'Cony and Brown' Chiffon Cake (Vanilla, Chocolate, Strawberry Yoghurt)

This is an adorable Cony and Brown Chiffon Cake, made from Vanilla, Chocolate and Strawberry Yoghurt Chiffon Cake, after the adorable characters from LINE! They were so cute it was a joy to make them =). I super love Brown’s expression when Cony hugs Brown, so this cake was inspired by the picture of them hugging.

Cony and Brown are made from baking Vanilla and Chocolate Chiffon Cake in round glass bowls (11mm OD) for their head/bodies, and the rest cut from chiffon cake. The base is a 9-inch Strawberry Yoghurt Chiffon Cake. I love it as it is fragrant and popular with kids. Thank God it was well-received too. I believe I haven't shared the recipe before in big chiffon cake format, here goes.

*Tips:
I always use more egg whites to egg yolks for fluffier, softer chiffon cakes, as well as steam baking for increased moisture (such that they taste like ogura).
I also whip usually to firm peaks (or just to the point of stiff peak, but not beyond) for more delicate texture.

Strawberry Yoghurt Chiffon Cake (9-inch chiffon tin)
6 egg yolks
40 g sugar
78 g vegetable/corn oil
95 g strawberry yoghurt drink
120 g cake flour, sifted
8 ml vanilla extract

Strawberry paste

8 egg whites
86 g sugar
¼ tsp cream of tartar

1. Preheat oven to 160°C. Prepare a tray of water at the bottom of the oven (I used the lowest rack to bake the cake). *You may omit steam baking; I like to use it to control my oven temperature rise.
2. Beat egg yolks with sugar with whisk till pale yellow before stirring in oil, yoghurt and vanilla extract.
3. Add in sieved flour and whisk till no trace of flour found. Stir in few drops of strawberry paste and pink beetroot powder.
4. Meringue: Beat the egg whites with ¼ tsp cream of tartar till firm peaks form (or just to the point of stiff peak, but not beyond), mixing in caster sugar in 2 additions.
5. Fold in the meringue gently into the batter 1/3 at a time.
6. Pour the batter into the chiffon tin from a height.
7. Gently tap the tin on table 3x to remove air bubbles
8. Bake the chiffon cake for 15 min at 160°C and then at 150°C for 10 mins and 140°C for 20 min, then 130°C for 15 min.
9. Invert immediately once out of the oven to cool
10. Unmould by hand after the cake is cool. 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 (see 'Hand Unmoulding Chiffon Cakes for a Smooth Finishing' video tutorial).

Hope this cute cake brightens up your day too!

With lots of love,

Susanne

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Brown and Cony Chocolate and Vanilla Shortbread Cookies

Here are some Brown and Cony shortbread cookies! These were made for Susanne's friend along with some macarons.

Makes about eight 6cm Cony cookies
30g icing sugar
60g unsalted butter (I use Lurpak)
8g cornflour (you may replace with plain flour)
82g plain flour
1/8 tsp salt
1/4 tsp white powder colouring (optional)
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Steps:
1. Sift together sugar, flours, salt and white powder.
2. Cut butter into flour mixture with a pastry cutter or butter knife until mixture resembles breadcrumbs.
3. Add vanilla extract and knead together to form a ball of dough.
4. Roll between two sheets of baking paper to 5-6mm thick. Chill the dough in the fridge or freezer until firm, at least 30 minutes.
5. Cut out the shape of Cony with a homemade plastic template and a small knife. You may need to use a toothpick to cut the section between the ears. You may mark out the position of the facial features with a toothpick as well to make icing a breeze later on. I apologise for the lack of photos as I have been so busy taking step-by-step photos for the chiffon cake photoshoot that I have forgotten to take photos while doing this!
6. Place the cookie cutouts on a baking tray lined with baking paper. Chill the whole tray in the fridge or freezer while you preheat the oven to 150°C.
7. Bake for 16-18 minutes, rotating the tray halfway. Use the second lowest rack. The cookies are done when they show telltale signs of browning at the base.
8. Cool the cookies on the tray for 5 minutes before transferring to cooling rack. Cool completely before storing or icing.

Makes about nine 6cm Brown cookies
30g icing sugar
60g unsalted butter
6g cocoa powder (I use Ghirardelli)
3g cornflour (you may replace with plain flour)
82g plain flour
1/8 tsp salt
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Steps:
Same as above. Sift cocoa powder together with the flour mixture.

Freshly baked!

Wait for the cookies to be cooled completely before icing them.

Prepare some royal icing and pipe on the features with a small tip like Wilton 1S.

Piping the cookies together with the macarons!

