Tarepanda '3-tier' Chiffon Cake (Cream cheese, Vanilla & Chocolate-Charcoal Chiffon Cake)

This is a cute 3-tier Tarepanda stack made of Cream cheese, Vanilla and Chocolate-Charcoal Chiffon Cake!!

It was for a lovely mummy friend’s wedding anniversary, hence the Papa panda, Mama panda, and Baby boy panda! In contrast to Tsum Tsum which couldn’t stack, this design is structurally more stable, but I still had to add dowel support to prevent Papa panda below from getting squashed by the Mama and the Baby panda on top LOL, as chiffon cake is very soft.

The Baby boy panda is made from Japanese Cream Cheese Chiffon Cake (recipe scaled down by 1/4) baked in a small (4.5-inch) oval glass bowl. The Mama and Papa pandas are made from Reduced Egg yolk Vanilla Chiffon Cake baked in medium (6-inch) and large (10-inch) oval bowls respectively. The thin black stripe is made by prepiping 2 tsp batter (with ½ tsp charcoal powder) and baking the stripe for 2 min, before pouring the rest of the cheese/vanilla batter into the bowl. Steam baking is used as in ogura cakes for moist texture.

In addition, the feet, eyes and ears were cut from Chocolate Chiffon Cake (with added 1 tsp Charcoal powder) baked as layer cakes (to cut out eyes, ears and tail), and in small oval bowls (to cut out feet).

There was a flavour for everyone! My friend shared her son’s favourite was Chocolate chiffon, while her hubby liked all, especially that the cakes were moist =).

With lots of love,
Susanne

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'Moo Moo' Chiffon Cake (Japanese Cream Cheese Chiffon & Charcoal Chiffon)

This is one of my two animal chiffon cakes this week! Cream cheese chiffon was requested and I was happy to try the lovely Japanese cream cheese chiffon shared by Baking taitai from a Japanese cake champion! The theme was ‘cow’ or 'moo moo' so I used Cream cheese chiffon with Charcoal powder to make 3D 'moo moo' patterns for the cow both at the bottom (or top) and sides of the chiffon. I also simplified the recipe into whole egg yolks and whites as I have some experience with low egg yolk: egg white ratios, and also the difference in the weight I used and the original recipe was not very significant. Hope you will like my 'moo moo' chiffon!

Recipe for this yummy Cream cheese Moo moo Chiffon is in my next cookbook Deco Chiffon Cakes launching in Sept 2016!  Hope you will love this yummy creation and do kindly link back if you use the recipe. Thank you!

With lots of love,

Susanne

Moo Moo Chiffon now in Deco Chiffon Cakes

Very happy that many have tried out the Moo moo chiffon from Deco Chiffon Cakes successfully and given good reviews in terms of taste and texture! 

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Sweet Cony Chiffon Cake

This is a sweet Cony Chiffon Cake made for a jc friend for his sweetheart =p! So it’s a sweet loving creation hehe. I rarely have pictures of sliced chiffon cakes as they are usually for friends. So I’m really thankful he sent me some pictures showing the texture (while they were cutting up the poor rabbit… ok turns out she didn’t bear to cut it the previous day :p). 

The Vanilla Chiffon Cake has reduced egg yolk and is steam-baked for greater moisture. He said it was delicious :p. Similar to Forever Friends, I used a 6-inch wilton ball cake pan. 

Reduced egg yolk vanilla chiffon cake
2 egg yolks
33g sugar
65g vegetable oil
70 ml water
10 ml vanilla extract
90g cake flour
Charcoal powder

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

1. Preheat oven to 160°C. Prepare a tray of water at the bottom of the oven for steam baking.

2. Beat egg yolks 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. Scoop out 5 tsp and add charcoal powder (to black shade), scoop out another 5 tsp and add a drop of pink food coloring, scoop out another 5 tsp and add few drops of strawberry paste.

4. Meringue: Beat the egg whites with ¼ tsp cream of tartar till stiff peak, mixing in caster sugar in 2 additions. Scoop out 10 tbsp meringue to the black, pink and red batters respectively.

5. Gently fold in the meringue in 3 additions into the cream, brown and pink batters respectively.

6. Divide the cream batter into a wilton ball cake pan leaving an inch from the top (for face), 2 oval glass bowls filled to 1 inch thick (for ears).

7. Bake the chiffon cakes in the bowls for 15 min at 160°C and then 5-10 min at 150°C, and the wilton ball pan for 15 min at 160°C and then 20-25 min at 150°C or when skewer comes clean.

8. Invert the chiffon cakes once removed from oven.

9. Pour the black, pink and red batters side-by-side in a baking paper-lined 10-inch tray. Bake the chiffon cake at 14 min at 160°C.

10. Unmould the chiffon cakes by hand by gently pulling from the sides of the tin and then flipping the cakes over. Unmould the layer cake by peeling off the sheet.

The eyes, nose and mouth were cut from the black cake using round cutters, oval cutters and knife. The cheeks, mouth, ear pads and hearts were cut from the pink and red cake using oval cutters, hearts cutters and knife. The features were assembled onto the main chiffon cake using marshmallow cream (melt marshmallows with a sprinkle of water in the microwave).

With lots of love,
Susanne

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'Roses' Honey Matcha Chiffon Cake (Improved Stronger Flavour)

Honey Matcha one of my favourite flavours because of the moistness of honey and flavour of matcha! I revisit it often as I often get requests for it (my mum and aunty whom I made this for love it!). I previously shared how steam baking plus the addition of honey makes the cake lighter and moister! Here, I have improved upon the previous recipe to have much stronger tea flavour as I have acquired a love for matcha during the time I was in Japan! With better oven control, I was also able to retain the natural green shade of matcha to have a brighter, sweeter-looking cake as garden backdrop for the roses.

