Iced Gems

Some like to pop these tiny beauties into their mouths whole, some like to break apart the icing and biscuit, eat the biscuit and then followed by the icing, and some just wanna eat the icing :P. Iced gems! Don't they just bring back fond memories of childhood? As kids we love these and I love the ones that Khong Guan produces. My kids love them too and asked me to make them, and so I did!

I was searching the internet for iced gem recipes and to my surprise, I couldn't find many. I took a quick look at the ingredients and I knew that the biscuits will not end up tasting anything like Khong Guan's as they were all butter based. I ended up settling for one that looked all right and started work.

The recipe is adapted from here for the biscuit dough and here for the icing on the biscuits.

Ingredients:

Dough
200g plain flour
10g corn flour
100g cold butter
90g caster sugar
1 egg
1/2 Tbs golden syrup

Royal icing*
335g royal icing sugar (I used Wilton)
2 Tbs water plus extra as necessary
Gel food coloring

Steps:
1. Place plain flour and corn flour in a large bowl and cut small pieces of cold butter into the flour using a small butter knife. Using only your finger tips and working quickly, rub in the butter and the flour until the whole mixture resembles coarse breadcrumbs.
2. Mix in the sugar using the butter knife until well combined.
3. Mix in the egg and golden syrup using the butter knife until well combined. Do not use your hands as the dough is very sticky. 
4. Place the dough between 2 baking sheets or cling wrap and roll into a sheet that is about 5-7mm thick. Seal the edges of the dough with the baking sheets/ cling wrap before putting it in the fridge for at least 1 hour to let it harden. 
5. Preheat the oven to 180°C.

6. Use a small round cookie cutter (1-2 cm in diameter, or any other shapes that you like) and cut out the dough into the desired shape. Place the dough on a baking tray lined with baking sheet. You may need to use a chopstick to push the dough out from the cutter and if the dough gets too soft and sticky to handle, place it back into the fridge for another 15-20 minutes. Alternatively, if you have freezer packs with flat surfaces, use them as your work surface and place the dough on top of it as you cut out the circles. This will ensure that the dough stays firm for a longer time. Always roll the dough between 2 sheets of baking sheet or cling wrap as you continue to reshape leftover dough and cut out more circles. If you find that the circles of dough have turned very soft, you may want to put the baking tray in the fridge for 10 minutes before putting it in the oven. 
7. Bake at 180°C for 6-8 minutes or until the cookies are golden brown. Cool completely on a cooling rack before adding the icing sugar. Here's a tray of freshly baked cookies! There's another tray's worth of them.

8. Sift the royal icing sugar into a bowl and add 2 Tbs of water. Use a spatula to mix well until it forms a smooth paste. Add water as necessary, 1/4 tsp at a time and mix well until you get a glossy icing that forms stiff peaks. You may use an electric mixer on low speed to make the icing but the icing was too thick for my handheld mixer to handle so I just worked with a spatula and it turned out fine. 
9. Split the icing between the number of colors that you want. Use a toothpick to add a tiny drop of gel food coloring into each bowl of icing. Mix well using a spoon. Add only a tiny bit of coloring at a time to keep the colors a pastel shade.
10. Prepare a piping bag with a closed star nozzle (mine was not a standard sized nozzle but an 8-pointed star with point-point distance of about 8 mm) and spoon the icing into the bag. To pipe the traditional iced gem ruffle, hold the nozzle directly above the biscuit and apply pressure, allowing the icing to spread sideways as you slowly raise the nozzle upwards. To finish the ruffle, remove pressure from the bag and dip the nozzle down a little before pulling sharply upwards. 
11. Leave the icing to set for a few hours or overnight until completely hard and dry. Store the biscuits in an airtight container**.

Icing the tiny biscuits was sure hard work and tiring for my eyes. This is less than halfway done!

There were so many biscuits that I lost count. I must have made more than a hundred of these. I gave away lots of iced gems to a few neighbors (my kids were happy to share) and they all loved it! They said the biscuits were really pretty and yummy too :). These biscuits don't taste like Khong Guan's but they are good enough for me :).

You may still decide to buy iced gems from Khong Guan but there is a certain satisfaction in laboring, and then watching the fruits of your labor when those who received them enjoy with a smile :).

Update: I have finally found the biscuit recipe that is pretty close to what we grew up with! Please refer to the recipe here for the biscuit base.

With love,
Phay Shing

*I was not comfortable with using raw egg whites to make the royal icing so I used store bought royal icing sugar. As this may not be readily available, you may refer to this link for the recipe to make the royal icing using the traditional method or meringue powder if you are not comfortable with using raw egg whites: http://www.joyofbaking.com/printpages/RoyalIcingprint.html 

**My biscuits turned soft, especially the portions in contact with the icing due to moisture absorption from the icing. To rectify this, I placed the biscuits on a baking tray lined with baking sheet and dried them for 30 minutes in the oven preheated to about 110°C. The biscuits became crunchy again and remained so even after a few days :). Temperature and time for drying out the biscuits may vary depending on your oven and humidity when letting the icing set, but generally you should not set the temperature too high to prevent the icing from browning.

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Black sesame-Red Bean Ladybird Chiffon Cupcakes

Don't you just love these cute creatures? I wanted to make cute chiffon ladybugs that would bring a smile to anyone's face and be so light and yummy to eat! Not being a fan of artificial colouring, I paired up black sesame chiffon with azuki chiffon to pattern these cute bugs. It was also a good chance to try out my new silicone mini round moulds for making small chiffon cakes!

