Piggy Family Chiffon Cakepops (Bandung Chiffon Cake) – also an experiment comparing French, Swiss and Italian Meringue for Chiffon Cakes

My first post of the year! =) Here is my family of chiffon Piggies wishing everyone a Happy New Year!! And Happy Lunar New Year in advance!

The Piggy Chiffon Cakepops are Bandung-flavored (a new flavour) and no additional pink coloring needs to be added. We all loved it very much.

I also tested out the new Bandung Chiffon Cake flavour using 3 different types of meringue - French (the normal one, Swiss method and Italian method - using hot syrup). This was an experiment on my to-do list for a long time. 

Usually French meringue is used, where raw egg whites are whipped with cream of tartar and the gradual addition of sugar. However it is known to be not very stable. So I tested out the Swiss and Italian meringue (which are supposed to be more stable) to see its effects on the texture and volume of the cake, as well as pore structure and stability of final cake batter. 

For the experiment, I baked Bandung Chiffon Cake in three 6-inch tube pans, one for each method.  In all 3 methods, the amount of sugar and cream of tartar were kept constant (so that the cake would not be too sweet using the different techniques). Finally, I made the chiffon cake piggies using the best recipe, which ended up being still the French (normal meringue) method. 

VERDICT of experiment:

For the Swiss meringue, I dissolved the sugar with egg whites first at 65-70°C in a bowl above boiling water (not touching), and then adding cream of tartar and whipping up the whites quickly. The meringue was very glossy and a little more stable, but of lesser volume than the normal French meringue.

For the Italian meringue, I prepared hot sugar syrup (115°C) and then pour into egg whites while whipping it up. The Italian meringue was even more silky, but denser, and the final volume less than both the Swiss and French meringue.

To my surprise, AFTER the meringue was folded into the cake batter, there was little difference in the stability of the final cake batters. They all bubbled after a while sitting out. This means that the folding in of the egg yolk batter affected the stability of the meringue in all 3 methods. So the Swiss and Italian method of making meringue did not help chiffon batter to become more stable. They were also more cumbersome to make. And that is not all. There were great differences in the structure/texture of the cake.

Volume of French meringue was greatest (meringue was light and fluffy), followed by Swiss Meringue (fluffy but lower volume, due to addition of sugar at early stage) and then Italian meringue (meringue was very silky and shiny but the densest). 

Indeed this shows up the final cake structure where the normal chiffon cake by the French method (most RIGHT) is very light, airy and fluffy and rose the most, followed by the Swiss meringue method (MIDDLE, texture in between, a little like sponge cakes, still fluffy but not as light and airy), and lastly the Italian method (most LEFT) yielded the densest structure.

In all, the taste of the cake was similar, only the texture was of different softness and density.

So in conclusion, French method still yields the best texture, and Swiss method and Italian method didn’t really help the stability of the batter after folding. But in all it was a good experiment to get it off my chest finally =). 

Moving on, I used the French method of Bandung Chiffon Cake to make the chiffon cake Piggies. The exact same recipe was used earlier in the 6-inch tube pans.

VERDICT of Bandung Chiffon Cake Flavour:

We all loved the Bandung Chiffon Cake. I thought the flavour of Bandung was fragrant and just nice (usually I am not a big fan of rose syrup). But my hubby who likes Bandung prefers it to be stronger. If you like it to be stronger, you can add in rose essence (found in baking sections). My kids found it addictive even without the Rose essence. 

Here goes my recipe sharing! You can also use this recipe for a 6-inch tube pan =).

Bandung Chiffon Cake Piggies (using normal French meringue)

2 Egg yolks 

5g Castor sugar
27g Vegetable/corn oil
33g Bandung
40g Cake flour, sifted
1 tsp Rose essence (optional, do add if you like stronger Bandung flavour)

3 Egg whites
30g Castor sugar
Pinch of cream of tartar

Bandung, a popular Asian drink with evaporated milk flavoured with rose cordial syrup

1. Preheat oven to 140°C. Prepare a 5-cm cake pop mold or egg shells (2 cavity or egg shell each for 1 body) and a 3-cm cake pop mold for limbs (1 cavity can cut into 4 limbs).

