Little Twin Stars on a Star Chiffon Cake

Little Twin Stars! Who grew up with it? <3

It's been so many years since I revisited Little Twin Stars! Still such a joy to make, and still so much work haha! Unlike my previous two versions which involved piping of their hair and faces, I decided to try a different technique of using sheet cake to make their hair, like my Powerpuff girls. It's really a lot more work than the piping technique, though it looks nicer.

I also had the chance to try out my new Wilton aluminium stars pan. I used the chiffon recipe from here, also using the natural coloring and with steam baking. Texture is ogura-like, soft and cottony. All of cookbooks have at least one chiffon cake using a wide metal pan, to show that chiffon cakes can be baked like ogura and sponge cakes. The texture you get is slightly different, less airy, and more cottony with steam baking. The most popular has been the Airplane chiffon cake. You do not need to grease the pan, else the chiffon cake will have difficulty rising. You may like to grease just the bottom of the pan (at the middle only) if you are afraid you may have difficulty hand unmoulding it. If you have baked your chiffon cake just right (not underbaked, or overbaked), it should be a breeze to unmould it without greasing your metal tin. If you underbake the cake, the middle of the cake may tear when you try to unmould it as the cake is thick. If you overbake it, the brown skin layer tears the cake when you try to hand unmould it too. Always check with a bamboo skewer at the middle to make sure it is totally dry before you stop baking the cake.

I also had two versions of the cake, one with Chiffon Cake Rainbows, and one without. Recipe for chiffon cake rainbows has been shared in the first book Creative baking: Chiffon Cakes.

Hope this sweet creation brings a smile to your faces!

With lots of love,
Susanne

Book covers:

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'Durian' Durian Cottony Cake (early Father's day present)

My dad loves to eat durians! I made these ‘durians’ from durian-flavoured ogura cake for my dad and my friend’s dad (seems most dad’s love durians ;))!

It’s made with real premium durian flesh, the flavour and smell is so strong and fragrant, and texture so cottony and soft! Even though I’m not a durian lover, I’m a convert (at least of its pastries hehe)! I called it cottony cake due to its delicate texture but also the recipe is closer to ogura cake, though in actual I merged chiffon and ogura recipes.

Check out the texture!

This is another version I made:

I will first share recipe for a plain durian cottony cake for the 8-9-inch tube pan first as it’s oh-so-good and easy to try for beginners. Below that, I will share the recipe how to make a ‘durian’ fruit version =). For the ‘durian’ version, I used pandan paste for the green colour of the shell and durian paste/emulco for the durian fruit. Both, especially the pandan paste enhances the durian flavour too! I was really surprised the pandan-durian portion to be our favorite! 

I made the spikes from baking chiffon cake in mini paper cones (the top version), but if you find that troublesome, you can also cut out small triangles from chiffon sheet cake (bottom version). Both look pretty cute.

Here, I also experimented with using prima top flour to replace part of the cake flour. I’m loving the ultra-fine texture of top flour! Mixing a little into the cake flour increases its lightness! If you do not have top flour, just substitute it with equal portions of cake flour. Here goes!


Plain Durian Cottony Cake (for 8-9-inch tube pan)
*if you use 9-inch, cake will be slightly shorter

3 egg yolks
1 whole egg
28g castor sugar
65g vegetable/corn/coconut oil
70g coconut milk
84g durian puree
80g prima cake flour
20g prima top flour (*can be substituted with cake flour)


7 egg whites
¼ tsp cream of tartar
73g castor sugar

1. Prepare durian puree by blending 2 rows of durian flesh or mashing durian flesh and then passing it through a sieve. 176g durian with seeds approximately yields 90g durian puree.

The durian puree is finger-licking good!

2. Prepare a tray of water under the lowest rack. Preheat oven to 160°C.

3. Whisk egg yolks and whole egg with sugar until pale and light.

4. Add in oil, coconut milk, durian puree and mix well.

5. Whisk in sifted cake flour, top flour (you can also replace with cake flour) and mix till smooth and well-combined.

6. Prepare meringue:

a. In a grease-free, dry metal bowl, using electric mixer, 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. Firm peaks give finer, softer texture.

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

8. Gently pour or scoop the batter into an ungreased 8- to 9-inch chiffon tube pan. Gently tap on counter top to remove air bubbles.

9. Bake at 160°C for 15 min, 150°C for 10 min, 140°C for 20 min, then 130°C for 15 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’).


