130℃ and bake for 30-40 minutes or until skewer comes out clean. Note that I am baking two cakes at the same time (one 7x7" thin cake and one 17cm tall chiffon cake). If you have a 7" round tin without the central tube, you just have to focus on baking one cake.

6. Cool the tall chiffon cake inverted until room temperature. Unmould by hand. Slice the cake into two (or three if you prefer). Store in airtight container. When ready to assemble, place one layer of sponge on cakeboard with an acetate sheet wrapped around it for layering sponge, pudding and jelly. Because I am using chiffon tin to bake the sponge, I covered the hole in the middle with cake cutout from the layer sponge cake.

Freshly baked yuzu chiffon cake!

A closer look at the cake. You can see tiny specks of yuzu peel!

I chose to use the yuzu peel in the jam as decorations but this is optional. I rinsed the peel in water and leave it to dry on paper towel, cutting and curling the pieces before they are fully dried. You may use the oven at 60℃ to speed up the drying but be careful not to overdry it. As long as the peel is able to hold its shape, it's ready.

Drying yuzu peel

Yuzu ginger honey pudding
Ingredients:
A)
50g Water
4tsp Cornflour

B)
200g Yuzu jam, blended and sieved
150g Heavy cream

C)
25g Yuzu juice concentrate
20g honey
150g Water
1 and 1/4 tsp Agar powder
1/8 tsp salt
5g (1tsp) Lemon juice
5g (1tsp) Ginger juice

Steps:
1. Prepare A) by dissolving cornflour in water in a jug. Set aside.

2. Mix yuzu jam and whipping cream together in a bowl. Set aside. If you want the pudding to have a smooth texture, use a fine sieve for the pureed jam. If you prefer yuzu peel bits in the pudding, you can skip the sieving.

3. Prepare C). Place all ingredients except agar powder in a saucepan. Bring to boil, stirring until honey and salt is dissolved. Scatter the agar into the mixture and keep stirring. Once the mixture boils, keep stirring for a minute to ensure all the agar powder is dissolved.

4. Add B) into saucepan and bring to a boil, stirring continuously.

5. Stir A) and pour into saucepan in a thin stream, stirring continuously. Keep stirring until mixture boils and continue stirring for another minute or two.

6. Pass the mixture through a sieve if you would like a smooth pudding.

7. Use a ladle to carefully pour pudding over the sponge.

Pudding on sponge layer

8. Wait for a few minutes for the pudding layer to set a little. To speed this up, you may refrigerate the cake for 2 minutes. Carefully place the other sponge layer on top and gently but firmly press it down into the pudding layer.

9. Carefully layer the rest of the pudding on top of the sponge layer. Let the pudding set a little for a few minutes.

10. Carefully arrange the yuzu peel on top of the pudding, gently pressing it into the pudding. Chill the cake in the fridge for 15-20 minutes. In the mean time, prepare the jelly layer.

Yuzu peel on pudding layer

Yuzu ginger honey jelly
Ingredients:
60g Yuzu juice concentrate
240g Water
5g Lemon juice
15g Honey
10g Ginger juice
1 tsp Agar powder

Steps:
1. Place all ingredients except agar powder in a saucepan. Bring to boil while stirring until honey is dissolved.

2. Scatter agar into the mixture and stir continuously for another 2-3 minutes until all the agar is dissolved.

3. Pour into a bowl to let it cool to room temperature but stirring frequently to prevent the jelly from setting.

4. Use a ladle or jug to gently pour jelly over pudding layer. Chill for at least a few hours or overnight before carefully removing the acetate sheet.

Best served within two to three days of assembly. Keep refrigerated in airtight condition.

Thank God that the feedback for this fairly experimental cake was good! It wasn't consumed at its freshest due to my baking schedule but it was still good! The recipe is a keeper! Everyone loved the texture and when the three layers: sponge, pudding and jelly were eaten together, the taste was sublime 😊.

Here's a peek at another yuzu chiffon cake creation that I made with this sponge cake recipe shortly after. Design is taken from our Creative Baking: Chiffon Cakes book. Sunflower cupcakes!

With love,
Phay Shing

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Blackforest Log Cake II

Ever since I started baking seriously, I have been baking the cake for my extended family's Christmas gathering. I planned to make a blackforest log cake this year as I made an awesome one last year for someone else. You may read the detailed recipe and assembly steps in this post. As always, I make the cake nativity themed as that's what Christmas is really about -- God’s love shown for our fallen world through the birth of our Lord Jesus!

The signboard is filled with dark chocolate ganache and homemade cherry jam!

Bear with me as this is a rather long post with many parts to the log cake. The focus of what I want to share in detail is the new chocolate sponge recipe but with many short tidbits of the whole process of other components. I used the cooked dough method instead of the regular method of making chiffon sponge.


I must admit that the design idea came at the last minute because I have been busy with book writing. I was wondering what design I can do within a short period of time that is navitiy scene themed. Thank  God I was inspired by what I saw in the church's bulletin one weekend! Silhouette of the nativity scene! I was gambling on the fact that I could pull this off with freehand drawing of course. Thank God I managed it!

