Peppa Pig Strawberry Yoghurt Chiffon Cakepops

My cousin requested for some Peppa Pig chiffon cakes for her daughter's birthday because my niece is a Peppa Pig fan!

This isn't the first time I made these chiffon pops. I first made them about five and a half years ago in lychee flavour. You can read about it in this post. I made it again along with George and a couple of friends in a cupcake version where it is not just the head but upper body as well. You can see it in this post.

Why am I blogging the same creation again? Because I did things differently from last time. I saved time and resources by making the facial features differently. I made a simple batter, piped and baked the features separately and stored it until the cakes are ready for assembly. This allows the bake to be more manageable as it can be broken down into a 3 days. One day for making the features, one day for baking the head and ears, and one day for assembling. I used the same technique that I did for this Gudetama creation where the facial features were placed on a spherified lemon curd. Many thanks to Yuni Sweets (checkout her YouTube channel and Instagram account!) for sharing her technique for deco swiss rolls! The batter for making the patterns is a simple 1:1:1:1 ratio for cake flour: icing sugar: egg whites : unsalted butter. Simply mix all the ingredients together, portion out and colour it in different colours, pipe and bake for 6-10 min at 130-140C or until dry. I reused my macaron template for Peppa Pig for making the facial features!

Piped features. Be sure to lightly grease the teflon sheet before piping. I used 12g of each ingredient to make the batter

Strawberry yoghurt chiffon pops
Ingredients (makes about 18 eggshell worth + 7x7" sheet cake) :
Egg yolk batter
3 yolks
10g caster sugar
40g plain yoghurt (no sugar added)
60g cake flour
A pinch of salt
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
1/2-3/4 tsp strawberry emulco
A tiny drop of purple food colouring  (optional)

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

Note : I chose to use plain unsweetened yoghurt so I used more sugar to counter the sour taste of the yoghurt and strawberry paste. If you used sweetened yoghurt, you may reduce the amount of sugar.

Steps:
1. Preheat oven to 160°C. Line 7 inch square tray with parchment or teflon sheet. Place eggshells that are wash, dried and with membrane removed on silicone cupcake cases. Place a tray of water at base of oven (optional)

2. Prepare egg yolk batter. Whisk egg yolks and sugar until pale and thick. Add oil and whisk until combined. Add yoghurt, strawberry paste, vanilla and salt and whisk until combined. Gradually sift in flour and whisk until no trace of flour is seen.

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

4. Gently but quickly fold meringue into egg yolk batter in three additions. Fill egg shells 1/2-2/3 full and the 7x7" tray.

5. Bake sheet cake at 160°C for 12 min. Immediately remove from tray and cooled covered. Bake the eggshells at 160°C 12 min, and another 30 min at 135°C. Note that baking temperature and time is oven dependent so adjust accordingly.

6. Let the eggshells cool completely bwfore carefully unmoulding the cakes. Unmould by using the back of a metal spoon to make as many cracks as possible and the gently and carefully peeling the egg shells off.

7. Use a small knife to make a small cut where the snout is supposed to be and gently but firmly press the cake into shape with your fingers.

I used baked angel hair pasta to attach the ears more securely to the head. Instead of melted marshmellows, I used cake glue bought from baking supply store as I am curious how it is like.

Brush the chiffon pops with a little syrup before storing in airtight container in the fridge to keep these small cakes moist.


With love,
Phay Shing

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Peppa Pig and Suzy Sheep Strawberry Macarons

Besides the Peppa Pig and family macaron centerpiece that my friend requested, these Peppa and Suzy strawberry macarons also appeared at the party!

These were individually packed as door gifts 

I used the Swiss method to make these macarons and you can refer to this post for the recipe. Ever since I discovered that I could work with a little cocoa butter substituting white chocolate for my macaron filling, I have been tweaking my default recipes as I am always eager to make the filling less sweet whenever possible. So what I will share here is my strawberry white chocolate buttercream recipe that is stable in hot Singapore weather, less sweet AND packed with strawberry flavour.

Just to share some pictures of the process first.

Piped Suzy Sheep 

Piped Peppa Pig 

Freshly baked shells! 