Completed Cony!

You may speed up the drying of the icing by placing iced cookies in the oven for 10-15 minutes with the fan on but the heat turned on only for a few seconds.

Store the completed cookies in airtight container. They can keep for a month in a cool and dry place.

Thank God these were well received!

With love,
Phay Shing

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'Plants vs Zombies' Chiffon Cake

I was given a crash course on the game and its characters by my friend before the cake LOL. Here’s my humble attempt on chiffon cake versions of Sunflower, Peashooter, Walnut and Bongchoy, all naturally coloured (with pandan, chocolate and turmeric-based coloring for green, brown and yellow colours). I was told there was a tactical flaw in my placing on Walnut later though haha! Oh well.. I was never good at computer games!

Here’s the recipe for Pandan chiffon cake for the base cake I used, scaled up to 6 eggs for a tall 8-inch chiffon cake. I baked a layer cake with added charcoal powder to the pandan chiffon cake batter to cut out the square grids. Walnut and Bongchoy are made from chocolate and pandan chiffon cake baked in egg shells. Peashooter is made from a pandan chiffon cake swissroll. Sunflower is made by baking chocolate chiffon cake in small round cake pop moulds (faces), the petals cut from layer vanilla chiffon cake (with turmeric-based coloring) using a flower cutter.

Happy blessed belated birthday to Andre! Sorry for the super late post!

With love,

Susanne

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Piping Complex Shapes --Macaron Video Tutorials

I have done some video tutorials for piping basic shapes earlier on. This is a sequel whereby I will show you how to pipe shapes that are complex, how to pipe 3D features on macaron shells and how to pull the batter for fine parts like hair of a character.

Completed macarons! Courtesy of the Marshall Cavendish team and Hongde photography that composed and took these photos during the photoshoot!

The examples shown here will be featured in my upcoming book on creative macarons, published by Marshall Cavendish :).

Earlier on, I took the photos of as-baked shells with all of them looking incomplete except for the clouds. The royal icing/edible marker decorating madness began only when I had completed baking all 30 types of designs.

There are two ways to pipe complex shapes. The most commonly used is the trace-and-fill technique -  Trace the outline of the shape and fill the in-between spaces and center with batter. This technique is also used for non-circular shells shown in my earlier video for piping simple shapes. The example shown here is for a car. Due to the shape of the car, filling the center space is not required as the in-between spaces can be filled during the "tracing" step.

Begin by tracing the base of the car, taking care not to cover the wheels with red batter. Trace the top of the car by increasing pressure on the piping bag towards the middle of the car and reducing pressure towards the end. Use a toothpick to nudge the batter into tight corners. You may ask isn't it easier to pipe the car body with a straight line for the base before the wheels? The reason why I pipe the wheels before the car body is because the shape of the wheels will not be round if part of the batter falls on the car body and part of it falls on the baking paper.

The second way to pipe a complex shape is to break down the complex shape into simple shapes like the cloud example here.

The cloud is broken down into a series of circles. End off the piping by filling the center. Remember to bang the tray on the table after piping.

Sometimes you may want pop-up features on a macaron shell e.g. snout and limbs of a bear in this example. Pipe the pop-up features after letting the base shell dry for 15 minutes under the fan or in an air-conditioned room until a thin membrane forms on the surface. This membrane may feel a little sticky to touch but the batter should not stick to your finger.

In order to make a cute character macaron, sometimes you have to pull the batter to create fine parts like pointy ears or hair on the head. Here's how it is done with a toothpick.

I hope this is helpful for you! These videos are linked to my Creative Baking: Macarons book!

With love,
Phay Shing

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Brown and Cony Macarons

Here are some Brown and Cony macarons requested by Susanne's friend along with some shortbread cookies (keep a lookout for that in the near future)!

Dark chocolate filling was requested and since these are to be given away as door gifts to children, non-refrigerated filling is required. Macarons that don't need refrigeration seem to be in demand nowadays!