2. Prepare egg yolk batter:

a. Whisk egg yolk with sugar using hand whisk.

b. Add in oil, and Bandung and mix well at each step.

c. Whisk in sifted cake flour and mix till no lumps are found.

4. Prepare meringue:

a. In a grease-free, dry metal bowl, using electric mixer, whisk egg whites with cream of tartar till frothy.

b. Add in castor sugar for meringue gradually and whisk at high speed till firm peaks form.

5. Gently fold in meringue into egg yolk batter 1/3 at a time.

6. Fill the cake pop molds (or egg shells). Bake for 25 min (for 5-cm cake pop) and 20 min (for 3-cm cake pop) or until skewer comes out clean. If you are using egg shells, bake for 35 min or so. Pour leftover batter into cupcake liners (around sheet cake thickness to cut out nose snouts later). These are also baked for around 20 min.

*individual oven conditions may vary so do please check with skewer inserted into centre of cakes to see if it comes out totally dry.

7. Allow the cakes to cool completely on wire rack before unmolding by hand.

8. Unmould by popping the cakes out from the mold or cracking the egg into small pieces using the back of a teaspoon.

9. Assemble the pig chiffon cake pops using melted marshmallow similar to Deco Chiffon Cake Basics (or you can refer to Pegasus Pusheen Chiffon Cake pops if you don’t have the book). This is made by popping some marshmallows with a sprinkle of water and microwaving on high for 30 seconds.

10. Both lying down and sitting up versions involve stacking 2 cake pops together but different ways, slightly adjacent (like my 3D panda in Deco Chiffon Cake Basics), or on top of each other (like my 3D Snowman Workshops). For the limbs, use a bubble tea straw to cut out mini limbs from the 3-cm cake pops and stick using melted marshmallow. The ears are cut the same way. You can pinch the straws to make them more pointed.

11. Similarly cut out the noses using straws and glue them on using melted marshmallows. I used yakult straws to punch out the nostrils.

12. Decorate the facial features with charcoal sheet cake cut outs (refer to Deco Chiffon Cake Basics for picture tutorials of all the techniques), or pipe on using melted chocolate.

Hope you found the experiment comparing the different meringue methods interesting and liked the Chiffon Cake Piggies and Bandung flavour!

Happy New Year and CNY in advance!

With lots of love,
Susanne

Super honored and thankful that these Bandung Chiffon Cake Piggy Family was featured on Channel 8 news 630pm and 10pm on 13th Jan! More here.

More picture tutorials are found in my cookbooks below, which are also available worldwide on Book depository:

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Boy and Girl Chinese New Year Macarons

Those of you who would like to learn the necessary techniques for creating any shape or design of character macarons can join me for this class, also in time to create these adorable treats for Chinese New Year!

Boy and Girl macarons filled with strawberry white chocolate buttercream

The design is taken from my Creative Baking: Macaron Basics book and you will learn how to split a single batch of batter into a few colours, how to pipe batters of different colours side by side to create the clean boundary between hair and face of the character, as well as creating pop-up features like the buns on the hair and the hands. Post-baking decoration involving the use of edible marker, royal icing and lustre dust will also be taught.

Although I shared this design using the Italian method in my book, I will be teaching this design using the Swiss meringue method for the class. Due to the nature of the design and content of the class, I don't recommend complete newbies to join although you won't be banned from it. It would be best if you have some experience baking simple basic macarons or at least be comfortable with doing a range of bakes and piping designs on cakes or cookies. I am afraid newbies may find it overwhelming with too much new information to absorb 😆. Do bring along a spatula (or two.... or three since we are working with three colours of batter) that you are comfortable with as the ones provided by the studio may not be what you are used to working with for macaronage. If you have a candy thermometer that you are comfortable with using, do bring along too.

