'Flying Doraemon' Rainbow Cloud Chiffon Cake

This is a chiffon cake for my son’s birthday! Doraemon is one of the things he has likes and the only cartoon my hubby encourages as it’s in Chinese =p. The idea I had in mind was the flying Doraemon scene which I find super cute! I made a chiffon flying Doraemon on a Rainbow-Cloud sky chiffon cake backdrop. The cloud backdrop was inspired by the cartoon and a dear friend.

Cloud-Sky

Cloud-Sky Chiffon Cake (8-inch tube pan)
Egg yolk batter
6 egg yolks (or 2 egg yolks + 1 whole egg)
40 g castor sugar
79 g vegetable/corn oil
76 + 5 g water
10 vanilla extract
120 g Prima cake flour, sifted
1.5 tsp blue pea flower extract (40 blue pea flowers in 10g hot water)
Blue gel food colouring

Meringue
8 egg whites
1/2 tsp cream of tartar
90 g castor sugar

1. Preheat oven to 160°C. Prepare a tray of water under the lowest rack for steambaking. *Optional but helps to increase moisture and control oven temperature for ogura-like texture.

2. Beat egg yolks with sugar with whisk till pale and light 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 blue pea flower extract and a dip of blue gel food colouring (optional but brightens up the colour). To the 1/3 portion, add 5 g water.

4. Meringue: Using an electric mixer, beat the egg whites with ¼ tsp cream of tartar till frothy. Add in half the castor sugar for meringue and whip till soft peaks. Add in all the castor sugar and whip till firm peaks form or just to the point of reaching stiff peak.
*Firm peaks give finer, softer texture, especially with steam baking.

5. Divide the meringue 2/3 and 1/3 for each coloured batter. Gently quickly fold in the meringue into respective batter in 3 additions.

6. Spoon the plain batter in cloud-like blobs at the base and sides of the pan, then fill the surrounding spaces with blue pea flower batter. Repeat till the batter is 2-cm from the brim. 

7. Bake the chiffon cake for 15 min at 160°C, then 150°C for 10 min and then 140°C for 25+ min, or until skewer inserted into centre of cake comes out clean.

8. Invert the chiffon cake once removed from oven and allow to cool completely.

9. Unmould the chiffon cake by hand (‘Hand Unmoulding Chiffon Cake for a Clean Finishing’ video tutorial).

*The cake is a little similar to 'World map Chiffon Cake' (right most pic in collage below) from my 2nd book Deco Chiffon Cakes. You may find the picture tutorials in the book useful for patterning the clouds in the chiffon cake.

After unmoulding, I filled the centre hole with marshmallows surprise and covered it up with a circle cut out from leftover batter baked as sheet cake. 

Rainbow

You may find the recipe for Chiffon Cake Rainbow (also right most pic in collage below) with picture tutorial in Creative baking: Chiffon Cakes (1st book).

Doraemon

I piped on the face with chiffon batter in a Doraemon mold, then added the rest of the features using chiffon sheet cake cut-outs with marshmallow cream. 

Here's a slice of my chiffon cake finally! Sorry it wasn't cut too beautifully as it was cut on the spot at the celebration using the blunt cake knife.

Happy birthday dearest Caleb!! 

With lots of love,

Susanne

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'Doraemon on Dorayaki' 3D Figurine Chiffon Cake

My elder kid requested for a Doraemon birthday bake so I made a mini 3D Doraemon chiffon figure standing on his favourite food -- dorayaki!

Mmmm...This red bean pancake is bigger than me!

A look at Doraemon from different angles!

I wanted to add a red tail behind but felt that it was too much work already with all the facial details, pocket, bell, collar, arms and feet! And since the figurine is quite small, working with the small parts is quite a challenge. Anyway he looks good enough from the front and 45°angles :p

I don't have a customized mould so I created the figurine from layer cakes baked in 6" and 7" square pans (for the body, arms and small features), jumbo egg shells (more than 70g and with inner membrane removed, for the head, the bigger the better) and round silicone ice cube tray (for the feet).

Many thanks to Susanne's generosity, I have some blue pea flowers as natural blue colouring this time :). Although some artificial colouring has to be added, less is necessary.

As Doraemon has quite a bit of white features, I adapted the recipe from one that uses only one egg yolk but four egg whites as the base batter to minimize the use of white coloring. Only a few drops were needed.