I made a picture tutorial for it for a friend and will share it here :)

Ingredients (makes 16 ladybirds)
3 egg yolks
20g sugar
35g vegetable oil
45ml boiled water
60g cake flour
10 g black sesame paste
15 g azuki bean paste
Tiny tiny dip of wilton red

4 egg whites
45g sugar
1/4 tsp cream of tartar

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 160°C.
2. Beat egg yolks with sugar with whisk till pale yellow/white before stirring in oil and water.
3. Add in 60 g sieved cake flour and whisk till no trace of flour found.
4. Scoop out 8 tsp of egg yolk batter and add 10 g black sesame paste. Mix well.
5. Meringue: Beat 4 egg whites with 1/4 tsp cream of tartar till stiff peaks form, adding the sugar in 2 additions.
6. Scoop over 16 tbsp of meringue. Quickly but gently fold it in till well-combined. Use a wilton 5 tip to pipe in the black lines and dots for the ladybird.
7. Bake the patterns for 1.5 min. *For good transfer of patterns, patterned batter onto tin must be thick.
8. To the rest of the remaining egg yolk batter, add in 15 g azuki bean paste and a tiny dip of red wilton color. Mix well. Fold the rest of the meringue gently in 2 additions.
9. Use a wilton 230 tip to gently pipe the red batter gently over the black patterns over half of the body. Then use a spoon to fill up the black portion of the ladybird with black batter.
10. Bake the cake in preheated 160°C oven for 25 minutes.
11. Pop the ladybirds out when the cake is cool.
12. Stick on the ladybirds’ eyes using kaya.

It was quite a lot of work to make these small ladybugs! But when I set my eyes upon them, I couldn't help but smile! Tastewise, I thought the pairing was lovely!

Hope they bring a smile to you and your loved ones too!

With love,

Susanne

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Matcha Azuki Sakura Patterned Chiffon Cake with Hidden Hearts

I got all excited after seeing Susanne's Valentine's Day Hearts-in-all-directions Strawberry Chiffon Cake and wanted to make a cake like that too! Thanks to Ssb Baker for showing us how to bake cakes with hidden hearts, we were both inspired to try. I decided to combine two techniques, piping patterns on chiffon tin and using cookie cutter cut-outs of a separate cake, to create a Sakura patterned cake... with hidden hearts of course!

I used the same recipe as my previous Matcha Azuki layered chiffon cake with the same quantity of ingredients. Here's how this cake is done:

1. Bake the red bean cake in a 10 x 10" tin and cut out the hearts and flowers using cookie cutters.

2. Prepare the egg yolk batter for Matcha flavor. 

3. Take 1 tsp of the green tea batter and mix in 1/4 tsp of Matcha powder and 1/4 tsp of cake flour. Add in some brown and green gel food coloring until a desired dark green shade is reached.

4. Prepare the meringue for the Matcha batter. Add 3-4 tbs of meringue into the small portion of colored green tea batter. Put the batter into a piping bag fitted with a Wilton No.3 round tip.

5. Lay out the red bean flowers at the base of the 17 cm chiffon tin. Pipe the leaves and stems onto the base and sides of the tin. You may use edible food marker to draw out the designs before piping. Bake for 1.5 minutes at 160 degrees Celsius.

6. Fold in the meringue for the rest of the green tea batter.

7. Pour in enough green tea batter until it covers the base, taking care to release any air bubbles by gently swirling a chopstick in the batter. Line the sides of the tin with more red bean flowers and the insides with red bean hearts arranged in a ring around the center tube. Make sure you line the hearts upside down! Cover the red bean cakes with the remaining green tea batter. Air pockets may be introduced so do release any air bubbles trapped inside.

8. Bake at 160 degrees Celsius for 20 minutes, followed by 150 degrees Celsius for another 20-25 minutes.

This cake is not only pretty to look at. It also tastes great with red bean cream :).

With love,

Phay Shing

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Matcha Azuki Layered Chiffon with Azuki Cream

Matcha (green tea) and Azuki (red bean) flavors are a pair that go so well together that I decided to make a cake that is bursting with these two flavors. And to give the cake an extra oomph of flavor and texture, I added red bean cream. So here's my first attempt at making a layered chiffon cake with  cream sandwiched in between the layers.

My neighbors who had this loved the combination very much! I had some leftovers of cake and cream so I made some Swiss rolls. I was pleasantly surprised at how soft and bendy the cakes were. No cracks when rolled cold! I was fully expecting the cakes to crack after sitting out in the open for a couple of hours. Please excuse the messy green tea roll as I did not roll the cakes with care, thinking that they were going to crack anyway.

