Piano Cake

This is a jump queue post.

My son's birthday was back in August but I didn't have time to blog about it.  Decide to jump the queue before the next birthday arrives (my mom's in November).

DD1 and DS2 started taking piano lessons back in June this year.  I must say DS2 did not show as much interest as his sister since he hasn't been practising.  Probably because of his age?  Or he just doesn't have the passion?  But the interesting part is, he asked me to bake him a piano cake for his birthday.

I remember seeing 2 piano cakes, here and here, both very different styles.  I had wanted to adapt HHB's keyboard cake but I don't have a cake box big enough to accommodate a rectangle cake.  And with Wendy's, though I have a square cake pan, it has not been used to bake a chiffon cake (I only use chiffon cake base for my layer cakes) so I was worried the cake may get stuck to the bottom of the pan.  Googled for piano cake ideas and all of them are baked in squares or rectangles, mostly covered with fondant (which needs a dense cake to support).  I give up.  Decided to just bake a 8" round cake and decide on the decoration later as I've communicated with DS2 I can't commit but I'll try my best. He gave me a few other options, a ball cake, a gummy bear cake, or just a cake with his name on it and the words "Happy Birthday".

I did my sketch on a recycled paper, measuring out the black and white keys in a 8" cake pan.  I forgot 8" is too big for my family so I had to reduce to a 7" instead.  After this draft was done, DD3 decided to help me with some colouring.

I melted some chocolate for the black keys but when I was removing them from the parchment paper, they cracked.  I have contigency plan of course, Kit Kat!  That saved the cake :-)

I used dairy whipping cream and again, it's melting on me :'(

I left the cake on the table while I go get the knife.  DD3 couldn't wait and decided to poke her little finger into the cream.  If DS2 were to see this, a war is inevitable.

I first saw this rainbow cake at What's For Dessert Today, adapted from Rumah Manis, and then at Wendy's.  I thought the kids will be thrilled to see something colourful but I was wrong.  They didn't go "wow" after seeing the sliced cake.  To them, it was just another plain cake.

Basic Chiffon Cake

Ingredients

3 egg yolks

20g castor sugar

60ml corn oil
pinch of salt
100ml water

110g cake flour
1/3 baking powder

3 egg whites
1/3 tsp cream of tartar
30g castor sugar

Method

1. In a bowl, using hand whisk, whisk yolks and sugar till sugar dissolves.
2. Add oil and salt, whisk and add water. Stir well.
3. Fold in sifted flour and baking powder, mix well.
4. In another bowl, using an electric mixer, beat till the whites are frothy. Add in Cream of Tartar and beat till soft peaks.
5. Add in sugar gradually and beat till stiff peaks.
6. Fold in 1/3 of the whites into the yolk mixture using a rubber spatula till incorporated.
7. Pour the mixture to the remaining egg whites and fold in gently till incorporated.
8. Pour the batter into 7" round pan. Bang the pan on the table to get rid of bubbles.
9. Bake at pre-heated oven of 170 deg.C for 20 mins.
10. Turn down the temperature to 160 deg.C and bake for another 20 - 25 mins.
11. Reduce the temperature to 140 deg.C and bake for a further 5 - 10 mins to brown the surface.
12. Remove from the oven and invert the pan. Remove the cake from pan when it's completely cooled.