'Safari' Pink Leopard Prints Chiffon Cake

Happy Mother’s Day!!

This is my humble attempt at a Leopard Prints Chiffon Cake! It's vanilla chiffon with chocolate spots. The giraffe and lion are made from orange-chocolate chiffon cake, similar to my previous Giraffe Print safari chiffon cake.

I made the Leopard prints pink and sweet-looking for ladies, but feel free to change it to the normal brown/dark brown leopard prints!

Leopard Print Chiffon Cake (9-inch tube pan)

2 whole eggs (60g eggs)
53g castor sugar
106g vegetable/corn oil
110g water
12g vanilla extract
160g Prima cake flour, sifted
1/2 tsp cocoa powder, sifted (alkalized)
Pink gel or natural food coloring
(you can also replace pink with light brown colour using less cocoa powder)

11 egg whites
120g castor sugar
1/4 tsp cream of tartar

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). *You may omit steam baking; I like to use it to control my oven temperature rise.

2. Beat eggs with sugar with whisk till pale yellow before stirring in oil, water and vanilla extract.

3. Next add in sieved flour and whisk till no trace of flour found.

4. Spoon out 10 tsp and add ½ tsp cocoa powder, mix well. Spoon out 15 tsp and add a dip of pink food colouring, mix well.

5. Meringue: Beat the egg whites with ¼ tsp cream of tartar till firm peaks, mixing in caster sugar gradually in a few additions.

6. Divide out the meringue: 20 tbsp for cocoa batter, 30 tbsp for pink batter, leaving the rest for plain batter. Gently but quickly fold in the meringue into the respective egg yolk batter. *You need to work very fast for the meringue not to deflate.

7. Transfer the pink and cocoa batter into piping bags. Pipe pink ‘10-cent coin’ blobs at the base of the pan. Pipe small cocoa dots or crescents beside each pink blob. Then spoon the plain batter gently into the spaces between the pink-cocoa blobs. Cover the blobs gently with more plain batter. When the blobs are fully covered, repeat the above process 3x until batter is 2-cm from the brim. *You need to work quickly as chiffon batter deflates very much faster in the pink/cocoa piping bags.

8. Bake the chiffon cake for 15 min at 160°C and then at 150°C for 10 mins and 140°C for 30-31 min, or until skewer comes out clean. *This is just a guide as each oven’s internal heat is different, do optimize for your own oven.

9. Invert the chiffon cake once removed from oven.

10. Unmould the chiffon cake by hand after cake is completely cool (watch Video tutorial 'Hand Unmoulding Chiffon Cakes for a Clean Finishing'). Gently pull the cake from the sides of the tin at each angle and push the removable base up to unmould the sides. To unmould the cake from the base, gently lift up the cake from the base using hands, repeating this at each angle before turning the base over.

Orange-Chocolate Giraffe and Lion Chiffon Cake pops

The giraffe’s head was from a cake pop mold, filled with half orange and half cocoa batter. The body and limbs were from a patterned swissroll (orange with cocoa spots). The lion was from a 'lion' chocolate mold. Other details were cut from sheet cakes, and assembled using melted marshmallows.

This is such a special day. I would like to take this opportunity to thank my mom for being so wonderful. Wishing all mummies a very happy blessed Mother’s day!!

With lots of love,
Susanne

More fun chiffon creations here =)

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Safari Animals Assorted Macarons

I made this a couple of months ago but finally deciding to post it because this post has been "collecting dust" sitting as a draft :p. I had a request for safari themed macarons but with a slightly different set this time compared to my first attempt last year :).

Instead of zebras, I made monkeys! Natural food colouring was used as far as possible. Carrot powder for orange, purple sweet potato powder for purple, Queen's natural sourced yellow powder for yellow and Dutch processed cocoa powder for brown.

Checkout my Creative Baking: Macarons book for a more systematic and detailed step by step writeup of macaron basics and pointers!

