Pandan Kaya Gula Melaka Log Cake

I made lots of logcakes last year that were very well received but I felt so much like a log cake production factory that I decided not to make any this year except for special cases. I have two such cases, one for my extended family Christmas dinner gathering and one for Susanne's family :). Presenting a creation that I am absolutely excited about! Pandan Kaya Gula Melaka log cake!!

Not sure if you notice the dessicated coconut "snow" :p

I decided to decorate the cake with Christian themed edible decorations like I did last year, except that I used brown sugar cookies last year. This year I used  baby Jesus, star and sheep Christmas macarons filled with Pandan gula melaka flavoured swiss meringue buttercream :).

You may refer to this post for the recipe for gula melaka swiss meringue buttercream. I didn't have time to do from scratch so I just flavoured the smbc with gula melaka dissolved in a little Pandan juice and a pinch of salt added to offset the added sweetness.

Why this idea excites me so much is because Pandan kaya cake, which everyone is familiar with, can be transformed into something refreshingly different with just an addition of gula melaka and assembling in a way that you would with a log cake. The best part is, this cake is cream-free! You may do this with any flavour of my sponge and pudding cake creations too, such as Matcha Azuki, lychee rose and berry yoghurt! I have made a cake that has this flavour earlier on last year for my grandma's birthday. Check it out in this post.

Recipe for the cake is adapted from my Pandan kaya cake that a pastry chef gave a thumbs up for after he tasted it.

Recipe for Pandan gula melaka cake
Ingredients (makes one 10 x 12" layer cake)
2 egg yolks
20g gula melaka, finely chopped
23g canola/vegetable oil
13g Pandan juice
21g coconut milk
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
1/8 tsp Pandan paste (optional)
1/8 tsp coconut flavouring (optional)
38g cake flour
1/16 tsp salt

3 egg whites
1/5 tsp cream of tartar
28g caster sugar

Steps:
1. To make Pandan juice, blend about 15 leaves with 40ml of boiled water and strain through coffee filter. Let the juice collected sit in a container in the fridge for a couple of days to let it settle. Use only the dark green portion. If you don't have time you may use the freshly made juice but colour and flavour is less intense. Make sure that the chopped gula melaka has no big lumps as it will be harder to dissolve in the egg yolk.

2. Position oven rack to second lowest position, preheat to 160°C. Line 10 x 12" baking tray with baking sheet. You may choose to grease it very lightly but it's optional. Steam baking is also optional for such a thin layer cake that is going to be covered in pudding/fudge.

3. Whisk egg yolks and gula melaka for about 5 minutes until all the sugar is dissolved and mixture is thick and pale. Add oil and whisk until well combined. Add Pandan juice, coconut milk and flavourings until well combined. Gradually add sifted flour and salt and whisk until no trace of flour is seen.

4. Prepare meringue. In a clean metal bowl, beat egg whites with cream of tartar until firm peaks form, adding sugar gradually when the egg whites appear thick and foamy.

5. Fold the meringue into egg yolk batter in 3 additions quickly but gently. Pour the batter into prepared tray and use a spatula to level the batter. Gently tap the tray on the table to release trapped air bubbles.

I love the reusable silicone baking sheet! No more wrinkles on my layer cakes!

6. Bake for 13 minutes or until skewer comes out clean. Immediately remove from tray and gently peel of baking sheet. Cool in rolled up position.

Recipe for Pandan kaya gula melaka fudge
(A)
239g coconut milk (or evaporated milk. I used a combination of both)
125ml Pandan water (boil water with a few Pandan leaves)
62g gula melaka, finely chopped
1 tsp agar powder
1/8 tsp salt
1/4 tsp caramel essence (optional)
1/8 tsp vanilla extract (optional)
1/8 tsp coconut flavouring (optional)

(B)
23g custard powder
125ml Pandan water

Steps:
1. Combine ingredients in (B) in a jug. Set aside
2. Place all ingredients in (A) in a saucepan and bring to boil while stirring continuously.
3. Stir (B) again before pouring into (A). Stir continuously and bring to a boil.
4. Remove from heat and if you would like a smoother fudge, sieve it.

5. Divide the fudge into two portions. Cover one portion with cling wrap touching surface. This is to prevent the fudge from setting. Set aside.