Ingredients (makes about 4 figurines):
Egg yolk batter
1 egg yolk
10g caster sugar
43g canola oil (or any vegetable oil)
30g water
30g blue pea flower infused water (I soaked about 10 dried flowers in 33g water. Use more if you have. I didn't have that many)
1/4 tsp vanilla extract, divided into 2 portions
74g cake flour, divided into 2 portions
Pinches of salt
1/8 tsp (heaped) charcoal powder
Red, yellow white and blue gel food coloring

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

Tools for shaping
Regular and jumbo straws
Round cutters
Small sharp fruit knife
Cutting board
Toothpicks

Steps:
1. Line the trays with baking sheet, preheat the oven to 160°C. Position the rack to second lowest position.

2. Make the egg yolk batter. Whisk egg yolk and sugar until pale and all sugar has dissolved (first photo).

3. Gradually add oil and whisk until thick like mayonnaise (second photo).

4. Divide the batter into two. Gradually add 30g of water into each of the divided batter, one blue and one plain, and whisk until well combined. Add vanilla extract and mix well. Gradually whisk in sifted flour into each batter (third photo).

5. Portion out 1/2 tsp of plain egg yolk batter for each of the colors, yellow and black, and 1 tsp for red. Add food coloring and charcoal to the respective batters.

6. Prepare the meringue. Beat egg whites until foamy in a clean metal bowl using an electric mixer. Add cream of tartar and beat until soft peaks form. Gradually add sugar and beat until stiff peaks form and the bowl can be overturned without the meringue falling out.

7. Fold the meringue into the various egg yolk batter in three additions. Portion about 1.5 tbs of meringue for yellow and black batters, and 3 tbs for red batter (fourth picture).

8. Pour blue batter into 4-5 XL egg shells to about 2/3 full and into the 6" tray. Spoon white batter into the ice cube tray and part of 7" tray. Spoon the rest of the coloured batter, side by side, into the 7" tray as well, making sure that red batter forms a rectangle. We need a long strip for the red collar. Bake the following at the respective time and temperature*:
- layer cakes: 160°C for 9-11 minutes
- ice cube tray/ cakepop mould: 160°C for 10 minutes, followed by 4-8 minutes at 150°C
- egg shells: 160°C for 10 minutes, followed by 150°C for 5 minutes. If still not baked through, extend baking time for another 5-7 minutes at 140°C.

* Each oven is different so your temperature and time required may be different. Use a toothpick to check for doneness.

Immediately remove layer cakes from pan, peel of the baking sheet and cool with a fresh baking sheet covering it. Roll up the blue layer cake as soon as you can to cool it in rolled up position.

Immediately invert the ice cube tray to cool. Carefully unmould by hand when completely cooled.

Carefully crack the eggshell by tapping it with the back of a metal spoon and gently peeling off the shells.

9. Here's the fun and tedious part of assembly.

Tips: Keep a small bowl of simple syrup (1:1 ratio sugar:water) to brush on the small parts of cake to prevent them from drying out. Keep unused parts in airtight container. Have a small bowl of water to wet the knife a bit before carving (thanks Susanne for this last tip!).

i) Cut the eggshell baked cake to about roundish in shape. Use round cutters/ straws to cut out the facial features. Use the knife to carve out the various shapes. Carefully carve out the centreline, mouth and line on the tongue. Use marshmallows melted with a bit of water as glue to glue the parts on (first picture).

ii) Cut a rectangular strip from blue layer cake with width slightly less than size of head. Roll both ends as shown in the second picture. Glue the rolled up cake with melted marshmellow.

iii) Cut two ice cube tray baked cakes to form the feet and an oval for the belly. Glue them together as shown in the third picture.

iv) Secure the head, body, feet and dorayaki (I used store bought dorayaki) together using two toothpicks, one down each leg (fourth picture).

v) I apologise for the lack of photos from this point as I was rushing. Cut a white semi circle for the belly pouch and stick it on. Cut a red strip for the collar and small yellow circle with a strip in the middle for the bell. Glue those around the neck, hiding the joining between head and body a bit.

vi) Finally, make the arms. Cut two small blue pieces from layer cake and roll it up to form a Swiss roll. If it is too thick, try slicing the cake thinner before rolling again. Cut out a small semicircle from ice cube tray baked cake and roll it up a bit to shape into the hands. Glue the hands onto the arm and glue the whole arm onto the body.

When it was time to eat Doraemon, I did feel a bit reluctant to :p. But the kids had so much fun eating it and it was so nice to see their joy when they saw my creation and ate it!

Just to share a less flattering view of Doraemon from the side and back...

Do add on a tail if you have the time and energy!

Farewell Doraemon!

Blessed birthday to my firstborn! May you grow up to love God and people around you!