I decorated the shells with royal icing and edible marker

Here is the revised recipe for strawberry white chocolate buttercream.

Ingredients :
Strawberry jam
250g strawberry pureed
30g sugar (or to taste)
Pinch of salt
2 tsp lemon juice
1/4tsp strawberry emulco (optional)

Strawberry white chocolate buttercream
80g white chocolate, finely chopped or use chips
20g unsalted butter
30g cocoa butter, very finely chopped or use shavings
1/8tsp salt
55g strawberry jam

Steps :
1. Prepare strawberry jam by placing all ingredients in a saucepan and cooking over low heat, stirring frequently until mixture is reduced to about half the original weight. Let it cool to room temperature before using or you can a prepare this ahead of time and refrigerate.

2. Prepare white chocolate buttercream. Place white chocolate, cocoa butter and butter in microwave safe bowl. Heat on medium-low power for 10 seconds and mix well. Repeat heating and stirring until mixture is melted and smooth. Be careful not to overheat. You may use double-boiling method if you prefer.

3. Add salt and mix well. Chill in freezer for 2 min and mix well with spatula. Repeat freezing for 1-2min and mixing/beating with spatula until mixture resembles buttercream and appears light and fluffy.

4. Add the jam a teaspoon at a time and fold in until combined.

When assembling macarons with high water content fillings like jam, always insulate the shells with a layer of buttercream or ganache to prevent the shells from turning soggy fast.

Coat top and bottom shells with buttercream. Pipe a ring of buttercream on bottom shell. Fill the center with jam before sandwiching the shells together. 

Store in refrigerator for 24h in airtight condition before serving. When you want to serve, let the airtight container sit at room temperature for 15 min before opening to consume. This is to prevent condensation from forming on the macaron shells when you open the container. You may store macarons filled with jam for up to a week in the fridge.

With love,
Phay Shing

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Peppa Pig and Family in Muddy Puddle Chocolate Macarons

When you think of Peppa Pig, what scene do you think of? For me, the scene where the whole family jumps into a muddy puddle, and then everyone falls on their backs laughing comes to mind. I did the mudde puddle bit, with a rainbow in the backdrop of course 😊.

Yes the mud splashes are deliberate! 

I used the Swiss method to make the macarons as there are many colours involved so I need a meringue that can stay stable for a longer time. Italian method works just as well too but I didn't feel like dealing with having to monitor the boiling syrup and state of egg whites beating at the same time, or having an extra saucepan to wash. You may refer to this recipe for Swiss method. I have changed to using a higher initial preheat temperature for this recipe. Do adjust your oven conditions to suit you better as each oven behaves differently.

You may refer to the video tutorials on the blog on how to pipe various features on macarons or my macaron books, Creative Baking: Macarons and Macaron Basics for a more systematic presentation of the techniques of basic macarons and fancy shaped macarons.

Piping Peppa and family 

Piping the rainbow 

As this is a macaron structure, I used a fairly firm dark chocolate ganache to fill the pieces. I used this recipe as a reference but modified it slightly.

Firm dark chocolate ganache recipe
Ingredients:
90g dark chocolate
12g unsalted butter
20g whipping cream
1/8 tsp salt
1/2 tsp vanilla bean paste

Simply place all ingredients in a microwaveable bowl and melt it together. Let it sit at the counter top to firm up before using. You may choose to whip it a little after chilling it in the fridge until you are able to scoop the ganache with a spoon like ice cream if you prefer a lighter texfure.

Filling the shells

As the rainbow is a top heavy structure in the scene, I recommend using skewers to secure it to the large base macaron.

Thank God that it was really well received by my friend who requested for it! I also made some loose pieces of Peppa and Suzy macarons as giveaways for the party. You may refer to this post for it!


With love,
Phay Shing

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Peppa Pig and Paw Patrol Purple Sweet Potato and Pulut Hitam Sponge & Pudding Cake

When your little one has a variety of characters that she loves, and you would like to try a unique cake flavour, you get a cake that looks like this :)

Peppa Pig meets some representatives from the Paw Patrol squad on top of a black glutinous rice and purple sweet potato sponge and pudding cake!