I used a variation of Audrey Goh's Swiss method recipe to make the signboard along with the reindeer macarons. You can read about it in my previous macaron post.

Piping the signboard macarons shells. Yes I made extras just in case my freehand drawing needed practice...

...Indeed I needed practice! I ran into issues with writing the words for my first attempt so the second word ended up looking squashed at the end. Making a template would have made it more professional but I was in a hurry. Each attempt took less than half an hour to complete.

You may think that I am a great artist...But I don't think I am. Silhouettes are deceptively easy to draw compared to drawings with full features as they have a larger margin for error. How do I go about drawing this then? The trick is to choose your reference points wisely. I began by writing the words near the bottom of the rectangular frame. Next I drew the base of the manger, followed by baby Jesus. Then I drew Mary from bottom up, then Joseph from bottom up and finally the star. Going by this order ensures that the various parts have the right proportions and are positioned correctly.

Checkout how full the shells are with this method! I hardly rested the shells. I let the piped batter dry in the oven at 100℃ with fan mode on for 3 min with the oven door open slightly. I closed the oven door, switched off the fan mode and ramped up the temperature to 130℃ and baked until feel no longer appears wet.

I kept one of the Christmas bears from a previous bake (frozen for a few weeks) and used some of the pandan coconut Christmas tree macarons I prepared as display pieces for my upcoming junior chef baking class to add on to the deco.

I managed to find some sprinkles that look like mini baubles!

I chose the cooked dough method to make the chocolate sponge as blooming the cocoa powder in hot liquid allows the chocolate flavour to come through more strongly. Cooked dough method also allows the flour to absorb more liquid, making the cake naturally more moist and soft. That's why I revised my recipe to include an extra whole egg to make a more moist and rich cake, and used a different method.

You may prepare the cherry jam and dark chocolate ganache ahead of time before baking the sponge cake. Chill the whipping cream overnight in the mixing bowl together with icing sugar as well so that it whips up more easily when you are ready to assemble the cake as the sponge takes less than 15 minutes to bake. You may refer to my previous blackforest log cake post  for the recipe of the cherry jam, stabilized whipped cream and dark chocolate ganache. I made minor changes to the filling for this year's log cake. I used red wine instead of Choya to cook the cherry jam. I bloomed 2 tsp of gelatin in 2 tbs of milk instead of using 1 tsp of gelatin in 1 tbs of milk as I wanted to make a more stable cream. I used 1 tsp of vanilla extract instead of 1/2 tsp for the cream. You may stick to the original recipe if the log cake is going to be served in a cooler place.

Cooked dough chocolate chiffon sponge cake
Ingredients (makes one 12x12" cake):
3 egg yolks
1 egg
42g cake flour
22g Dutch processed cocoa powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/8 tsp salt
45g vegetable oil/ canola oil
47g fresh milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp Kahlua coffee liqueur (optional)

4 egg whites
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
65g caster sugar

Steps:
1. Sift flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt in a large mixing bowl. Set aside. Place egg and egg yolks in a small bowl. Set aside. Line the tray with parchment paper. Preheat oven to 170℃, set oven rack to second lowest position.

2. Heat milk and oil in a small saucepan until it just starts to bubble. Remove from heat and pour into flour mixture. Quickly mix well. A soft dough should form. Set aside to cool for a few minutes.

3. Add one egg yolk or egg at a time and mix well between each addition. Add vanilla and coffee liqueur and mix well. A batter that is able to flow should be formed at this point in time.

4. Make the meringue. In a clean metal bowl, beat egg whites with cream of tartar until firm peaks form, gradually adding sugar once the egg whites are foamy.

5. Fold the meringue into the batter a third at a time. Fold quickly but gently until no trace of meringue is seen.

6. Pour batter into baking tray and smooth out the top of batter with spatula. Gently tap on table to release trapped air bubbles. Bake for 12-14 minutes.

7. Immediately flip the cake out of baking tray and roll it up with parchment paper to cool.

You may refer to my previous blackforest log cake post for assembly instructions. Just to share some photos of the assembly this time round...

Rolled up Swiss roll. Checkout the fine texture of the sponge! The cake is indeed denser but soft and moist! Hubby who doesn't like cake in general (because most are too fluffy and dry) said this is really good!

Coating with dark chocolate ganache. I whipped the ganache this time so it appears lighter coloured 

After drawing the bark markings with a fork, the cake is done!

You may dust with sifted icing sugar if you wish, and add on decorations.

If you are a fan of blackforest cake, do give this a try. I am sure you will love it!

With lots of love,
Phay Shing

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Polar Bear-in-Pumpkin Chiffon Cakes

These Polar bear-in-Pumpkin Chiffon Cakes are inspired by the fall season and my previous Polar Bear creations.

However, these are smaller cute kawaii versions, baked using Cooked dough method with butter (SCS butter) instead of oil.

I am thankful for the opportunity to collaborate with SCS Dairy to do a Cakes Giveaway to celebrate their 60k on FB.

Do click in to support or join in the fun if you like =).

Have a blessed week!