The flowers are made from strawberry chiffon cake baked in silicone roses mould. It’s perfect for people who are not using to working with cakes (carving or rolling) ;). Here, I also modified the way the leaves were made by using cutters instead of patterning which may be daunting for chiffon cakes. The leaves are cut from pandan chiffon cake using a leaves cutter so it’s simpler. If you do not want to make the roses and leaves, you can just omit the steps in asterisks. 

The original recipe was very lightly adapted from Lily's matcha chiffon cake. I personally found the addition of honey and hot milk to be very fragrant. 

And for those who know me, the heart chiffon tin had me a 'hello' ;). So I always use it for bakes meant for gifts to show the 'love' :).

Ingredients (makes one 17cm heart chiffon tin and 5 "roses")
4 egg yolks
27g sugar
47g vegetable oil
63ml hot milk
3.5 tsp matcha powder
80g cake flour
1/8 tsp salt
15 ml honey (1 tbsp)
2 ml strawberry paste*
1 ml pandan paste*

5 egg whites
55g 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. Dissolve matcha powder and honey in 15 ml hot milk.
3. Beat egg yolks with sugar with whisk till pale yellow before stirring in oil and 45 ml hot milk.
4. Add in sieved flour and salt and whisk till no trace of flour found.
*5. Scoop out 7 tsp batter. Add 2 ml strawberry paste in 3 ml hot milk, mix well and add to the batter.
*6. Scoop out 5 tsp batter. Add 1 ml pandan paste and mix welll.
7. To the rest of cake batter, add the matcha/honey in hot milk.
8. Make the meringue. *Scoop over 14 tbsp to strawberry batter and 10 tbsp to the pandan batter.
9. Fold in the rest of the meringue into the matcha batter gently in 3 additions. Pour the cake batter into the heart chiffon tin from a height and tap on table top 3x to release bubbles.
10. Steam bake the cake at 160°C oven for 15 minutes, then at 140°C for 30 mins.
*11. Fold the meringue for the strawberry batter gently in, then bake the strawberry roses at 150°C for 25 mins.
*12. Fold the meringue for the pandan batter gently in, then pour the batter into baking-paper lined 4x6 inch dish/tray and bake the layer cake at 160°C for 13 mins.
13. Invert when heart chiffon cake is removed from oven.
14. Unmould the chiffon cake by hand. 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.
*15. Unmould the roses and pandan layer cake when cool.
*16. Use a leave cutter to cut out leaves from the pandan cake.
*17. Use melted marshmallows to glue the roses and leaves onto the heart matcha chiffon cake.

Tada! A Roses Honey Matcha Chiffon Cake made with lots of love! It was very well-received in terms of taste and texture. Check out my previous post for the 'yoga' picture ;)

With love,

Susanne

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'Dinosaur' Strawberries n Cream Chiffon Cake II (with new baking technique)

I have a request for the exact same dinosaur cake that I made last year for a little boy named Nathan. This birthday boy is also called Nathan! Except that an orange dinosaur with green spines and yellow spots is requested this time :). I was afraid that this fella would turn out looking psychedelic. But he's rather cute don't you think? :p

The design may be similar but I made quite a few changes this time. Dino is of course orange flavoured to match the colour. Vanilla bean swiss meringue buttercream (smbc) is used instead of non-dairy cream as it holds up much better in Singapore's hot and humid climate. My first dino cake was made before I discovered how easy it is to make smbc. The method of baking the base cake is also different. Instead of baking a thin green layer cake and cutting it to fit the bottom plain vanilla chiffon sponge, I decided to be adventurous and bake a two-toned base cake to cut out the hassle of baking a separate cake, carving and then assembling it.

This bake involves quite a few things to bake...

First, the brown sugar cookies with blue total icing was made.

Next, thin layer chiffon cakes were baked for black, white, yellow, green and brown. A thick layer cake was baked for the green spines. I made use of flavourings to color the various colors. Lemon paste for yellow, Pandan paste for green, cocoa powder for brown and charcoal for black.

Here comes the fun part of making Dino. I won't go into details of how to make the chiffon cakes but state the ingredients and baking time for the various parts. You may refer to the section on vanilla chiffon cake below for that. I prepared a tray of water at the bottom of the oven to introduce steam during baking so your baking time will be different from mine if you don't use steam baking.

Orange chiffon cake dinosaur
Ingredients (makes about 2 dinosaurs):
2 eggs
10g caster sugar
28g vegetable/ canola oil
28g orange juice
1g orange zest
40g cake flour
Pinch of salt
1 tsp orange emulco
2 drops of orange gel food colouring

3 egg whites
1/5 tsp cream of tartar
30g caster sugar

Baking temperature and time for parts:
Feet: Baked in round silicone ice cube tray for 13 minutes at 160°C.
Neck and tail: Very thin layer cake baked in 6" square tin lined with baking sheet for 9 minutes at 160°C.
Head: Baked in eggshells that have inner membrane removed. Baked at 160°C for 5 minutes, 150°C for 10 minutes followed by 140°C for another 5-10 minutes. Note that baking time varies according to shell size. Test with toothpick for doneness.
Body: Baked in 8.5cm diameter round bottomed glass bowl at 160°C for 5 minutes, 150°C for 10 minutes followed by 140°C for another 20-25 minutes. I filled the bowls until about 80% full.

Freshly baked and unmoulded parts

Assemble with melted marshmellows. As the orange cake is really soft, I had to use a brown sugar cookie base to stabilize the head by passing a wooden skewer from the head, through the neck and body and into the cookie base under Dino. I didn't paint on the black parts of the face but used black chiffon cake instead.

Without spots!

With spots!