6. Let the other portion cool at room temperature, stirring now and then until it thickens to a consistency that still flows but not too runny. Use a ladle to scoop some fudge onto the layer cake and smoothen it with the back of the ladle. Leave about 2cm uncovered with fudge at the edge that is furthest from you.

7. Carefully roll the cake away from you like a swiss roll. Squeeze the roll a little to push the fudge into any crevices, using the baking sheet to help you. Refrigerate for about 30 to 45 minutes.

8. Remove cake from baking sheet and cut off the ends to fit the cakeboard.

9. Remove cling wrap from from the other portion of fudge. Stir and use a spatula to apply the fudge on the swiss roll.

10. Place the cut-off ends on the log to form branches.

11. Apply fudge on the branches.

12. Refrigerate the cake for about 15-20 minutes to let the fudge set a little. Use a fork to lightly scratch the surface of the cake to form the characteristic logcake pattern.

13. Transfer some fudge into piping bag. This step is optional. Pipe the swirl on the cut surfaces of the cake.

14. Sprinkle some dessicated coconut to deposit some "snow" on the cake. This step is optional.

Refrigerate the cake overnight before serving. This is to allow the fudge/pudding time to set fully.

Enjoy!

Thank God the cakes were very well received by both my family and Susanne's so do give this recipe a try if you are a fan of Pandan kaya cake :).

With lots of love,
Phay Shing

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'Christmas Mistletoe Ring' Pandan Bundt Chiffon Cake

I had the inspiration to make a ‘Christmas mistletoe/holly ring’ (which adorn houses during Christmas to celebrate the birth of Christ) chiffon cake since 2 years back! Last year I finally made a Rainbow Mistletoe Ring Chiffon Cake! This year I thought of using the Bundt pan to get a prettier wreath shape! I tried baking chiffon cake in a Nordic bundt pan. However, the texture was slightly denser than normal fluffy chiffon cakes due to the non-stick surface. So I was really happy when a friend helped me get a silicone bundt pan from overseas! The silicone surface (and the tube support) allows chiffon cake to grip on so the chiffon cake is nice and fluffy, like the usual ones!

I decorated the chiffon cake with green chiffon cake ‘leaves’ of different colours, and red chiffon cake flowers, berries and bow. These were cut out from chiffon cake baked in layer trays.

The recipe with picture tutorial is now in 'Deco Chiffon Cakes' book.

Blessed Christmas to you and your family!

With lots of love,
Susanne

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Koala Bear Neopolitan Chiffon Cake

It’s my first chiffon Koala Bear, here’s my cute Koala Bear sitting atop a Neopolitan Chiffon Cake (Strawberry, Vanilla, Chocolate), hiding a hidden surprise in the tube hole which also helps to support the weight! The Strawberry/Vanilla/Chocolate Neopolitan chiffon flavours were requested. I was pretty happy/thankful making this cake as the Koala bear was a delight and I loved the overall effect of the 3 flavours/colour. It's a reduced egg yolk recipe for whiter cake.

Neopolitan Chiffon Cake (7-inch chiffon tin)
1 egg
26 g castor sugar
52 g vegetable/corn oil
58 g fresh milk/water (I used 50:50)
80g cake flour
7ml vanilla extract

1 tsp cocoa powder + pinch of baking powder

1/2 tsp strawberry paste/emulco

5 egg whites
60g castor 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 for moister cake.

2. Beat egg yolks with sugar with whisk till pale yellow before stirring in oil, milk/water and vanilla extract.

3. Add in sieved flour and whisk till no trace of flour found. Divide the batter into 3 parts. To the first portion, add 1 tsp cocoa powder (and a pinch of baking powder). To the second, add ½ strawberry paste. Leave the 3rd untouched.

4. Meringue: Beat the egg whites with ¼ tsp cream of tartar till firm peaks form or just to the point of reaching stiff peak, mixing in caster sugar in 2 additions.

5. Divide the meringue into 3 parts for each of the 3-coloured egg yolk batter above. Gently but quickly fold in the meringue into each batter 1/3 at a time.

6. Spoon the strawberry batter into the chiffon tin evenly, followed by the plain vanilla batter, and then lastly the chocolate batter, leaving around 2 cm from the tip.

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 140°C for 30 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).

*Tip if you are using natural cocoa powder (not Dutch-processed), you need to add ¼ baking soda to the chocolate egg yolk batter to prevent formation of bigger air pockets.