Best wishes,
Susanne

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Banana Chocolate Chiffon Cake with Dark Chocolate Drip

I had a request for banana chocolate chiffon cake topped with dark chocolate drip!

I took the liberty of including salted caramel white chocolate stripes along the sides of the cake, on the inside ring of the chiffon cake and also for the name. The requester saw my first banana chiffon drip cake and wanted something similar for her son. She actually requested for not just one, but two such cakes for separate celebrations with different number of pax!

I baked a 15cm and a 17cm chiffon cake at the same time

I will provide the recipe for baking the banana chocolate chiffon cake for these two chiffon tin sizes. Please use the baking temperature and time as references since each oven behaves differently. Always use an oven thermometer. The chiffon cake itself is more banana-y than chocolatey as the cake was supposed to be covered with dark chocolate ganache. So I decided to go easy on the cocoa powder in the sponge recipe. You may choose to replace 5-10g of cake flour with more cocoa powder to increase the chocolate flavour if that's your preference. Make sure you use overripe bananas for that extra banana-y flavour! I used the cooked dough method here, adapting the recipe from my previous banana chiffon drip cake.

Banana chocolate chiffon using 15cm chiffon tin
Ingredients:
110g banana puree (about 1-1.5 large bananas)
28g canola oil
15g fresh milk
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp caramel flavouring (optional)
1/4 tsp Kahlua coffee liqueur (optional)
1/8 tsp salt
45g cake flour
10g Dutch processed cocoa powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
2 egg yolks

3 egg whites
1/5 tsp cream of tartar
45g caster sugar

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

2. Prepare egg yolk batter. Sift together cake flour, baking soda and cocoa powder in a large enough mixing bowl. You will be preparing the batter in this bowl. In another bowl, combine mashed bananas, milk, salt and flavourings.

3. Heat oil in a small saucepan until temperature reaches 90℃ (I am using a higher temperature here than previously to bring out the chocolate flavour from the cocoa powder more strongly). If you don't have an instant read thermometer, heat until you are able to see swirl lines in the oil. Pour all the oil at once into the flour mixture. Whisk until well combined. Let the mixture sit for 5 minutes. This allows the cocoa powder to bloom.

4. Gradually add the banana mixture and whisk until well combined. The mixture will become very thick but just continue. Add the egg yolks one at a time and whisk until well combined. The mixture should smoothen out in consistency and become less thick.

5. Prepare the meringue. In a clean metal bowl, beat egg whites with cream of tartar until foamy. Gradually add sugar and beat until firm peaks form but you are able to turn the bowl upside down without meringue slipping out.

6. Quickly but gently fold the meringue into the egg yolk batter in three batches until no trace of meringue is seen.

7. Pour batter into chiffon tin. Gently run a chopstick through the batter to pop any trapped air bubbles. Place chiffon tin in oven and reduce temperature to 140℃. Bake for 30 minutes. Reduce temperature to 120℃ and bake for another 20 minutes. Some people may prefer to bake at higher temperature but I find that for my oven it makes the cake rise too fast, causing it to have huge cracks and dries the cake out more. So just use a baking temperature and time that works for you.

Banana chocolate chiffon using 17cm chiffon tin
Ingredients:
165g banana puree (about 2-3 large bananas)
42g canola oil
22g fresh milk
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp caramel flavouring (optional)
1/2 tsp Kahlua coffee liqueur (optional)
1/4 tsp salt
67g cake flour
15g Dutch processed cocoa powder
3/8 tsp baking soda
3 egg yolks

4 egg whites
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
60g caster sugar

Steps:
Same as above but bake for 30 minutes at 120℃ after the first 30 minutes at 140℃.

Resulting cake is super moist so it was a little challenging to unmould by hand. You may use a spatula to unmould if you wish.

I used a firmer dark chocolate drip by using ratio of about 1.4:1 for dark chocolate: whipping cream. You may use a ratio of 1:1 if you wish but it's better to chill the cake thoroughly before frosting with the drip if you are going for 1:1 ratio.

I whipped the salted caramel white chocolate ganache to give it a more spreadable, creamy texture so that it can frost the sides of the cake well. Caramel flavour compliments banana and chocolate very well so do add this to the cake if you have the bandwidth! I added more white chocolate to the caramel frosting to improve the colour contrast (lighter brown) so the caramel flavour isn't as intense.

Dark chocolate drip
Note that amount suggested here is enough to cover both cakes.
Ingredients:
140g dark chocolate couverture
100g whipping cream

Steps:
1. Heat cream until it just starts to bubble.

2. Pour hot cream over a bowl of chocolate couverture. Wait for a mitnue before stirring in one direction until chocolate is melted and smooth. Alternatively, you may just double boil the cream with chocolate until smooth and melted, or use the microwave.

Resulting chocolate ganache should have a thick gravy consistency before you start covering the cake with it. It will be a thinner gravy consistency if you use a ratio of 1:1.

White chocolate salted caramel frosting
Ingredients:
60g salted caramel chips
30g white chocolate chips
30g whipping cream

Steps:
1. Same as for dark chocolate drip for creating the frosting for piping the name on the cake. The ganache should be a thick gravy consistency.