Please click on this link for more details and to register.

I am also taking this chance to wish everyone a Happy New Year!

With love,
Phay Shing

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Guinea Pig Lavender Vanilla Éclairs

My elder kid requested for Choux pastry for his birthday treat -- Guinea pig designed and Lavender flavoured. I decided to make it earlier so that we can all have it together with my parents for a post-christmas meal celebration. Since my mum (who has diabetes) will be eating it as well, I try to keep the use of refined sugar down but at the same time, not compromise the flavour. And so I took the liberty of using some honey (to replace part of the sugar) and include vanilla as part of the flavour that goes harmoniously with lavender. Presenting my version of guinea pig choux pastry, filled with smooth and creamy lavender vanilla pastry cream!

These guinea pig Éclairs are actually modelled after our very adorable pet guinea pigs!

Bottomless pits for food!

Here's a closer look at the cross section of an Eclair...

Nice and crisp pastry case! Really nice when eaten with cold and smooth pastry cream!

I have not been including detailed recipes of my past few choux pastry posts as I can't share what is going into the Deco Choux Pastries book that I am working on. But since what I did here deviates from my basic recipe, I can share it here. There are a couple of firsts for me here. It's the first time I tried using more egg whites than yolks in the Choux pastry batter (pate a choux) and the first time I am using modelling chocolate to create such a complex design.

Feel free to use more sugar if you prefer sweeter pastry cream. Do a taste test. I had my mum in mind when I made it. The Choux pastry batter contains no sugar as well so fell free to include 1 tsp of sugar if you wish. My kids are having the modelling chocolate coated pastry cases so it will be sweet enough for their palate, whereas my mum and the rest of us health conscious adults will be eating the Éclairs without modelling chocolate coating.

Lavender Vanilla honey pastry cream
Ingredients:
3egg yolks
300g lavender milk*
1.5 tsp vanilla bean paste/extract
30g cornflour, sifted
30g sugar (use more if you prefer because lavender is a little bitter)
A pinch or two of salt
15g unsalted butter
1.5 tbs honey

100g whipping cream
1 tsp gelatin powder**
1 tbs water**
1 tbs icing sugar (I didn't use)

* Steep 3-3.5tbs of dried lavender flowers in 340g hot milk for 10 minutes. Strain out the flowers and weigh out 300g of milk to make the pastry cream.

**You may omit the use of gelatin if you are using icing sugar to help stabilize the cream

Steps:
1. In a small saucepan, heat lavender milk with vanilla bean paste until it just starts to bubble. In the mean time, whisk together cornflour, sugar, salt and egg yolks together.

2. Once the milk starts to bubble, remove from heat. Pour into the egg yolk mixture in a thin stream while whisking continuously. Start off in a slower stream before pouring more quickly. This is to temper the egg yolks. Pour the mixture back into the saucepan.

3. Heat the mixture over low heat while whisking continuously until it starts to thicken. Remove from heat and whisk vigorously until mixture is smooth. Return to heat and continue whisking for another minute or two to thicken until your preferred consistency, keeping in mind it will thicken further after chilling.

4. Add butter and whisk until well combined. Add honey and whisk until well combined. Sieve the mixture into a bowl.

5. Press a cling wrap over the surface of the pastry cream and refrigerate for at least an hour or overnight if you wish. Chill the whipping cream in mixing bowl for an hour or overnight.

6. When the whipping cream and pastry cream base are sufficiently chilled, sprinkle gelatin over 1 tbs of water and let it sit for 10 min. Heat in microwave oven or double boiler until gelatin is dissolved (medium power for 10 seconds if using microwave). Set aside to cool to room temperature.

7. Whisk the chilled whipping cream with icing sugar (if using) until firm peaks form. If using gelatin to stabilize, whisk until soft peaks form. Gradually add the dissolved gelatin while whisking the cream until firm peaks form.

