Pandan Chiffon Cake

Salam all,

This morning I couldnt decide if I should make a traditional Malay kuih....putri salat or pandan chiffon cake. Well, I chose the latter as I have forgotten to soak the glutinous rice overnight which is required in the recipe.  I know that I can just soak the glutinous rice for a few hours but I dont think the one and only packet of coconut milk in my pantry will be sufficient for me to make the kuih either.

This is the first time for me to use the real pandan juice for my baking.  I really like the pandan aroma wafting from the oven and I told myself just now that I will use the the real pandan juice from now on (that's if I am not lazy :ppp)  One thing I noticed abt using the pandan juice is that there is no bitterness like when I am using the pandan essence.  The only thing I am dissapointed with my cake is, it collapsed while it was in the oven.  I only realised my mistake right now while copying the recipe to my blog.....it was bcos the recipe calls for SELF RAISING FLOUR!!!  What did I use??  All purpose flour of course....DOH!!!  Ohhh and another thing that I am still having problem when baking chiffon is the large holes in the cake.  Haiiizzz chiffon....chiffon, I've yet to master u bleeaarrggghh!!!

Luckily I only made half of the recipe and for everyone's info.....the cake is gone, finished, no more...habis.  Jannah ate more than half of the cake.  She kept on asking me if she can have the cake right after I took it out of the oven.  When I told her that it needs to be cooled she said that all she wanted was a tiny bit of the cake, sized of a crumb.  I shooed her away hehehehez.  When I took out the cake of the mould and wanted to photo it....she came again asking for a slice.  I gave her a slice and the slice grew into half a CAKE and more.  Oh well, I am glad that the cake is gone cos one thing for sure, hb is not gonna eat it and Jannah has the tendency of wanting to eat freshly baked cakes only.  If I were to give the same cake to her tomorrow, she will say that it is yucky.....aiyayayay :D

Source : PickYin @ Life is Great

Pandan (Screwpine) Chiffon Cake
Recipe from my mother's friend, original source unknown, makes a 25cm 5-inches tall cake.


These are PickYin notes that I've copied from her blog.  Thank you for the info PickYin.
Notes: I didn't have any self raising flour as I don't often bake with it so I made my own by using 180 grams all-purpose flour, 2 tablespoons baking powder and a ¼ teaspoon salt, based loosely on the conversion method at Deb's Smitten Kitchen. This recipe has over 80% of flour over liquid ratio so it is a very stable chiffon. It is kept soft and moist with the equal amount of egg yolks used as opposed to the whites.

I realized after speaking to a few friends wanting to make this cake that many do not own a 25cm bundt or angel food cake tin. There are two ways you can handle this situation without getting a bigger tin. The first is to make the entire recipe, pour enough batter into ¾ of your tin and bake the rest in lined muffin tin(s) for about 30 minutes. The muffin-sized cakes will be more dense but will still be great. Alternatively use the following tin size-number of eggs conversion to modify the recipe.

14cm tin - 1 egg
17cm tin - 2 eggs
21cm tin - 4 eggs
23cm tin - 6 eggs
25cm tin - 8 eggs

For the ½ cup pandan leaf juice:
10-12 pieces pandan leaves *
3-4 tablespoons water
2 tablespoons coconut milk (optional) **

For the flour batter:
180 grams self-rising flour
100 grams castor sugar
8 egg yolks
6 tablespoon corn oil
¼ tablespoon baking of soda

For the meringue:
8 egg whites
100gm castor sugar
½ tablespoon cream of tartar

Pre-heat oven to 170°C and position a wire rack at the lower third rack. Prepare a clean 25cm chiffon cake tin, do not grease.

Wash and cut the spears of pandan leaves into ½ inch pieces. Place into a blender and add 3 tablespoons of the water. Blend to form a thick paste, add another tablespoon of water if it is difficult to blend. If you have a mortar and pestle, pounding the leaves will be easier and less water will be required. Remove and squeeze out all the liquid from the paste through a fine strainer. You should be able to yield close to ½ cup of liquid. To top up and make exactly ½ cup, you can either add some coconut milk, which will go nicely with the pandan flavor, or add more water.

Sift the flour and baking soda into a small bowl. In a separate large mixing bowl, whisk the egg yolks with the corn oil to form an emulsion. Add the pandan leaf juice or pandan leaf juice plus coconut milk mixture. Mix well before adding the sugar and whisk till sugar has melted. Pour the mixture into the dry ingredients and whisk well into a smooth batter, there should be no lumps. Set aside.

On high speed of a stand or hand held mixer, whisk together the egg whites and cream of tartar. Start adding the sugar once the egg whites begin to foam, gradually in 3 additions. Beat till the meringue is smooth and glossy, with stiff peaks. Be careful not to overbeat the egg whites.

Immediately stir in approximately 1/3 of the meringue into the flour batter. With a flexible rubber or silicon spatula, fold in the meringue gently and mix well. Once a roughly homogenous mixture is achieved, add the rest of the meringue and repeat the gentle, light-handed folding process till the cake batter is well combined. Scoop from the bottom of the bowl to ensure no meringue or flour batter is left unmixed. Do not beat or overwork the batter as this will knock out the air you've put into the meringue.

Pour the cake mixture into the cake tin. Using your spatula, dip it into the batter right to the bottom and make circles around the tin twice. This is to remove any large air bubbles possibly trapped while pouring in the cake batter.

Bake at 170°C for 10 minutes. Lower the temperature to 160°C and bake for another 45 to 50 minutes or until cake is done. The cake tester should come out clean. Don't fret if the top of your cake cracks a little, this is normal.

Remove the cake from the oven and immediately overturn it to cool completely, up to 2 hours. I like to do this over an upturned funnel as the legs of the chiffon cake tin are not long enough to avoid the top of the cake touching its resting surface - the cake should rise to the same level or slightly higher than the center tube. You can also use a narrow necked bottle but ensure that it's stable enough to support the weight of the cake.

Release the cake by running a sharp, thin knife along the sides of the cake tin and subsequently the bottom of the tube. The cake is meant to be served upside down as it is heavier on the top - you have no idea how many times that single piece of cake toppled as we took photos.

Cake keeps well chilled in an airtight container or cling wrapped up to five days (three if using coconut milk).

* For a better recipe, I will update this amount in weight once I make the cake again (it totally escaped me on a Sunday morning). Pandan leaves can be found fresh at Asian markets. For best results use the longest and darkest leaves you can find. Where fresh leaves are not available, some Asian markets stock frozen leaves or pandan paste, which are the next best alternatives. If using the paste, dilute 1½ tablespoons with water to make ½ a cup of liquid.

** Coconut milk is optional and will enhance the pandan flavor of the cake. I used freshly squeezed first press from a few handfuls of grated coconut flesh. If using coconut cream, dilute a tablespoon of coconut cream with a tablespoon of water.

Ok that's all folks.  Do read ur recipes correctly otherwise u will end up like me @_@.  Maybe I need progressive lenses so that I can read properly haiizz signs of old age ahakkksss.  TTFN ;)