The Koala bear uses the same base recipe. I used 1/4 tsp of charcoal powder to colour the bear grey. The Koala bear was baked in glass bowls and cake pop molds. Picture tutorial and recipe of the Koala bear is now in Deco Chiffon Cakes cookbook.

The review was 'very nice!' =) Thank God.

With lots of love,
Susanne

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Baby Jesus, Star and Sheep Macarons

"We were the reason that He gave His life
We were the reason that He suffered and died
To a world that was lost He gave all He could give
To show us the reason to live"

I get this earworm sometimes around Christmas :p. Christmas bakes seem incomplete for me if there's no element of what Christmas really means. Much as snowmen, reindeers and Christmas bears are cute, they are not the reason why we celebrate Christmas.

Christmas is all about God's love and salvation plan for us through the birth of Jesus :). Last year, I made baby Jesus, star and snowflake gingerbread cookies, followed by the nativity scene. Now that I have more practice making macarons, I decided to replicate the same designs but with macarons!

"Away in a manger no crib for a bed.
The little Lord Jesus laid down His sweet head.
The stars in sky looked down where He lay.
The little Lord Jesus asleep on the hay"

That's the scene I was trying to depict :). Making the whole nativity cast into macarons would be too ambitious and time consuming for me :p.

The basic macaron shell recipe can be found here. You may refer to the video tutorials I made earlier on how to fold the batter, test the consistency and pipe complex shapes.

Just some points to note,

- Divide the mass into ratio of 4:2:1:1 for white: yellow:grey:beige.
- Use the ratio of 0.55 for weight of Italian meringue:weight of mass.
- Use a pinch of charcoal powder to colour the batter grey, use a tiny toothpick dip of orange gel food colouring to colour the batter beige.
-Remember to bang the tray on the table after each step of piping.
-Bake at 135°C for 10 minutes with oven rack at lowest position, rotate the tray and bake at 130°C for 7 minutes. Check if the macarons are done by looking at the feet. If they appear a little wet, bake for another 5 minutes at 120°C and check again.
- Remove shells from baking sheet only when completely cooled. Well baked shells should not be stuck to the baking sheet when you gently peel the sheet away from the shells.

Here are some photos of the process...

Piping star! Wait for 15 minutes or until a sticky membrane forms before piping on pop up features.

Piping baby Jesus! Use a Wilton #5 tip (~3mm) to pipe the pop-up swaddle features and Wilton #3 tip (~2mm) to pipe eye lids and nose of baby Jesus.

Piping sheep! Pipe the cloud shaped body and let it dry for 15 minutes. Pipe the head and one leg. Wait for 10 minutes before piping the other leg and tuft of wool on the sheep's head.

Baked and decorated with edible marker and royal icing!

The shells were filled with cookies n cream swiss meringue buttercream or dark chocolate ganache.

Refrigerate for at least 24h before serving. Let the macarons warm up a little at room temperature for a few minutes before serving.

Thank God these were very well received at the party!

With love,
Phay Shing

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Full-Body Hello Kitty Macarons with Chocolate Ganache and Lemon Curd

I jumped at the chance to make this batch of macarons because I love the challenge of making full-body character macarons especially if the request is for a small quantity :).  Presenting my first attempt at full-body version of Hello Kitty macarons!

I made only 6 of these, along with some other macarons for this round of baking. I made Hello Kitty macarons earlier this year but only the head.

As the basic macaron recipe and steps are the same ones I have been using, I won't type out in detail here but will highlight points to note when making these kitties. You may refer to this post for the basic shell recipe. Omit the strawberry emulco. You may refer to this post on how to pipe macarons with complex shapes as these kitties will require techniques like "trace-and-fill", using toothpick to pull batter for the ears and piping 3D pop-up features.

Points to note:
- Divide the mass into ratio of 3:1:1:1 for white: light pink: dark pink: red. You will have excess dark pink but it is easier to portion the batter this way.
- Use a ratio of 0.55 for weight of Italian meringue: weight of mass.
- As the macarons are rather large (6-7cm), baking time is longer. Place oven rack at lowest position. Begin baking at 135°C for 10 minutes, rotate the tray and bake at 130°C for 6-7 minutes, lower temperature to 120°C and bake for another 8-10 minutes or until the feet appear dry. Check every few minutes towards end of baking time to ensure no browning but macaron shells are cooked through. Macaron shells are thoroughly baked when the feet do not appear wet.
-You definitely need a toothpick to nudge the batter into tight corners.