Ingredients:
200g almond powder/ground almond, preferably superfine
200g icing sugar
200g caster sugar
160g egg whites, divide into one 80g and two 40g portions
1/4 tsp white powder colouring (optional)
12g Dutch-processed cocoa powder
1/8 tsp charcoal powder
75 ml water

Steps:
1. Make the mass. Sift together icing sugar and almond powder. Divide into two equal portions.
2. Add sifted white powder into one portion, and cocoa powder and charcoal powder into the other. Use a hand whisk to mix well.
3. Add 40g of egg whites into each powdered mixture.
4. Make the Italian meringue. Heat caster sugar and water in a small sauce pan without stirring until the syrup temperature reaches 115°C. In the mean time, beat 80g of egg whites in a clean metal bowl with electric mixer until foamy and opaque. Do not beat past the soft peak stage. Turn the mixer speed down if necessary to keep egg whites moving. Once syrup reaches 115°C, remove from heat, turn mixer speed up to medium-high and slowly pour the syrup into the egg whites. Keep beating for 10 minutes until meringue is stiff, glossy and cool.
5. Divide the meringue into two. Fold the meringue into the masses in two additions, with the first addition using about a third of the portion. Do watch my video demo for the macaronage process and how to test if the batter is ready. Fold until batter moves in a slow-moving lava-like manner.
6. Transfer about 2tbs of brown batter and 3 tbs of white batter into piping bags fitted with a Wilton #5 tip. Transfer the rest of the batter into piping bags fitted with Wilton #12 tip. Pipe the head followed by the ears. Remember to bang the tray a few times on the table after piping.

7. Dry the piped shells under a fan or in an aircon room for 1-2 hours or until the shell is dry to touch.
8. Bake in preheated oven at 130°C for 17-22 minutes for white shells and 140°C for 17-22 minutes for brown shells. Note that chocolate shells need a longer time to dry out. Bake for a few minutes more at 120°C if the shells are still stuck to the baking sheet.

Freshly baked!

Prepare some royal icing to add on the facial features. I used black edible marker to add on Cony's face as the lines are too fine to be piped or painted on with royal icing.

Icing in progress!

It's a challenge to decorate the macaron shells freehand with no room for error!

Filling the shells with Meiji dark chocolate melted with a bit of vegetable shortening (60g finely chopped chocolate and 8g vegetable shortening melted together)...

The addition of vegetable shortening is to help the chocolate to remain in an easy-to-pipe consistency for a longer time and helps the filling to be less dry. If the melted chocolate is too runny, let it sit out for several minutes before checking the consistency again. Although butter and heavy cream are traditionally used for making ganache, it is not advisable to use these for something that is going to be kept at room temperature (in Singapore) for an unknown period of time when giving out the final product as door gifts.

You may refrigerate the macarons for 5 minutes to speed up the firming up of the chocolate. Pack in airtight container/self-seal cookie bag once the chocolate has firmed up. You may store the macarons in a cool room without the need to refrigerate for up to a week or two.

With love,
Phay Shing

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Transformers (Bumblebee) Chiffon Cake (Vanilla-choc, naturally colored)

This is a special cake for my dear sil. I made a 4-flavour Lego chiffon cake for him last year and it was one of my first cakes so very memorable. On to this year, my friend requested for Vanilla-chocolate, safe flavours for kids, and a very handsome theme, bumblebee Transformers.

I was inspired to make a version of bumblebee bursting out from the chiffon cake to make good use of its tube hole! In order to do that, I had to make a chiffon cake layer that was 2 coloured – yellow below and black above – to make it look like he had torn the cake. I did this by the swissroll patterning method – first prebake the chocolate layer pattern for 1.5 min, then pour the yellow batter over. 

The chiffon cake is all naturally colored. Thanks to Phay Shing’s Queen’s natural yellow turmeric-based coloring, I was able to colour the vanilla batter yellow easily naturally. The dark brown/black is coloured by using the Bakeway Extra dark cocoa powder from Phoon Huat. I have both the normal cocoa powder and this version which I use to colour the batter dark brown while adding some yums to the cake.

Yellow-Dark Brown Vanilla Chocolate Chiffon Cake (9-inch chiffon tin)
6 egg yolks
40g sugar
78g corn/vegetable oil
74 ml water
10 ml vanilla extract
120g cake flour
Queen’s natural yellow coloring
Cocoa powder (extra dark)
¼ tsp baking powder (added to the cocoa batter)