‘Durian’ fruit Durian Cottony Cake (makes 1 durian or 2 halves)

2 egg yolks
1/2 whole egg
14g castor sugar
33g vegetable/corn/coconut oil
35g coconut milk
42g durian puree
40g prima cake flour
10g prima top flour (*can be substituted with cake flour)
Few drops of durian paste/emulco (only added to yellow portion)
1/5 tsp pandan paste (only added to green portion)

3.5 egg whites
¼ tsp cream of tartar
36g castor sugar

1. Prepare durian puree by blending 1 row of durian flesh or mashing durian flesh and then passing it through a sieve. 88g durian with seeds approximately yields 45g durian puree. Photos as above.

2. Prepare a tray of water under the lowest rack. Preheat oven to 160°C. Prepare one silicone cake pop mould (for durian fruit), 2 oval glass bowls (for durian, you can also use round bowls), 20-30 mini paper cones (for spikes, cut leaving the tips)

3. Whisk egg yolks and whole egg with sugar until pale and light.

4. Add in oil, coconut milk, durian puree and mix well.

5. Whisk in sifted cake flour, top flour (you can also replace with cake flour) and mix till smooth and well-combined.

6. Spoon out 6 tsp egg yolk batter to another bowl and leave plain (for the cream husk), spoon out 6 tsp batter to another bowl and add a few drops of durian paste/emulco (for the yellow fruit). To the rest of the batter, add pandan paste (for the green shell).

6. Prepare meringue:

a. In a grease-free, dry metal bowl, using electric mixer, 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. Firm peaks give finer, softer texture.

7. Portion out 12 tbsp meringue for the plain and yellow batters, leaving the rest of the meringue for the green batter.

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

9. Spoon green batter onto the bowls till 3/4 full, then spoon the plain batter onto the middle. Gently tap on counter top to remove air bubbles. Bake bowls at 160°C for 15 min, 150°C for 10 min, 140°C for 15+ min, or until skewer inserted into centre of cake comes out clean.

10. Spoon the rest of the green batter into the mini cones and bake at 160°C for 12+ min, or until skewer comes clean.

11. Spoon the yellow batter into cake pops moulds and bake at 160°C for 12+ min.

12. Leaves the moulds on a wire rack to cool completely.

13. Unmould the chiffon cake by hand by peeling/pulling at the sides similar to the big chiffon tube pan.

14. Use melted marshmallows to glue the fruits and spikes on.

Hope you will enjoy this delicious cottony soft durian creation! Happy advance Father's day to all!!

With lots of love,
Susanne


*Newer version of Durian Chiffon Cake here.

More loving chiffon cake creations here:

  

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Orange "Korilakkumma" Ogura Cake

Doesn't it look so comfy snuggling in bed? I fell in love with these cute Japanese Rilakumma bears ever since I saw them. Those huge eyes! My family loves the melt-in-the-mouth, soft ogura cakes, so I was inspired to make these cute orange ogura "bears" for them :)

I adapted the recipe from my turtle matcha ogura cakes with reference to Anncoo Journal's orange ogura recipe, using freshly squeezed orange juice :)

Ingredients (makes one 4" round bowl and a 6" tray)
2 egg yolks + 1/3 whole egg
22g corn oil
37 ml orange juice
1/8 tsp salt

2 egg whites
25g castor sugar
1/6 tsp cream of tartar

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 150^oC. Prepare a tray of water at the bottom of the oven (I used the lowest rack to bake the cake).
2. Whisk egg yolks, whole egg, corn oil, orange juice and salt until well combined.
3. Sift in flour and stir till smooth batter formed.
4. Aliquot out 6 tsp of batter for patterning and divide batter into 3. To 2 of the portions, add charcoal powder till desired colour and a tiny dip of wilton pink coloring for the pink batter. Add 1/3 tsp cake flour to each batter and mix well.
5. Beat egg whites and cream of tartar until foamy using an electric whisk. Add in sugar in 2 additions and beat until firm peaks are formed (or just reach stiff peaks). The peak formed doesn't flop over but it's not overly stiff either. Scoop over meringue over into patterning batter (2 tbsp per 1 tsp batter) and fold gently.
6. Fold in the rest of the meringue into the rest of the batter gently in 2 additions.
7. Pipe the black and pink batter onto the bowl and tray (for the eyes and ear) and bake for 1.5 min, then pipe the plain batter (for the mouth patch) and bake for 1 min.
*Steps 5-7 must work very quickly. If take long to pipe, then best to make meringue with 1 egg white first specially for piping. After that then make meringue for the main cake batter.
8. Pour the cake batter into the glass bowl till 2/3 full and the rest into the tray. Bang the bowls/tray on the counter top 3 times each side to get rid of big air bubbles.
9. Steam bake at 150^oC for 40 min or when skewer comes out clean.
10. Remove from oven and invert immediately on cooling rack.