Just to share some pictures...

Piped shells

Prepare royal icing to create Hello Kitty's ribbon, flower, bow and arrow. Let the royal icing dry completely before gently peeling them off the baking paper. You may dry royal icing in the oven at 60°C with the fan on.

Royal icing decorations

Use black edible marker to draw the face. Attach the royal icing accessories to the macaron shells with a small amount of royal icing.

Completed shells

Fill the shells with chocolate ganache and lemon curd. You may refer to this recipe for lemon curd, replacing lime with lemon. I opted for a firmer ganache than the regular recipe I always use so I will type it out here. The ratio of cream : chocolate is 1:2.

Recipe for chocolate ganache
Ingredients:
100g dark chocolate, chopped
50g whipping cream
10g unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

Steps:
1. Place butter and chocolate into microwaveable bowl and heat in 10 second bursts at medium-high power, stirring the mixture well after each round of heating until chocolate is melted. Alternatively, you may melt the chocolate and butter using double-boiling method.
2. Heat cream in a small saucepan until it starts to bubble. Pour over melted chocolate.
3. Stir the mixture with a spatula in one direction until smooth. Set aside at room temperature until the ganache firms up until toothpaste-like consistency. About 15-20 minutes.
4. Transfer into piping bag and pipe onto shells. You may store unused ganache in ziplock bags in the freezer or fridge.

Refrigerate for at least 24h before serving to let the flavours mature.

All paçked!

With love,
Phay Shing

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Snowman & Reindeer 2-Tier Chiffon Cake (Jap Cream Cheese Vanilla and Chocolate Chiffon)

I love Christmas time! Not only about the season of giving and gifts, but it’s a time we remember the greatest gift, our Saviour coming into the world! This 2-tier Snowman & Reindeer Chiffon Cake is made for a friend’s early Christmas celebration for mummies and babies =).

And it’s my second big tiered Snowman! My first 2-tier Snowman Chiffon Cake was made a year ago and was the first tiered chiffon cake to be ever made! This Snowman is a hybrid-flavoured Snowman as she requested for both Japanese cream cheese chiffon and Vanilla chiffon to cater to different groups of people. The Japanese cream cheese chiffon makes the 9-inch base. It was first shared by lovely Baking tai tai with some adaptations here, mainly addition of sugar and salt, which really helps to bring out the flavour more. Reduced egg yolk vanilla chiffon cake makes the 7-inch top. I have previously shared that temperature control towards the end is important to prevent browning of the cake, and I have been using reduced egg yolk recipes for fluffier chiffon cakes and for whiter cake. The recipes are below again for your easy reference.

Jap cream cheese chiffon cake (8 to 9-inch chiffon tin)
4 egg yolks (weigh around 72g, original recipe 80g)
70g castor sugar
80g vegetable/coconut oil
200 ml milk
160 g cake flour
200 g cream cheese (Philadelphia)
1/2 tsp salt

Meringue
8 egg whites (weigh 290g, original recipe 280g)
58g castor sugar (original recipe 50g)
¼ tsp cream of tartar

1. Warm up the milk using water bath. Add in cut cream cheese pieces and stir till completely dissolved and no lumps are left. Set aside to cool.

2. 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 and for moister texture.

3. Whisk egg yolks with 1/3 castor sugar (of egg yolk batter) until completely dissolved, then add in the remaining sugar in 2 additions and whisk till pale and fluffy.

4. Add in oil, mix well then add in the cream cheese mixture. Mix till well combined.

5. Add in sieved flour and whisk swiftly till no trace of flour found (make sure no lumps are formed).

6. Meringue: Beat the egg whites with ¼ tsp cream of tartar till foamy, add in caster sugar in 3 additions and beat till glossy firm peak.

7. Gently fold in the meringue into the respective batter 1/3 at a time.

8. Pour the remaining cream cheese batter into the tin, leaving 2 cm from the top.
*Tip: do not overfill for smooth top.

9. Gently tap the tin on table 3x to remove air bubbles (but do not overdo it!).

10. Bake the chiffon cake for 160°C for 15 min, then 150°C for 10 min, 140°C for 20 min, then 130°C for 10-15 min (or 170°C 50 min in original Jap recipe), or until skewer comes clean.