2. In order to make a frosting for the sides of the cake, chill the ganache in fridge for a few minutes and beat it with a spatula or electric mixer until smooth. Repeat chilling and beating until mixture is smooth and creamy.

Transfer the ganaches into piping bags and create the desired frosting.

You may wish to decorate with some bright red coloured fresh fruits to make the cake more attractive in appearance. I filled the holes in the chiffon cake with strawberries. I can assure you that this cake is definitely yummy! I had great feedback for both cakes!


With love,
Phay Shing

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Cooked Dough Banana Chiffon Cake with Dark and White Chocolate

Sometimes I have requests for simple bakes like these...Banana chiffon cake with white chocolate drip!

I included dark chocolate ganache in the middle and around the sides as well to add a little more dimension to the overall flavour 

I adapted the recipe from the Kitchen Tigress but used the cooked dough method. The cake is very, very soft, moist and fluffy so handle with care.

Ingredients (makes one 15cm chiffon cake):
110g banana puree (one large ripe banana)
28g canola oil
15g fresh milk
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp caramel flavouring (optional)
A few drops banana essence (optional)
1/8 tsp salt
45g top flour or cake flour (increase to 50-55g if you want a more structurally stable but slightly drier cake)
1/5 tsp baking soda
2 yolks

3 egg whites
1/5 tsp cream of tartar
40g caster sugar

Steps:
1. Preheat oven to 140℃ and set the rack to lowest position. Place a tray of water at the bottom of the oven (optional especially if you prefer your chiffon cakes with browned sides as the browned cake crust is more flavourful. Bake at 160℃ of you prefer cake with crust.)

2. Sift together flour, salt and baking soda into mixing bowl. Set aside. Heat oil in a small saucepan until it reaches 70℃ or you are able to see swirl lines in the oil. Pour the oil all at once into the flour and whisk until well combined.

3. Gradually add banana puree, milk with vanilla, caramel flavouring and banana essence (if using) and whisk until well combined with each addition. Add one egg yolk at a time and whisk until well combined with each addition.

4. Prepare the meringue. In a clean metal bowl, beat egg whites with cream of tartar until firm peaks form or stiff peak is just reached, gradually adding in the sugar once the egg whites turn foamy.

5. Quickly but gently fold the meringue into the egg yolk batter in three additions. Slowly pour the batter into chiffon tin.

6. Bake for for 60-70 min or until skewer comes out clean. Invert immediately to cool completely before unmoulding by using a combination of hand and straight edged metal spatula. Bear in mind that this cake is very soft so unmould carefully.

This cake is yummy on its own but if you want to add a bit of chocolate, you may use the simple recipe I used. Simply melt some dark chocolate with whipping cream using the ratio of dark chocolate:cream = 3:2. Leave the ganache to firm up at the countertop until toothpaste consistency. Frost the hole of the cake and refrigerate until firm. You may add some stripes at the side of the cake like what I did. Simply pipe random horizontal lines of ganache and then smooth them out horizontally with a spatula.

For the white chocolate drip, I used a ratio of white chocolate:cream = 3:1. Melt the white chocolate and cream togther. Transfer the white chocolate ganache into piping bag and then pipe in rings on the top surface of the cake. Pipe the drips around the sides of the cake. Refrigerate the cake in an airtight container.

Thank God that I received feedback that the cake tasted great! The requester loved the cake I baked so much that she didn't hesitate to order another flavour of cake from me again.

With love,
Phay Shing

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Flower Pot Chocolate Chiffon Cupcakes (Cooked dough method)

I have a friend who suggested that blooming cocoa powder before baking chocolate chiffon cake would make the chocolate flavour more intense, without resorting to using the coffee trick that many bakers use. I must admit that it was the first time I came across this and I looked up Rose Levy Beranbaum's recipe book and studied the chocolate cake recipes. All of them...And I mean ALL required the cocoa powder to be mixed with boiling hot water before mixing into the cake batter. I did more research from the internet and was enlightened. Here's a good article on how, why and when you should bloom cocoa powder whenever you bake with it.

I already consistently get great reviews from recipients of my chocolate chiffon cakes in terms of taste. I have always relied on the use of some coffee liqueur, good quality vanilla bean paste and a bit of fruity alcohol to compliment the chocolate flavour from the cocoa powder. You can imagine my curiosity and excitement when I learnt about blooming cocoa powder!

I wasn't too keen on using hot water to bloom cocoa powder as I prefer to use ingredients that impart flavour to the final product. And therefore, a logical choice was to use the cooked dough method of making chiffon cakes. Hot oil can also be used to bloom cocoa powder. Cooked dough method also helps to keep the cake retain more moisture as the flour cooked with hot oil is able to absorb more water.

Sorry for the long intro 😅. I feel it is necessary. Presenting my humble looking but yummy bake! Flower pot chocolate chiffon cupcakes with dark chocolate ganache!