8. Gradually fold the whipped cream into pastry cream.

Smooth and fragrant lavender vanilla honey pastry cream

Refrigerate the pastry cream until ready to fill the pastry cases. You may make this two to three days in advance. Press a cling wrap to the surface of the pastry cream for storage.

Choux pastry case (Eclair)
Ingredients (makes about twenty 5-6cm mini Éclairs):
105g water
20g unsalted butter
24g olive oil (you may replace with 20g butter)
1/2 tsp salt
50g bread flour
10g plain flour (you may replace with bread flour)
95-105g egg, lightly beaten (use two whole eggs or in my case, one whole egg and topped up the rest with egg whites.)
1/2 tsp vanilla extract (optional)

Steps:
1. Preheat oven to 200℃. Set oven rack to middle position. Line baking tray with parchment paper/silicone mat. I am trying out a perforated silicone baking mat to see if it makes a difference. It is supposed to be great for baking choux pastries.

2. Sift the bread flour and plain flour together twice. Set aside. Place water, butter, oil, salt and vanilla (if using) in saucepan and bring to a boil, stirring to make sure all butter is dissolved before water boils.

3. Remove saucepan from heat and pour the flour into saucepan all at once. Quickly mix well with a spatula until a ball of dough forms. Press out any visible lumps of flour.

4. Return the saucepan to heat. Use low heat to cook the dough while kneading it in the saucepan for about 3-4 minutes. Pour the dough into a mixing bowl and knead with a spatula for about a minute before leaving it to cool for a few minutes.

5. Add half of beaten egg into the dough and mix until well combined. Add half of the remaining egg into the batter and mix until well combined. Add the remaining egg a little at a time until the batter is smooth and shiny and is able to fall off the spatula in three seconds. You may not need to use all of the egg.

6. Transfer batter into piping bag fitted with a 12-15mm open star tip. Choose one with as many teeth/tines as possible. Using a star tip instead of round tip helps to control the cracking of eclair during baking. Pipe 5-6cm lines on baking mat. Use a finger wet with water to tap down the peak at the end of piping the eclair. Dab some water around the piped batter. This is to help create steam during baking.

Piped batter. It looks more pale than my usual as it contains more egg whites.

7. Place tray of piped batter into oven. Turn temperature down to 190℃ and bake for 20 minutes. Reduce temperature to 180℃ and bake for another 15-20 minutes. Switch off the oven and leave the tray inside for another 10-15 minutes.

Freshly baked cases!

You may make the cases in advance too or store the frozen piped batter and bake when you are ready. Just add 5 minutes to your baking time.

Modelling chocolate
I adapted the recipe from here. I tweaked the ratios a little as Singapore is warm and humid. Please check out the link as it has a more detailed explanation of how to work with modelling chocolate.

Ingredients:
White colour
48g compound white chocolate
11g light corn syrup
A few drops of white gel colouring

Brown colour
42g compound white chocolate
10g dark chocolate couverture
12g light corn syrup
1 drop orange gel food colouring
1 drop yellow food colouring

Black colour
48g dark chocolate couverture
20g light corn syrup
1/2 tsp charcoal powder

Steps:
1. Melt the chocolate in microwave oven using short bursts of 10-20 seconds using medium-low power. Stir between each heating cycle. Be careful not to over heat.

2. Pour corn syrup into melted chocolate and fold in until just combined. Pour the mixture onto cling wrap and wrap it up. Leave it to firm up overnight at room temperature or for 30 minutes in the fridge.

3. Knead until smooth and pliable. Wrap in cling wrap again until ready to use. You may prepare this in advance too!

Homemade modelling chocolate! Tastes much better than fondant!

As I don't work with modelling chocolate often, I was quite nervous about working in Singapore's hot weather so I worked in the air-con room. Try to minimize direct contact between your fingers and the chocolate. I use cling wrap as a barrier between my fingers and the chocolate so that it is less messy to work with. I used toothpick, knife and some fondant tools to help to shape the guinea pig shape and features. You may want to replace chocolate with candy melts as advised by the experts as they are easier to work with. I found it easier to work with white compound chocolate than the dark chocolate couverture based ones as the latter may be firm to begin with but quickly turn into a soft sticky mess with a little handling using my fingers.