11. Invert the chiffon cake immediately once out of the oven to cool

12. Unmould by hand after the cake is cool. (see 'Hand Unmoulding Chiffon Cakes for a Smooth Finishing' video tutorial).


Reduced Egg-yolk Vanilla Chiffon Cake (7-inch chiffon tin)
1 egg yolk
20g sugar
36g corn/vegetable oil
47 ml water
5 ml vanilla extract
60g cake flour

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

1. Preheat oven to 160°C. Prepare a tray of water at the bottom of the oven (I used the lowest rack to bake the cake). *You may omit steam baking; I like to use it for moister cake.

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. Meringue: Beat the egg whites with ¼ tsp cream of tartar till firm peaks form or just to the point of reaching stiff peak, 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 140°C for 30 mins.

9. Invert immediately once out of the oven to cool

10. Unmould by hand after the cake is cool (see 'Hand Unmoulding Chiffon Cakes for a Smooth Finishing' video tutorial).

The hat is also made from Japanese cream cheese chiffon (1/3 the recipe) in a wilton ball cake pan (6-inch) using blue pea flower extract (35 flowers in 10 ml water) and a drop of blue food colouring.
The cute ‘carrot’ nose is made from baking cream cheese chiffon (with a drop of orange coloring) in a paper cone! To unmould the paper cone, just gently peel off the paper, leaving the chiffon cake intact.
I made the pink scarf and black deco by baking chiffon cake as layer (in 10-inch baking paper-lined tray), and then cutting out strips or circles. These were then attached onto the cake using a brush of melted marshmallows. The arms are made of tiny charcoal chiffon cake swissrolls wrapped around bamboo sticks.
The reindeer is made from Chocolate Chiffon Cake (cone cake for face, and 5 smaller swissrolls for body and limbs).

Thankful the cake was well-loved! Early blessed Christmas to all!

With lots of love,
Susanne

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'Christmas Bears' Macarons With Non-Dairy Lemon & Strawberry Cream Filling (no-refrigeration required!)

Here are some bears very much into the Christmas partying mood, all donning red-and-white hats and getting drunk on beer or enjoying a candy cane :).

Here's a peek at the lemon and strawberry creams which do not need refrigeration as requested.

It's my first time filling macarons with non-dairy, non-refrigerated creams for a request. This type of filling does not taste as wonderful as proper swiss meringue buttercream based fillings but serve well enough when refrigeration is an issue.

You have seen these bears making their first appearance here and then appearing here again. They will also appear in my upcoming Creative Baking: Macarons book :).

You may refer to this post for the basic macaron recipe.

 Prepare some royal icing to add on the snout of the bears. Use black edible marker to draw the eyes, nose and mouth. Please use black royal icing to add on these features if you are using fillings that require refrigeration or the edible marker will smudge. I learnt that the hard way :p. Use peach coloured lustre dust to add on rosy cheeks.

Pipe the candy canes, beer mugs and Christmas hats onto baking sheet with a template of the bears under it.

Recipe for non-dairy cream, lemon and strawberry flavours

It's not easy trying to source for recipes for this type of cream and I figured that it's because it's used as a last resort. The flavours added to this cream base has to be pretty strong for the whole combination to work. I have toned down on the amount of sugar used so that the cream is not overwhelmingly sweet. This base can be used for a variety of other flavours too. I adapted the recipe from here. I would recommend adding flavourings gradually and doing a taste test before using the cream. You should aim for more sour or salty outcome than you would like if the filling has a sour or salty base because the macaron shells are sweet.

Ingredients (fills about 25 macarons):
60g vegetable shortening
120g icing sugar
2tsp boiled water
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/8 tsp salt
1/8 tsp cream of tartar

1 tsp strawberry emulco
1/4 tsp rose water
Zest of 1 lemon
1/2 tsp lemon extract
1/4 tsp lemon paste

Steps:
1.  Beat shortening in mixing bowl with electric mixer for about 1 minute at low speed. Add a tsp of water and beat for another minute until smooth and creamy.

2. Add icing sugar, cream of tartar, salt and vanilla and a tsp of water. Beat at low speed until everything comes together, scraping down the sides of the bowl when necessary. Increase speed and beat at high speed for about 6-8 minutes, scraping down the sides of the bowl once or twice in between. You should get a creamy mixture that resembles buttercream.

3. Divide the cream into two portions. Add strawberry emulco and rose water to one portion. Add lemon zest, extract and paste to the other portion. Use hand whisk or electric mixer to combine everything thoroughly.