That's how it looks fresh out of the oven (top), and inverted on the cooling rack (bottom) ^_^

11. Unmould gently with hand and peel off baking sheet when the cakes have cooled completely.

12. Cut out and shape the ears using a combination of cookie cutters and knife carving. “Glue” the parts onto the cake using melted white chocolate.

It was a healthy, loving creation for my family! Hope those big eyes bring a smile to your faces too! ^_^

This post is linked to the event, Little Thumbs up organised by Bake For Happy Kids, and My Little Favourite DIY, hosted by Ann of Anncoo Journal.

With love,

Susanne

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Piggy and Elephant Strawberry Ogura Cupcakes

My animal ogura cupcakes are having a silly conversation! :p Aren't  they kawaii? ^_^ I made them for a dear friend's son who loves cute animals. His favourite was elephant so here is my attempt though I'm not too good with it. She liked pink so strawberry flavour was the natural choice (natural food colouring :)).

The recipe was adapted from both my Froggy Pandan Ogura Cakes and Hundred Eighty Degrees strawberry ogura as I didn't have strawberry powder.

Ingredients (makes three 9cm diameter glass bowls and one 6" square tray)

3 egg yolk + 1/2 egg

32.5g corn oil

30ml fresh milk

10ml puree

¼ tsp strawberry paste

32.5g cake flour

1/4 tsp salt

3 egg whites

37.5g sugar

1/5 tsp cream of tartar

Method

1. Preheat oven to 150^oC. Prepare a tray of water at the bottom of the oven (I used the lowest rack to bake the cake).

2. Whisk egg yolks, whole egg, corn oil, milk, puree, strawberry essence and salt until well combined.

3. Sift in flour and stir till smooth batter formed.

4. Aliquot out 4 tsp of batter for patterning and divide batter into 2. Add charcoal powder till desired colour and a tiny dip of wilton pink coloring for the pink batter. Add 1/3 tsp cake flour to the batter and mix well.

5. Beat egg whites and cream of tartar until foamy using an electric whisk. Add in sugar in 2 additions and beat until firm peaks are formed (or just reach stiff peaks). The peak formed doesn't flop over but it's not overly stiff either.  Scoop over meringue over into patterning batter (2 tbsp per 1 tsp batter) and fold gently.

6. Fold in the rest of the meringue into the rest of the batter gently in 2 additions.

7. Pipe the black and pink batter onto the bowls and bake for 1.5 min.

*Steps 5-7 must work very quickly. If take long to pipe, then best to make meringue with 1 egg white first specially for piping. After that then make meringue for the main cake batter.

8. Pour the cake batter into the glass bowls till 2/3 full and the rest into the square tray. Bang the bowls/tray on the counter top 3 times each side to get rid of big air bubbles.

9. Steam bake at 150^oC for 40 min or when skewer comes out clean.

10. Remove from oven and invert immediately on cooling rack.

11. Unmould gently with hand and peel off baking sheet when the cakes have cooled completely.

12. The nose and ears were carved out using a combination of cookie cutters and knife carving. I used my hearts cutter to cut out a “J” for the elephant’s nose. The picture tutorial for the piggy nose and ears are found in my post on Pig pig rockmelon chiffon. “Glue” the parts onto the animal cupcakes using melted white chocolate with marshmallows.

My friend shared photos of how her boy loved the cupcakes which really made my day! ^_^ 

With lots of love,

Susanne

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"Empty Tomb" Earl Grey Cake

".. on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they went to the tomb, taking the spices they had prepared. And they found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they went in they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. While they were perplexed about this, behold, two men stood by them in dazzling apparel. And as they were frightened and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them, “Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen." Luke 24:1-6a

This is such good news! We celebrate Easter because Jesus was raised from the dead and had conquered death. I made a simple earl grey ogura cake in the shape of the empty tomb to share with the kids this good news :).