Ingredients:
200g almond powder/ground almond, preferably superfine
200g icing sugar
200g caster sugar
160g egg whites, divide into two equal portions
75 ml water
carrot powder (optional)*
Queen's natural sourced yellow food colouring powder (optional)*
Dutch processed cocoa powder*
Yellow, purple and orange gel food colouring

* add a few grams of natural powders per 100g of almond. For light brown, start off with a pinch first. Gradually add until a shade you like is obtained. Remember that the shade will lighten up significantly when meringue is added. Add a little yellow and orange gel food colouring to brown to make the shade warmer.

Here's a photo of the carrot powder my hubby bought from Akari at Anchorpoint!

Steps:
1. Make the mass. Sift together icing sugar and almond powder. Add 80g of egg white and mix well to form a thick paste.

2. Divide the mass into the ratio of 2:2:2:1:1 for orange:purple:yellow:light brown:dark brown. You may have excess of some colours but it's easier to divide this way.

3. Add sifted natural powder colouring to the respective masses and mix well. Add additional gel food colouring to get the desired shade. It is optional to use natural food colouring if you don't have but it helps to reduce the amount of artificial colouring needed. Here's how the orange mass looks like when coloured with just carrot powder...

4. Make the Italian meringue. Heat caster sugar and water in a small sauce pan without stirring until the syrup temperature reaches 115°C. In the mean time, beat 80g of egg whites in a clean metal bowl with electric mixer at medium-low speed until foamy and opaque. Do not beat past the soft peak stage. Turn the mixer speed down if necessary to keep egg whites moving. Once syrup reaches 115°C, remove from heat, turn mixer speed up to medium-high and slowly pour the syrup into the egg whites. Keep beating for 10 minutes until meringue is stiff, glossy and cool.

5. Divide the meringue into the ratio for the various colours, or follow this formula that I use for meringue: mass ratio by weight, I.e. weight of meringue/weight of mass=0.55. By following this formula, you will end up with a little meringue leftover, which can be used to stick the baking paper onto the tray. Fold the meringue into the masses in two additions, with the first addition using about a third of the portion. Do watch my video demo for the macaronage process and how to test if the batter is ready. Fold until batter moves in a slow-moving lava-like manner.

6. Transfer batter into piping bags fitted with a Wilton #10 tip for most of the piping, except for fine parts where you may want to transfer about 1-2 tbs of batter into piping bags fitted with a Wilton #5 tip. You may refer to the video tutorials here for piping simple shapes and here for piping complex shapes. Remember to bang the tray a few times on the table after piping.

I piped the hippo a little differently this time, with indented nostrils. I can't release the details here of how to make it as it will be in my upcoming Creative Baking: Macaron Basics book

Giraffe is the same as my previous safari bake. To pipe the monkey, start with the dark brown outline, then fill in the light brown part of the face.

Tiger is the same as my previous safari bake.

7. Dry the piped shells under a fan or in an aircon room for 1-2 hours or until the shell is dry to touch.

8. Bake in preheated oven at 135°C for 17-20 minuted with oven rack set at lowest position. Bake for a few minutes more at 120°C if the shells are still stuck to the baking sheet or the feet appear wet. Let the shells cool before removing from baking sheet. They should be able to come off the sheets easily if properly baked.

Use royal icing and edible marker to decorate the shells as desired.

I filled the macarons with spiced apple swiss meringue buttercream and salted caramel or dark chocolate ganache.

Enjoy these cute treats! I heard they were gone from the dessert table at the party really fast!

With love,
Phay Shing

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Safari Animals Giraffe Chiffon Cake (Chocolate-Orange)

This was one super difficult cake to make! Both in terms of the giraffe patterns for the chiffon cake as well as the detailing for the different animals! I had to work OT for this cake :p. So I’m so super thankful it was well-received, thank God!