Store Dino in an airtight container in the fridge. But brush him with syrup before doing that. Dissolve 5g of sugar in 20ml of hot water to make the syrup.

You have heard never to grease your tins for baking chiffon cakes. I greased both the base and sides of the tins used to bake both 9" round layer cakes. This is possible as it is not a very tall cake and I didn't invert to cool. I borrowed the baking technique for souffle cheesecakes that makes use of gradually decreasing oven temperature and baking with steam or water bath. I made the batter using standard chiffon technique. Here's the result of a freshly baked and cooled cake. Nicely smooth, moist and have minimal shrinkage.

9" diameter and 1.5" tall tin

Remember to grease the tins generously with oil or butter or you may have difficulty removing the cake. The reason why I don't line the tins with baking sheet is because baking sheet tends to wrinkle during cooling. Your cake will end up looking wrinkly. The cake needs to be in contact with the tin in order for you to get a nice shape. If you are baking for home consumption without bothering if the exterior looks nice, you may line the base of the tin.

Here's my freshly unmoulded two-toned layer!

Vanilla chiffon cake
Ingredients (makes two 9" thick layer cakes):
6 egg yolks
30g caster sugar
84g oil
84g milk
120g cake flour
1/8 tsp salt
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 drops green gel food colouring

8 egg whites
80g caster sugar
1/2 tsp cream of tartar

Steps:
1.Prepare a deep tray of water at the base of the oven. Preheat to 150°C. Use an oven thermometer if possible. I use one all the time. Set the oven rack to second lowest position, just above the tray of water.

2. Whisk egg yolks and sugar until thick and pale. Gradually add oil and whisk until well combined. Gradually add milk and vanilla and whisk until well combined. Whisk in sifted flour and salt gradually until no trace of flour is seen.

3. Prepare the meringue. Beat egg whites until foamy with electric mixer. Add cream of tartar and beat until stiff peaks form, gradually adding sugar while beating.

4. Fold the meringue into the egg yolk batter in two additions.

5. Pour the batter slowly into the two tins. For the two toned cake, pour the green batter first. Use a spoon to scoop the plain batter on top, making sure it lines the side of the tin. I used a ratio of 3:1 for plain:green batter for two tins, one plain and one two-toned. Tap the tins on the table to release trapped air.

6. Bake for 15 minutes at 150°C, 15 minutes at 140°C, 15 minutes at 130°C and then switch off the heat but keep the oven door closed for another 15 minutes. Cool the tin completely before removing the cake.

Finally, make the smbc. You may choose to make this earlier and freeze/refrigerate it first. Just rewhip before assembly.

Vanilla bean smbc
150g egg whites (about 4 large eggs)
100g caster sugar
1/8 tsp salt
270g unsalted butter (I use Lurpak)
2 tsp vanilla bean paste*

Please refer to this post for the steps.
* you may replace with vanilla extract but the paste has a richer flavour.

Assemble the cake with fresh strawberries.

Assemble the whole cake with trees, grass, Dino and words. Brush the surface of cake parts with syrup.

Keep the cake refrigerated until it is time to serve.

With love,
Phay Shing

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3-ingredient Japanese Souffle Cheesecake with Lemon Curd

This is an old bake but it's what got me started on baking cakes. I was so charmed by this melt-in-your mouth cheesecake which requires so few ingredients that I decided to set aside my fear of beating egg whites and dig out my handheld mixer that I have never used from the dark recesses of my kitchen cabinet. I am blogging about this simple bake as part of my baking journal. Presenting my humble Japanese souffle cheesecakes with homemade lemon curd!

I followed Ann Low's recipe closely for the cheesecake and used an awesome lemon curd recipe from here. It's my first time steam baking too! I was pretty pleased when the cheesecakes turned out beautifully!

I baked the portion of batter in two 4" round tins and four jumbo muffins.

Recipe for Souffle Japanese Cheesecake
Ingredients:
125g cream cheese at room temperature
120g white chocolate (I used three bars of Meiji white chocolate)
3 large cold eggs (68-70g each)
1/2 tbs lemon juice and zest of half a lemon*
1/4 tsp cream of tartar (optional)

Steps:
1. Line the 4" cake pans at bottom and sides and grease with butter. Grease the paper cupcake liners for the jumbo muffin pan. Prepare boiling water for steam baking.
2. Separate the eggs and place egg whites in the fridge. Preheat the oven to 160 degrees Celsius.
3. Break white chocolate into pieces in a large bowl and melt in a double boiler over hot water. Mix chocolate until smooth with a spatula then add cream cheese.
4. Remove bowl from double boiler and add the egg yolks. Mix well. Add lemon juice and zest. Mix well with a hand whisk.
5. Whisk egg whites with electric mixer until foamy. Add cream of tartar and beat until firm peaks form and the bowl can be overturned without the meringue falling out.
6. Add one third of meringue into cream cheese batter and blend well with spatula. Fold in the rest of the meringue in two additions until well combined.
7. Fill the pans and muffin cases with batter and dropp the pans on table lightly to release trapped air.
8. Steam bake at 160 degrees Celsius for 15 minutes,  followed by 150 degrees for 15 minutes, and then resting the cakes in the oven with the heat switched off for 15 minutes.
9. Leave cakes to cool completely before removing from cake pan or muffin cases. Chill cake before consuming or topping with lemon curd. You may dust with powdered sugar instead of topping with lemon curd but I prefer the tangy counterpoint of the curd with the sweetness and richness of the cheesecake.