You may scratch your head and say "Is this really ogura cake? It does not look like one!". I agree! It was an experiment I had with baking ogura cake in a chiffon tin (people don't usually do that and I wanted to find out why). And through some unintended "mistakes" and "divine intervention", the cake ended up looking more tomb-like than I envisioned... LOL! I placed the tin on a rack that was probably too high and I whipped the meringue to stiff peaks this time (but not very ramrod stiff). The cake ended up looking like a very "huat" chiffon cake but the texture and softness is unmistakably ogura. It's so soft that the cake can't hold its own weight well!

I adapted the recipe from Ann Low's orange ogura cake. I used a 17cm chiffon tin and a small round bottomed glass bowl to bake the cakes.

Ingredients:
70g fresh milk
2 bags of earl grey tea
45g Canola oil
55g cake flour, sifted
4 egg yolks + 1 whole egg

155g egg whites
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
60g caster sugar

Steps:
1. Heat the milk and tea leaves until warm (not boiling) and let the tea leaves steep in the milk. Set aside and cool.
2. Preheat the oven to 160 degrees Celsius with a tray of hot water at the bottom rack. Set the rack for the cakes at the second lowest position. I placed mine at the middle. That was probably too high.
3. Whisk egg yolks, egg and oil until frothy. Whisk in tea with milk. Gradually add in sifted flour and whisk until no trace of flour is seen.
4. Beat the egg whites until frothy. Add cream of tartar and beat until soft peaks form. Gradually add in sugar and beat until firm peaks form. I beat until stiff peaks form, which explains why the cake did not collapse even though it has very low flour content but cracked like nobody's business at the top.
5. Add one third of the meringue into the egg yolk batter and mix well. Fold in the rest of the meringue in two separate batches quickly but gently. You may find the hand folding method more helpful when folding in the meringue for ogura cakes as the egg yolk batter is more runny than chiffon batter.
6. Spoon 3-4 tbs of batter into the small glass bowl and slowly pour the rest of the batter into the chiffon tin. Bang the chiffon tin on the table a few times to release any trapped air. Put them in the oven and reduce the temperature to 150 degrees Celsius. Bake for 45-50 minutes. Invert to cool.
7. Carefully unmould the cake from chiffon tin using a combination of hand and spatula. Unmould the small cupcake using a metal teaspoon.

8. Cut the big cake into half. You can see it buckling a bit under its own weight because it's really soft.

9. Arrange one half of the big cake and the small cupcake as shown in the photo to form the empty tomb. You may have to cut the cupcake a bit if it is too big to fit the tomb opening. I also had to stuff a bit of cake into the hole of the "tomb" to support its weight as the arch was threatening to collapse.

10. I attached some candied lime peel to form the vine on the tomb using royal icing sugar. The candied peel was left over from my previous bake for my friend's party, which I will blog about soon.

We enjoyed the lovely aroma and softness of this cake very much! The kids also recognize at once what I was trying to depict using the cakes because the assembly really looks like an empty tomb!

May we find joy that we can be sure of our salvation because Jesus did rise from the dead, not only during this Easter season, but everyday of our lives :).

With love,
 Phay Shing

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Froggy Pandan Ogura Cakes

I really love the soft, cottony texture of ogura cakes, so I absolutely had to try the pandan version! I was inspired to bake ogura froggies for my little kids and couldn't resist experimenting patterning with ogura batter. I adapted the recipe from Cooking Pleasure for pandan zebra ogura but halved the original recipe which was for a 9-inch tin. I pre-piped the eyes, mouth and cheeks and then baked the ogura cake over them. Don't the froggies look happy basking in the sun? :) Pandan ogura is really fragrant and melt-in-the-mouth!

Ingredients (makes three 4” inch bowls and one 6” square tray)
3 egg yolk + 1/2 egg
32.5g corn oil
30ml coconut milk
10ml pandan juice
32.5g cake flour
Pinch of salt

3 egg whites
37.5g sugar
1/5 tsp cream of tartar

Method
1. Preheat oven to 150^oC. Prepare a tray of water at the bottom of the oven (I used the lowest rack to bake the cake).
2. Whisk egg yolks, whole egg, corn oil, coconut milk, pandan juice and salt until well combined.
3. Sift in flour and stir till smooth batter formed.
4. Aliquot out 6 tsp of batter for patterning and divide batter 2:1 (brown: pink). Add 1 tsp of cocoa powder to the brown batter and a tiny dip of wilton pink coloring for the pink batter. Add 1/3 tsp cake flour to the batter and mix well.
5. Beat egg whites and cream of tartar until foamy using an electric whisk. Add in sugar in 2 additions and beat until firm peaks are formed (or just reach stiff peaks). The peak formed doesn't flop over but it's not overly stiff either. Scoop over meringue over into patterning batter (2 tbsp per tsp batter) and fold gently.
6. Fold in the rest of the meringue into the pandan batter gently in 2 additions.