The birthday boy exclaimed that they look so real!

It is best to fill the pastry cases just before eating to enjoy them crisp. If this is not possible, you may fill it and keep the pastry refrigerated until ready to serve, preferably within a few hours if you still want the case somewhat crisp. If you don't mind it turning soft, you may store filled choux pastry in fridge for up to two days.

Here are the piggies about to be eaten!

Checkout the cross-section!

The other piggy being eaten!

Birthday boy loved his treat a lot and so did the rest of us!

With lots of love,
Phay Shing

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Pusheen Snowman Chiffon Cake

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!! <3

If you have followed my posts, you can see that I love Pusheen and Snowman very much =p. Over the years, I have made many versions of them! This year I received a very lovely Christmas gift, a Pusheen Snowman plush. So I made a chiffon cake inspired by the plush to thank them! This cake uses the Reduced Egg Yolk Cottony Cake recipe. It is now one of my favorite recipes to use.

Too bad it doesn't snow in Singapore! So I can only make cake =p

Finally, ending off with one of my favorite verses from the bible about Christmas and the birth of Jesus!

May we always be very thankful for Jesus and Christmas!

With lots of love,
Susanne

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Blackforest Log Cake II

Ever since I started baking seriously, I have been baking the cake for my extended family's Christmas gathering. I planned to make a blackforest log cake this year as I made an awesome one last year for someone else. You may read the detailed recipe and assembly steps in this post. As always, I make the cake nativity themed as that's what Christmas is really about -- God’s love shown for our fallen world through the birth of our Lord Jesus!

The signboard is filled with dark chocolate ganache and homemade cherry jam!

Bear with me as this is a rather long post with many parts to the log cake. The focus of what I want to share in detail is the new chocolate sponge recipe but with many short tidbits of the whole process of other components. I used the cooked dough method instead of the regular method of making chiffon sponge.


I must admit that the design idea came at the last minute because I have been busy with book writing. I was wondering what design I can do within a short period of time that is navitiy scene themed. Thank  God I was inspired by what I saw in the church's bulletin one weekend! Silhouette of the nativity scene! I was gambling on the fact that I could pull this off with freehand drawing of course. Thank God I managed it!

I used a variation of Audrey Goh's Swiss method recipe to make the signboard along with the reindeer macarons. You can read about it in my previous macaron post.

Piping the signboard macarons shells. Yes I made extras just in case my freehand drawing needed practice...

...Indeed I needed practice! I ran into issues with writing the words for my first attempt so the second word ended up looking squashed at the end. Making a template would have made it more professional but I was in a hurry. Each attempt took less than half an hour to complete.

You may think that I am a great artist...But I don't think I am. Silhouettes are deceptively easy to draw compared to drawings with full features as they have a larger margin for error. How do I go about drawing this then? The trick is to choose your reference points wisely. I began by writing the words near the bottom of the rectangular frame. Next I drew the base of the manger, followed by baby Jesus. Then I drew Mary from bottom up, then Joseph from bottom up and finally the star. Going by this order ensures that the various parts have the right proportions and are positioned correctly.

Checkout how full the shells are with this method! I hardly rested the shells. I let the piped batter dry in the oven at 100℃ with fan mode on for 3 min with the oven door open slightly. I closed the oven door, switched off the fan mode and ramped up the temperature to 130℃ and baked until feel no longer appears wet.

I kept one of the Christmas bears from a previous bake (frozen for a few weeks) and used some of the pandan coconut Christmas tree macarons I prepared as display pieces for my upcoming junior chef baking class to add on to the deco.

I managed to find some sprinkles that look like mini baubles!