Recipe for lemon curd
Ingredients:
42g unsalted butter at room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
1/3 cup fresh lemon juice
1/2 tsp lemon zest

Steps:
1. Beat butter and sugar with electric mixer for 2 minutes. Slowly add egg and egg yolk and continue to beat for 1 minute after adding them. Mix in lemon juice.
2. Cook mixture over low heat until smooth.  Increase heat to medium and cook sgitring constantly with a wooden spoon until it thickens. This takes about 15 minutes. It should leave a path on the back of the wooden spoon. Do not boil.
3. Remove from heat and stir in lemon zest. Transfer to a bowl and press cling wrap on surface of the lemom curd to keep a skin from forming. Chill in the fridge. It can keep in the fridge for one week covered tightly and in the freezer for two months.

Top the cheesecakes with lemom curd and fruits. Yums!

I gave some of the cakes to my neighbors and they loved it too!

If you would like to start baking but find that the whole meringue process is too scary, this recipe is good as a start!

This post is linked to the event Little Thumbs Up (June 2014 Event: Butter) organised by Zoe (Bake for Happy Kids) and Mui Mui (My Little Favourite DIY) and hosted by Jozelyn Ng (Spice Up My Kitchen)

With love,
Phay Shing

* The original 3-ingredient Japanese souffle cheesecake recipe by Ochikeron that Ann Low adapted from did not include lemon juice and zest (and therefore truly 3-ingredient) but I find it necessary to add for the cheesecake not to end up one-dimensionally sweet.

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Orange Chocolate Chiffon Digger Cake

This is a birthday cake for my dear nephew who's turning 3 today! He is a little cutie who loves digger and loves chocolate! So I made a digger out of orange chiffon cake and placed it on a chocolate chiffon cake filled with chocolate rocks in the centre hole! :) I sifted cocoa powder on top of the chocolate chiffon for some "authentic" dirt. Now imagine the digger digging out rocks over the rubble :p *vroom* I hope he likes it!

Here's how I crafted the cake out of chiffon :)

Ingredients

Orange chiffon cake (7-inch "thick" orange chiffon and 6-inch "thin" cake for black patterns)

3 egg yolks
20g sugar
38g vegetable oil
42ml orange juice
60g cake flour
Orange emulco

Black wilton colour/charcoal powder

4 egg whites
45g 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).
2. Beat egg yolks with sugar with whisk till pale yellow before stirring in oil and orange juice.

3. Next add in sieved flour and whisk till no trace of flour found.
*4. Scoop over 4.5 tsp into another bowl and add a tiny dip of black colour/charcoal powder. *You may omit this step if you do not want to do black patterns.
5. To the rest of the batter, add 2 drops of orange emulco.
6. Meringue: Beat the egg whites with ¼ tsp cream of tartar till stiff peak, mixing in caster sugar in 2 additions.
*7. Scoop over 9 tbsp meringue for black. Fold in the meringue gently, taking care not to deflate the egg whites.  *You may omit this step if you do not want to do black patterns.
8. Fold in the rest of the meringue gently into the orange batter in 2 additions.
9. Gently tap tray on table to remove air bubbles (top left picture on top row, right before entering the oven).
10. Bake the tray for 15 min at 160°C then 20 min at 150°C (centre picture on top row, right out of the oven).
11. Cool upright for 10 min, then unmould and invert to cool further on a clean baking sheet (right picture on top row, after unmoulding and cooling).

After this was time for some "art and craft"! :) I cut orange chiffon cake into 1 big block and 1 small block for the digger (left picture in middle row). Then I cut out a "triangle" for the front of the digger (right picture in middle row). Does it look more like a digger now? :) Do use a sharp clean cake knife for these steps, cleaning them after every cut. Next I used circular cutters to cut "wheels" from the black cake and carved out some other parts using the knife (left picture in bottow row). Now that looks almost like a digger now! :) Now to bake the chocolate chiffon cake below the digger.


Chocolate chiffon cake (17 cm chiffon tin).
3 egg yolks
20g sugar
38g vegetable oil
20 ml milk
22 ml water
60g cake flour
15g cocoa
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

4 egg whites
45g 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).
2. Beat egg yolks with sugar with whisk till pale yellow before stirring in oil, milk, water and vanilla extract.

3. Next add in sieved flour and cocoa powder and whisk till no trace of flour/powder found.
4. Meringue: Beat the egg whites with ¼ tsp cream of tartar till stiff peak, mixing in caster sugar in 2 additions.
5. Fold in the meringue gently into the batter 1/3 at a time.
6. Gently tap the tin on table 3x to remove air bubbles. I further ran a chopstick because the chocolate batter is thicker.
7. Bake the cake for 15 min at 160°C then 30 min at 150°C.
8. Invert immediately once out of the oven to cool (centre picture in bottom row shows the chocolate cake right before unmoulding).
9. Unmould after the cake is cool.

The right picture in the bottom row shows the chocolate chiffon right after unmoulding. I further sifted cocoa powder on top of the chiffon for some chocolate "dirt" from the digging :) I added chocolate rocks I found from Cold Storage to fill the chiffon hole, representing a hole the digger has dug and melted some chocolate to affix the digger cake onto the big cake. Now the digger is ready to go!! *vroom* :)

I had fun with the leftover orange cake. The texture was good! Very soft and melty. I love this kind of texture and how it feels when it goes into the mouth! :)

Happy birthday to Yisheng! You are dearly loved by God and us!

This post is linked to the event, Little Thumbs up organised by Bake For Happy Kids, and My Little Favourite DIY, hosted by Tze of Awayofmind Bakery House at this post. 

With love,

Susanne

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Purple Sweet Potato Painted Swiss Roll

The concept of painting cakes is not new but is usually done on cakes covered with fondant or some form of icing, and with artificial coloring powder (Luster dust). I bought Junko's Deco Roll Cakes sold at Kinokuniya recently and found that she uses cocoa powder or green tea powder to touch up small features on patterned swiss rolls after the cake has been rolled. Because of that, I am wondering if swiss rolls can be painted with other colors, preferably with natural ingredients and what's the effect of painting the whole cake.

