Baking chiffon cakes is my latest obsession these days after creating that coffee chiffon cake with a perfect top just days ago. Like what I mentioned in that post, I cannot wait to try out different chiffon cake flavours! While thinking what flavour I should bake, the first thing that came to my mind was pandan chiffon cake!
Pandan is the first flavour that most Singaporeans would associate with when they think of chiffon cake. When I realised this, I was in disbelief that a pandan chiffon cake was not only not the first chiffon cake that I baked, it was also not my second! How absurd! Haha! So, it was quite obvious to me that my next chiffon cake would be a pandan flavoured one.
Since then, I had been trying to look for a pandan chiffon cake recipe which uses pure pandan juice and I browsed through quite a number of recipes but they all used pandan essence, pandan extract, pandan paste and green colouring etc. I wanted to use the pandan leaves my mum grew instead and was elated when I finally found a recipe using only pure pandan juice extracted from the pandan leaves itself! However as I was quite satisfied with my previous coffee chiffon cake, I wanted to use the same “base” for the chiffon cake and just change the flavour accordingly. If this is successful, I can just use this “base” for all my future chiffon cakes and just change the flavours! It is going to be so convenient! With this in mind, I set out to bake my third chiffon cake in 2 weeks. XD
Recipe with Pictures
Makes one chiffon cake (20 cm chiffon tin)
Ingredient list:
For the Egg Yolk Batter:
- 15 pandan leaves
- 4 tbsp. of water
- 60ml of fresh coconut milk
- 80g of egg yolks (about 5 eggs, weighing about 65g each)
- 30g of caster sugar
- 115g of cake flour
- 1 tsp of baking powder
- 75ml of vegetable oil (I used canola oil)
- 1 tsp of vanilla bean paste
For the Meringue:
- 210g of egg whites (about 5 eggs, weighing about 65g each)
- 100g of caster sugar
My Oven Settings:
150°C; top and bottom heat; about 45 minutes.
(Settings would differ from oven to oven. Please experiment with yours!)
Steps:
1. Prepare the pandan juice by first washing and cutting the pandan leaves to small pieces. (Exclude about 2-3cm of the leaves from the tips as they will cause your fingers to itch.) Then blend them with the water.
2. Strain and squeeze the blended leaves through a sieve to obtain around 2 tbsp. of pandan juice.
3. Mix the 2 tbsp. of pandan juice to the coconut milk and set aside.
4. Measure the required amount of egg yolks in a mixing bowl and add in sugar. Using a whisk or a spatula, stir continuously until all the sugar has dissolved and the mixture becomes lighter in colour.
5. Add 1/3 of the pandan/coconut mixture into the egg yolk batter. Then sift in 1/3 of the flour and all the baking powder. Mix well.
6. Repeat Step 5 till all the pandan/coconut mixture and flour have been added and mixed well. Ensure that there are no pockets of flour in the batter.
7. Stir in oil and vanilla. Set aside.
8. Beat the egg whites until they foam and add in sugar slowly. Continue beating the egg whites till they become glossy and leave tracks in the meringue. When you lift your whisk, peaks should form but the tip will droop slightly. Alternatively, you could beat the egg whites till stiff peak.
9. Using a whisk, beat 1/3 of the meringue into the egg yolk batter to lighten it (the batter).
10. Fold the remaining meringue into the egg yolk batter in two batches till well combined.
11. Pour into a ungreased chiffon pan when done and drop the pan two to three times from about 10 cm high to remove any large air pockets.
12. Bake in a preheated oven at the settings mentioned above or until a toothpick inserted into it comes out clean.
13. When your cake is done, remove it from the oven and invert it immediately until it cools.
14. Unmold the cake from the pan.
Recipe Only
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Makes one chiffon cake (20 cm chiffon tin)
Ingredient list:
For the Egg Yolk Batter:
- 15 pandan leaves
- 4 tbsp. of water
- 60ml of fresh coconut milk
- 80g of egg yolks (about 5 eggs, weighing about 65g each)
- 75mls of vegetable oil (I used canola oil)
- 30g of caster sugar
- 115g of cake flour
- 1 tsp of baking powder
- 1 tsp of vanilla bean paste
For the Meringue:
- 210g of egg whites (about 5 eggs, weighing about 65g each)
- 100g of caster sugar
My Oven Settings:
150°C; top and bottom heat; about 45 minutes.
(Settings would differ from oven to oven. Please experiment with yours!)
Steps:
- Prepare the pandan juice by first washing and cutting the pandan leaves to small pieces. (Exclude about 2-3cm of the leaves from the tips as they will cause your fingers to itch.) Then blend them with the water.
- Strain and squeeze the blended leaves through a sieve to obtain around 2 tbsp. of pandan juice.
- Mix the 2 tbsp. of pandan juice to the coconut milk and set aside.
- Measure the required amount of egg yolks in a mixing bowl and add in sugar slowly. Using a whisk or a spatula, stir continuously until all the sugar has dissolved and the mixture becomes lighter in colour.
- Add 1/3 of the pandan/coconut mixture into the egg yolk batter. Then sift in 1/3 of the flour and all the baking powder. Mix well.
- Repeat Step 5 till all the pandan/coconut mixture and flour have been added and mixed well. Ensure that there are no pockets of flour in the batter.
- Stir in oil and vanilla. Set aside.
- Beat the egg whites until they foam and add in sugar slowly. Continue beating the egg whites till they become glossy and leave tracks in the meringue. When you lift your whisk, peaks should form but the tip will droop slightly. Alternatively, you could beat the egg whites till stiff peak.
- Using a whisk, beat 1/3 of the meringue into the egg yolk batter to lighten it (the batter).
- Fold the remaining meringue into the egg yolk batter in two batches till well combined.
- Pour into a ungreased chiffon pan when done and drop the pan two to three times from about 10 cm high to remove any large air pockets.
- Bake in a preheated oven at the settings mentioned above or until a toothpick inserted into it comes out clean.
- When your cake is done, remove it from the oven and invert it immediately until it cools.
- Unmold the cake from the pan.
Comments:
I kept smiling happily to myself when I baked this cake as the smell of the pandan/coconut mixture was quite strong. It smells heavenly! This pandan chiffon cake is so moist and soft, my family finished almost half the cake almost immediately after I unmolded it. In the end, I made another of this cake for my grandma and my uncle’s family that day. Haha. Yummy!
Recipe Source: Preparation of pandan juice from The Baking Biatch while the chiffon cake itself is adapted from my previous Coffee Chiffon Cake.