Meringue:
8 egg whites
90g sugar
1/4 tsp cream of tartar

1. Preheat oven to 160°C. Prepare a tray of water at the bottom of the oven (I used the lowest rack to bake the cake). *You may omit steam baking; I like to use it to control my oven temperature rise.
2. Beat egg yolks with sugar with whisk till pale yellow before stirring in oil, water and vanilla extract.
3. Add in sieved flour and whisk till no trace of flour found. Divide the batter 2/3 and 1/3. To the 2/3 portion, add a few drops of Queen’s yellow coloring. To the 1/3 portion, addition 1 tsp extra dark cocoa powder and 1/4 baking powder.
4. Meringue: Beat the egg whites with ¼ tsp cream of tartar till stiff peak, mixing in caster sugar in 2 additions. Divide the meringue into 2/3 and 1/3.
5. Fold in the meringue gently into the each batter 1/3 at a time.
6. Pour the yellow batter into the chiffon tin till 2/3 full, then scoop the dark brown batter over.
7. Bake the chiffon cake for 15 min at 160°C and then at 150°C for 10 mins and 140°C for 20 min, then 130°C for 15 min.
8. Invert immediately once out of the oven to cool.
9. To the remaining dark brown batter, spread it thinly on a baking-paper lined 8-inch tray. Bake the tray for 1.5 min at 160oC. Then pour the yellow batter over (to 1 cm thick) and bake for 14 min at 160oC. This layer cake is used to make the strips bursting out of the chiffon tube hole.
10. Unmould the chiffon cake by hand after the cake is cool (see my humble video "Hand Unmoulding Chiffon Cakes for a Clean Finishing").

I cut out the Transformers face using a grey layer cake and grey-brown layer cake (both 1 egg yolk recipe, using charcoal powder for the grey and charcoal + cocoa powder for the brown shade).

Thankful it was well-received by the kids and her hubby (who usually doesn’t like cake!).

With lots of love,
Susanne

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Longevity Peach Lychee Chiffon Cupcake 'Peaches' (updated recipe)

I have a request for a pretty large number of lychee flavoured longevity peach cupcakes together with a small longevity peach themed cake for a 90-year-old lady's birthday. I have updated the recipe to make the cake more fragrant. Original recipe can be found here. Here are four of the peaches...

And here are all 40 of them!

I must admit that it's a test of patience and endurance for me to make so many peaches. I usually make only 12 for a batch so this is a first for me. The peaches are baked in heart shaped Tovolo silicone moulds this time instead of the ones sold at Daiso.

Ingredients (makes about 12-14 peaches and one 8" square thin layer cake):
1 egg yolk
10g caster sugar
42g canola/vegetable oil
48g lychee puree (blend some canned lychees in a bit of syrup, strain to remove woody bits)
1/2 tsp lychee flavouring
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp rosewater
65g cake flour
1/4 tsp baking powder
A pinch of salt
1/2 tsp Pandan paste
A drop of green gel food colouring
A few drops of white gel food colouring (optional)

4 egg whites
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
40g caster sugar

Steps:
1. Line square pan with baking paper. Place silicone heart shape moulds on a large tray that fits into the oven. Prepare a baking tray of water at the bottom of the oven to create steam (optional). Set oven rack to second lowest position.

2.  Beat egg yolk and sugar until pale and all sugar has dissolved. Gradually add oil and whisk until well combined. Gradually add lychee puree and whisk until well combined. Gradually add sifted flour salt and baking powder and whisk until no trace of flour is seen.

3. Divide egg yolk batter into ratio of 1:3 for green:white batter. Add Pandan paste and green colouring to the smaller portion. Add lychee flavouring, rose water, vanilla and white food colouring. Mix well.

4. Make the meringue. You may want to divide the meringue ingredients into ratio of 1:3 as the green layer cakes and heart shaped cakes are baked at separate times. Beat egg whites and sugar in a clean metal bowl together with cream of tartar until soft peaks form. Gradually add sugar and beat until stiff peaks form.

5. Fold the meringue into each of the coloured batter in 3 additions, following the ratio above.

6. Bake layer cake at 160°C for 10-11 minutes or until skewer comes out clean. Bake hearts at 160°C for 5 minutes, followed by 140°C for 15 minutes, then 125°C for another 10-15 minutes. This baking time is for my thick-walled silicone heart shaped moulds. I used a different temperature setting for my earlier longevity peaches which were baked in thin-walled silicone moulds.

Note that baking times are approximate as each oven behaves differently.

7. Remove baking paper immediately from layer cake. Cool the white cupcakes before unmoulding by hand.

Freshly baked and cooled

8. Use a small knife to make an indent for centerline.

Unmoulded and centerline marked

Assembly
1. Prepare the pink coloured paint for spray painting. I used a mixture of pink gel food colouring and natural food colouring dissolved in lychee syrup (from the can).

2. Dip a toothbrush in the paint, knock off the excess and spray it onto the peaches.

3. Cut out leaves and a small rectangle strip from the green layer cake for the leaves and stem of the peach. Roll the rectangle strip like a swiss roll to form the stem.

4. Melt some marshmellows with a sprinkle of water as the glue. Stick the leaves and stem onto the peaches using the glue. Brush the peaches with a bit of lychee syrup. Store in airtight container in the fridge.

My parents had some extra peaches and they loved it! Working on the peaches was made more pleasant for me because the cupcakes were really fragrant!