Flowers and ladybugs are made from macarons

Recipe for cooked dough chocolate chiffon cupcake
Ingredients (makes about twenty 35x44mm cupcakes):
3 egg yolks
42g canola oil
45g milk
1.5 tsp vanilla extract/ bean paste
1/4 tsp Kahlua coffee liqueur
20g Dutch processed cocoa powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/8 tsp salt
32g cake flour

4 egg whites
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
60g caster sugar

Steps:
1. Preheat oven to 140℃. Set oven rack to lowest or second lowest position. Place a tray or a few bowls of water at the base of the oven to create steam (optional).

2. Sift cocoa powder, flour, salt and baking soda into a large mixing bowl.

3. Heat oil to 70℃ in a small saucepan (or until you start seeing swirl lines in the oil but not boiling). Pour the hot oil into the flour mixture. Whisk until smooth. Let the mixture sit for 4-5 minutes for the cocoa powder to bloom.

4. Add milk, vanilla and coffee liqueur gradually. Whisk until well combined after each addition. Mixture will become thick. Use an electric mixer if you find it easier.

5. Add in one egg yolk at a time. Whisk until well combined after each addition.

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

7. Quickly but gently fold the meringue into the egg yolk batter in three additions. Fill the cupcake cases until about 70-80% full. Gently tap on table to release trapped air bubbles.

8. Bake for 40min or until skewer comes out clean.

Cool completely before frosting.

Recipe for dark chocolate ganache for frosting cake

Recipe for dark chocolate ganache for frosting cake has a lower ratio of chocolate to cream as it need not be as firm as the filling for macarons. I use a ratio of 3:2 for chocolate : cream.

Ingredients:
75g dark chocolate, chopped
10g unsalted butter
50g heavy cream
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/16 tsp salt

Steps:
1. Combine all ingredients into a small saucepan. Heat over low heat while stirring constantly with a spatula. Do not boil. Once chocolate has melted completely and mixture is smooth, remove from heat.

2. Let the ganache stand at room temperature to cool down and firm up a little for about 30 minutes. You may refrigerate for a while to speed things up. Once the ganache is about toothpaste consistency, you may frost the cupcakes using piping bag or spatula.

3. Sprinkle with chocolate rasp if you wish.

Yums!

I filled the macarons with dark chocolate ganache and raspberry white chocolate ganache. You may find the links for the macaron and filling recipe from here. I made these flowers and ladybugs concurrently with my rose macarons.

Thank God that these were very well received!

With love,
Phay Shing

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Coconut Gula Melaka Ah Mah Sponge Cake Doggies with Chiffon 'Mandarin Oranges'

My first bake of the new year and since it's the Year of the Dog, I made some cupcake doggies along with  chiffon Mandarin oranges!

I was curious to know if Ah Mah sponge cakes can be shaped and worked with like regular chiffon sponges so I decided to experiment with it and was pleasantly surprised! Afterall, Ah Mah sponge cakes are nothing more than cooked dough chiffon cakes with the same number of egg yolks and whites used. I have baked large coconut Gula Melaka Ah Mah cakes on two occasions and both times it was very well received. You may find the recipe here. Since the Gula melaka cake has a natural warm light brown colour, I decided to use the same recipe (with minor tweaks) as the doggie body base.

I will focus on how the doggies are made in the post. I have made the chiffon Mandarin oranges every year since I came up with it in 2014 so this is the fifth consecutive year that I am making these babies. You may refer to this post for the video tutorial on how to make the oranges. Do note that I updated the method of shaping the oranges to make them look neater last year.

Recipe for coconut Gula Melaka sponge cupcakes 

Notes:
The number of doggies depends on the size of cupcake cases and size of the hemispherical moulds you use to bake the cakes. You may use silicone moulds or eggshells to bake if you don't have the  glass or metal moulds on hand. Just make sure you remove the inner membrane of the eggshells before baking in it. In my actual bake, I separated the bake into two rounds of baking instead of the one round I am sharing here for your convenience. I baked the coloured thin layer cake another day, froze it and defrosted it when I was ready to assemble. You may also choose to separate the bake if you find it easier to manage.

Here are the moulds and shape cutters I used to create the doggies.

Glass moulds have outer diameter of 8.5cm and 7cm. Metal hemispherical mould has outer diameter of 6cm.

I used a 44x35mm cupcake case for the smaller dog and 50x40mm cupcake case for the larger dog.

The recipe I am going to share is slightly different from the original one I posted in November last year as this version has more Gula Melaka. I wanted to make a more stable meringue so I chose to use 12g of Gula Melaka per egg instead of 11g.

Ingredients (makes about 4 doggies):
Egg yolk batter
42g coconut oil
56g cake flour, sifted into large bowl
1/6 tsp salt
48g coconut cream/coconut milk
3 egg yolks

Meringue
3 egg whites
1/5 tsp cream of tartar
36g powdered Gula Melaka (or very finely chopped Gula Melaka)

Colouring
1/2 tsp Dutch processed cocoa powder
1/2 tsp charcoal
A few drops of white gel food colouring
2 drops red gel food colouring
1/8 tsp red yeast powder (optional)

Steps:
1. Line a small baking tray with baking paper. I don't specify a size here as you just need to make a very thin layer cake of different colours for the body parts (ears, snout, paws) and collar. 8x8" tray should be sufficient. Larger tray is also fine. Preheat oven to 150℃ and set oven rack to lowest position. You may place a tray of water at base of oven if you wish to steam bake.

