‘Baby Rooster’ Salted Egg Yolk Chiffon Cupcakes

I’ve been really busy since school reopened and looking forward to CNY already! Since the Year of the Rooster is coming, there has been lots of request for rooster bakes! Last week I posted a baby rooster chiffon cake, this week I made some 3D baby rooster cupcakes and 3D chiffon rooster for a friend. These are salted egg yolk in flavour, which is currently my favourite flavour, as I love things that are sweet and savoury! You ought to try salted egg yolk chiffon cake if you haven’t!

Today’s recipe is a easy salted egg yolk chiffon cake recipe that doesn’t involve boiling salted egg yolk with milk. I also found it much easier to sift the mashed egg yolk without flour so it should be done separately. I used ready-boiled salted eggs from the supermarket. These are readily available and really convenient, and I love that these boiled egg yolks are really easy and quick to mash and sieve, as they are not too dry and have just the right texture to work with. 

Boiled Salted Egg Yolks I used

Previously, I have shared how thankful I am to have a new capable assistant, the Kenwood Chef Sense, which whips up large volumes of fine quality meringue quickly and efficiently. It’s a great time-saver for me. In addition to the balloon whisk for meringue, the Kenwood Chef Sense also comes with a K-beater for mixing creamy cake batter and dough hook for bread. The K-beater has a unique “K” design said to be optimized for mixing, so I was keen to try it out, as it can be tiring and time-consuming using the hand whisk to cream eggs and also eliminate cake flour lumps completely. Verdict: It is indeed great for creaming eggs and eliminating lumps effortlessly and quickly. Looks like I’ll get addicted to hands-free!

K-beater of Kenwood Chef Sense

‘Baby Rooster’ Salted Egg Yolk Chiffon Cupcakes (makes 5+ cupcakes)
2 egg yolks
13g castor sugar
27 g vegetable/corn oil
35g water/milk
40g Prima cake flour
3 boiled salted eggs (I bought ready-boiled ones from supermarket)
Pinch of salt

3 egg whites
¼ tsp cream of tartar
30g castor sugar

*If you do not wish to use salted eggs, you also can make plain or orange chick cupcakes by a small adjustment of reducing the water/milk/juice by 1g.


1. Mash the egg yolks of the boiled salted eggs and pass through sieve to obtain fine salted egg yolk crumbs. One salted egg yields around 14g of mashed and sieved salted egg yolk crumbs for me.

  

2. Preheat oven to 160°C. Prepare glass bowls for baking the chiffon cake. I used 6-cm OD bowls, but you can also use 8.5-cm or 11-cm bowls to your convenience. You can even use eggshells. 

Line a 15-cm baking tray with baking paper (this is to cut out the wings later). If you prefer it simpler and don't need wings, you can omit the baking tray and make more cupcakes =).

3. Add castor sugar for egg yolk batter to egg yolks. Whisk at maximum speed till mixture is light and well-mixed. 

4. Add in oil and mix well. Add water/milk. Whisk till well-combined.

5. Add in sifted cake flour. Whisk till batter is smooth and there are no more lumps.
Then add in mashed, sifted salted egg yolk from (1) and whisk until no lumps.

Note: The above steps (3)-(6) can also done using hand whisk.

7. Prepare meringue:

Video tutorial for whisking meringue in 3 easy steps

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.

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

9. Spoon the salted egg yolk batter into bowls till 80% full. Gently tap to remove bubbles.

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

11. Pour the remaining batter onto the prepared baking tray and bake the sheet cake at 160°C for 15 min.

12. Allow cakes to cool completely on a wire rack before unmolding by hand. Gently pull the cake away from the sides and bottom of the bowl. You may find the picture tutorials of hand unmoulding from bowls and moulds in ‘Deco Chiffon Cakes’ helpful.

13. Assembly:

Crown: Use red ‘hearts’ sprinkles.
*Note: The red heart sprinkles may 'run' a little bit after one day, so it is better you put it on on the day of consumption.

Beak: Cut triangles from orange ‘hearts’ sprinkles by slicing off the 2 round tops.
*The orange wilton sprinkles doesn't seem to have the problem of 'running' =)

Eyes: Cut thin circular slices from black lace candy. You can also pipe on using melted chocolate.

Wings: Peel baking paper off sheet cake and cut ‘wings’ using small oval cutter.

‘Glue’ on facial features and wings using melted marshmallow, made by popping a few marshmallows with a sprinkle of water in the microwave.


Here's the top view before the wings were added! Very easy to make since sprinkles were used, and as cute without wings.

The mini tangerines on the right are in Deco Chiffon Cakes book (below), made from orange/mandarin orange chiffon cake, as part of the '吉' Mandarin orange chiffon cake.

Hope you will like these easy and yummy Salted egg yolk chiffon Baby Roosters!

With lots of love,
Susanne


FYI Deco Chiffon Cakes and other titles having a festive discount (up to 30% discount) at Popular bookstores!