I have shared the recipe for the black glutinous rice chiffon with purple sweet potato pudding in detail in another blog post. It is a more diabetic friendly cake without compromising flavours and aroma. I didn't use any white sugar in the black glutinous rice chiffon cake, but used coconut palm sugar (Gula melaka) instead. The pretty purple sweet potato pudding contains only a fraction of white sugar as compared to the reference recipe I adapted from. There isn't a need to use a lot of white sugar in the pudding as the coconut milk, fresh milk and sweet potato imparts some natural sweetness to the dessert. The harmonious mix of coconut milk, Gula melaka, pandan, black glutinous rice and purple sweet potato is really nice if you love all these.

What I would really like to share here is the recipe for the macaron shells. As all macaron bakers know, it is a pain to work with many colours within a single batch of batter, and even more so when the quantity of macarons required is so few. That makes it not economical to use Italian method although it is my preferred method for multiple colours of batter within a single batch. I prefer the Italian method when working with multiple colours as it is easier to adjust the colour of the batter without risking overfolding as much as French and Swiss methods because you add the colouring to the batter base before the meringue is added. If you split a single batch of macaron batter into many colours made from French or Swiss method, you have less folds to make before you risk overfolding, because the colouring is added to the batter after the meringue is folded in. The French method also has a less stable meringue than Italian or Swiss meringues as the egg whites are not cooked at all. This means you have to try to work really quickly with the French method if you want to make designs with multiple colours, or resort to using a lot of sugar in the meringue. You could choose to use the Swiss method to make the meringue more stable but you still have to be careful not to overfold the batter while adjusting the colours to the desired shade.

How do I overcome this dilemma? I decided to stick with the French method as it is the simplest logistically and suitable for small batches. But I tweaked the regular recipe to make the meringue stable for a longer time. The key ingredient I added here is cornflour. Much as cornflour helps the macaron shells to dry faster, be less prone to cracking during baking and slows down the breaking down of meringue, adding too much of it will make the batter very thick and the texture a lot more chewy. The slightly higher icing sugar to almond flour proportion used also helps with the stability. Care still needs to be exercised when colouring the batter to prevent overfolding.

Here is the French method recipe for making a more stable macaron batter. Feel free to halve the recipe for an even smaller batch.

Ingredients (makes about 24-28 macarons):
Dry ingredients
90g superfine almond meal
110g icing sugar
1/4 tsp cornflour
1/4 tsp salt (optional)

Meringue
80g egg whites
75g caster sugar
1 tsp cornflour
1/8 tsp cream of tartar

Gel food colouring as needed

Steps:
1. Sift all the powdered ingredients together. Set aside. Prepare baking tray with template and parchment paper. Set oven rack to lowest or second lowest position.

2. Make the meringue. In a small bowl mix cornflour together with caster sugar. Set aside. In a clean metal bowl, beat egg whites with cream of tartar until stiff peaks form, gradually adding caster sugar and cornflour mixture once the egg whites are foamy. Make sure the meringue is really stiff, like whipped cream consistency.

3. Make the batter. Scatter half of dry ingredients into meringue. Gently fold in with a spatula until just combined. Scatter the rest of the dry ingredients. Gently fold in until just combined. Divide the batter to to the number of desired colours. Carefully add as much gel colouring as is needed and gently fold in until the batter is homogeneous. If the batter consistency is still too thick at this point, continue folding until it is able to flow like slow-moving lava.

4. Transfer into piping bag and pipe away! Dry the shells before baking. You may find the details of the basics of making the batter, piping and baking in my Creative Baking: Macaron Basics and Creative Baking: Macarons books.

Just to share some photos of the process...

Freshly baked macaron shells. Checkout the awesome feet!

I made only 9 characters in total with a little leftover batter to spare. But it was tedious! Fine details were added in using edible marker and royal icing.

I filled the macarons with dark chocolate ganache and homemade salted caramel as requested.

I mounted the macarons on cake pop sticks so it is easier to display on top of the cake.