2. Heat oil in small saucepan until 70℃ or until you are able to see swirl lines in the oil but not yet bubbling. Pour into flour and whisk until well combined

3. Gradually add in coconut cream and salt and whisk until well combined. Mixture will be very thick so use an electric mixer if you need to. Add one yolk at a time and whisk until well combined.

4. In small mixing bowls, portion out 2 tsp of egg yolk batter for dark brown, 1 tsp for black, 1 tsp for white and 2 tsp for red. Add the respective colouring to the portioned batter and mix well. The red yeast powder is for red colour.

5. Make the meringue. Use an electric mixer to beat egg whites with cream of tartar until firm peaks form, gradually adding Gula Melaka along the way.

6. Quickly but gently fold in two leveled tbs of meringue for every tsp of yolk batter. Fold the remaining meringue into the main batter in three additions. Fill the hemispherical moulds till about 80% full. Carefully spoon out the different coloured batters on the baking tray and level it with the back of the spoon to form a thin layer. Remember to spoon out some light brown batter on the tray too for the paws. The red coloured portion should be a long strip as the collar is a long and narrow rectangle cutout.

7. Bake the layer cake for 10min or until baked through. Immediately remove from baking tray and cool with another baking sheet over it. Reduce temperature to 135℃ and bake the hemispherical cakes until skewer comes out clean. Baking time depends on your oven and whether steam baking was used (I did) so use mine only as a reference. I baked the smallest cake for 35min, medium sized cake for 40min and largest cake for 45min. Cool the cakes completely in the moulds before gently unmoulding by hand.

Cakes baked in metal mould

8. Shape the hemispherical cakes by inverting them back into the moulds they were baked in. This will give it a nice rounded bottom. Let it sit in that position for at least 15-20 min.

In the mean time, cut out the various parts from layer cake using shape cutters or knife/ bench scraper.

Cutting out the eyes, nose and mouth

I made the pendant on the collar from flower shaped sprinkles that had been spray painted with gold paint. Prepare marshmellow glue by melting marshmellows with a sprinkling of water. Place the largest cake as the body inside the 50x40mm cupcake case and the medium sized cake as the body inside the 44x35mm cupcake case. Insert 2 toothpicks in the body to act as dowels. Attach the head on. The head is one cake size smaller than the body. Glue on the collar and pendant, followed by the paws. Use a small fruit knife to cut the toes on the paws. Attach the parts on the face.

Almost done! Without the ears, hubby says it looks like a mole!

Brush on a bit of sugar syrup to keep the cake moist (dissolve 10g sugar in 20g hot water). And you are done! Store in the fridge in airtight condition. The cake can keep for a few days.

Just to share a work in progress photo of the oranges...

The "Mandarin oranges" before adding details of the stem.

Have a blessed Year of the Dog!

With love,
Phay Shing

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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

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Reduced-sugar Lychee and Earl Grey Penguin Chiffon Cupcakes (cooked dough method)

A friend requested for some penguin cupcakes for her birthday because she loves these adorable creatures. As only 8 cupcakes were requested, I have the freedom to be more meticulous about the design. Here are some of the cupcakes, both 2D and 3D versions!

All parts are made of 100% Chiffon sponge!

My friend requested for reduced sugar as her elderly relatives are eating the cupcakes too. I thought of revisiting the cooked dough method of making chiffon cakes as sugar is often omitted in the egg yolk batter and a lower flour:liquid ratio can be used in making the sponge without compromising the structure (thus softer cake). This is possible because cooked wheat flour is able to absorb more moisture.

Although the title of this post says "Earl Grey" and "Lychee" as the primary flavours, there's more to it than just Earl Grey and Lychee. The Earl Grey cupcake includes lavender and honey as well, to add body to the flavour and aroma to the cupcake. You should smell the cakes before you eat it :p! I added some rose water to the lychee cupcake to enhance the fruity flavour of lychee too. In order to ensure that maximum lychee flavour is extracted from the fruit, I pureed some canned lychees (without syrup), sieved it and let it stand in the fridge overnight. I scooped away the top clear layer of liquid and use only the concentrated "debris" at the bottom of the bowl.

I prepared some Earl Grey lavender honey milk tea before baking. Begin by heating 30g of milk with 10g (1/2 tbs) of honey until it starts to bubble and honey is dissolved. Pour the hot milk into a small bowl with 1 Earl grey teabag and 1/2 tsp of dried lavender flowers. Steep for 10min and squeeze the milk out of the teabag. Reserve the teabag for use later.

Making Earl grey lavender honey milk tea.