With lots of love,
Phay Shing

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Doraemon Vanilla Chiffon Cake

This Doraemon chiffon cake is for my good friend’s daughter who loves Doraemon. My son also likes Doraemon very much and we almost had it for his birthday last year! Doraemon is a robotic cat who travels back in time in aid a boy Nobita in the cute Japanese manga and anime ^_^.

My friend preferred a pop-out 3-D roundish Doraemon face than a 2D one, so here I used my ball cake mold for baking the pop-out face. The picture is not obvious but I actually baked 1/3 of a ball for the face. I used a 2 egg vanilla chiffon cake recipe for it. Then I cut out the facial features from chiffon cake baked in 6-inch layer trays (3 egg recipe divided into plain batter, charcoal batter, and red yeast powder batter). The eyes, bell and nose were cut out from cakes baked in my cake pop maker for small round cakes.

The details on the bell were made by using a fruit knife to cut 2 lines (but not through). I actually made a real through-hole for the lock (using a straw for the circle and knife) and stuffed black cake into the lock hole to capture the spatial details. I used melted marshmallows to glue the chiffon cake pieces together.

The base cake was a 3 egg recipe vanilla chiffon cake in 17 cm chiffon tin. Recipe for vanilla chiffon cake is below:

Vanilla Chiffon Cake
3 egg yolks
20g sugar
39g vegetable oil
37 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 (I used steam baking but it is optional).
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 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 cake for 15 min at 160°C then 30-31 min at 140°C.
9. Invert immediately once out of the oven to cool
10. Unmould after the cake is cool.

My friend shared the cake was very nice and her daughter T was delighted!

Happy birthday to Tessa and her daddy!

With love,

Susanne

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Postage Stamp Chocolate Magic Custard Cake

My friend wanted a cake for hubby's birthday and I asked her about his preference... he likes chocolates and generally doesn't like cakes. Hmm... sounds like regular chiffon is out. Since I know the birthday boy as well, I know he likes coffee, doesn't like overly sweet stuff and Doraemon. And so, I came up with this small chocolate magic custard cake bursting with chocolate flavor that is enhanced by espresso, and packaged as a Doraemon postage stamp!

Unfortunately the postage stamp idea came only after I baked the cake. I should have used a square tin instead of a round tin. Oh well. The birthday boy still loved the look and taste of the cake :).

Look at that rich chocolatey custard layer and light souffle layer! I seldom get to taste the cakes that I bake for others nowadays but since this one had trimmings, I got to try :). The high cocoa content and espresso makes the cake really rich in flavor but the custard base and melt-in-your-mouth souffle gives it an interesting texture.

My recipe is adapted from whiteonricecouple, which I realise is where almost all other bloggers adapt from.

Ingredients (makes a 4.5" round cake):
1 egg yolk
33g icing sugar
28g unsalted butter
153g fresh milk
26g plain flour
11g cocoa powder
10g espresso (about 2 tsp)
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1 egg white
1/10 tsp cream of tartar
7g caster sugar

Steps:
1. Preheat oven to 160 degrees Celsius. Line the bottom of the 4.5" pan with baking sheet and grease the sides.  You may choose to line the sides of the pan. As I used a pan with removable base, I covered the base with a layer of aluminium foil to prevent batter from flowing out.

2. Melt the butter and set aside. Combine milk, vanilla extract and espresso and warm it up. Sift together cocoa powder and flour

3. Beat the egg white in a clean metal bowl until foamy. Add cream of tartar and beat until soft peaks form. Add caster sugar and beat until stiff peaks form.

4. Beat egg yolk and icing sugar until pale and fluffy. Add melted butter and beat for 2 minutes until well combined. Add sifted flour and cocoa powder and mix well. Gradually add in milk mixture and use a hand whisk to mix it in. Batter will be very thick at first but becomes runny after all the milk is added.

5. Add the meringue into the egg yolk batter one third at a time and gently fold it in until no big curds are seen. You may find folding in using a hand whisk helpful.

6. Pour the batter into the tin and bake for 35-40 minutes or until golden brown on top but the center is still slightly jiggly.

7. Cool completely before removing from tin.

8. Trim the sides if you are serving the normal way. I used a jumbo straw to create the postage stamp shape.

9. Dust the cake with snow powder and refrigerate until you are ready to serve. I used a Doraemon cookie cutter to create the imprint on the cake, and then use a small sharp knife and toothpick to cut into the cake to create a clearer Doraemon picture.

Verdict was the cake tasted really good with the perfect level of sweetness. My friend loved the texture of the custard. The cake was eaten 4 days after I baked it though so the souffle layer was starting to break down. Something useful to keep in mind for future magic custard bakes.

With love,
Phay Shing

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