I have a few photos to share for the sponge and pudding cake too. Some people are hesitant to replace all the white sugar with coconut palm sugar in the meringue as they are afraid that the meringue will not whip as well. This is to prove that it can!

Egg whites beaten to firm peak with only coconut palm sugar added

Folding in the egg yolk batter and meringue. The black bits are black glutinous rice grains that I didn't process until superfine to provide some bite to the cake.

Nice and tall pulut hitam chiffon!

Layering the sponge and pudding layers. I love the natural colours!

I added on simple deco with white chiffon sheet cake

With love,
Phay Shing

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Peppa Pig and Family Strawberry Macarons (updated filling recipe that is bursting with flavour!)

This is another Peppa Pig themed bake that I made for my friend's daughter. I made Peppa Pig lychee custard cream puffs too. I happen to know the little girl from Creche where I serve in church so it's nice to make something for a sweetie whom I know personally :). Presenting the whole Peppa Pig family!

Daddy Pig, Mummy Pig, Peppa and George

I used the reduced sugar recipe for the macaron shells here. Both regular and reduced sugar recipes can be found here. You may refer to my Creative Baking: Macarons book for a systematic presentation of the basics and complex shaped macarons. You may refer to my video tutorials for macaron basics and piping of complex shapes on the blog too.

Just to share some pictures of the process...

Piping the shells

Freshly baked shells

I decorated the shells using royal icing and edible marker.

I filled the shells with strawberry white chocolate buttercream. Although I used the recipe here, I used homemade strawberry jam instead of strawberry puree as I find that the natural strawberry flavour is more intense this way. I don't measure the ingredients in a precise manner when making fruit jams for macaron filling as it's really simple to make and depends on your taste. I usually weigh out about double the weight of fresh fruit. E.g. I use 60g of fresh fruit when I need about 30g of jam. Simply finely chop or puree the fruit, add a little sugar, a pinch of salt and half to one tsp of lemon juice. Put everything in a small saucepan pan and cook over low heat until the liquid is reduced and jam-like in consistency. Be careful not to burn the jam.

Homemade strawberry jam

Since some of you are lazy to click on the blog link, I shall copy and paste the recipe here :p

Recipe for strawberry white chocolate buttercream
Ingredients (fills about 16-20 macarons):
55g white chocolate, chopped*
10g vegetable shortening
10g unsalted butter
1/8 tsp fine sea salt
26g strawberry puree (or preferably homemade strawberry jam)
1/2 tsp strawberry emulco/ paste

* you may replace up to half of the white chocolate with cocoa butter for an even less sweet filling.

Steps:
1. Place white chocolate, vegetable shortening and butter in a microwave-safe bowl. Heat at medium power for 20 seconds. Mix well with a spatula. Repeat until mixture is smooth. Add salt and mix well.

2. Freeze the bowl for 2 minutes and mix well with spatula. Repeat freezing and mixing. As the mixture thickens, start to beat it with the spatula. You will notice that the texture will lighten up and become creamy.

3. Add a teaspoon of puree and whip the mixture with the spatula until well combined. Repeat until all the puree has been added. Add strawberry paste and mix well. The texture should be like buttercream.

4. Transfer whipped strawberry buttercream into piping bag and pipe onto the shells. Store assembled macarons in the fridge in an airtight container for at least 24h before serving.

Filling the shells with strawberry buttercream that is bursting with flavour!

I made some extra plain round macarons because I had extra batter and filling, and shared this with helpers at the Creche. Feedback was it's really yummy! Do give this recipe a try!

With love,
Phay Shing

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Peppa Pig Lychee Rose Custard Cream Puff

My friend requested for Peppa Pig themed bakes for her daughter's birthday. Incidentally, I know the little girl from Creche where I serve in church so it's a nice thing to be able to bake for a sweetie that I know personally. Another friend of mine wanted me to make lychee flavoured pastry cream for her choux pastry birthday bake next year (booking me super early!) So I thought why not try out this flavour. Presenting my version of Peppa Pig Lychee Rose cream puffs!

Here's a closer look at the cross-section. You can't see the lychee bits very clearly although there are chunks of it in the cream.

