06 July 2011

Pandan Chiffon Cake

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It's amazing what one can accomplish when the baby sleeps. Sugababe 3 took an unprecedented 2 hour nap yesterday and I immediately got to work on this Pandan Chiffon Cake.  It's a recipe from the well-known food blog ieatishootipost that I had been dying to try for some time.  I am pleased to report that the Pandan Chiffon turned out as fluffy, moist, voluminous and delicious as promised, and is easily the best chiffon recipe I have tried so far!

In particular, I really liked that the recipe asked for the additional step of beating the egg yolks until light and lemon-coloured.  Most chiffon recipes only call for the egg whites to be beaten to stiff peaks, and for the egg yolks to be mixed with the other ingredients (i.e. oil, milk, etc).  Beating the egg yolks until they are light does make it easier to fold the egg whites in at the later stage, and also seems to incorporate more air into the batter, which is a good thing. I will definitely be using this technique for all my chiffon cakes from here on.


If like me, you have none-too-fond memories of dry, coarse and scarily mutant-green pandan chiffon cakes sold in local bakeries, you will be won over by this recipe. My Sugababes, who are partial to soft, fluffy cakes, absolutely adored this cake.  And as I always say, anything that my picky eater Sugababe 2 willingly devours, is a must-try!   

Recipe for Pandan Chiffon Cake
(from Leslie Tay of ieatishootipost. Instructions have been summarised and paraphrased in my own words. For more detailed instructions and an excellent step-by-step tutorial, please go to this link)

 Ingredients


A
6 egg yolks
100g caster sugar
115ml corn oil
140ml coconut milk
200g cake flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
2 tbsp pandan juice
2 tsp pandan essence
1 tsp vanilla essence
(* You can use 3/4 tsp of pandan paste, in place of pandan juice and pandan essence.  Although convenient, pandan paste definitely tastes more artificial, so stick with fresh pandan and pandan essence, if you can)
** I used Kara brand coconut cream, which is nice and thick)

B
9 egg whites
100g caster sugar
1 tsp cream of tartar

Instructions


Preheat the oven to 170C.

Sift cake flour and baking powder, mix evenly. Set aside. 

Beat egg yolks and sugar until light and lemon-coloured. Add in the oil, coconut cream, pandan juice, pandan essence, vanilla essence and salt. Sift flour and baking powder over the mixture. Mix well until smooth.

Beat egg whites with wire whisk attachment until slightly foamy. Add cream of tartar, and beat until soft peaks. Add in sugar tablespoon by tablespoon and beat until stiff peaks form and mixture does not slide out of mixing bowl when upturned.

Add in 1/3 of the beaten egg whites into the egg yolk mixture and mix gently with whisk, to 'lighten' the mixture. Using a spatula, fold in the rest of the beaten egg whites into egg yolk mixture, gently, to prevent batter from deflating. Do not overfold.

Pour batter into 25cm ungreased tube pan. Run a spatula through the batter to eliminate large bubbles in the batter.

Bake at 170C in preheated oven, for about 55 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the cake comes out clean (or with few dry crumbs adhering)

Remove cake from oven, prop it up on a bottle to cool, upside-down so as to prevent the cake from sinking.

Once cool, remove from tube pan by sliding a knife along the sides, and bottom.

To serve, cut with a serrated knife (so as not to flatten the cake).

(This dessert was submitted for Sweets for a Saturday Party #25

10 comments:

  1. This cake looks fantastic! I would love to try it!

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  2. I'm a Chinese Indonesian living in the US. I have been looking for the recipe for this Pandan cake. The recipe I have includes cake emulsifier and it's hard to find them here. I'm soooo happy that your recipe uses baking powder instead. Thanks so much for sharing this. I will try it very very soon :)

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  3. Glad you liked the recipe! Your cake looks excellent!

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  4. holaaaaaaaa me encanta tu blog es una pasada! :) i like your blog a lot of! i´m stay here like follower (sorry my englsis is bad)

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  5. I made a batch 2 days ago.. it came out soft and fluffy. Only the pandantastee is too weak. I mafe the paste the same day so it did not sit long enough for me to drain out some water. Making another one again today.. hope it comes out as soft as last time.. thanks for the recipes.

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  6. Hey,
    I like to use pandan paste. So that mean 2tbs pandan juice +2ts pandan essence =3/4tsp pandan paste. Is that correct?
    I have a 8" Cake tin, is that ok. Thx

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    Replies
    1. Hi yes the 3/4 tsp pandan paste is to be used in place of pandan essence and juice. A normal round cake tin will not do - the cake will collapse or not rise. You need to use a tube pan otherwise known as a chiffon pan.

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  7. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  8. Hi, thanks the recepi. I would love to try but just want to check if I could replace the Pandan juice & paste I with more essence or with water. Thanks a lot!

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