Baking The World by Storm

Boasting over 134,000 followers on Instagram (@susanne. decochiffon), Susanne Ng’schiffon cake recreations have inspired a whole community to push past the creative boundaries of baking. Guided by her innate curiosity and unapologetic determination, she has since authored four best-selling cookbooks and her recipes have been featured in renowned publications worldwide. Here, she reflects on her culinary journey since her transition from academia and discusses the specialisation with chiffon cakes. She also shares the recipe for her Cloud Chiffon Cake.

Some of the characters you have managed to create are just amazing! Any personal favourites?

For sure it will have to be the cake I made in collaboration with Food Network! I made a SpongeBob SquarePants inspired cake in the form of a pineapple, which would reveal a caricature of SpongeBob inside once you cut into it. I remember being incredibly nervous when doing the ‘big reveal’, as I did not know for sure how the cake’s interior would turn out!

Many of your creations are profoundly endearing, almost like Japanese cartoons. Are there specific inspirations which motivatethese delicious art pieces?

My creative muses can be in the form of the plushies in my home, adorable gems I chance upon during my shopping trips, and creations around me!  When my baking interests developed a professional side, collaborative opportunities with brands like Food Network and Nickelodeon gave me the opportunity to work with animated characters like SpongeBob, who I find to be especiallyendearing as well. Really, I’m just super honored and stoked that these brands would entrust the creative elements of these beloved personalities to me!

You worked with Pusheen on your thematic cookbook Let’s Bake! A Pusheen Cookbook. How did that collaboration come about?

It was the year 2016 when my Chiffon Cake creations started generating traction online, with my videos being circulated widely online! It was also being featured in reputable publications and media like Mashable and Good Morning America. Pusheen chanced upon my viral videos and had initially wanted it to be a social media collaboration, with me creating recipes which allude to their current and upcoming creations. We worked with one another so well that we decided to do our very own cookbook.

You graduated with a PhD in Biomedical Engineering, and spent time in the field as an academic researcher! What made you put away your lab coat in favour of an apron?

It all happened after I had my kids. My husband had to head to the United States for his academic pursuits, necessitating mytransition from the role of a researcher to the role of a full-time mummy! Like every mother, I wanted my kids’ experience with food to be both a healthy and nourishing one, so I avoided off-the-shelf products. That naturally led me to experiential baking, and I started out with the typical breads and pastries before advancing towards some of my more complex creations.

Did your scientific background prove useful in your baking creations?

Definitely! Baking can also be best described as a scientific discipline as well – measurements are especially precise, sequencing is imperative to produce the right reactions, and optimisation of both its methodology and ingredient utilisation is crucial for the most perfect bake!

Do you recall the very first time you attempted baking?

You’ll be shocked but my first ever foray into baking happened after my first kid! Prior to that, I had never baked bread, let alone the cakes I’m making now. Strangely enough, my research background had already instilled in me the attributes necessary for the craft. The baking process is almost like analysing research papers – I study an array of recipes, compare the variations between them while picking up their nuances before concluding it with a calculated guess. Thankfully and consequently, my very first chiffon cake turned out great!

You handle your own social media content, from photography, copywriting to images. How do you manage it all on your own?

If you’ve noticed, I only post once a week. Just generating and delivering content, while ensuring its quality is truly representative of me and my work is a Herculean task. It is difficult, but it does help that I am passionate about the baking community we have here in Singapore as well as across the globe, and social media helps connect me with variousbaking enthusiasts!

What do people not see behind the camera?

The failed bakes! I experiment a lot with recipes, and they do not all turn out as polishedas the creations you see online!

Any advice for aspiring bakers and chefs?

Make sure it is motivated by an authentic passion for the craft!

Cloud Chiffon on Cake
(For 18-cm tube pan)

EGG YOLK BATTER

• 1 whole egg
• 27g caster sugar
• 53g vegetable/corn oil
• 51g soy milk
• 7g vanilla extract
• 80g cake flour, sifted
• 1 teaspoon (tsp) spirulina extract (½ tsp             spirulina powder in ½ tsp hot water)
• Blue food colouring

MERINGUE

• 190g egg whites (around 5 egg whites)
• 1/4 tsp cream of tartar
• 65g caster sugar

1 Preheat oven to 140°C.

FOR THE EGG YOLK BATTER:

2 Whisk egg yolks with caster sugar. Add in oil, soy milk and vanilla extract and whisk well. Whisk in sifted flour and mix till no lumps are found.

3 Divide the egg yolk batter 1 (90g white): 2 (180g blue). For the blue portion, add spirulina extract and blue food colouring (optional). Mix well.

FOR THE MERINGUE:

4 Using an electric mixer, whisk egg whites with cream of tartar till frothy. Add in caster sugar in a few additions and whisk till firm peaks are formed.
5 Divide the meringue into 1 (white): 2 (blue). Gently fold meringue into respectively coloured egg yolk batters.
6 Pipe or spoon the plain batter in cloud-like  blobs at the base of the pan. Fill the surrounding spaces with blue batter. Repeat until batter is 2cm from the brim.

BAKING:

7 Bake the chiffon cake at 140°C for 55-60mins, or until skewer comes out clean.
8 Invert immediately once out of the oven tocool.
9 Unmould by hand after the cake is cool.