Adding lemon zest

Looks very much like lemon swiss meringue buttercream!

4. Transfer creams into piping bags and pipe onto the macaron shells.

5. Store the assembled shells in airtight condition at a cool place.

With love,
Phay Shing

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3D Cat 2-Tier Lemon Chiffon Cake (Reduced Egg yolk recipe)

This is my humble attempt at a 3D cat from chiffon cake, for a friend’s sweet 2 year old’s birthday. Her favourite flavour was lemon, so this cake is made wholly of Lemon chiffon cake. But because she requested for a cream colour cat, I had to reduce the lemon zest from 1 tbsp (from 2 lemons) to ¼ tbsp, as lemon zest is yellowish and turns the cake yellow. Instead, I compensated by using water boiled with lemon zest, and also used lemon juice-infused syrup on the cake instead of plain syrup on the final cake (to keep cake moist during long assembly). I also reduced the number of egg yolks for a whiter cake. The end result is nice and lemony, and reviews of the lemon chiffon cake were good, and that it was refreshing =)

Lemon Chiffon Cake (Reduced egg yolk recipe) (9-inch or 23 cm chiffon tin)

2 egg yolks
50 g castor sugar
76 ml vegetable/corn oil
50 ml water (boiled with 1 tbsp lemon zest, or zest from 2 lemons)
50 ml lemon juice, freshly squeezed
120 g cake flour
¼ tbsp lemon zest or zest from ½ lemon (*if you do not need a whiter cake, pls use 1 tbsp)
¼ tsp salt
¼ tsp vanilla extract

8 egg whites
90 g sugar
¼ tsp cream of tartar

1. Prepare lemon zest (from 3 lemons) by grating the outer skin of the lemon. Avoid grating the white layer under the zest as it is bitter. Bring 60 ml water to a boil with 1.2 tbsp lemon zest (let it steep for another 30 min). Leave to cool.

2. 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 and for moister cake.

3. Beat egg yolks with sugar with whisk till pale yellow before stirring in oil, water boiled with lemon zest (50 ml), lemon juice and vanilla extract.

4. Add in sieved flour and whisk till no trace of flour found.

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

6. Fold in the meringue gently into the batter 1/3 at a time.

7. Pour the batter into the chiffon tin from a height.

8. Gently tap the tin on table 3x to remove air bubbles.

9. 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.

10. Invert immediately once out of the oven to cool

11. 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).

For the lemon-infused syrup for the final cake, use 1:1:1 (lemon juice: water: sugar).

My friend sent me pictures of the cake at the party. It went really well with her golden customised name topper and the whole thing looked sweet and class! Thankful it was well-received too! Happy birthday to sweet Sophia!

With lots of love,
Susanne

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Baymax Lychee Rose Chiffon Sponge & Pudding Cake (coloured with blue pea flower)

This is an overdue post but I had other more pressing posts to post first :p. My friend requested for a Baymax themed lychee rose sponge and pudding cake for her 4-year-old son :). This flavour is really popular! Keep a lookout for another lychee rose sponge and pudding cake that I made concurrently with this Baymax themed cake.

My friend is very kind to provide me with the cake toppers and a design for reference. It is particularly helpful during the period when I was in the midst of finishing up all the macarons for the Creative Baking: Macarons book photoshoot. This cityscape design with shooting stars is made out of chiffon layer cake, surrounded by a ring of canned lychees stuffed with lychee rose pudding. I used blue pea flowers to minimize the use of artificial colouring to colour the pudding. As the pudding is custard powder based, I can't make it entirely blue due to the yellow colouring already present in the custard powder. The result is more teal coloured.

Baymax in the city!

You may refer to this recipe for the sponge, pudding and stuffed lychees as the size is the same, 9". The only difference is I replaced 50g of water in the pudding with 50g of hot water to soak 1 tbs of blue pea flowers for half an hour. Be sure to squeeze out as much water as possible from the blue pea flowers to extract as much blue dye as possible. As natural colouring tends to be dull and mild, I still had to add about 1/3 tsp of liquid blue food colouring. I use liquid food colouring to colour the pudding as I find it more even and smooth than using gel.

Use a toothpick to secure each lychee to the cake to prevent them from rolling around during transport.