I had some left over layer cake that is really bendy from my previous purple sweet potato bake so I decided to make a mini swiss roll out of it. Here's my purple sweet potato painted swiss roll with purple sweet potato cream!

First make the swiss roll by spreading some purple sweet potato cream on the layer cake, leaving about 1.5 cm from the further edge clear. Roll the cake carefully with a baking sheet below to help with shaping. Twist the ends of the baking sheet and refrigerate until firm. About 1 hour. As my portion was really small, I whipped up only about 100ml of whip topping (non-dairy whipping cream) and folded in about 26g of potato puree. I still have some leftover cream despite filling some mini chiffon donuts and this swiss roll.

If you are making a regular sized roll in a 10 x 10" square tin, simply double the recipe from my previous blog entry and bake at 170 degrees Celsius for 14 minutes. Whip up about 200ml of whipping cream (add 2 tbs of icing sugar if you are using dairy whipping cream) and fold in 60g of purple sweet potato puree.

I experimented with my own homemade paint (for colors other than brown and earthy green) by using milk powder and a bit of water as the base, with a teeny bit of gel food coloring added. Gradually add water until a desired consistency is reached and add a bit of food coloring until a desired shade is reached.

I played around with a stencil too since they come in handy for those who are artistically challenged. Use a small food brush to apply the paint on the cake. Remove the stencil carefully to avoid smudging the pattern.

I painted another flower on a stem without a stencil. Store the painted roll in an airtight container without wrapping it up and place it in the fridge until the paint dries up. I left mine in the fridge for a few hours. The milk powder based paint dries up nicely although it leaves a glossy sheen instead of the matt surface of green tea.

Here's a closer look at a slice of the mini roll...

The kids loved the mini chiffon donuts and this swiss roll so much that they were asking how come I made so few!

With love,
Phay Shing

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World's Smallest Chiffon Cake -- Purple Sweet Potato Piggies made in Mini Donut Pan

Elder kid requested for chiffon cakes to be made in the mini donut pan that he wanted me to buy a while ago. Experienced bakers will say that's a definite no-no since donut pans have non-stick coatings and I was afraid the black pan would heat up differently from my regular aluminum pans or glass bowls. Now that I am less afraid to make mistakes, I thought you might appreciate it if I did the experiment on your behalf ;). Here are my teeny purple sweet potato piggies baked in a mini donut pan!

It's pretty tough to take a photo with the donuts on my hand using a phone camera but I did it so you can see how teeny the chiffon cakes are with the signature hole in the middle :). The inside looks just like a miniaturized version of a chiffon cake!

Very soft and fluffy mini donut chiffon cake sitting in a Chinese soup spoon

The kids love it coated with a bit of white chocolate and the hole filled with purple sweet potato cream too!

I can just imagine doing a batch of these for class parties with different flavors and toppings!

I adapted the recipe from Vivian Pang as I prefer a smoother textured purple sweet potato cake for such tiny cakes. Some recipes call for potato chunks in the cake. I increased the amount of puree, oil and egg whites for my recipe. The quantity is really small as I was experimenting and didn't want to waste too much resources so feel free to double or triple the recipe if you have bigger donut pans or more than one pan.

Ingredients (makes 12 mini donut chiffons and one thin 6 x 6" flat layer cake):
1 egg yolk
5g caster sugar
28g fresh milk
25g purple sweet potato puree (Steam sweet potato until soft then mash. Pass through sieve to remove big lumps)
12g vegetable oil
1/4 tsp vanilla essence
20g cake flour
1/8 tsp baking powder
Pinch of salt

1.5 egg whites
20g caster sugar
1/10 tsp cream of tartar

Steps:
1. Prepare sweet potato puree.  I portioned mine into 25g packets and freeze any unused portions.

2. Preheat oven to 160 degrees Celsius. Place a tray that can fit the donut pan in it with some space around it into the oven. You will need to sit the donut pan in a water bath. I didn't do this so my donut chiffon rose and browned very fast. I prepared a tray to put hot water at bottom of oven instead which provided the steam but didn't insulate the donut pan. Boil some water. Line the 6" pan with baking sheet.
3. Whisk egg yolk and sugar until it turns pale. Whisk in oil, sweet potato puree, milk and vanilla essence in that order. Gradually whisk in sifted flour, salt and baking powder.

4. Prepare the meringue. In a clean metal bowl, beat egg whites until foamy. Add cream of tartar and beat until soft peaks form. Gradually add caster sugar until stiff peaks form.
5. Add 1/3 meringue into egg yolk batter and mix until no trace of egg white is seen. Quickly but gently fold in the remaining meringue in two additions. Tap the bowl a few times on the table to remove any trapped air. Spoon the batter into ungreased donut pan till about slightly more than 3/4 full and the 6" pan.
6. Place the donut pan into the tray in the oven and carefully pour boiling water into the tray using a jug or kettle. The water level doesn't have to be too high as baking time is short. Place the 6" pan in the oven. Turn the temperature down to 150 degrees Celsius after the oven door is closed and bake for 15 minutes.
7. Invert the donut pan immediately over cooling rack and unmould when cooled using a flexible spatula for the sides and a toothpick for the center.

8. Remove the flat layer cake from the pan as soon as possible and invert to cool with fresh piece of baking sheet covering it.
9. Use small round cutters or a jumbo straw to cut out the snouts of the piggies from the layer cake. Cut small slices for the ears. Melt some white compound chocolate the glue the parts onto the donut chiffons. You may melt some dark compound chocolate to draw in the eyes and nostrils but I was feeling lazy and just used food marker to draw them on.
10. Store the cakes in an airtight container.