I chose the cooked dough method to make the chocolate sponge as blooming the cocoa powder in hot liquid allows the chocolate flavour to come through more strongly. Cooked dough method also allows the flour to absorb more liquid, making the cake naturally more moist and soft. That's why I revised my recipe to include an extra whole egg to make a more moist and rich cake, and used a different method.

You may prepare the cherry jam and dark chocolate ganache ahead of time before baking the sponge cake. Chill the whipping cream overnight in the mixing bowl together with icing sugar as well so that it whips up more easily when you are ready to assemble the cake as the sponge takes less than 15 minutes to bake. You may refer to my previous blackforest log cake post  for the recipe of the cherry jam, stabilized whipped cream and dark chocolate ganache. I made minor changes to the filling for this year's log cake. I used red wine instead of Choya to cook the cherry jam. I bloomed 2 tsp of gelatin in 2 tbs of milk instead of using 1 tsp of gelatin in 1 tbs of milk as I wanted to make a more stable cream. I used 1 tsp of vanilla extract instead of 1/2 tsp for the cream. You may stick to the original recipe if the log cake is going to be served in a cooler place.

Cooked dough chocolate chiffon sponge cake
Ingredients (makes one 12x12" cake):
3 egg yolks
1 egg
42g cake flour
22g Dutch processed cocoa powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/8 tsp salt
45g vegetable oil/ canola oil
47g fresh milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp Kahlua coffee liqueur (optional)

4 egg whites
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
65g caster sugar

Steps:
1. Sift flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt in a large mixing bowl. Set aside. Place egg and egg yolks in a small bowl. Set aside. Line the tray with parchment paper. Preheat oven to 170℃, set oven rack to second lowest position.

2. Heat milk and oil in a small saucepan until it just starts to bubble. Remove from heat and pour into flour mixture. Quickly mix well. A soft dough should form. Set aside to cool for a few minutes.

3. Add one egg yolk or egg at a time and mix well between each addition. Add vanilla and coffee liqueur and mix well. A batter that is able to flow should be formed at this point in time.

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

5. Fold the meringue into the batter a third at a time. Fold quickly but gently until no trace of meringue is seen.

6. Pour batter into baking tray and smooth out the top of batter with spatula. Gently tap on table to release trapped air bubbles. Bake for 12-14 minutes.

7. Immediately flip the cake out of baking tray and roll it up with parchment paper to cool.

You may refer to my previous blackforest log cake post for assembly instructions. Just to share some photos of the assembly this time round...

Rolled up Swiss roll. Checkout the fine texture of the sponge! The cake is indeed denser but soft and moist! Hubby who doesn't like cake in general (because most are too fluffy and dry) said this is really good!

Coating with dark chocolate ganache. I whipped the ganache this time so it appears lighter coloured 

After drawing the bark markings with a fork, the cake is done!

You may dust with sifted icing sugar if you wish, and add on decorations.

If you are a fan of blackforest cake, do give this a try. I am sure you will love it!

With lots of love,
Phay Shing

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Reindeer and Christmas Bear Cherry Dark Chocolate Macarons (Swiss method)

I have been focusing on book writing and classes during the month of December and just remembered that the logcake I am making for my extended family may need some decorations. The reindeers came about as an impromptu bake because what I planned to do for logcake deco only required one large macaron and I had leftover batter to play with. The Christmas bears came about because I had leftover batter from making some bear macarons in November. Back then, I baked the bears and froze the extra macaron shells. Despite the last minute-ness of it all, I had my dose of cute overload 😊.

As mentioned in my previous macaron post, raving about how good the Swiss method recipe was, I decided to try the experiment as promised. I used all the egg whites to make the Swiss meringue, instead of keeping a portion of it to mix with almond and icing sugar to form a paste. What's the verdict? It takes many more folds to get to the correct batter consistency. The piped batter dries a lot faster. The batter is not as silky smooth although that could be due to my macaronage. But you are still able to get nice and full shells too. Having tried both with and without splitting the egg white portion, I think I personally prefer splitting the egg white portion for the smoother batter and ease of making many colours from one batter portion.

