GUAVA CHIFFON CAKE
These cakes were made for Amy's birthday on January 21, 2006. A cycling fanatic, she is one of Blake and my very dear friends and we go back many years now.
My colleague and teammate, Linh, and I were talking about guavas one day at work. I exclaimed, "what a neat cake that would make!" and looked to see who's birthday was coming up next so I could try it.... Amy, for better or worse, was to be the tester.
Never having done a guava cake before, I had to do a lot of research. I found traditional guava cake recipies mainly from Hawaii and Puerto Rico. The recipies from Hawaii called for guava nectar, while the recipies from Puerto Rico called for sliced guava paste. I ended up combining several recipies I found to make these guava cakes for Amy. The cake itself is a guava chiffon cake made with guava nectar that tints the batter a pale pink. I poured half the guava chiffon batter into the pans, then placed a thin layer of sliced guava paste (found at a mexican market) and poured the remainder of the batter over. The guava paste melts to create a dramatic dark pink center. The filling and frosting is a non-dairy chocolate whipped cream with organic coconut shavings on top and fresh orchids for decoration.