I used canned lychee in syrup for the chopped lychees, and freeze dried lychee powder to enhance the lychee flavour.

One small can of lychee (234g net weight, 95g drained weight) yielded about 61g chopped lychee with the woody part removed.

Recipe for lychee rose pastry cream
Ingredients:
200ml milk
30g sugar
20g cornflour
2 egg yolks
10g unsalted butter
1/4 tsp rose water (omit if you prefer no rose flavour)
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp freeze-dried lychee powder (optional, omit if unavailable. Use more canned chopped lychee instead)
Chopped lychee, woody part removed (add as much or little as you prefer)

Smooth lychee rose custard

Fold in 60g of chopped lychee into 120-140g of rose pastry cream. Use less pastry cream of you are not using freeze-dried lychee powder.

Recipe for Choux pastry case can be found here. Just to share some pictures of the process...

Piping peppa pig choux pastry

Bake at 180℃ for 20min, 160℃ for 20 min and cool in the oven with the oven switched off for another 10min.

I mentioned in my previous choux pastry post that I will show you how I fill the cases now. I cut a hole at the base and put the cut piece back. The requester can fill the pastry cream anytime she likes and enjoy the pastry shell while it's still crisp but the cream while it is still cold.

Nice hollow interior! I still find the walls a little thick for mg liking although I love the texture. I may tweak the recipe again for my next Choux pastry bake.

I used royal icing for Peppa Pig's eyes and cheek. Let the royal icing dry completely before carefully removing them from the parchment paper

Piped eyes and cheeks

Premaking these parts makes decorating the pastry much easier as you may just stick it on after coating the surface with chocolate.

Strawberry white chocolate coating
Ingredients:
60g white chocolate, chopped (or compound white chocolate chop)
6g vegetable shortening
1-2 drops of strawberry emulco
Pinches of salt

Steps:
1. Place white chocolate and shortening in a microwave safe bowl. Heat at medium power for 10-20 sec and mix well. Repeat until completely melted.

2. Add salt and mix well. Add strawberry emulco one drop at a time and mix well after each addition, until desired pink shade is obtained.

3. Transfer to piping bag and pipe onto choux pastry case surface. You may use your clean and dry finger to smooth out the white chocolate while it is not completely set yet, in order to get a smoother looking finish. Stick the eyes and rosy cheek on before the chocolate hardens.

See the difference between freshly piped and smoothed out white chocolate.

Prepare some red coloured white chocolate mixture and pipe or paint on the mouth and nostrils.

You may store decorated choux pastry cases in airtight container.

With love,
Phay Shing

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'Our Favourite Characters' Cookies n Cream Macaron Playground

My friend's Bible study group was planning to have a combined birthday celebration for everyone with birthday that falls in the month of March. What better way to personalize the birthday bake for everyone than to create a playground where their favourite character is!

All macarons are filled with cookies n cream filling

Back view of the playground. You don't get to see the steps of the slide that well from the front.

Here's a short video of how the playground works!

This is the second time I am making a macaron playground. Checkout my cute overload version that I made in January over here.

I used the reduced sugar recipe for the macaron shells here. Both regular and reduced sugar recipes can be found here. You may refer to my Creative Baking: Macarons book for a systematic presentation of the basics and complex shaped macarons. You may refer to my video tutorials for macaron basics and piping of complex shapes on the blog too.

Just to share some pictures of the process...

Piping the characters

Freshly baked shells

Decorating the shells with royal icing and edible marker.

You may find the recipe for cookies N cream filling that is suitable for outdoor display over here.

Filling the shells. I have a couple of extra macarons to fill that aren't included in the playground.

Checkout the awesome feet!

Thank God it was very well received with the kids eating up every single edible part!

With love,
Phay Shing

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George and Dinosaur (Peppa pig) Chiffon Cake

Peppa pig was one of my earlier experiments with cartoon chiffon cakes 4 years back for my sister-in-law. I made a few different versions later, both small and big, 2D and 3D, for close friends and family. I haven't made it for a long time so it is nice to revisit it though I am a bit rusty. I had to rebake the cake one time =p... see I also have failed bakes! This is my first attempt at a front facing Peppa pig version; the rest were side facing.