 My family enjoyed the rolls very much too! Moist and full of flavor.... Mmm-mmm! Here's the recipe for the cake:

Matcha chiffon:
Egg yolk batter
2egg yolks
28g cake flour
4g Matcha powder (try to go for good ones)
8g caster sugar
28g water
24g canola oil
1/4 tsp vanilla essence

Meringue
3 egg whites
36g caster sugar
1/8 tsp cream of tartar

Azuki bean chiffon:
Egg yolk batter
2 egg yolks
10g sugar
20g canola oil
30g Azuki bean puree (I pressed the undrained canned beans through a sieve)
5g water
33g cake flour
1/4 tsp vanilla essence
Red food coloring (I used 2-3 drops of liquid coloring)

Meringue
3 egg whites
32g sugar
1/8 tsp cream of tartar

Red bean cream:
200ml whipping cream
2 tbs icing sugar
5 tbs drained canned azuki beans

Steps:

1. Preheat oven to 160 degrees C. Line a 10x10" tin with baking sheet
2. Prepare egg yolk batter by first whisking sugar and egg yolk together, followed by oil, water (and puree for Azuki flavor) and vanilla essence.
3. Add in sifted flour bit by bit (Matcha powder as well for the Matcha flavor). Continue whisking until no trace of flour is seen.
4. Add red coloring until desired shade for Azuki batter.
5. Prepare meringue by beating egg whites with cream of tartar until soft peaks are formed. Gradually add sugar until stiff peaks are formed.
6. Add 1/3 of meringue into egg yolk batter and mix well. Gently but quickly fold in rest of meringue in 2 batches.
7. Pour batter into tin. Bang the tin on table to release air bubbles
8. Bake for 15-16min. Leave to cool completely with a baking sheet over the cake
9. Cut and assemble the cake layers and add the cream.

10. When the cake is baking/ cooling, you can prepare the cream by whipping cold whipping cream with icing sugar until firm peaks form. be careful not to over-beat the cream or it will separate. Gradually add in the Azuki beans and fold them in.

11. You may wish to dust some icing sugar on top of the cake with a stencil to make some pretty patterns on it.

Like Swiss rolls, these cakes have to be refrigerated and best served the next day.

Enjoy!

With love,

Phay Shing

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Valentine's Day Hearts-in-all-directions Strawberry Chiffon Cake

Valentine's day was around the corner and I wanted to make a special cake filled with hearts everywhere! I had been toying with the idea of hidden hearts in cakes ever since I saw it done on pound cakes but was afraid that the hidden chiffon cake would end up being overbaked and hard since chiffons were so delicate. Then came ssb baker's wonderful post on hidden heart chiffon cake (a big thank you!)! Immediately, it got me excited to try a 3D hearts cake with hearts not only on top, around, but also on the inside!

I modified the "double-baked" technique to pattern both the top and sides of the cake. This was an experiment as I had not seen this being used to pattern the exterior of cakes before, especially chiffons. If successful, it would open a whole new pathway for bakers who are not good at piping!

The cake was full of hearts in all directions in every slice! The cut-out layer cake was also still very soft.

This is thus far my favourite cake! Because it embodies lots of love, thoughts and efforts into the cake. And because it was made with someone special in mind!

Posted with lots of love,
Susanne

Recipe is now in Creative Baking: Chiffon Cakes, out at all major bookstores now!

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6 Flavour Rainbow Hearts Chiffon Cake

My newest labour of love! A dream rainbow chiffon cake with 6 flavours embedded into the cake (and also a heart in every slice)! :) It all started because I was asking my hubby which flavour he would like the chiffon and this is the result!

I drew up a 6-sector wheel and designed in the flavours according to their natural colours: Red (red bean), Orange (orange), Yellow (lemon), Green (matcha), Blue (berries - required the most colours), Purple (strawberry-beet). Below describes the basic recipe/sequence of how it's done. Do allocate at least 2.5-3 hrs for this cake! It's time-consuming but pretty rewarding to see the end result! :)

Enjoy the cake with many flavours! On the suggestions of some good friends, I cut a horizontal slice across the cake to get a slice with all 6 flavours. I was really happy my hubby said it was a fun cake and could taste all 6 flavours! This will probably be one of my favourite creations for a long time!

Hope you enjoyed it as much as we did!

The cake and picture tutorials is now in Creative Baking: Chiffon Cakes now at all major bookstores!

And here's my first humble video tutorial for the cake. My hubby actually helped me a lot for this video thanks to him!

With lots of love,

Susanne

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Panda and Teddy Bear Chiffon Cupcakes

I am really having lots of fun using the glass bowls to bake chiffon because the possibilities are endless! I really love to make food look cute too when there is a chance to do it and the inspiration strikes, so I couldn't wait to make these cute beary chiffon cupcakes :).

The teddies are Milo flavored (my elder kid's favorite flavor so far) and the pandas are vanilla flavored. Here's the recipe (makes about 6 bears):

Ingredients:
Egg yolk batter
2 egg yolks
13g caster sugar
20g Canola oil
30ml fresh milk
38g + 1/2 tsp cake flour
1 tsp vanilla essence
5g Milo powder

Meringue
3 egg whites
32g caster sugar
1/4 tsp cream of tartar

Decoration
Compound milk chocolate (or Nutella if you are feeling lazy)

 Steps:
1. Preheat the oven to 160 degrees Celsius.
2. Add 1/2 tsp of milk from the 30ml portion to Milo powder and mix well to form a paste.
3. Prepare the egg yolk batter by whisking the egg yolks and sugar until it turns pale.
4. Add oil, fresh milk and vanilla essence, and whisk until well combined.
5. Gradually add in 38g of sifted flour and whisk until no trace of flour can be seen.
6. Divide the egg yolk batter into 2 equal portions. Add Milo paste to one of them and mix well.
7. Take 1tsp of vanilla batter and mix it with 1/2 tsp of cake flour in a small bowl.
8. Beat egg whites and cream of tartar together in a clean metal bowl until soft peaks form. Gradually add in caster sugar until still peaks form.
9. Take 3 tbs of meringue and fold into the small bowl of egg yolk batter. Put the batter into a piping bag with a Wilton No. 3 tip. Pipe the muzzle of the teddy bear into the bowl, with the top of the muzzle positioned at the center of the bowl. Bake for 3 minutes.
10. Fold in the rest of the meringue in three batches for both vanilla and Milo batter. Carefully spoon the batter into the bowls.
11. Bake for 15 minutes, then reduce the temperature to 150 degrees Celsius and bake for another 10-15 minutes. Immediately invert the bowls after removing from oven. If you are unable to do this, it is OK to cool the cakes without inverting your bowls/ round molds. The resulting cake will just be a little more dense. Carefully unmold the cakes by hand.