I had plenty of leftover layer cake since I only made a total of 4 piggies (too lazy to make more :p). I topped and filled the rest with white chocolate and purple sweet potato cream (add some purple sweet potato puree to freshly whipped cream). Out of curiosity, I rolled it up and found it to be really soft and bendy!

Perfect candidate for a swiss roll! I rolled it up when it was completely cooled and left lying around for a while. Stay tuned for my next post for purple sweet potato swiss roll!

Overall quite satisfied with this experiment although baking conditions have to be tested again and fine-tuned. This type of mini cupcakes should be popular with kids as it is really soft, fluffy, handy to eat and can be topped or filled with the kids' favourite flavors. I will most likely be making this for my kids' children's day party in school unless some other better idea comes up.

With love,
Phay Shing

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Azuki Matcha "Hidden Watermelons in the Ground" Chiffon Cake

Azuki-matcha-black sesame is my all-time favourite combination, and azuki is absolutely my family fave! It just so happened I was craving for some azuki on the morning I was supposed to try out a square chiffon hidden cake for my friend's daughter's birthday. On impulse, I scrapped my original idea to do strawberry yoghurt chiffon and changed it to azuki. The idea of azuki-matcha "watermelons" with black sesame seeds had me drooling! I decided to theme the cake as "hidden watermelons in the ground" with honey matcha chiffon cake and azuki flowers in the background. The watermelon skin will be a two-layered matcha-milk chiffon (to resemble the dark and light part of watermelon skin), and the watermelon flesh will be azuki chiffon with black sesame seeds (to resemble watermelon fruit and seed).

An important objective was to practise baking chiffon cake in large square tray (10-inches) without shrinkage. For this, I got some inkling from Nasi Lemak Lover's Pure Vanilla Sponge Cake to bake at a lower temperature at the start (she used 140°C for 25 min then 160°C for 30 min for an 8-inch pan) to have the cake rise slowly. From my previous experience with steam baking, I had also observed that steam baking chiffon at lowest rack at a lower temperature creates a nice smooth top with little shrinkage upon cooling. I used 150°C for 1h 10 min with steam baking for this chiffon with baking paper only at the bottom (to facilitate unmoulding of large square bottom) and let it cool right side up, following Kitchen Tigress' ogura blog post. I was quite happy this time I had no shrinkage of the chiffon upon cooling. The chiffon cake gripped well to the sides and maintained its height in the centre. There was little shrinkage at the sides that I needed to trim off :).

This hidden cake takes around 2 days to bake. Do keep an airtight container to keep the cake parts.

Ingredients

*You may choose to skip this section for "watermelons" if you only want to bake a chiffon in a large square tray with no tube without shrinkage.

For "watermelons"
4 egg yolks
27g sugar
51g vegetable oil
56ml azuki milk (28g azuki + 28g warm milk)
80g cake flour

5.3 egg whites (this is according to calculations for scaling, you can use 5 egg whites)
60g 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).
2. Beat egg yolks with sugar with whisk till pale yellow before stirring in oil and azuki milk (azuki milk in left picture).

3. Next add in sieved flour and whisk till no trace of flour found.
4. Scoop over 8 tsp of batter and add 2 tsp matcha powder for green layer. Scoop over 8 tsp batter for plain layer. To the rest of the batter, add 1 tsp black sesame. You may opt to put a dip of red colouring for sweet pink colour or omit.
5. Meringue: Beat the egg whites with ¼ tsp cream of tartar till stiff peak, mixing in caster sugar in 2 additions.
6. Scoop over 16 tbsp meringue for green and plain egg yolk batter respectively. Fold gently into the respective batter. Fold the rest of the meringue into the azuki batter in 2 additions (the final matcha, plain, and azuki batter after folding in the right column).
7. Fill the bowls with a layer of green batter, followed by plain batter. Then fill the remaining space with azuki batter for the watermelons. Gently tap on table to remove air bubbles.
**8. Pour the remaining azuki batter into the 6-inch tray (lined at bottom and sides) for the flowers. **This is optional if you do not want to decorate the cake with flowers.
9. Steam bake the cakes in bowls for 15 min at 160°C then 15-20 min at 150°C. Bake the 6-inch tray cake for 18 min at 150°C (also lowest rack, steambaking). Note: I have a separate smaller oven for the 6-inch tray. Otherwise, you can also bake the tray at 160°C for 14+ min and remove.
10. As an experiment, I inverted 2 bowls and left the other 2 bowls upright. I was surprised there was no reduction in height with and without inverting! Unmould when they are cool.
11. Flip over the cake onto a clean baking sheet and unmould when cool.
12. Cut out the flowers and slice up the watermelons for baking into the big cake.

Chiffon in large 10-inch square tray

6 egg yolks

40.5g sugar

76.5g vegetable oil

84 ml warm milk

120g cake flour

1 tsp honey

2 tsp matcha powder

8 egg whites

90g sugar

1/4 tsp cream of tartar

1. 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). Line bottom with baking paper (smooth and stick on with a little meringue).

2. Beat egg yolks with sugar with whisk till pale yellow before stirring in oil and warm honey matcha milk (1 tsp honey + 2 tsp matcha dissolved in warmed milk).

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

4. Meringue: Beat the egg whites with ¼ tsp cream of tartar till stiff peak, mixing in caster sugar in 2 additions.

5. Fold the meringue into the cake batter gently in 3 additions.
*6. Arrange the azuki flowers at the bottom and gently cover with batter. Place the watermelon cakes in ring around the centre. Spoon the batter around their sides and over them. Run a chopstick around the sides of the tray to ensure there are no trapped bubbles.
*You may choose to omit this step if you just want to bake a chiffon in a large square tray with no tube.
7. Steambake for 1 hr 10 min.