7. Pipe the brown and pink batter onto the bowls and tray respectively (top panels in picture) and bake for 1.5 min. 

8. Pour the pandan batter into the glass bowls and square tray till ½-2/3 full (middle panels). Bang the bowls/tray on the counter top 3 times each side to get rid of big air bubbles.
9. Steam bake at 150^oC for 40 min or when skewer comes out clean.
10. Remove from oven and invert immediately on cooling rack.
11. Unmould gently with hand and peel off baking sheet when the cakes have cooled completely.
12. Carve out the the eyes and hands from the layer cake using a combination of cookie cutters and knife carving. “Glue” the parts onto the froggy cakes using melted white chocolate (bottom panels).

Don't the froggies look happy basking in the sun? :) Pandan ogura is really fragrant and melt-in-the-mouth!

With love,

Susanne

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Fish Raspberry and Vanilla Ogura Cupcakes -- New Batter Separation Technique

While Susanne gets most of her inspiration from dreams,  I get mine from daydreaming while doing mundane housework :p. I suddenly thought that it would be great if someone came up with a separator for separating different flavors of cupcake batters that is flexible, takes on the contour of the mould, yet sturdy enough to stand up in the mould and most importantly, CHEAP and CAN BE EASILY MADE AT HOME! I also wanted to try the very much raved ogura cake that is even softer than regular chiffon and melts in your mouth. I don't have a square pan of the right size so I made my first attempt using my trusty glass bowls and a small disposable aluminum tray that I have at home. Since there's lots of fresh raspberries in my fridge, I decided to make this bake raspberry flavored.  Presenting my raspberry and vanilla ogura fishes! *Bloop bloop*

As this type of cake is new to me, I decided to follow closely a similar recipe. I wasn't able to find a raspberry ogura cake recipe so I adapted from Ann Low's orange ogura cake. The DIY batter separator I used is made from fondant that is hand-shaped until a desired shape is reached and cling wrapped. Very simple idea but it works! You my use your kids' play dough or if your are not comfortable using inedible stuff in close contact with food, you can make your own edible dough. I happened to have fondant sitting in my fridge so I used it. I find the tips offered by Kitchen Tigress very helpful for newbies like me.

Ingredients (makes 6 ogura fishes):
4 egg yolks + 1 whole egg (60g each)
40g vegetable oil (I used canola oil)
30g fresh raspberry puree (press fresh raspberries through a sieve, discard the seeds)
35g + 6g fresh milk
Pinches of salt
55g cake flour (divided into two portions and sifted)
1/2 tsp vanilla essence 
Red gel food coloring (optional)

150g egg white (about 4 eggs)
1/5 tsp cream of tartar
60g caster sugar

Steps:
1. Line bottom of tray with baking sheet. As mine was a disposable type of tray, I lined the sides as well to extend the height of my shallow 5 x 8" tray. I left my glass bowls unlined and ungreased. Shape your batter separator (fondant/ playdoh/ edible dough) according to the contour of the glass bowl such that it divides the circle into approximately 1:2 ratio. Wrap your separator with cling wrap with as little creases as possible. Wash and dry your glass bowl again as it is most likely stained during the shaping process.
2. Preheat oven to 160 degrees Celsius with boiling water at bottom most rack of the oven.
3. Whisk egg yolks, egg and vegetable oil until frothy. Divide mixture into 2 equal portions. Whisk in raspberry puree and 6g of fresh milk into one portion, and 35g of milk and vanilla essence into the other. Add in sifted flour and a pinch of salt into both portions gradually so as not to get lumps of flour in the mixture. You may wish to add a teeny bit of red coloring to brighten up the raspberry batter but it's optional.
4. Prepare the meringue. Beat egg whites with an electric mixer until foamy. Add cream of tartar (I used a bit less this time as raspberry is acidic) and beat until soft peaks form. Gradually add sugar and whisk until firm peaks form, i.e. just before stiff peaks and the peak flops over a little.
5. Fold in 1/3 of the meringue into each of the egg yolk batters until no trace of egg whites can be seen. Fold in the remaining meringue in two additions. Tap the mixing bowls a few times to release any trapped air bubbles.
6. Place the separator in a glass bowl such that it divides the circle into approximately 1:2 ratio. Make sure that the separator follows the contour of the bowl to prevent any seepage of batter. Use a tablespoon to spoon the vanilla batter into the smaller segment and the raspberry batter into the larger segment. Fill the bowls until about 1/2-2/3 full. Carefully lift up the separator and wipe clean with paper towels before filling another bowl.