The first response that people give when they see these cuties is "How did you make their ears?!". I made a picture tutorial for the assembly of the teddy bear (the panda is assembled in a very similar manner) so you don't have to solve that mystery :). I made this tutorial the day after I made the cakes and was too lazy to melt some compound chocolate (I didn't have Nutella at home). So I used some peanut butter that is colored with black gel food coloring for illustration.

 The order of the pictures is from left to right, and from top to bottom. The tools that you will need are a small knife (butter knife will do) and a toothpick. Yes, it's that simple :). You don't need specialized tools or molds. If you have a mini melon baller, it will be very helpful but not absolutely necessary.

1. This is a picture of the cake that is undecorated. You may wish to mark the positions of the eyes and nose of the bear with edible food marker.
2. Use the melon baller to mark out the positions of the ears. Press the melon baller firmly against the side of the cake near the base. If you don't have a melon baller, you may use the back the butter knife to make imprints that mark the positions of the ears. It will just be a little harder to make the ears symmetrical without a melon baller.
3. Use the butter knife to cut along the imprints made by the melon baller to a depth of about 1cm.
4. Cut a 5mm wide strip off the top of the bear's head between the ears.
5. This picture should help you understand steps 2-4 better.
6. Tuck in the portion of the cake next to the ears to make the ears more prominent (see the position of my index finger).
7. Gently place the bear on a paper cupcake liner, taking care to pull out the ears a bit.
8. Draw the eyes and nose of the bear using a toothpick dipped in melted compound milk chocolate or Nutella.
9. And you are done :).

Have fun!

With love,
Phay Shing

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Osmanthus/Green tea “Rainbow Cloud” Chiffon Cake

I dreamed of a happy cake with rainbow arching up the cake towards the clouds (I'm still a dreamer :))! I wanted to try patterning a rainbow on the sides of the chiffon tin using the improved patterning batter recipe that had better consistency. 

Osmanthus flowers were then in vogue, so I decided to try osmanthus chiffon. I paired it up with green tea as it was a pleasant combination, and I was looking for natural colouring for the cake (am still not a fan of too much artificial colouring). 

Here's how I made this happy cake :)

Ingredients (makes one 17cm chiffon tin)

3 egg yolks
20g sugar
35g vegetable oil
45ml boiled water
1 tbsp osmanthus flowers
1.25 tsp matcha powder
60g cake flour (+ 1/3 tsp cake flour for the patterns x 4)
Red, yellow, green, blue wilton colours (for the rainbow)

(Meringue for patterns)
1 egg white
1/6 cream of tartar

(Meringue for cake)
4 egg whites
45g sugar
1/4 tsp cream of tartar

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 160°C.
2. Use a wilton food marker to draw rainbow patterns on the chiffon tin. The marker is fully erasable during washing.
3. Infuse 1 tbsp osmanthus flowers in 50 ml boiling water and cover for 15 mins to make osmanthus tea. Filter away the flowers to get the tea, but keep the flowers for the main cake batter later.
4. Beat egg yolks with sugar with whisk till pale yellow/white before stirring in oil and osmanthus tea (filtered).
5. Add in 60 g sieved cake flour and whisk till no trace of flour found.
6. Meringue for patterns: Beat 1 egg white with 1/6 tsp cream of tartar till stiff peak.
7. Rainbow pattern: Scoop out 1 tsp of egg yolk batter into 4 separate bowls each. Add in a tiny dip of red/yellow/green/blue colours to each bowl. Add 1/3 tsp of cake flour to each bowl and mix well. Scoop over 2 tbsp of meringue. Quickly but gently fold it in till well-combined.
8. Use a wilton 230 tip to pipe the red rainbow line, follow by yellow, green and blue lines. For lines with even thicknesses, it is best to drop the patterning batter onto the tin instead of piping directly. Bake the patterns for 1.5 min. *For good transfer of patterns, patterned batter onto tin must be thick.
9. To the rest of the remaining egg yolk batter, add in 1.25 tsp matcha powder and the remaining osmanthus flowers. Mix well.
10. Meringue for cake: Beat 4 egg white with 1/4 tsp cream of tartar till stiff peaks form, adding the sugar in 2 additions.
11. Fold the meringue into the egg yolk batter in 3 additions using flexible spatula or hand.
12. Pour in the cake batter gently over the pattern, making sure that it is covered without air pockets. Then the rest of the batter from a height.
13. Bake the cake in preheated 160°C oven for 20 minutes, then 150°C for 30 mins (to reduce browning for the patterns).
14. Invert when cake is removed from oven and unmould when cake is cool.
15. For the clouds, sieve icing sugar over a cloud template. Gently press on the icing sugar to make fluffy imprints. *This step to be done right before serving.

Hope you have as much fun as I did!

