Thursday 5 March 2015

Minnie Mouse-themed Chiffon Cupcake


This is a sweet, simple and healthy pink Minnie Mouse-inspired chiffon cupcake I made for my daughter's 1st birthday (for the cousins)! The black is colored naturally with charcoal powder, and the pink is colored naturally with pink beetroot-based powder. I have to thank Phay Shing for sourcing such an awesome source of pinkish beetroot powder (Queen brand) from Cold Storage in Malaysia.

Instead of baking the two colours in, like in Hatching Chicks chiffon cupcakes, I took a different approach and painted a cream-colored vanilla chiffon cupcake into black and pink. Then I glued on the candy pearls (from Phoon Huat) and small round patches of vanilla chiffon (cut out from layer chiffon cake) with melted marshmallows.

Vanilla chiffon cake (makes 4 cupcakes in 11mm Iwaki round glass bowls and 1 6-inch layer cake)
3 egg yolks
20g sugar
40g vegetable oil
40 ml boiled water
5 ml vanilla extract
60g cake flour

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. Next 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.
6. Fold in the meringue gently into the batter in 3 additions.
7. Scoop and fill the bowls with chiffon cake batter to 2/3 full and gently tap bowls on table to remove air bubbles. Pour the rest of the batter into a baking paper-lined 6-inch tray.
8. Bake the bowls for 15 min at 160°C then 17 min at 150°C, and the tray cake for for 15 min at 160°C.
9. Place bowls on a cooling rack to cool and then unmould by hand when cool. Flip over the tray cake onto a fresh baking paper.
10. Prepare charcoal powder in boiled water (approx 1 tsp in 1/4 cup water) and pink beetroot powder in boiled water (approx 1/2 tsp in 1/4 cup water, to desired colour) and paint each half black and pink respectively. I found it easier to paint pink first, followed by black so that I only need to be careful when painting the black outline.
11. From the 6-inch tray cake, cut out 2 bigger circles for ears (paint them black), a bow (paint them pink) and small circles (using a bubble tea straw, leave unpainted). Melt some marshmallows with a little bit of water (double boiler or microwave) and glue them onto the Minnie Mouse cupcake.

Have fun painting! The cupcake was a hit with the kids!

Lots of love,
Susanne


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