Thank God that the cupcakes were well received at the party!

With love,

Phay Shing

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Cheeseburger Chiffon Cake Pops!

We’ve seen cute Macaron burgers. How about Cheeseburger Chiffon Cake Pops?

Just sharing something cute/simple I made for the teachers/children. These were actually inspired by cute Macaron burgers shared by a friend =).

Burger buns – chocolate chiffon cake
Beef patty – dark chocolate chiffon cake
Cheese – vanilla chiffon cake
Lettuce – pandan chiffon cake

Have it all in a bite! Yums! A cheeseburger chiffon cake pop!

The buns are baked in round silicone cake pop moulds. The beef patty, cheese and lettuce are cut from layer chiffon cake using round, square and leaf cutters respectively.

Cheeseburger chiffon pops (makes approximately 9)
3 egg yolk
20g sugar
39g corn/vegetable oil
37 ml water
5 ml vanilla extract
60g cake flour
Cocoa powder (extra dark)
Cocoa paste
Pandan paste
Yellow food coloring (Queen’s natural coloring)

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

1. Preheat oven to 160°C.
2. Beat egg yolks with sugar with whisk till pale yellow before stirring in oil, water and vanilla extract.
3. Add in sieved flour and whisk till no trace of flour found.
4. Scoop out 6 tsp batter into 3 bowls each. To the first bowl, add 1/3 tsp extra dark cocoa powder (for beef patty). To the second bowl, add 1/5 tsp pandan paste (for lettuce). To the third bowl, add a drop of yellow food colouring (I used Queen’s natural turmeric-based coloring) (for the cheese). To the rest, add ½ tsp cocoa paste (for the bun). Mix well.
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 12 tbsp meringue into each of the 3 bowls and gently fold in respectively. Fold in the rest of the meringue into the light cocoa batter in 3 additions.
7. Scoop the light cocoa batter into a cake pop mould (fill 18 round molds for 9 cake pop burgers). Bake at 160°C for 12 min.
8. Pour the dark brown batter into a baking-paper lined 6-inch tray and bake at 160°C for 14 min. Do likewise for the pandan and yellow batter.
9. Leave the cake pop mold to cool on a wire rack once out of the oven and unmould by popping the pops out when cool
10. Flip over the layer cakes onto a new baking paper and leave to cool covered by another sheet.
11. To assemble, cut out circles from the dark brown cake for the beef patty corresponding to the size of the ‘buns’ (cake pops). Cut out squares from the yellow cake for the cheese. Cut out ‘leaves’ from the pandan cake for the lettuce using a leaf cutter. Assemble just like how you would make a burger, using melted marshmallows to glue the parts together. Enjoy!

Hope they make you smile too!

With love! Happy Children's Day!

Susanne

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Rainbow Bear Macarons with Earl Grey and Matcha White Chocolate Fillings (improved version of filling)

Here are some colourful bears holding beer mugs (again!) Or flowers! Macarons that don't need refrigeration for some friends' birthday celebration in the month of August :). Yes I know it's already October. I haven't had the chance to post these yet :p. They were made from leftover batter from my Tsum Tsum series macarons and Strawberry macaron pops. This request came at a time when I was busy with other bakes so I could only manage to make something with leftover batter.

You have seen the bears with beer mugs before over here. I have been really busy lately but glad to be able to squeeze in these bears into my macaron bakes! I used leftover batter whenever I had some to make these bears and froze the earlier shells. I defrosted the shells when it was time to decorate and assemble.

Please refer to this recipe for the base recipe. I didn't have time to make batter for the snout so I used royal icing for it this time.

Just to share some photos when I remembered to take...

Adding on details bit by bit with royal icing and lustre dust

What is new here is the filling. I made some changes to my recipe first used over here. I added vegetable shortening and dissolved the powdered tea in there instead. Shortening serves to keep the "ganache" in a state that is easy to pipe for a longer time (slows down firming up of the chocolate) and reduces the overall percentage of sugar content. As you know, white chocolate is notoriously sweet but it's the best base for incorporating different flavours of filling that does not need refrigeration. Much as butter and heavy cream are better ingredients to use, I am looking at longer shelf life without refrigeration and the ease of giving the macarons as gifts without worrying that the filling will turn too soft or rancid.

I also added salt into the mix to temper the sweetness of the white chocolate. The filling will taste saltier on its own but paired with the sweet shells, you won't detect the salt much.

Earl grey white chocolate (fills 12-14 macarons)
60g white chocolate, chopped (I used Meiji)
1.5-2 tsp instant Earl grey powder
10g vegetable shortening
1/8 tsp salt

Steps:
1. Place shortening and salt into a small saucepan. Heat over low heat and stir until shortening has melted.