I baked some black, red, yellow and white reduced-yolk vanilla layer cakes in two 25x30cm trays to create the cityscape and wordings. As the shapes are simple, I used cookie cutters and a fruit knife to cut out the shapes. No complicated carving was required. No marshmellow glue is required to stick the decorations onto the pudding as they will stick naturally :). I only had to use melted marshmellows to stick on the windows of the buildings and the stars to the silver wire tie. Use some lychee syrup from the can to brush onto the small cake cutouts to keep them moist.

Here's the ingredient list for the layer cakes:
1 egg yolk
10g caster sugar
36g canola/vegetable oil
36g water
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp lychee flavouring (optional)
60g cake flour
Pinch of salt
1/2 tsp charcoal powder
1/16 tsp red yeast powder
1/2 tsp Queen's yellow natural powder colouring
White, yellow and red gel food colouring

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

You may refer to the steps found in the link above for making chiffon sponge. Divide egg yolk batter and meringue into ratio of 3:1:1:1 for black:red:yellow:white.

Bake for 10 minutes or until skewer comes out clean.

Just to share some photos of the process...

Freshly baked lychee rose chiffon sponge layers. Soft and fluffy!

Blue pea flowers in hot water

Blue colored pudding mixture.

Layering sponge and pudding in 9" springform pan.

My friend kindly took a photo of the cross section of the cake. A sight I seldom get to see :p.

Thank God the cake was very well received by her family as the cake was not too sweet. Her nephew who doesn't like cakes with cream loved the pudding :).

Blessed belated birthday 乐耀! May you grow up to love God more and more each day!

With love,
Auntie Phay Shing

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Hot-air Balloon ‘World Map’ Chiffon Cake (Blue pea flower Vanilla - Pandan Chiffon)

My first thought when I got the request for a ‘World map’ cake was ‘wah.. I'm not sure if it's possible..’. Coupled with the ‘Hot-air balloon’, it was really really challenging! Thankfully, my friend was ok with fictitious islands, so here’s my humble attempt at a ‘World map’ Chiffon cake (with a hot-air balloon)! Blue pea flower Vanilla Chiffon Cake was used to make ‘Sea’ and Pandan Chiffon Cake was used to make ‘Land’. The gravity defying Hot-air balloon was also made from chiffon cake from a jumbo egg, so you can imagine how nerve wrecking it was to watch it being transported (chiffon cake is really soft, so the balloon could break easily or drop). It’s really by God’s grace that the chiffon cake was intact and also well-received!

This chiffon cake is actually rather similar to the ‘Moo moo’ Chiffon cake in construction, except that I made the patches more ‘longish’ like continents and have specks of small patches to make the islands.

Freshly unmoulded World Map Chiffon Cake!

 Recipe with picture tutorials is now in Deco Chiffon Cakes book, launched in Oct 2016.

The Hot air balloon is made from Vanilla Chiffon Cake baked in a jumbo egg. The boy’s face is made by piping charcoal and vanilla chiffon batter side by side in a cake pop mold. The basket was made by wrapping layer chiffon cake round into a basket. The construction is actually quite a bit of engineering, using bamboo sticks as supports for the hot air balloon, and a frame for the base support of the egg using an O-ring. My friend shared her boy loved the cake! =)

With lots of love,
Susanne

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Hippo Apple Salted Caramel Macarons (with indented 3D features)

I made these hippos for hubby's birthday :)

I was seriously enjoying my dose of cute overload making these :p. They are modelled after our favourite stuffed toy with a History and Personality ;). I filled the macarons with my hubby's favourite things: apple pie filling and salted caramel! I made some Molang macarons earlier this year for him for Father's Day with the exact same flavour. I was really excited that my experiment for creating indented features like the nostrils and vertical line down the front of hippo's face turned out really well!

I made the hippo template by taking photo of our stuffed toy and using the drawing tool in Word document to create the outline.

Some of you have been asking for templates for the macarons I make so here's one :). I have taken time to create a clean line drawing for these hippos so I would appreciate it if you acknowledge the source here if you decide to replicate it :). This fits on an A4 sized paper.

Blue pea flowers were used to reduce the need for artificial blue colouring. I steeped the dried blue pea flowers in egg whites for the mass for an hour to extract the colour.

Blue pea flower coloured egg whites

The resulting colour of the mass is more teal coloured so some artificial colouring is required, but less. I just needed to add a drop of royal blue and a drop of sky blue to get the hue I wanted.