With love,

Susanne

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Rainbow Hearts Chiffon Cupcake

Valentine's Day is around the corner! Although hubby and I always believed that everyday should be Valentine's Day, not just 14th of February, I thought some of you may like to prepare some gorgeous and yummy heartsy bakes for your loved ones. So here's my unplanned bake that turned out quite gorgeous -- rainbow chiffon cupcakes with pink heart in the middle!

As I still have mandarin oranges at home, this is another mandarin orange chiffon cake (Again?! Well... I am really trying to clear stock :P). I used the same recipe with the same number of eggs as my mandarin orange chiffon "oranges". The difference is in dividing up, coloring and patterning the cake. I used multipurpose glass bowls for baking these. I used the technique of prebaking the hearts for a couple of minutes before carefully layering the rest of the coloured batter.

GENTLY unmold by hand when they have cooled completely. Place each cake in a paper cupcake liner and you are done...

Well... maybe not quite done. You will still have a rainbow mess to clean up after you have finished making these beauties :P. But I am sure whoever receives these cakes will appreciate your labor of love :).

With love,
Phay Shing

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Snow Mountain (雪山) Hokkaido Chiffon Cupcake

I fell in love with Hokkaido chiffon cupcakes the very first time I saw them. Being a fan of the gorgeous snow mountains in Japan, I thought how lovely would it be to have fresh cream oozing out of snow capped volcanoes!

I looked for the recipe which would make the most crumpled chiffon so that I could inject lots of fresh cream. I found the answer from Dreamersloft's blog which compared hokkaido chiffon cupcakes from 2 famous blogs, Nasi Lemak Lover vs Reirei of All That Matters. Reirei's recipe produced chiffon cupcakes that were much softer and more wrinkled. The following recipe is adapted from Reirei's recipe. I replaced the filling with orange cream as my family loves the light tangy taste of orange.

(Makes 9 cupcakes)
3 egg yolks
1/8 tsp salt
24g corn oil
24g milk
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
32g cake flour
1/8 tsp baking powder (sift together with cake flour)

(B)
3 egg whites
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
50g caster sugar

(C)

60g Redman whip topping

30g orange juice

Icing sugar, for dusting

Method
1. Preheat oven to 170℃。
2. In a bowl, whisk egg yolks with salt. Then add oil, milk and vanilla extract, whisk till well-blended.
3. Fold in flour mixture and set aside.
4. In another bowl, beat egg whites , sugar and cream of tartar to stiff peak.
5. Scoop 1/3 of the egg white mixture to the yolk batter, fold well, then pour batter back to the remaining egg whites. Fold lightly till well-mixed.
6. Fill baking cases with about 30-32g of batter. Bake for 25 mins, then leave to cool.

7. Beat Redman whip topping with orange juice till firm and stiff (over a bowl of iced water).

8. Insert a chopstick to make a small hole in the cupcake.

9. Pipe the orange cream into cupcake from the bottom until cream gushes out from the top.

10. Dust with icing sugar and chill cake before serving.

I personally thought the end product was delicious! I loved the tangy sweet orange cream in every bite of the soft chiffon!

Love,

Susanne

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Milo and Mandarin Orange Chiffon Cake

I still have mandarin oranges to clear! Had yet another baking session with another neighbor who has been receiving my bakes. I decided to play around a little bit more so I made a layered Milo and mandarin orange flavored cake with orange peel decorations. This time round I remembered to remove the pith from the orange peel and the cake tasted better :).

Since Valentine's Day is coming, I decided to do a Love and Hearts theme :).

I used the same recipe as my previous post, except that I divided the egg yolk batter into two and added Milo paste to one of them, and raised the oven temperature by 5 degrees Celsius as I was in a rush and needed a shorter baking time (40 minutes). The paste was made by mixing 5g of fresh milk with 9g of Milo powder. I poured the orange and Milo batter alternately to get a striped look from the outside. Try to pour the batter near the outer surface of the tin so that the different flavors will appear distinct when baked.

As I was too generous with the orange zest, the orange flavor overpowered the Milo flavor and I couldn't taste the Milo much. If you would like to attempt this, perhaps you could substitute with cocoa powder for a stronger chocolately taste and cut down on the amount of orange zest.

With love,
Phay Shing

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Mandarin Orange “吉” Chiffon Cake

It was fun experimenting with my first Chinese New Year chiffon! While admiring an angpow with the character  "吉", I had the sudden idea that the centre of the chiffon tin could make up the "口".

After trying out the Junko recipe for kawaii decoroll, I realized that the key to get a patterning batter of good consistency (not runny) was to add a little bit of cake flour into the patterning batter! This helped a lot in the patterning of subsequent chiffon cakes.

After piping in the "吉", I decided that I couldn't draw nice oranges, so I decided to bake part of the mandarin orange in the cake, then top up with more slices for a 3D effect.

My hubby said that the mandarin oranges still tasted nice and sweet in the cake. 大吉大利 everyone!

With love,
Susanne


Recipe for this Mandarin Orange “吉” Chiffon Cake is now on Page 121 in my new cookbook Deco Chiffon Cakes, now on CNY promotion (20%) at Popular.

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Mandarin Orange Chiffon with Orange Peel Decorations

A neighbor wanted to learn how to make chiffon cakes because I have been offering her some and she loves these soft cakes that are full of flavor and not too sweet. Since it is the Chinese New Year season and we are flooded with mandarin oranges, I thought why not make a mandarin orange chiffon. As she wanted to learn the basics and I wanted to play around with my bakes at the same time, I decided on using pre-cut orange peel to pretty up the cake so that my baking session with her will not be disrupted by funny things I do to decorate the cake. Here's my mandarin orange chiffon with orange peel flower decorations :).