8. Cool right side up for the first 20 min. Unmould and leave to cool (I followed Kitchen Tigress to cool right way up and there was no reduction in height!).
9. I sieved the top with matcha powder to recreate grass fields with flowers over the watermelons :).

Reviews for the cake was that it was very moist and soft! I personally thought the azuki-matcha-black sesame combination was "heaven"! :p It was finished in no time even though it was a huge 10-inch cake :).

This post is linked to the event, Little Thumbs up organised by Bake For Happy Kids, and My Little Favourite DIY, hosted by Tze of Awayofmind Bakery House at this post. 

With love,
Susanne

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Hedgehog and Rabbit Cocoa-Vanilla Chiffon Cupcakes

A dear childhood friend of mine, Sheryl asked if I could make her two daughters' favourite animals, hedgehog and rabbit into small chiffon cakes. My first thought was the animals were really an interesting and unique choice! That was before the thought of how challenging they were sank in :p This is my first time doing animal cuppies with such long ears and even spikes! Lol :D But it was really a fun bake filled with love, so I really thank her for giving me this opportunity! :) 

We decided on cocoa and vanilla flavours which her daughters like to use their natural food colouring to match the animals' colours. I also steam baked the chiffon cupcakes which seem to help with the moistness.

Ingredients (makes 3-4 cupcakes and 1 6-inch tray)
3 egg yolks
20g sugar
39g vegetable oil
42ml milk
60g cake flour
5g cocoa
Few drops of vanilla essence

Meringue for patterning of eyes and mouth
1 egg white
5g sugar
1/6 tsp cream of tartar

Meringue for cake
4 egg whites
45g 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. Beat egg yolks with sugar with whisk till pale yellow before stirring in oil and milk
3. Next add in sieved flour and whisk till no trace of flour found.
4. Patterning: Scoop out 3 tsp of batter over into a new bowl. Add 1/3 tsp of cake flour and a tiny dip of black colour. Make the meringue for patterning by beating 1 egg white with cream of tartar and sugar till stiff peaks are formed. Gently fold in meringue to black batter. Pipe the eyes and features for the animals. Bake patterns for 1.5 min.

5. Divide the rest of the egg yolk batter into 2 by scooping over 16 tsp (for brown batter) and adding 5g cocoa powder. Mix well. To remaining batter, add a few drops of vanilla essence.
6. Meringue for cake: Beat the egg whites with ¼ tsp cream of tartar till stiff peak, mixing in caster sugar in 2 additions.
7. Scoop over 32 tbsp meringue for into brown batter. Gently fold in in 2 additions. Fold the remaining meringue into the plain batter likewise (top panel, left and right pictures).

8. Pipe and fill the white batter into the white portion for the hedgehog and fill the rest of the space with brown batter. Pipe the nose with brown batter and fill with white batter for the rabbit.
9. Pour the rest of the cake batter into a 6-inch square try. 

*Remember to gently tap the bowls and tray 3x to remove air bubbles!
10. Bake the cakes in bowls for 15 min at 160°C then 15-20 min at 150°C. Bake the 6-inch tray cake for 18 min at 150°C (also lowest rack, steambaking).
*I have a separate smaller oven for the 6-inch tray. Otherwise, you can also bake the tray at 160°C for 14+ min (or until cake lightly bounces back when you gently touch) together and remove.

11. Invert the bowls once they are removed from oven (middle panel, left pic). Unmould when they are cool (middle panel, right pic).
12. After the layer cake cools, flip over the cake onto a clean baking sheet (bottom panel, left pic).

I used a butter knife to cut out the spikes (bottom panel, right pic) and used melted chocolate to glue on each piece! :p For the rabbit ears and paws, I used a combination of round cookie cutters and knife carving.

Aren't the hedgehogs cute? :)

I was really happy that my friend's daughters enjoyed the cakes! She shared pictures of her happy kids which really made my day! :) We sampled the leftover sheet cake and thought the cake was soft and moist, and the chocolatey, vanilla-milky taste was really nice :)


This post is linked to the event, Little Thumbs up organised by Bake For Happy Kids, and My Little Favourite DIY, hosted by Tze of Awayofmind Bakery House.

With love,

Susanne

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Hidden Bears Honey Matcha Chiffon Cake (Steam Bake Method)

Guess who's hiding in the woods? A bunch of bears!

I was so impressed with Susanne's steam baked honey matcha chiffon cake that I wanted to try it out too. I took the chance to try out another way of making hidden chiffon cakes to see if it is an improvement from the way we used to make.

I baked a vanilla chiffon cake for the hidden bears instead of the usual flat layer cake to minimize the gaps between the hidden slices. Be warned that this is a very time consuming bake so you may want to split the work over two days. Keep the cake that is works-in-progress in an airtight container to prevent it from drying out.

Black and white vanilla chiffon (15cm chiffon tin)
Ingredients:
1 egg yolk
10g caster sugar
23g canola oil
36g milk
1tsp Vanilla essence
40g cake flour
1/4 heaped tsp charcoal
White gel food coloring (optional)

3 egg whites
30g caster sugar
1/8 tsp cream of tartar

Steps:
1. Preheat the oven to 160 degrees Celsius with tray of water at bottom rack of oven.
2. Beat egg yolk and sugar until pale yellow. Stir in oil, milk and vanilla essence. Gradually add in sifted cake flour and whisk until no trace of flour can be seen.
3. Divide the egg yolk batter into ratio of 1:2 for black:white batter. Add charcoal to the batter for black color and white food coloring for white color.
4. Prepare the meringue. Beat egg whites until foamy and add cream of tartar. Beat until soft peaks form and gradually add in sugar. Beat until stiff peaks form.
5. Add in 1/3 of meringue into each of the batters and mix well. Gently but quickly fold in the rest of the meringue in two additions. Tap the mixing bowls to release trapped air.
6. Pour the black batter into the chiffon tin slowly and level it with a spatula. Pour white batter over black batter. Bake for 15 minutes then lower temperature to 150 degrees Celsius and bake for another 20 minutes.
7. Immediately overturn to cool and remove from tin by running a thin spatula around the sides and bottom of the tin. I used to love unmoulding by hand but for really soft cakes using a spatula may be better.
8. Cut the cake (as though you are going to serve it) into thick slices. Use a bear shaped cutter to cut out the white bear heads. Use a short length of straw to cut out the eyes and nose.  You may find it helpful to use a paper template to mark out the positions of the eyes and nose. Use the straw to cut out black circles to stuff into the white bear head to form the face. Repeat for all slices of cake.