7. Pour the remaining vanilla and raspberry (if any left) batter into the metal tray slowly to allow any trapped air bubbles to be popped.
8. Put the bowls and tray in the oven and reduce the temperature to 150 degrees Celsius. Steam bake for 40 minutes. Remove and invert the bowls and tray onto wire rack to cool.
9. Carefully unmould the cakes from the glass bowls when they have cooled completely using a combination of hand and spatula/ small metal spoon. The cakes are really soft so this can be quite challenging so do it slowly. Remove the baking sheet from the rectangular cake after 10 minutes of cooling on the rack and continue to let it cool.

Here are my freshly unmoulded cakes baked in glass bowls.

Yes I made a mistake when pouring batter into one of the bowls :P. I dented most of the cakes during unmoulding as they are really soft!

And now for the Ogura cake softness test that everyone does....

I think I pass :P.

I used a heart shape cookie cutter for the fish tail, a letter "M" cookie cutter and triangle cookie cutter for the fins and free hand cut for the lips (hubby thinks the lips make the fish very cute and funny). I used store-bought "eye candies" for the fish eyes. Everything is "glued" on using royal icing (the just-add-water type). Here's my fishy prototype...

Many of my creations are unplanned and I come up with the designs as I go along. The fish parts are one example :). Here's a peek at the inside of a fish...

Very fine textured, soft and melts in your mouth! Everyone loved it! Good things must share so I packed away 4 fish to 2 neighbors.

They loved it too although one neighbor did find the raspberry one a little sour but still nice. You may have to increase the amount of sugar in the meringue if you have a sweet tooth but I personally prefer food that is not too sweet.

Overall I am happy with this bake and will definitely bake ogura cake again with other flavors and more exciting designs using the DIY batter separator :).

With love,

Phay Shing

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Turtle Matcha Ogura Cakes

Having been won over by the ultra soft and flexible ogura cake, I had the sudden inspiration to make ogura turtles to delight my kids! Kitchen Tigress's post on ogura cakes is a must-read before trying! It has lots of useful tips.

I pre-baked a 9-inch cake according to the recipe from matcha ogura cake and saved 1/3 of the cake for creating the turtle patterns (alternatively, you can use the scaled-down recipe below for a 6-inch tray). The lighter-coloured portion of the turtle uses the same matcha ogura cake recipe but scaled down to 2 eggs and only 1/4 tsp matcha powder to achieve the contrasting colours. I lowered the baking temperature to 150°C to reduce browning so that the turtle patterns could be seen.

Ingredients (makes three 4-inch round bowls)
2 egg yolks + 1/3 whole egg
22g corn oil
27ml milk
22g cake flour
1/12 tsp salt
1/4 tsp matcha in 10 ml hot water

2 egg whites
25g castor sugar
1/6 tsp cream of tartar

Method
1. Pre-cut the dark green matcha ogura cake into squares and arrange at the bottom of the round bowls.
2. Preheat oven to 150°C. Prepare a tray of water at the bottom of the oven (I used the lowest rack to bake the cake).
3. Whisk egg yolks, whole egg, corn oil, milk, salt and matcha tea until well combined.
4. Sift in flour and stir till smooth batter formed.
5. Beat egg whites and cream of tartar until foamy using an electric whisk. Add in sugar in 2 additions and beat until firm peaks are formed. The peak formed doesn't flop over but it's not overly stiff either.
6. Fold in 1/3 of the beaten whites into matcha batter and mix evenly. Pour into balanced whites and fold evenly.
7. Pour batter into a 3 glass bowls till 1/2-2/3 full. Bang on the counter top 3 times each side to get rid of big air bubbles (top left image on picture below).
8. Steam bake at 150°C for 40 min or when skewer comes out clean.
9. Remove from oven and invert immediately on cooling rack (top right image on picture below).
10. Unmould when cakes have cooled completely.