2. Melt white chocolate in a double-boiler or microwave oven. If using microwave, heat at medium-high heat in 10 seconds bursts and stir well after each round of heating. Stir until smooth.

3. Add sifted tea powder into melted chocolate and stir well in one direction until well combined. Add melted shortening and stir until well combined. Let the mixture sit at room temperature for a few minutes and check the consistency. It should firm up a little.

4. Transfer into piping bag and pipe onto macaron shells. Let the ganache firm up and store in airtight container.

Matcha white chocolate
60g white chocolate, chopped
1.5 tsp Matcha powder
10g shortening
1/8 tsp salt

Steps:
Same as above

Filling with Matcha white chocolate

Filling with Earl Grey white chocolate. Forgot to take photos with top shells off!

All seven of them!

My friend took a photo of the bears toasting each other while chilling out with some Merlot. Don't they look cute!

With love,
Phay Shing

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‘Gundam vs Monsters’ 2-Colour Stripes Tier Chiffon Cake

This is another cheerful creation which made me smile making! I enjoyed making the cute Monsters/Aliens very much! I made a Rilakumma cake for him last year. This year my jaw dropped when I heard he wanted a Gundam cake! Thankfully there was a scenario in which Gundam triumphs over the Monsters and Aliens haha, so this cake was inspired by it. I only had to make cute Monsters/Aliens popping out of the cake, and Gundam triumphs over them with the help of toppers haha!

For this cake I actually tried something rather risky out that is to create 2-Colour Stripes, yellow and green of similar width, and on both tiers! You can imagine how nervous I was. It is even harder than doing the rainbow chiffon because you have to gauge the height and thickness of each layer (including the white) correctly. The expansion of the last layer on top usually can’t be controlled well. I was super relieved the yellow and green layers came out all right!

I used the cheerful palette of lime green, yellow, orange, cobalt blue and red for the Aliens. The simpler ‘lower level’ Monsters were simpler, baked from roundish cake pops molds. For the higher level Monsters, I did a bit of carving and added in bodies and facial features.

My friend shared the kids loved the cake! Some had 4 servings! Wow.

With lots of love,
Susanne

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Purple Sweet Potato Rainbow Heart Pinata Cookies (Children's Day special)

This is a bake that was requested by my kids way before Children's Day and they were really excited about it! They were ooo-ing and ah-ing as they watched me decorate the cookies :). Presenting my first attempt at making cookies with hidden surprises!

Purple sweet potato shortbread pinata cookies with rose flavour and hidden MnMs!

My kids were more than happy to eat the broken up cookie that I used for this photo and both gave a thumbs up! I must put a disclaimer here that there are actually not that many MnMs inside each cookie. About 7-8 mini MnMs each cookie as they are not very big cookies to begin with. More MnMs in the photo just looks better :p.

I was really awed by the pinata cookies I saw here and here about half a year ago. I was so excited that I showed my kids and they wanted something like that for Children's Day. Yes, that's how long ago it was! But having to make enough pinata cookies for two classes of kids meant that I had to keep the design simple or I will kill myself making what you see from the two awesome posts above. This bake also coincides with my busy period with other orders and photoshooting sessions for the chiffon cake book so I was hard-pressed to create something simple but awesome.

Pinata cookies are basically cookies that are assembled from 3 separate pieces of cookies, with the center piece having a hole in the middle for storing the candies. It's a lovely idea but a lot of work for large quantities because you have to bake three times the number of the cookies that you want to give out.

I chose to colour the cookies naturally by using purple sweet potato powder, and flavouring it with something different other than the usual vanilla. Adding rose water gives the cookies a nice Bandung flavour.


Ingredients (makes about fifty 5cm heart pinata cookies):
250g icing sugar (I use homemade rose scented icing sugar)
500g unsalted butter
700g plain flour
50g purple sweet potato powder (bought from Akari at Anchorpoint. Replace with plain flour or cornflour if unavailable.)
1 tsp rose water (use 2 tsp if using unscented icing sugar)
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp salt
2 drops of purple gel food colouring

Steps:
1. Sift together plain flour, salt, icing sugar and purple sweet potato powder.

Love the natural purple colour!

2. Cut the butter into the flour mixture with a pastry cutter or butter knife until it resembles fine breadcrumbs.

3. Add rose water, vanilla extract and purple gel food colouring (I added as an insurance against any browning that may occur after baking as natural colouring tends to brown after baking). Knead until a ball of dough forms.