Recipe for reduced sugar Earl grey chiffon cupcakes and lychee chiffon cupcakes
Ingredients (makes five 65x45mm cupcakes for each flavour):

Note that you may omit splitting the half made batter and double the ingredients marked with * if you are making either lychee or Earl grey cupcakes (10 pieces)

Main egg yolk batter
2 egg yolks, lightly beaten
14g vegetable)/canola oil
14g unsalted butter
36g cake flour
1/8 tsp fine sea salt

Lychee*
18g lychee puree
1/4 tsp lychee flavouring (optional)
1/4 tsp rose water
1/4 tsp vanilla extract

Earl grey*
18g Earl grey lavender honey milk tea
1g Earl grey tea powder (optional)
1/2 teabag Earl grey tea leaves (use 1 bag worth if you don't have Earl grey tea powder)
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/16 tsp baking soda (to neutralize acidity of tea and honey)

Meringue
3 egg whites
1/5 tsp cream of tartar
35g caster sugar

Steps:
1. Preheat oven to 160℃. Place tray of water at bottom of oven (optional). Set rack to second lowest position.

2. Sift together flour and salt. Set aside. Heat oil and butter in a small saucepan at low heat until butter has just melted. Pour flour all in at once and mix until well combined with a spatula.

3. Gradually add egg yolk and mix well. Divide the batter into two equal portions.

4. Add all the ingredients in the * portion to the respective bowls gradually and mix well after each addition. (Top picture below).

5. Prepare the meringue. In a clean metal bowl, beat egg whites with cream of tartar with electric mixer until firm peaks form, gradually adding in sugar once the egg whites appear foamy.

6. Divide meringue into two. Fold the meringue into the respective egg yolk batter in three additions quickly but gently (bottom picture below).

7. Fill the cupcake cases until about 80% full. Gently tap on the table to remove air bubbles. Put into oven and reduce the temperature to 135℃ and bake for 35-40 min or until toothpick comes out clean.

Here's a peek at the super soft interior of the cupcakes! The cakes are so very fragrant and flavourful!

The 2D cupcakes were decorated with thin layered vanilla sheet cakes. The 3D ones were made from cakes baked in eggshells, one for the head and one for the body. The little parts are all made from chiffon sheet cakes. All parts are stuck on using melted marshmellows.

Just to share some pictures of the process...

Behind the scenes stuff you don't see...all the tiny body parts including the eyes!

I inserted a skewer that runs from the head all the way down to the cupcake to secure the cake topper onto the cupcake base.

Half assembled penguins!

Looking cute all packed in the box!

The 3D cupcakes were rather tall so I had to combine two cupcake boxes to make one tall box to house the two 3D cupcakes.

My friend was delighted to see the cute creatures delivered to her! Not only was she pleased with the looks, feedback was they are really yummy too!

With love,
Phay Shing

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'Yellow roses' Pandan Kaya Chiffon Cake (cooked dough method)

Someone tried my pandan kaya cake earlier this year and wanted it again so I made it with a simple design :).

Chiffon big rose with lil' rose buds!

Although I prefer non-cooked dough method of making chiffon (more bouncy), I thought it would be nice to make the same cake that the requester fell in love with. Cooked dough chiffon cakes are less bendy but they are really soft. The butter used in the recipe also adds some richness and fragrance to the pandan cake.

The recipe for cooked dough pandan chiffon cake and the pandan kaya fudge is the same as my previous bakes so I won't type it out here. I prepared 3/4 of the portion of pandan kaya fudge as mentioned to avoid wastage for this 10" square cake with 2 layers of pandan cake and 2 layers of fudge. Each layer of pandan cake uses the 2 egg yolk recipe in the link above.

As I am really busy with quite a few major bakes, I could only manage a simple design for this cake. The roses were made with leftover layer cakes from my Dino strawberries and cream chiffon bake. (Don't worry, I baked this pandan kaya cake around the time of my Dino bake but only decided to post this now. I won't use ancient cakes :p.) I used a round cutter to cut out semi-circles and rolled the overlapping semi-circles to make the big rose. Melted marshmellow with a bit of water was used as glue. You can check out another chiffon bake of mine for a picture tutorial of how to make the rose.

I apologise for the lack of photos as this was a bake a squeezed into my busy schedule.

Glad that the cake was well received and not too sweet!

With love,
Phay Shing

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Matcha Azuki Ladybug Chiffon Cake with Hidden Ladybugs

Inspired by Susanne's Rainbow Themed Chiffon Cake with Hidden Rainbows, I gave some thought to how I can hide things in a chiffon cake other than simple shapes of cookie cut-outs, like my Matcha Azuki Sakura patterned Chiffon Cake with Hidden Hearts. This is more challenging than hiding things in cakes that have no holes in the middle. The whole project becomes an engineering problem :P. I gave my kids a few choices of what they wanted me to hide in a chiffon cake. They chose ladybugs! This is a challenge I do not want to undertake too often as it is time consuming and a little nerve wreaking since it's my first attempt to hide something other than simple cookie cutter cut-out shapes. And because I have to cook, do housework, take care of the kids as well, I (unwisely) left the cut-out teeny bits of cake out in the open for more than an hour and in the fridge overnight. The resulting cake was drier and the hidden parts were not as soft as most of my other attempts but I was really happy and surprised that the hidden ladybugs showed up in quite a few of the slices when I thought this bake was doomed to fail!