Blue pea flower coloured mass

I actually made only 4 hippos but made many other macarons on the same day for orders that needed blue coloured shells. But I will type out the recipe for your convenience. Please refer to this post on the basics of making macarons, including how to fold the batter and test the consistency, and this post on how to pipe complex shaped macarons.

Recipe for blue macaron shells
Ingredients:
200g almond meal/flour (preferably superfine)
200g icing sugar
200g caster sugar
160g egg whites (plus a few grams extra if using blue pea flowers), divided into two equal portions
75 ml water
1 tbs blue pea flowers (optional)
Blue gel food colouring

Steps:
1. Sift together almond and icing sugar in a large mixing bowl. Place hippo template on baking tray and line parchment paper over the template.

2. Steep blue pea flowers in 80g of egg whites for an hour. Remove the flowers and top up with more egg whites until the portion is 80g again. If you do not have blue pea flowers, you may skip this step.

3. Add blue pea flower coloured egg whites into the almond mixture and mix well to form the mass. Add blue gel food colouring, keeping in mind that the colour will lighten up considerably after meringue is added.

4. Make the Italian meringue. Place water and caster sugar in a small saucepan and heat at medium heat until temperature reaches 115°C (measured with candy thermometer). In the mean time, beat the rest of the egg whites in a clean metal bowl with electric mixer at medium low speed until foamy and opaque. Do not beat past the soft peak stage. Reduce mixer speed if necessary to keep the egg whites moving. Once temperature of syrup reaches 115°C, remove from heat, turn mixer speed to high and carefully pour the syrup into the egg whites, taking care to avoid the beaters. Keep beating on high speed for 10 minutes until Italian meringue is thick and glossy.

5. Fold the Italian meringue into the mass in two additions, with the first addition about a third of the meringue. Don't be afraid of overfolding the first addition. Just make sure that the meringue is fully incorporated before adding the rest of the meringue. Use the fold and press motion for incorporating the meringue into the mass (see my video tutorial). The batter is ready when no trace of meringue is seen and it is able to fall off the spatula in a slow lava-like manner.

6. Prepare piping bag fitted with a Wilton #10 tip. Standby #5 tip for the ears and #7 tip for the limbs. Don't worry if you don't have the exact sizes. Having something close to it will do. Transfer the batter into the piping bag.

7. Begin by piping the snout of the hippo. Bang the baking tray on the table to release trapped air bubbles. Leave it to dry in aircon room or under a fan for 15 minutes or until a thin sticky membrane forms. Pipe the top of the head and body with the same #10 tip. Bang tray on the table again and let the batter dry for another 15 minutes. Pipe on the ears. Use a toothpick to carefully draw the vertical line on the face and make indents for the nostrils. Pipe on the limbs and bang the tray on the table. Dry the shells until you are able to run your finger across the surface of the shells, about 1h depending on humidity. The shells should not feel sticky at all.

Piping hippo in stages

8. Preheat the oven to 135°C towards end of drying time. Set oven rack to lowest or second lowest position. Bake the hippos for about 20-25 minutes, rotating the tray halfway through baking. These macarons are about 6+cm tall so baking time is a little longer. You may reduce the temperature to 120°C towards the end of baking time to prevent browning. Note that the baking time is an estimation as each oven is different.

Freshly baked shells! Looking cute already!

Use black edible marker to draw the eyes. Prepare some dark pink royal icing and add on the heart on the belly.

Freshly iced!

You may refer to my Molang post for the recipes for fillings. I added more apple pie filling into swiss meringue buttercream than I did previously to give the filling a stronger spiced apple flavour, about 1:2 for apple filling:swiss meringue buttercream.

Making spiced apple swiss meringue buttercream! Plain smbc on the left, cooked spiced apple in the small glass bowl and the mixture on the right.

I happen to have salted caramel at home again *phew* so at least I didn't have to make this from scratch. I filled the hippos with a ring of apple smbc, followed by salted caramel at the center.

Yums!

Refrigerate for at least 24 h before consuming...if you can. My kids had some barely 2 hours after assembly as they couldn't wait! Macarons always taste better when you allow them time to mature.

Hubby and the kids (who only got to share one hippo) loved them very much as they are cute and flavourful! I made some simple round macarons with this filling too so the kids got to enjoy more of these... Without the hippo shells :p.

Blessed belated birthday to my best friend!

With lots of love,
Phay Shing

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

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

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

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

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

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

With lots of love,
Susanne

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