4. Divide the dough into 4-5 portions. Smaller portions of dough are easier to work with. Roll each portion between two sheets of parchment paper until 5-6mm thick. Chill in fridge or freezer until firm, at least 30 minutes.

5. Use a heart shape cutter to cut out 100 hearts without holes and 50 hearts with hole in the middle. I used a combination of a smaller heart cutter and small round cutter to create the hole. Place the cutouts on baking tray lined with parchment paper.

6. Chill the whole tray in the fridge or freezer while you preheat the oven to 150°C. Bake for 14-15 minutes for hearts without holes, rotating the tray about halfway through baking. Bake the hearts with holes for 10-11 minutes. Cool on tray for 5 minutes before transferring to cooling rack to cool completely. Do note that baking times are approximate and may be different for you as each oven is different.

Freshly baked!

Store cooled cookies in airtight container lined with baking paper between layers of cookies if you are not decorating or assembling yet.

I decided to ice a simple rainbow on each heart with royal icing. I thought it would be a quick an easy job but I was badly mistaken! It took me about 4+ hours to finish icing all the rainbows! But this is definitely easier than preparing many coloured dough and having lots of dough wastage for the pinata cookies that I saw from the internet. I didn't want to waste royal icing either so I used ziplock bags with a hole cut for piping without piping tip attached. The result is less neat but I am not being a perfectionist here :p.

Halfway there! Hands shaking already...

Finally done!

Here comes the fun part. Assembly!

Gluing the middle layer on with royal icing. Make sure that the bottom piece is facing down instead of up such that the pinata cookie looks good on the underside as well.

Filling with MnMs

Seal the top piece with royal icing.

You may use a butter knife to gently scrape the sides of the assembled cookies to make the boundary between the layers of cookies less obvious but that's optional.

Happy Children's Day!

Update: these cookies were indeed very well received and could keep well for a long time! I was a bit concerned that the colouring on the MnMs would run during storage but it didn't! My elder kid tells me he is proud of me after he received many appreciative comments from his friends with some asking him to thank his mum for the cookies :)

With lots of love,

Phay Shing

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Rainbow Castle Chiffon Cake

This is perhaps my favorite Castle Chiffon Cake so far! It's a sweet special Rainbow Castle Chiffon Cake I designed for a very dear friend's daughter. She loved My Little Pony so the castle was Rainbow-themed, designed for My Little Pony toppers. The towers are capped with Pastel Rainbow Chiffon Cake Cones by baking chiffon cake in paper cups, and the top of the castle with an Arching Chiffon Cake Rainbow (made from a 6-inch chiffon cake) and Chiffon Lake (made from layer chiffon cake)!

Made with lots of love! Happy blessed birthday Mikaela!
Susanne

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Cat and Bear Banana Steamed Cake

After studying quite a few recipes for generic steamed cakes ( including the famous Junko and Nutella Blossom ones) and banana steamed cakes, and a couple of less-than-satiafactory trials, I have finally found a recipe that is fluffy, moist and flavourful, simple and with few ingredients. Why this requirement? I am looking at making a simple, healthy and delicious steamed cake for my next culinary arts demo class at church as and when I am free to conduct. Probably after all the mad busyness of writing and photo-taking for the two books I am working on now.

Presenting my humble cat and bear steamed banana cupcakes! These by the way, make very good Children's Day party items too but perhaps made in smaller cupcake cases than the ones shown in this post. This is also healthier than my pinata cookies :p.

Here's a close-up view of the texture...

Fluffy and loaded with bananas!

I have opted for a method that involves more than just combining wet and dry ingredients together with a hand whisk because I find that the texture of the resulting cake is less fluffy and more "kueh-like".  Even for the fluffy ones, they tend to be dry when cooled as they rely on low liquid and high flour content to be fluffy. Upon cooling and storage, the cake has to be re-steamed for it to taste good again and has to be eaten freshly steamed while hot.

The recipe here is mainly adapted from Miss B. I have tweaked the recipe a bit and added a fun twist to the humble steamed banana cake. Using the technique for creating patterns and pop-up ears from various sources, I have transformed the plain looking banana cake to something a little cuter ;). I have already reduced the amount of sugar from the original recipe so there is no need to reduce it further. The resulting cake is not too sweet.

Ingredients (makes about three 50x39mm cupcakes**):
1 large egg
40g caster sugar (or brown sugar)
40g vegetable oil or melted butter (or combination of both. I used extra light olive oil )
70-75g over ripe banana without skin, mashed (about 1 large banana)
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
70g cake flour*
1 tsp baking powder*
1/8 tsp baking soda*
1/16 tsp salt*
3 heaping tsp Nutella (optional)
1 tsp cocoa powder (optional)

* You may replace all these with 70g of self-raising flour. I chose cake flour for a softer texture.