The cake is really soft, fluffy and full of orange flavor. In fact it is so soft that I had some difficulty unmolding by hand without denting the sides of the cake! Take a peek at the insides filled with orange zest...

The recipe for this cake is adapted from Small Small Baker and I used my 17cm chiffon tin to bake this:

Ingredients:
Egg yolk batter
3 egg yolks (I used 65g eggs)
20g caster sugar
30g Canola oil
40ml fresh mandarin orange juice
Zest of 2 large mandarin oranges
52g cake flour
1/3 tsp baking powder

Meringue
4 egg whites
45g sugar
1/4 tsp cream of tartar

Steps:
1. Peel a mandarin orange and remove the pith (the white fibrous part of the skin) so that the peel will not be bitter when eaten. Use cookie cutters and a small fruit carving knife to carve out the shapes. Line the chiffon tin with the orange surface facing down. Keep in mind that your patterns will turn out laterally inverted so you have to be careful with patterns that involve forming words. I forgot to remove the pith for my first attempt as you can see from the photo below. The decorations turned out really bitter!

2.Preheat the oven to 160 degrees Celsius.
3. Whisk egg yolk and caster sugar until well combined. Add in oil, followed by orange juice and zest.
4. Whisk sifted flour and baking powder into the batter bit by bit until there is no trace of flour.
5. In a clean metal bowl, beat egg whites and cream of tartar with an electric mixer. When soft peaks are formed, gradually add in sugar and beat until stiff peaks are formed and the bowl can be overturned without the meringue falling out.
6. Add one third of the meringue into the egg yolk batter and mix well. Fold in gently but quickly the rest of meringue in 2 additions until there is no trace of egg whites.
7. Pour the batter into the chiffon tin and tap the tin a few times on the table to release any trapped air bubbles.
8. Bake for 45 minutes. Immediately invert the chiffon tin to cool completely for about an hour. Remove the cake by hand for a cleaner and prettier cake surface. Use a spatula to dislodge any stuck sections carefully and only when necessary. Store the cake in an air tight container. I personally prefer to refrigerate my chiffon cakes as they taste better that way :).

With love,
Phay Shing

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Honey Pear Tea Chiffon "Pears"

Hubby bought some honey pear tea jam on offer so I made some chiffon cake with this flavor. Before I began, I thought why not make them pear shaped. It will be really cute and fun! Here's my chiffon pears, big and small :).

I baked the big pears in the glass bowls that they are sitting in and the little ones in egg shells. Since the batter is already nicely golden yellow in color, there is no need to add any food coloring to make them look more pear-like. I adapted the recipe from Yuzu chiffon cakes, which are more common than honey pear tea.

Ingredients:
Egg yolk batter
3 egg yolks (65g eggs)
80g cake flour
20g caster sugar
52g honey pear tea jam
40g Canola oil
50g hot water
1/4 tsp vanilla essence (optional)
1/3tsp baking powder

Meringue
4 egg whites
45g caster sugar
1/4 tsp cream of tartar

Leaves and stems decoration

Chocolate coated biscuit sticks

Green tea powder

White compound chocolate
 

Steps:
1. Dissolve pear jam in hot water. Set aside to cool.
2. Preheat oven to 160°C
3. Whisk egg yolks and caster sugar until well combined. Add in oil, followed by pear jam dissolved in water. Mix in vanilla essence.
4. Whisk sifted flour and baking powder bit by bit until there is no trace of flour.
5. In a clean bowl, beat egg whites and cream of tartar with an electric mixer. When soft peaks are formed, gradually add in sugar and beat until stiff peaks are formed and the bowl can be overturned without the meringue falling out.
6. Add 1/3 of the meringue into the egg yolk batter and mix well. Fold in gently but quickly the rest of meringue in 2 additions until there is no trace of egg whites. Tap the bowl a few times on the table to release any trapped air bubbles in the batter.
7. Spoon batter into round-bottomed glass bowls (for the big pears) and egg shells* (for the small pears). Fill the glass bowls until they are about slightly more than half full and the eggshells until they are about 1/2- 2/3 full.
8. Bake for 15 minutes, then lower the temperature to 150°C for another 10-15 minutes.
9. Let the cakes cool completely before unmolding by hand. Store the cakes in an airtight container to prevent them from drying out.

10. Shape the small pears by wrapping each cake with cling wrap and tying a rubber band about 1/3 from the top as shown in the picture. Leave the rubber band on overnight.

 

11. Melt some chopped white compound chocolate over a double boiler and add in some green tea until the desired shade of green is reached. Keep stirring the mixture with a spoon until it is smooth. Transfer the green tea white chocolate into a piping bag with a No.3 Wilton piping tip. Lay out some biscuit sticks on a baking sheet and pipe leaves onto the sticks. When the chocolate has set, gently peel off the sticks. If the leaves break off the stems by accident, you may melt some milk chocolate to "glue" them back or use Nutella if you are feeling lazy.

12. Assemble the big pears by joining 2 cakes baked in glass bowls to form a sphere. Use a toothpick to make a hole from the top of the pear. Insert a biscuit stick with leaf attached. Break off the lower portion of the biscuit stick if it is too long.