The Giraffe Chiffon Cake was made from Chocolate Chiffon Cake with Orange Chiffon patterns (chosen by my friend). It is also a super big 10-inch chiffon cake using a total of 15 eggs! I had to work super quickly with the piping and there was so much to pipe as it was so big. I’m also really thankful that my freehand piping of giraffe patterns more or less ‘passed’ as I’m not really artistically inclined and was never good at drawing apart from cute pigs =p.

Chocolate-Orange Giraffe Chiffon Cake

Chocolate Chiffon Cake (10-inch tin)

10 egg yolks

82 g sugar
149 ml vegetable/corn oil

165 ml boiled water
17 ml vanilla extract
198 g cake flour, sifted
66 g Dutch-processed Cocoa powder
1/4 tsp baking powder
A pinch of salt

Meringue
13 egg whites
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
150g sugar

Orange Chiffon Cake (lines)
Egg Yolk Batter
1 egg yolk
10 g sugar
20 ml vegetable/corn oil
23 ml orange juice
31 g cake flour, sifted
1 drop orange emulco

Meringue
2 egg whites
23 g sugar
1/4 tsp cream of tartar

1. Preheat oven to 160°C. *I used steam baking for oven temperature control and it makes the chiffon more moist but it is optional.
2. Prepare batter for chocolate chiffon cake.
a. Beat egg yolks with sugar with whisk till pale yellow before stirring in oil, water and vanilla extract.
b. Add in sieved flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt, and whisk till no trace is found. *If you are using natural cocoa powder (not Dutch-processed), please add 1/3 tsp baking soda for the acidity to prevent big holes.
3. Prepare batter for orange chiffon cake (for lines).
a. Beat egg yolks with sugar with whisk till pale yellow before stirring in oil, juice and a drop of orange emulco.
b. Add in sieved flour and whisk till no trace is found.
4. Prepare meringue for orange chiffon cake (2 egg whites). Beat the egg whites with ¼ tsp cream of tartar till frothy, add in ½ of the castor sugar and beat the egg whites till soft peaks. Add the remaining castor sugar and beat the egg whites till firm peaks.
5. Gently but quickly fold in the meringue into the orange chiffon batter 1/3 at a time.
6. Transfer the batter into a piping bag and cut a 2 mm hole. Pipe giraffe lines at the bottom and sides of the tin. Bake at 160°C for 2 min.
7. Prepare meringue for chocolate chiffon cake (13 egg whites). Beat the egg whites with ¼ tsp cream of tartar till frothy, add ½ of the castor sugar and beat the egg whites till soft peaks. Then add the remaining castor sugar and beat the egg whites till stiff peaks.
8. Gently but quickly fold in the meringue into the chocolate chiffon batter 1/3 at a time.
9. Pour the chocolate chiffon batter into the tin, covering the patterns, and bake the chiffon cake for 15 min at 160°C and then at 150°C for 10 min, 140°C for 30 min and 130°C for 15 min. *Temperature gradient helps prevent browning.
10. Invert the chiffon cake once removed from oven.
11. Unmould the chiffon cake by hand gently (see 'Hand Unmoulding Chiffon Cake for Clean Finishing' Video tutorial).

For the giraffe, I made an orange chiffon swissroll with chocolate polka dots using the same orange chiffon recipe as above. I inverted the patterns to use chocolate spots instead of the other way around as I thought the giraffe was cuter with brown spots instead of realistic lines. I aliquoted out 1 tsp of batter and added 1/3 tsp cocoa powder for the spots. I made a big roll for the giraffe body and 4 small rolls for the feet. The head was cut out from excess roll cake. 

For the rest of the animals, I had the benefit of using animal cake molds that a dear friend helped me to get from overseas. Using the same orange chiffon recipe from above, I prepiped the orange chiffon cake batter in the faces, and then baked chocolate chiffon over them. The hippo was made using orange batter coloured with charcoal powder. I added in eyes and other details using chiffon cake cut-outs and some carving.