You may refer to my earlier Swiss method post for the detailed recipe and steps. Just use all the 77g (75ml) of egg whites to make the Swiss meringue. Add the sifted almond and icing sugar to the meringue in two batches and fold until batter is at the right consistency. Just to share some photos...

Piped shells for reindeer. I added 1 tsp of cocoa powder to the dry ingredients and one generous dollop of orange and one generous dollop of yellow food colouring to the meringue after its been beaten to firm peak. I portioned out a little of the underfolded batter to add a little more cocoa powder for the antlers and folded both light and dark brown batters until they reach lava consistency.  

See how full the interior is! 

I used royal icing and edible marker to add in the details on the baked shells.

I made cherry jam in preparation for the logcake so I thought of using some for filling the macarons. Instead of Choya, I used red wine. You may refer to this post for the dark chocolate ganache and cherry jam recipe.

Homemade cherry jam!

I have no idea how to take a photo of the filling on the macaron shell that will do it justice...Rich dark chocolate ganache with juicy cherry bits cooked in red wine. Yums!

I hope these cutesies put a smile on your face as they did to mine 😊

With love,
Phay Shing

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Ondeh Ondeh Logcake Choo Choo Train

How do you like our Favorite Yummy Ondeh Ondeh Cake transformed into a cute Christmas Logcake Choo Choo Train with wheels? =)

I was inspired to transform the boring Logcake into a Choo choo train! And being a fan of Ondeh Ondeh cakes, I was inclined to transform the flavour into a Logcake version too =p.

I designed this recipe specially for LG's Logcake Class last month. It's a special recipe that you can whip up in less than an hour using the freezer and convenient new products like the gula melaka syrup (took a picture in the recipe below). The flavour and also cute train idea was a hit at the class! If you try out the idea, do tag me! =)

I have also made a Recipe Video on making the Ondeh Ondeh Logcake Choo Choo Train using LG's Neochef. The Youtube video below is an extended and more detailed version of the short video I posted on Instagram and FB. It was quite a lot of work to make the video =p. Hope that you will find it very useful! 

Full recipe below:

Ondeh Ondeh Logcake Choo Choo Train by Susanne Ng

Pandan Chiffon Rollcake (10-inch by 10-inch) 

3 egg yolks
20g castor sugar
41g vegetable oil
39g water (*you can substitute with pandan juice)
¾ tsp pandan paste
¾ tsp vanilla extract
60g cake flour, sifted

Meringue
4 egg whites
45g castor sugar
¼ tsp cream of tartar

1. Preheat oven to 170°C.

2. Egg yolk batter: beat egg yolks with castor sugar before stirring in oil, water, pandan paste and vanilla extract.

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

4. Gently fold the meringue into the egg yolk batter in 3 additions.

5. Pour the batter onto the prepared baking pan. Give the pan a few taps to remove bubbles. Bake at 170°C for 22-24 min, or until skewer comes out clean.

6. Pour the leftover batter into 2 mini and 2 medium cupcake liners. Bake these at 170°C for 20-22 min.

7. Prepare the whipped cream and filling while the cakes are cooling.

*Tip: Highly recommended to roll up the sheet cake before it is fully cooled to prevent cracking (see youtube video tutorial).

Whipped Cream (for 2 5-inch logcakes)
120g heavy cream
80g whip topping
10g icing sugar

Combine the heavy cream, whip topping and icing sugar and whip with an electric mixer till stiff peaks (less than a minute). Place in the refrigerator until you need to use the cream.

*Tip: I combined dairy cream with whip topping to enhance stability so that it is easy work with, without compromising the taste too much. This helps in cutting the time to work too =).

8. Prepare the Gula Melaka-Dessicated Coconut filling. 

This is great! But you can also melt your own using Gula Melaka!

Gula Melaka-Dessicated Coconut filling (for 2 5-inch logcakes)
104g Gula Melaka syrup
10g boiled water
Pinch of salt
120g dessicated coconut

In a bowl, gently mix the dessicated coconut with Gula Melaka syrup, water and pinch of salt till well-mixed.