13. Assemble the small pears by using a toothpick to make a hole at the top of each pear and inserting a biscuit stick.

I find the flavor of the honey pear tea in the cake not as strong as Yuzu even though the recipes are similar, probably because the honey pear tea jam is milder in flavor to begin with. Nevertheless, my neighbors had some of these and thought they are really cute!

With love,
Phay Shing

* Prepare the eggshells using the example shown by Susanne here.

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Mandarin Orange Chiffon "Oranges"

As I was preparing to visit my in-laws for Chinese New Year, I wondered what I could bake for my MIL. It was only the day before my family had to leave for the visit that I decided to bake mandarin orange chiffon cake for her, since we have so many mandarin oranges lying around during this season. So in the midst of cooking and spending time with my kids, I quickly whipped up some chiffon cupcakes. Suddenly, I had the inspiration to decorate them to look like oranges after the morning bustle died down and the kids were in school. Here's my mandarin orange look-alike :)

This was an unexpected bake that totally wowed everyone! Everyone remarked how real these looked. Can you tell the difference between the cakes and the real mandarin oranges? :P

I baked the cakes in multipurpose round-bottomed glass bowls that are microwave/ oven safe. Dimensions are: height ~ 6.5cm and diameter ~ 9cm. You may also bake them in round metal or silicone molds.

My MIL found the cake very soft, smooth and fragrant :). The orange flavor is really intense because I don't stinge on the orange zest. I adapted the recipe from Small Small Baker (makes about 6-8 "oranges", depending on the size of your molds):

Ingredients:
Egg yolk batter
2 egg yolks (I used 65g eggs)
13g caster sugar
20g Canola oil (or any other vegetable oil)
28ml fresh mandarin orange juice
Zest of 1.5 large mandarin oranges
37g cake flour
1/4 tsp baking powder
Orange gel food coloring

Meringue
3 egg whites
32g sugar
1/4 tsp cream of tartar

Decoration

Compound white chocolate, finely chopped

Green tea powder

Steps:
1.Preheat the oven to 160 degrees Celsius.
2. Whisk egg yolk and caster sugar until well combined. Add in oil, followed by orange juice and zest.
3. Whisk sifted flour and baking powder into the batter bit by bit until there is no trace of flour.
4. Add orange food coloring bit by bit until a desired shade of orange is reached. Take note that the shade will lighten up considerably when the meringue is added in so you may want to make it a darker shade than desired.

5. In a clean metal bowl, beat egg whites and cream of tartar with an electric mixer. When soft peaks are formed, gradually add in sugar and beat until stiff peaks are formed and the bowl can be overturned without the meringue falling out.
6. Add one third of the meringue into the egg yolk batter and mix well. Fold in gently but quickly the rest of meringue in 2 additions until there is no trace of egg whites. Tap the bowl a few times on the table to release any trapped air bubbles in the batter.
7. Spoon batter into round-bottomed glass bowls. Fill the bowls until they are about slightly more than half full.
8.  Bake for 15 minutes, then lower the temperature to 150°C for another 10-15 minutes.
9.  Invert the bowls immediately onto a cooling rack. (Update: this step of inverting the bowls is optional as I have realised from subsequent bakes.) Let the cakes cool completely before GENTLY unmolding by hand as the cakes are very soft and fragile. Store the cakes in an airtight container to prevent them from drying out.
10.  You may refer to my photo tutorial for shaping the cakes into orange shapes. Begin by using a citrus juicer to make an indent at the top of the hemisphere. Hold the juicer in place for several seconds before releasing it. If you find that the indent is not deep enough, repeat this step.
11.  Next, gently gather/ pinch in the bottom of the hemisphere if it flares outwards too much to look like an orange, and place the cake on a paper cupcake liner.
12.  Make the "wrinkles" at the top of the orange by using the back of a butter knife to imprint 5 indents. Hold the cake by cupping it with one hand and press the back of the knife firmly on the cake. Rock the knife gently forwards and backwards, and side to side to make the imprint. Repeat if necessary to ensure that the imprints do not disappear.
13. Divide the white chocolate into 2 portions and place them in small bowls. Place the bowls in a small saucepan of hot water and keep stirring until the chocolate melts and flows easily. Add some green tea powder to one of the bowls and stir until the powder and chocolate are well combined and smooth. You may pipe the "stem stubs" onto the oranges using piping bags but I prefer to use a toothpick to apply the chocolate for such a small volume. Draw a star in the middle of the orange using the green tea white chocolate. When it has set, add a drop of plain white chocolate at the center of the "star". 

I had lots of fun making these and I hope that you will too if you intend to make these to bless your family and friends during the next Chinese New Year. They are really cute and yummy!

Check out my updated post for these "mandarin oranges" in yummy cookie basket ;)
Check out the appearance of these delectable oranges together with other "fruits" in my "basket of fruits" chiffon cake made for my dad's birthday :)
If you need more visuals for shaping the oranges, check out here for a video tutorial!


With lots of love,
 Phay Shing

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Strawberry Yoghurt Chiffon "Watermelon" and "Strawberry" Pops

I woke up one morning and had the sudden inspiration to dress up my chiffon pops as fruits! This was the very first of the chiffon fruit pops created!

I had a very close group of mummy friends whose kids had just started N1, and wanted to gift these chiffon fruit pops to the kids for being so brave! Since these were for kids, I went for strawberry yoghurt chiffon which is healthy and popular with kids.

I baked the chiffon cakes in paper cones and egg shells similar to that of the rainbow chiffon cake pops to make the "watermelon" slices and "strawberries" respectively.

I used food marker to draw on the seeds of the watermelon and let it dry.