11. Carve out the turtle head, limbs and tail from the dark green matcha cake using a butter knife (bottom image).

12. Melt compound white chocolate and apply it on the different parts to "glue" them together (I used candy eyes, they work great but run after one day).

You can use the following recipe for Matcha ogura for a 9-inch square pan (same recipe, triple all ingredients). See my original post.

Ingredients
6 egg yolks + 1 whole egg
65g corn oil
80ml milk
65g cake flour
1/4 tsp salt
1 tbsp matcha in 30ml hot water

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

Method
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).

2. Whisk egg yolks, whole egg, corn oil, milk, salt and matcha tea until well combined.

3. Sift in flour and stir till smooth batter formed.

4. Beat egg whites and cream of tartar until foamy using an electric whisk. Add in sugar in 2 additions and beat until firm peaks are formed. The peak formed doesn't flop over but it's not overly stiff either.

5. Fold in 1/3 of the beaten whites into matcha batter and mix evenly. Pour into balanced whites and fold evenly.

6. Pour batter into a baking paper-lined (only at the bottom) 9" square pan. Bang the tin on the counter top 3 times each side to get rid of big air bubbles.

7. Steam bake at 160°C for 55-60 min or when skewer comes out clean.

8. Remove from oven and invert immediately on cooling rack for 10 min. Unmould, peel off baking paper and cool completely.


Useful notes:
*Some recommend baking at 160°C for 40 mins then reducing temperature to 140°C for 25+ mins to prevent cracks.
*It is important not to overfill the tin, leaving about 1 inch from the top.
*Steam baking helps to prevent cracks so ensure sufficient boiling water in the bottom pan.
*Do not overwhip the meringue for smooth fine pores in your ogura.


I was thrilled my daughter's first response was "wah!" and the cake was so soft and melt-in-the-mouth, you could really tell the difference from chiffons! This is my first "fun" loving creation with ogura cakes!

With love,

Susanne

The Creative chiffon cake books actually feature some ogura recipes eg the Froggy Pandan Ogura cakes.

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Matcha Ogura Cake

I fell in love with the ogura cake ever since I saw Shar's post on milo ogura cake. The name belies its origins from a bakery chain in Batu Pahat. The story tells about Kak Faridah (who lived in Batu Pahat) pining for her Japanese abang, Ogura-san (who died tragically but Kak Faridah didn't know that) and she baked a "xiang si cake" for him.

Story aside, the Kitchen Tigress's post on ogura cakes is a must-read before trying! It has lots of useful tips. The recipe is used is adapted from Food@Home Sweet Home and Peng's kitchen.

Ingredients
6 egg yolks + 1 whole egg
65g corn oil
80ml milk
65g cake flour
1/4 tsp salt
1 tbsp matcha in 30ml hot water

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

Method
1. Preheat oven to 160^oC. Prepare a tray of water at the bottom of the oven (I used the lowest rack to bake the cake).

2. Whisk egg yolks, whole egg, corn oil, milk, salt and matcha tea until well combined.

3. Sift in flour and stir till smooth batter formed.

4. Beat egg whites and cream of tartar until foamy using an electric whisk. Add in sugar in 2 additions and beat until firm peaks are formed. The peak formed doesn't flop over but it's not overly stiff either.

5. Fold in 1/3 of the beaten whites into matcha batter and mix evenly. Pour into balanced whites and fold evenly.

6. Pour batter into a baking paper-lined (only at the bottom) 9" square pan. Bang the tin on the counter top 3 times each side to get rid of big air bubbles. 

7. Steam bake at 160^oC for 55-60 min or when skewer comes out clean.

8. Remove from oven and invert immediately on cooling rack for 10 min. Unmould, peel off baking paper and cool completely.

Useful notes:

*Some recommend baking at 160^oC for 40 mins then reducing temperature to 140^oC for 25+ mins to prevent cracks.

*It is important not to overfill the tin, leaving about 1 inch from the top.

*Steam baking helps to prevent cracks so ensure sufficient boiling water in the bottom pan.

*I may have overwhipped the meringue slightly as the pores are quite big and not as fine as it should be.


I think I'm in love with the cake! It's truly so soft, moist, bendable and addictive!

With love,

Susanne

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