I made it for my dear church friend's godson who loves Peppa pig, George and the dinosaur. Thank God it was well-received though not an easy bake for me! School holiday is coming so less time to blog for me.. It's going to be a busy week!

Wish everyone a wonderful, fruitful week ahead! <3

With lots of love,
Susanne

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'Pooh Piglet Tsum Tsum' Rainbow Chiffon Cake

I finally did what I thought was impossible to stack a Tsum Tsum! I don’t think I would have tried it again after the previous lesson, if not that my friend was really persistent about it =p. Having learnt from my lesson and gained more experience, I tried an architecturally more sound design, making the top Tsum Tsum smaller, the full body to support and only having two to try (don’t think it can go any higher without squashing the base cake!). But still it was very experimental and nerve wracking… I’m really thankful it worked out!

It’s also my first time baking a Rainbow Chiffon Cake in a 10-inch (25-cm) chiffon tube pan. The Rainbow Chiffon is now the cover of Creative baking: Chiffon Cakes and its 7-inch (18-cm) recipe shared on Pg 65. For the 10-inch pan, I used a 10 egg recipe, multiplying all ingredients by two. Usually egg whites are rounded to the nearest egg white.

To make the body of the Tsum Tsum, I combined chiffon cake baked from two bowl cakes, with a normal chiffon cake in tube pan corresponding to the diameter of the bowls for the middle. Eg. for the pooh, I used 4-inch bowls with 4-inch chiffon tube pan. These were glued together using melted marshmallow cream (sprinkle some water and pop marshmallows into a microwave). You will still need dowel support in the Tsum Tsum to ensure everything doesn’t fall apart. All other details are made from chiffon cake baked as sheets on layer trays and glued on using marshmallow cream.

Really thank God I pulled this off and everything was well–received!

With lots of love,
Susanne
IG: @Susanne.DecoChiffon

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Peppa Pig 2-Flavour/Colour Chiffon Cake (Blue pea flowers-Pandan)

This is another Peppa Pig chiffon cake creation! I have been staying away from making the Peppa pig using chiffon cake, but it’s for a dear friend so it was really difficult to refuse her. The Peppa pig face is cut from strawberry chiffon cake as previously. Here, I experimented with something new which is to make a 2-flavour/colour in 1 chiffon cake: Blue pea flowers (vanilla) chiffon on one side and Pandan chiffon on another side to make the blue sky and green grass respectively! It's actually similar to my Lego chiffon cake in idea but simpler =). I hid some marshmallows as hidden surprise in the tube hole and covered it up with the Peppa face =p. The sun and clouds etc. are also cut from layer chiffon cake. Thankful my friend said they loved the cake and the hidden surprise!

Merry Christmas and a Happy new year!

With love,

Susanne

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Peppa Pig Train 2-Tier Chiffon Cake

This is another Peppa pig creation, this time, Peppa pig and George are sitting into a Chiffon Cake Choo Choo train!

This cake is somewhat a marriage of my 3D Peppa and George 2-Tier Chiffon Cake (or Liam’s cake, as many call it ;)) and my Rainbow Train Chiffon Cake. The challenge this time was to craft and design my chiffon cake carriages and train based on the size of the Peppa and George toppers! And also due to these considerations, the train goes merry-go-round the top tier hee but I kind of like it as it uses the chiffon cake donut shape nicely. I filled the centre hole with a surprise and covered it up with a 'grass patch' made from layer pandan chiffon cake. The train carriages were cut from chiffon cake, with the front carriage assembled using both cut pieces and a swissroll for the front. Engineering chiffon cakes are a lot of engineering work too as chiffon cakes are very soft, so dowel support is needed for pieces not to crush the base chiffon cake. I used a 50:50 ratio for blue pea flowers and pandan chiffon cake this time. This cheerful landscape chiffon cake will be out in the Creative baking: Chiffon cakes book soon! I used cut-outs made from layer chiffon cake for the details like the Peppa house and trees.

I’m super thankful the cake was well-received and it was a joy making the cake! Happy birthday to Evan!

With lots of love,
Susanne

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