The kids had fun guessing what fruits they were :p One of my happiest bakes! :)

With love,

Susanne

My recipe is now in Creative Baking: Chiffon Cakes book, out at all major bookstores!

And here's a video tutorial for making the Watermelon Chiffon Cake pops! Very privilege to be shot by the pros at Smart parents.sg, mediacorp!

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Orange Milo Horse Chiffon Cake Pops

When I saw Susanne's rainbow cake pops baked in eggshells, I was so inspired that I decided to try it! I quickly emptied a few eggs, washed the shells and wondered what I should bake. Since this is the Year of the Horse, I decided to do some horsey cake pops :). Next, I had to decide which flavors I should use that go well together and color the cake the right way, naturally if possible. So here's my orange Milo chiffon cake and horse cake pops :)

I ran out of chocolate Pokey sticks at home so one of the horses have a wooden skewer stuck in it. Don't they look cute? They look good for birthday parties of kids who love horses too. I adapted the recipe from Susanne's rainbow cake pops but used orange juice instead and added Milo and cocoa powder to colour the cakes naturally.

I used a small knife and sawing motion to gently cut off a bit of cake from the top of the "head" to create the ears.

I used melted compound chocolate for adding on the horses' hair, eyes and nostrils. You may wish to pipe more chocolate on top and down the back of the horses' heads to form the mane. Let the chocolate air dry completely.

Use a toothpick or wooden skewer to make a hole at the bottom of the cakepop. Insert a biscuit stick into the hole when you are almost ready to serve to prevent the biscuits from going soft too much.

My kids had lots of fun eating these and couldn't help smiling when they see these cute cakes :). I hope they put a smile on your face too!

With love,
Phay Shing

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Rainbow Piggy Char Siew Bao

Before I began my adventure with chiffons, I was on a mission to find the best bao (steamed bun) skin recipe. This is my second time using this recipe and I love it! I decided to kick start a new year with rainbow piggy char siew baos, partly because we had some left over char siew from dinner the day before. Here's my set of mini piggy baos :)

I adapted the bao skin recipe from Guai Shu Shu with some modifications. I love it for it's simplicity (straight dough method), mild sweet taste and soft fluffy texture. I used the recipe from Rasa Malaysia for the char siew filling.

Ingredients for bao skin:
200g Hong Kong Bao flour
37g cornflour
35g caster sugar
Pinch of salt
1/5 tsp double acting baking powder dissolved in 1 tsp of water
1 1/4 tsp dry yeast
122g water (warm water is not a necessity)
14g vegetable shortening

Steps:
1. Mix all dry ingredients (flours, sugar, salt and yeast) together in a large bowl and make a well in the center.
2. Pour water into the well and use a wooden spoon to stir the ingredients together until well combined and a dough is formed. Pour out the dough onto a non-stick mat or lightly floured clean work surface and hand knead for 5 minutes (or you may use a stand mixer or breadmaker to help you do all the kneading but I prefer to knead by hand). Add in dissolved baking powder 1/4 tsp at a time and knead until it is absorbed into the dough. Stir the baking powder mixture as the powder tends to settle to the bottom after a while. Knead for another 5 minutes after all the baking powder has been added.
3. Knead the vegetable shortening into the dough in a few additions, making sure that the shortening is absorbed into the dough before adding more. After all the shortening has been added, knead for another 15 minutes or until the dough is smooth and elastic and passes the windowpane test.
4. Let the dough rest in a lightly greased bowl covered with cling wrap for about 30 minutes or double in size. Punch down the dough and knead a few times to release any trapped air.
5. Try to work quickly from this point onwards when portioning and wrapping the buns, keeping any resting portions covered loosely with cling wrap. Lightly flour work surface and hands to prevent the dough from sticking. Take about 1/5 of the dough and divide it into 6 portions, coloring each portion with the colors of the rainbow (pink, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple). Portion the rest of the uncolored dough for the pigs' heads. I chose to make super mini baos so I only used 16g worth of dough for each pig. You may make bigger buns using 30g of dough for medium sized ones or up to 50g or more of dough for big buns.
6. Use a small rolling pin or your hands to flatten the ball of dough before adding the filling. Make the edges thinner than the center of the dough. Pinch seal the dough after wrapping with filling and place the pinched side down on a small piece of baking sheet. Pinch a bit of colored dough to make the snout of the pig, using a toothpick to shape the nostrils. Attach the snout to the center of the pig's face. Pinch a bit of colored dough and shape into small triangles for the pig's ears. Attach black sesame seeds onto the pig's face for the eyes. Use a toothpick to press the seed into the dough to secure it.
7. Place the wrapped buns in a steaming basket and cover them loosely with cling wrap to prevent them from drying out. Proof for 30 minutes.
8. While the buns are proofing, prepare a wok or steamer for steaming. Make sure the water is boiling before putting the buns in to steam. Steam small buns (30g or less of dough) for 10-12 minutes and larger buns (50g or more of dough) for 15 minutes at medium heat. Turn off the heat and let the buns rest for 5 minutes before removing the lid.
9. Steamed buns are best eaten freshly steamed. If you are not consuming them immediately, store them in an airtight container after they have cooled down completely before freezing them. When you want to consume the stored buns, re-steam them for 15-20 minutes (depending on the size of your buns) straight from the freezer. They will taste just as good as freshly steamed buns :).

Here's a peek at the insides of the char siew bao!

With love,
Phay Shing

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