** You may use smaller cupcake cases as I used pretty large ones. Reduce steaming time of you are using smaller cases. Feel free to upsize the recipe too to make more cupcakes.

Steps:
1. Beat egg and sugar with an electric mixer at high speed for at least 10 minutes until mixture is pale and thick.

2. Be really, really gentle with the next few steps as you want to avoid deflating the air trapped in the beaten egg. It's the key to soft and fluffy cake. Gently fold in the oil using a spatula. Drizzle the oil in (don't pour all in at one shot) and fold in a bit at a time to avoid deflating the beaten egg.

3. Add mashed bananas and vanilla a teaspoonful at a time and gently fold into the mixture.

4. Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Gradually add the flour mixture to the batter, folding in gently with each addition with a spatula.

5. Scoop the batter into paper cupcake liners and fill until almost full. You may add a heaping teaspoon worth of Nutella into each cupcake after filling the cupcake liners till it's about 1/3-1/2 full. This helps to moisten the cakes even more and compliments the banana flavour well.

6. If you are steaming the cakes without fancy designs, you may steam at this point after tapping the cupcake cases on the table to release trapped air. Steam for about 20-25 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean/ with a few moist crumbs. If you are making the patterned cupcakes, scoop out about 1-2 tsp of the batter and colour it with cocoa powder until you have the desired shade of brown that you want. Transfer the coloured batter into piping bags and pipe the facial features on.

7. To create pop-up ears, pipe a bit of the batter onto the parchment paper (I used paper cupcake cases). Pipe triangle for the cat and circle for the bear ears. Steam this together with the cupcakes.

8. Carefully peel the ears off the parchment paper and stuff it into the cupcake cases where the ears are supposed to be.

Enjoy!

With love,
Phay Shing

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Snoopy and Woodstock Peanuts-themed Tier Chiffon Cake

Oh boy! Good grief! Little Ollie is turning One! Dream Big!

This is one of my favorite cakes I’ve made so far because I’m so in love with the dreamy theme of Snoopy lying on the house with Woodstock with their silhouettes against the setting sun! And it’s for a lovely mummy friend who has been such a joy to bake for, is always smiling, and has her own wonderful blog so.natty! We designed the cake together so it was special. 

My favorite is the whimsical Charlie brown yellow tier that’s all naturally colored, with the trademark black Charlie brown zigzags cut from charcoal chiffon cake. There’s also the sweet and colorful sky-grass landscape tier made from Blue pea flowers-Pandan chiffon cake, with pop-out balloons from chiffon cake pops! We wanted to make a statement with Oliver, hence the white-black top tier from Reduced egg yolk vanilla chiffon with cute snoopy paws! 

The Snoopy and Woodstock were also made entirely from chiffon cake. The Snoopy and Woodstock needed quite a bit of carving since it was quite different from the sitting version I made previously, so super thankful it turned out fine. It was also one of my more difficult, larger and structurally challenging cakes, so was super thankful it was really well-received! Yes I’m repeating myself ‘cuz I’m really super thankful haha.

Happy belated birthday dear Ollie! Dream Big!

With lots of love,
Susanne

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Hiro Raspberry White Chocolate Macarons (Tsum Tsum series part 5)

This is the last in the series of Tsum Tsum macaron bake! Finally! Here are some Hiro macarons with raspberry white chocolate filling amongst the rest of my Tsum Tsum bakes!

These macarons do not need refrigeration.

You may refer to this recipe for the basic batter and steps, and my newly made macaron video tutorials just in case you need more visuals :).  Just some points to note...

Use a Wilton #12 tip to pipe on the purple shell. Use a Wilton #3 tip to pipe on the thin purple part. Bang the tray on table before resting for 15 minutes. Pipe in the beige part with a Wilton #10 tip. Bang tray on table before drying the shells for 1-2h in air-con room or until dry to touch.

Freshly piped shells

Bake at 130-140°C for 17-20minutes, rotating the tray halfway through baking. Bake at 120°C for 5 minutes more if still not dry and check again.

Freshly baked shells!

Prepare some royal icing to add on the face.

Filling the shells!

Here's the whole collection of the macarons I made in a batch! Well... Almost. There's still an extra Rilakkuma, a few bears and basic shapes not included in the picture. I froze the bear shells for future work. Otherwise it's too much work for me in a single sitting!

Macaron mania!

Thank God that these macarons were very well received!

With love,

Phay Shing

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