9. After the sheet cake is cool, unroll the cake and remove the baking paper on top. Spread on the whipped cream, followed by the gula melaka coconut filling, leaving around 1.5 cm from the sides. Roll the cake up with the filling.

10. Allow to the roll cake to chill (freezer around 10 min) for the cream to set. Slice the roll cake into two to make 2 Choo choo trains!

Yummy and soft rolls!

11. Decorate and assemble the logcake trains.

Decoration
80g-100g dessicated coconut
Christmas logcake décor

(a) Lightly coat the roll cake with leftover whipped cream. Roll the cake over dessicated coconut (or steamed grated coconut).

(b) Unmould the cupcakes by peeling off the cupcake liners. Similarly, lightly coat the cakes with whipped cream (except the base) and roll them in dessicated coconut. Use more cream to adhere the base of the cupcakes onto the base log to form the train chimney and driver seat.

(c) Add wheels using Oreo cookies and some cream. Alternatively, you can use chocolate sheet cakes! In my first version, I used sheet cakes actually.

(d) Insert and add in other Christmas logcake décor.

*You may refer to the Video Tutorial on Youtube to fully understand the steps.

Blessed Christmas and a Happy New Year in advance!

With lots of love,

Susanne

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Christmas Tree Matcha Choux Pastry

Christmas is just around the corner. Instead of baking the usual Christmas bakes, why not try this one :) Here's a sweet and simple Christmas tree made up of a stack of Choux au Craquelin (fancy name for cream puffs covered with cookie dough)

Even the star is made entirely out of choux pastry!

You may refer to this post for the recipe as it will work just as well although I used another one. I am not free the share the exact details on the blog as this design will appear in my Deco Choux pastries book in our Creative Baking series. Do note that baking time will be different for different sizes of pastry cases. Here's a tip, pipe and bake different sizes of pastry cases on different baking trays so that you don't end up with overbaked or underbaked cases.

I hope that in the midst of Christmas season busyness, you find some peace :)

With love,
Phay Shing

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Cute Piggy Yuzu Cream Puff Class

Want to welcome the Year of the Pig with a cute and yummy bake? Join me for this cute piggy choux pastry class in January 2019!

I make it a point to use Choux pastry to make the added features as far as possible, instead of fondant or chocolate. Choux pastries are not as technically challenging as macarons or chiffon cakes so if you want to make a cute and yummy but easy bake, this class is for you!

I chose yuzu flavour as the filling to let its citrusy goodness compliment the smooth and rich pastry cream.

Please click on this link for more details and to register for this class.

With love,
Phay Shing

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Flying Noodles Chiffon Cake

I has always had been my dream to make the Flying Noodle Cake! After a series of food-themed chiffon cakes (Kueh to Sushi to Nasi lemak), I finally had the courage to try out a Flying Chopsticks Noodle chiffon cake! Thanks to my friend for having the faith in me!

This is my anyhow-hantum chiffon cake version! Really thank God for providing <3. It is definitely easier to make noodles from cream or fondant. The noodles were cut from chiffon sheet cakes, which risk breaking, so the bendability has to be just right. For this, I used my Cottony Cake recipe which is closer to ogura cake that can do “yoga”.

I also used the same cottony cake recipe to make the spring onions and corn roll cakes. Basically I make a thin swissroll from the cake (like spring onions), then slice into small pieces. The hole wasn’t so obvious, so I further used a yakult straw to widen the hole in the centre for the spring onions. The other ingredients like fishcake and ham, involved piping and baking chiffon batter as thin sheets in cupcake liners, similar to my Lollipop chiffon cake pops in Deco Chiffon Cakes (below). Lastly the bowl itself consisted of a bowl chiffon cake baked in a ball cake pan, using charcoal powder. The sushi slices were also cut from bamboo charcoal chiffon cake.

Thankful cake was very well-received!

With lots of love,
Susanne

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