*Updated 19/1/17:
My baby Rooster chiffon cupcakes featured on Discover KL and Says.com!

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‘Mistletoe Ring’ Rainbow Bundt Chiffon Cake

December is my favourite time of the year because of Christmas! Since the chiffon cake has a tube hole in the centre, I thought it was perfect for making a Christmas ‘mistletoe ring’ or ‘wreath’! Last year, I thought to use the pretty bundt shape for an improved ‘wreath’ shape. I tried baking chiffon cake in a silicone bundt and shared that the bundt allows chiffon cake to grip well onto it, such that the texture is soft and fluffy like normal chiffon cakes! If you don't have silicone bundt, you can also use a metal bundt pan which is not non-stick (I have one as well and it can be used).

The ‘Mistletoe wreath’ Pandan bundt chiffon cake with pretty intertwining leaves is now in ‘Deco Chiffon Cakes’.

This year, I had to inspiration to make a Rainbow chiffon bundt. I made this cake for my church DG Christmas party and so thankful it was well-received; they shared that it was very soft and yummy!  I made the leaves 'ring' smaller and thinner this time, so that the rainbow base would be the highlight. The flavour is vanilla-pandan flavour.

In this post, I also made a simple video tutorial to give a better visual guide to soft and firm peaks, and how to whip it easily in 3 easy steps! Very thankful for my new assistant, Kenwood Chef Sense which whips up fine quality meringue at half the time I used to with hand mixer. The Kenwood Chef Sense won the reddot design award Gold in 2015. I’m not surprised, as it packs a powerful motor (1200W) and generous capacity (6.7 L which can whip 16 egg whites) within a slim 29.5 cm width x 35 cm height frame, which fits right into my very tight kitchen. I also love other well-thought out details like the volume graduations on the bowl that makes measuring and monitoring the steps so easy, as well as the splash guard. Here goes the recipe!


Rainbow Bundt Chiffon Cake Recipe (8-inch Silicone/Metal bundt)
5 egg yolks
33g castor sugar
65g vegetable/coconut oil
70 g water
100g Prima cake flour
8g vanilla extract
1/3 tsp pandan paste (for green)
Pink, blue, yellow natural or gel food coloring

7 egg whites
75g castor sugar
1/4 tsp cream of tartar

1. Preheat oven to 160°C. *You do not need to grease the pan.

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

3. Add in oil and mix well. Then add water and vanilla extract and whisk till well-combined.

4. Whisk in sifted cake flour and mix till well-combined and no more lumps.

5. Divide the egg yolk batter into 4, approximately 4 tbsp each colour. Add in respective food coloring into each portion (I used pandan paste for the green).

6. Prepare meringue:

Video tutorial: "Whipping from soft to firm peaks in 3 easy steps!" 
- Visual guide/description to soft and firm peaks 

Using Kenwood Chef Sense

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. Divide meringue into 4.

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

9. Spoon a different coloured batter into 2 grooves of the bundt each using a teaspoon. Repeat until the grooves of the bundt are all filled up.

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

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

12. Unmould the chiffon cake by hand (see video tutorial ‘Hand unmoulding Chiffon cakes for a clean finishing’). For the bundt, after peeling the cake from the sides of the pan, jiggle the pan, then invert and push out the cake of the bundt by flipping the surface over.


Decor: I cut ‘leaves’ from a pandan chiffon sheet cake using a holly leaf cutter. Similarly, I cut ‘flowers’ and ‘bow’ from red sheet cake. I use melted marshmallows to stick them on in a ring.

For picture tutorial of the assembly, please refer to ‘Creative baking: Deco Chiffon Cakes’.

Here's a final group shot with my Chiffon Cake Snowman! Hope this brings a smile to your faces! =)

Blessed Christmas to you and your families in advance!!

With lots of love,
Susanne

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‘Unicorn’ Soy Milk Chiffon Cake

This kind of cute unicorn cakes have been trending! I finally made a chiffon cake version for my dear niece’s birthday! The sweet pastel colours and design are inspired by her =). Our kids love soy milk, so I thought to make the chiffon cake soy milk flavour that’s healthy and yummy.

I used a reduced egg yolk recipe for whiter cake. I previously shared whipping up large volumes of meringue was a breeze with my new assistant Kenwood Chefsense. This time I tried out whipping half the volume of egg whites (7 egg whites). No problem at all too and such a breeze! The meringue whips in 2 minutes!

Soy milk chiffon (8-inch chiffon tube pan)
1 egg yolk
1 whole egg
33g castor sugar
66g vegetable/corn oil
76 g soy milk
5g vanilla extract
80g Prima cake flour
Pinch of salt
20g soy milk powder

7 egg whites
75g castor sugar
¼ tsp cream of tartar

1. Dissolve soy milk powder in soy milk and mix well.

2. Preheat oven to 160°C. *Prepare a tray of water under the lowest rack (optional) - I usually use steam baking to control oven temperature.