I used a combination of piping design on chiffon tin and using another cake to create the ladybugs to make this cake. I took this chance to experiment with adding condensed milk into a Matcha cake as suggested by hubby because it reminds him of Hokkaido Matcha ice cream. First, I baked the Azuki flavored cake. On hindsight, I should have increased the portion of the recipe to 3 egg yolks as the bugs were a little too thin to handle easily. I chose the cooked dough method for this cake hoping that it would be more moist.

Ingredients:
Egg yolk batter
2 egg yolks (large, more than 65g)
20g Azuki bean paste (I used homemade one)
14g condensed milk
10g water
20g butter
36g cake flour, sifted
1/4 tsp baking powder (sifted together with flour)
Red and black gel food coloring

Meringue
3 egg whites
30g caster sugar
1/4 tsp cream of tartar

1. Preheat the oven to 160 degrees Celsius. Line a 10x10" tin and a smaller tin (mine was approximately 5x8") with baking sheet.
2. Heat Azuki bean paste, condensed milk, water and butter over stove until butter melts. Add cake flour and baking powder in one addition and mix well until no trace of flour is seen.
3. Gradually stir in the egg yolks.
4. Divide the egg yolk batter into ratio of 3:1 by weight. Color the larger portion red and the smaller potion black.
5. Beat the egg whites with an electric mixer until foamy. Add cream of tartar and beat until soft peaks form. Gradually add sugar and beat until stiff peaks form.
6. Fold in the meringue into the egg yolk batters one third at a time, taking care to fold in quickly but gently. Pour the batters into the trays, bang them on the table a few times to release air bubbles and bake for 15-16 minutes.

7. After the cakes have cooled, use a round cutter (I used the largest medicine cup I have at home) to cut out the body of the ladybug, a smaller round cutter to cut out the head of the bugs (divide each circle into half), and a straw to cut out the spots on the bugs. This is really fiddly work and took me more than an hour to complete 28 bugs but aren't they cute?

The cakes dried out quite a bit since I left them out in the open in between too :( (busy with my younger kid). Ideally, the assembly should be done within a day to minimize the drying out of cakes but I left these bugs wrapped with cling wrapped and refrigerated overnight.

The main cake was baked in a 17cm chiffon tin with the following recipe:

Ingredients:
Egg yolk batter
3 egg yolks
32g Canola oil
30g condensed milk
40ml water
1/4 tsp vanilla essence
4g + 1/4 tsp Matcha powder (You should use more like 6g for a stronger tea flavor but I wanted a bigger color contrast between the leaves and the cake background)
64g cake flour (reserve 1/2 tsp from this batch)
1/2 tsp baking powder
Green and brown gel food coloring

Meringue
4 egg whites + 1 egg white
40g + 10g caster sugar
1/4 tsp cream of tartar

Steps:
1. Preheat the oven to 160 degrees Celsius.
2. Prepare the egg yolk batter by whisking the first 5 ingredients together in the order listed, taking time to whisk the egg yolks and oil together for a couple of minutes. Gradually whisk in sifted flour (64g minus 1/4 tsp), green tea powder (4g) and baking powder until no trace of flour can be seen.
3. Take 1 heaped teaspoonful of batter and add 1/4 tsp of sifted flour and 1/4 tsp of green tea powder and mix well. Add green and brown food coloring until a desired shade is reached.
4. Prepare 1 egg white worth of meringue using 10g of sugar and a pinch of cream of tartar. Add 4 heaped tablespoons of meringue into the colored egg yolk batter in 3 additions. Put the batter into a piping bag with a Wilton No.5 tip and pipe the four-leaf clover onto the tin with 2 ladybugs on it. Make sure that the piped pattern is thick enough for good transfer of pattern onto the main cake. Otherwise it will be left on the cake tin. Bake for 2 minutes or until the batter seems dry.
5. Prepare the meringue for the main batter using 4 egg whites, the rest of the caster sugar and cream of tartar. Fold the meringue into the main egg yolk batter in 3 additions and cover the leaf and ladybugs pattern with enough batter to just cover.
6. Arrange the ladybugs in a ring and fill the cake tin with the rest of the batter. I took longer than I would have liked to do this step as the bugs were really thin and hard to handle. I was afraid of deflating the egg whites because of this! Bang the cake tin on the table a few times to release any trapped air and bake for 15 minutes before reducing the temperature to 150 degrees Celsius and baking for another 25-30 minutes.
7. Immediately invert the chiffon tin after removing from the oven and cool completely before gently unmoulding by hand.

The Matcha portion of the cake turned out nicely soft and fluffy despite a long delay before sending the cake into the oven but the bugs were really hard and dry by regular chiffon standards. I steamed the cake before eating it and it helps. My kids loved the steamed cake with condensed milk (since I have lots left) mixed with some red bean paste. *Phew* at least I don't have to throw away this bake! It's wonderful to see the smiles on their faces when they see the hidden bugs too :). After this experience I have a better idea of what to do and what NOT to do when making chiffon cakes with hidden surprises. For now I am taking a break from this type of bake until inspiration strikes, I am feeling brave or someone requests for it :P.

With love,
Phay Shing

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