Thankful it received lots of good feedback, together with Phay Shing's safari macarons!

With lots of love,
Susanne

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Safari Themed Macarons with Milo Swiss Meringue Buttercream

I have a request for safari themed macarons. Any animal and quantity at my convenience.... My kind of request when I have many other macarons to bake as well :). Thankful to have such a thoughtful requester! These were baked as and when I had the capacity while I baked for the creative macaron book. There are hippos, zebras, tigers and giraffes :)

For your convenience, I will just type out the recipe.

Ingredients:
200g almond powder/ground almond, preferably superfine
200g icing sugar
200g caster sugar
160g egg whites, divide into two equal portions
1/8 tsp white powder colouring (optional)
1 tsp carrot powder (optional)
1 tsp Queen's natural sourced yellow food colouring powder (optional)
1/3 tsp cocoa powder
1/4 tsp charcoal powder
Yellow, blue and orange gel food colouring
75 ml water

Here's a photo of the carrot powder my hubby bought from Akari at Anchorpoint!

Steps:
1. Make the mass. Sift together icing sugar and almond powder. Add 80g of egg white and mix well to form a thick paste.
2. Divide the mass into the ratio of 2:2:2:2:1:1 for white:blue:orange:yellow:brown:grey.
3. Add sifted natural powder colouring to the respective masses and mix well. Add additional gel food colouring to get the desired shade. It is optional to use natural food colouring if you don't have but it helps to reduce the amount of artificial colouring needed. Here's how the orange mass looks like when coloured with just carrot powder...

4. Make the Italian meringue. Heat caster sugar and water in a small sauce pan without stirring until the syrup temperature reaches 115°C. In the mean time, beat 80g of egg whites in a clean metal bowl with electric mixer at medium-low speed until foamy and opaque. Do not beat past the soft peak stage. Turn the mixer speed down if necessary to keep egg whites moving. Once syrup reaches 115°C, remove from heat, turn mixer speed up to medium-high and slowly pour the syrup into the egg whites. Keep beating for 10 minutes until meringue is stiff, glossy and cool.
5. Divide the meringue into the ratio for the various colours, or follow this formula that I use for meringue: mass ratio by weight, I.e. weight of meringue/weight of mass=0.55. By following this formula, you will end up with a little meringue leftover, which can be used to stick the baking paper onto the tray. Fold the meringue into the masses in two additions, with the first addition using about a third of the portion. Do watch my video demo for the macaronage process and how to test if the batter is ready. Fold until batter moves in a slow-moving lava-like manner.

6. Transfer batter into piping bags fitted with a Wilton #10 tip for most of the piping, except for fine parts where you may want to transfer about 1-2 tbs of batter into piping bags fitted with a Wilton #5 tip. You may refer to the video tutorials here for piping simple shapes and here for piping complex shapes. Remember to bang the tray a few times on the table after piping.

Zebra piped!

Hippo piped!

Tiger and giraffe piped! Ok I must admit that the number of animals is not the same for each type because I made these while baking macarons for my creative macaron book:p

7. Dry the piped shells under a fan or in an aircon room for 1-2 hours or until the shell is dry to touch.
8. Bake in preheated oven at 130°C for 17-22 minutes for white and light blue shells and 135°C for 17-22 minutes for orange and yellow shells with oven rack set at lowest or second lowest position. Bake for a few minutes more at 120°C if the shells are still stuck to the baking sheet. Let the shells cool before removing from baking sheet. They should be able to come off the sheets easily if properly baked.

Baked shells!

Decorate the shells with royal icing and edible marker.

I made a few bears as well!

Fill the macarons with Milo swiss meringue buttercream. Recipe for the buttercream can be found here.

Refrigerate the macarons in an airtight container for at least 24h before serving.

Another look at these assembled cutie pies!

All packed and ready to party!

With love,
Phay Shing

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