3. Whisk egg yolk and whole egg with sugar until light, fluffy and well-mixed.

4. Add in oil and mix well. Then add soy milk and vanilla extract and whisk till well-combined.

5 Whisk in sifted cake flour and pinch of salt, and mix till well-combined.

6. Prepare meringue:

a. Using an electric mixer (here Kenwood Chefsense), 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 gently into egg yolk batter 1/3 at a time. *Fold in unidirectional, gentle strokes and do not overfold.

8. Pour the soy milk chiffon batter into an ungreased 8-inch chiffon tube pan till 2-cm from brim. Gently tap on counter top to remove air bubbles.

9. Bake at 160°C for 15 min, then 140°C for 40+ min, or until skewer inserted into centre of cake comes out clean.

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

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


White ‘Horn’: Roll a swissroll into the shape of a horn by tightening on one end of the swissroll and then make cuts.

Pastel coloured ‘Hair’: Combination of baking chiffon cake in flowers mould, using flowers plunger and making diagonal cuts on chiffon cake pops.

Closer look at the final chiffon unicorn!

With lots of love,
Susanne

Thanks so much for those who came for the Popfest event! It's been a great learning experience and journey for me and I'm thankful for so many people!

Creative baking: Deco Chiffon Cakes

Creative baking: Chiffon Cakes

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'Froggy' Pandan Salted Egg Yolk Chiffon Cake

I made this Pandan Salted Egg Yolk Chiffon Cake for Kinokuniya and also for party! The interesting flavour was actually requested by my friend. It turned out to be pretty fascinating and yummy, making our pandan chiffon cake more tasty and savoury (think pandan liu sha bao)! So do try it if you are getting bored of our normal pandan chiffon cake =). My friends who tried it said it was the softest chiffon cake ever!

Christmas came early! I received my first-ever kitchen machine - Chef Sense XL from Kenwood! Finally I can whip large volumes of meringue with ease without getting an arm ache and overheating problems. This cool mixer can whip up to 6.7 litres of meringue, a cool 16 egg whites! It’s a dream come true as I often make big cakes. It whips up soft fluffy meringue at less than half the time I usually take with a hand mixer. Not only that, I can multitask while the machine is faithfully doing its job. The meringue quality is also finer and smoother as compared to a hand mixer for large volumes, maybe because of the overheating issues with the hand mixer. Another really cool thing is the slim design of the mixer that requires really little space in my tight kitchen. The machine also comes with a dough hook for bread and a K-beater for mixing creamy cake/biscuit batter. More things to try in the future!


Recipe for:

Pandan Salted egg yolk chiffon (17-cm chiffon tube pan)
3 egg yolks
20g castor sugar
41g vegetable/corn oil
51g milk
60g prima cake flour
¼ tsp baking powder (optional)
1/5 tsp salt
2 salted duck egg yolks (boiled and mashed into fine crumbs)
1 tsp pandan paste
¼ tsp vanilla extract

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

1. Boil 2 salted duck eggs (or you can buy those vacuum packed boiled ones if you are lazy). Mash salted egg yolks with the back of a spoon into fine crumbs.

2. Preheat oven to 160°C. Prepare a 17-cm tube pan.

3. Prepare egg yolk batter for salted egg yolk chiffon. First whisk egg yolks with sugar, then oil, milk, pandan paste and vanilla extract. Sift flour and salt into salted duck egg yolks, mix well and then sieve/push the flour-salted duck egg yolks into egg yolk batter and mix well.

4. Prepare meringue: whisk egg whites with cream of tartar till frothy. Add in ½ castor sugar for meringue and whisk at high speed till soft peaks form. Add in rest of the castor sugar for meringue and whisk till firm peaks form, or just the point of stiff peak.

5. Fold meringue gently into egg yolk batter gently 1/3 at a time.

6. Pour the batter into tube pan, tap on counter top or run a chopstick to remove air bubbles and then bake at 160°C. for 15 min then 140°C. for 31 min, or until skewer inserted comes clean.

7. Allow to cool inverted fully before unmoulding by hand (see video tutorial ‘Hand unmoulding Chiffon cakes for a clean finishing’).


Using my Kenwood mixer, I can whip by a 9 egg recipe (9 eggs, 12 whites), hands-free and faster!

Adding in the castor sugar in two additions.

The meringue increases 5-fold but doesn’t overflow the deep bowl.

Some tips: I find it useful to to pulse the mixer once at full speed after adding in the sugar to mix well, before turning the knob back to settings '4' for smoother meringue.

The pandan salted egg yolk chiffon recipe gives a lovely light green hue. I decorated the chiffon cake with some cake cut-outs into a cute froggy, using melted marshmallows as glue.

Hope this lovely creations brightens up your day, and do try it! =)

With lots of love,
Susanne


Links to:
Chef Sense XL
Deco Chiffon Cakes - Christmas promos/updates


*NEW*

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