‘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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'Christmas Mistletoe Ring' Pandan Bundt Chiffon Cake

I had the inspiration to make a ‘Christmas mistletoe/holly ring’ (which adorn houses during Christmas to celebrate the birth of Christ) chiffon cake since 2 years back! Last year I finally made a Rainbow Mistletoe Ring Chiffon Cake! This year I thought of using the Bundt pan to get a prettier wreath shape! I tried baking chiffon cake in a Nordic bundt pan. However, the texture was slightly denser than normal fluffy chiffon cakes due to the non-stick surface. So I was really happy when a friend helped me get a silicone bundt pan from overseas! The silicone surface (and the tube support) allows chiffon cake to grip on so the chiffon cake is nice and fluffy, like the usual ones!

I decorated the chiffon cake with green chiffon cake ‘leaves’ of different colours, and red chiffon cake flowers, berries and bow. These were cut out from chiffon cake baked in layer trays.

The recipe with picture tutorial is now in 'Deco Chiffon Cakes' book.

Blessed Christmas to you and your family!

With lots of love,
Susanne

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'Christmas Mistletoe Ring' Rainbow Chiffon Cake (and Cupcakes)

This is another fun pretty variant of the rainbow chiffon cake with green colour at the top, inspired by the Christmas mistletoe rings (or Christmas wreaths) that adorn houses during Christmas time to celebrate the birth of Christ. The donut shape of the chiffon cake is really ideal for making the Christmas ring. It was something that I had wanted to try last year for the school Christmas party but was ditched last minute in favour of the Christmas trees Pandan-Strawberry Chiffon Pops which the kids loved as well.

The same recipe for the Pastel Rainbow Chiffon Cake (in 'Creative baking: Chiffon Cakes' now) is used here, except that the order for scooping in the batter is changed as follows: green, yellow, orange, pink, purple and blue, so that green would be on top once the cake is inverted.

The mistletoe and leaves were cut from strawberry and pandan chiffon cakes baked in 9-inch trays. The red mistletoe is cut using a bubble tea straw. I used some charcoal powder in addition to pandan paste to colour the leaves darker green than the chiffon cake. As I didn’t have a leaf cutter for the green leaves, the jagged leaves were cut by using the straw to make 6 inverted cuts around the shape of the leaf.

Here’s a more top view of the Christmas Mistletoe Ring!

A newer version of Christmas Mistletoe Ring with picture tutorial is now in 'Deco Chiffon Cakes' book.

I also made some more Christmas cupcakes along with the cake. You can refer to Snowman Tiered Chiffon Cake and Christmas cupcakes (at the bottom) for their recipe. I took the chance to experiment with more Christmas designs: mistletoe and stars in addition to snowflakes.

Packing them into boxes two by two as gifts!

Blessed Christmas to all!

I am submitting this to "My Treasured Recipes #4 - Ho Ho Ho It's Christmas (Dec 2014)" hosted by Miss B of Everybody Eats Well in Flanders and co-hosted by Charmaine of Mimi Bakery House.

With lots of love,
Susanne

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