9. Proceed to prepare batter for matcha cake. I used Susanne's recipe so I won't be typing it out here. I just halved the recipe accordingly to 2 yolks and 3 whites. I just portioned out 1tsp of egg yolk batter for each color, brown and green to make the trees. I  steam baked those in silicone ice cube trays for about 20minutes at 150 degrees Celsius. About 3 tbs of meringue was used for each of the colored batter.
10. Fill the chiffon tin with matcha batter till about 1/4 - 1/3 full. Place the bear heads upside down in a tight ring. Carefully spoon the batter around the sides of the bears and then over the bears to cover them. Run a chopstick around the sides of the tin (inner and outer sides) to ensure there are no trapped bubbles. Tapping the tin may shift the bears.
11. Steam bake the cake at 150 degrees Celsius for 40 minutes. Overturn immediately to cool. Unmould when cooled completely.

12. Shape the little green and brown cakes into tree shapes using round cookie cutter and stick them into the chiffon cake with toothpicks to make a little forest.
13. Cut the cake and enjoy :).

I gave some away to neighbors and they said that the cake is really cute and nice. I found the soft texture much better than my hidden ladybugs bake although slightly drier than some of my super moist chiffon bakes (even without steam baking). This could be due to the longer exposure of parts when cutting out the bears.

With love,
Phay Shing

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Honey Matcha Rose Chiffon Cake (Steam bake Method)

I steam baked this Honey Matcha chiffon with Strawberry Roses for Mother's Day and for the principal (to thank her great help!). Reviews for the cake were so good and I personally loved it so much that I baked it again for a very dear friend's birthday. This recipe is a keeper to me :)

Since my lego cake post, I have been thinking of steam baking to improve the moistness of the cake. So for this chiffon, I took the chance to try steam baking. As my family have been unwell lately, I looked for a recipe with honey (nourishing and increases moistness) and matcha (our favourite) and decorated the cake with strawberry roses inspired by my mother.

The recipe was very lightly adapted from Lily's matcha chiffon cake. I personally found the addition of honey and hot milk to be very fragrant. I incorporated steam baking to the chiffon, as well as patterning of green leaves on top. I also baked strawberry chiffon cake in rose moulds separately. You may choose to omit the strawberry roses and green leaves (marked in asterisk) which I included to decorate the chiffon :p

Ingredients (makes one 17cm chiffon tin and 8 "roses")
4 egg yolks
27g sugar
47g vegetable oil
63ml hot milk
2 tsp matcha powder
80g cake flour (+ 1/3 tsp cake flour for the patterns)
1/8 tsp salt
15 ml honey (1 tbsp)
2 ml strawberry paste*

(Meringue for patterns)*
1 egg white
10g sugar
1/6 cream of tartar

(Meringue for cake)
5 egg whites
55g sugar
1/4 tsp cream of tartar

*Ingredients may be omitted for honey matcha chiffon cake.

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. Dissolve matcha powder and honey in 15 ml hot milk.
3. Beat egg yolks with sugar with whisk till pale yellow before stirring in oil and 45 ml hot milk.
4. Add in sieved flour and salt and whisk till no trace of flour found.
*5. Scoop out 10 tsp batter. Add 2 ml strawberry paste in 3 ml hot milk, mix well and add to the batter.
*6. Scoop out 2 tsp batter for patterning. Add a tiny dip of green colour and 1/3 tsp flour and mix well.
7. To the rest of cake batter, add the matcha/honey in hot milk.
*8. Make the meringue for patterning. Scoop 4 tbsp over and pipe patterns. Bake for 1.5 min.
*9. Make the meringue for the cake and roses. Scoop over 20 tbsp to strawberry batter. Fold gently and pour into rose moulds. Steam bake the strawberry roses at 150°C for 25 mins.
10. Fold the rest of the meringue into the cake batter gently in 3 additions. Pour the cake batter into the tin from a height and tap on table top 3x to release bubbles.
11. Steam bake the cake at 160°C oven for 15 minutes, then at 150°C for 35 mins.
12. Invert when cakes are removed from oven and unmould when cool.

*Steps 5, 6, 8 and 9 marked in asterisks may be omitted for honey matcha chiffon cake.

Isn't a cross-section of a slice pretty? :)

My hubby said that the honey matcha chiffon tastes ogura-like because it was airy, moist, soft and very bendy! So probably steam baking does make chiffon cakes more moist and soft! Taste-wise, everyone said it was yummy and fragrant. The addition of honey seemed to give it a very nice sourish sweet taste that balanced well with the matcha fragrance. I tried to capture how "bendy" and soft the cake was (below) :)

Elastic and soft :p

Happy Mother's Day to all and a very happy birthday to my dear friend Joan! :)

This post is linked to the event, Little Thumbs up organised by Bake For Happy Kids, and My Little Favourite DIY, hosted by Tze of Awayofmind Bakery House.

With love,

Susanne

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