PS: I did more research, adjusted the recipe and today, baked a cake that came even closer to the familiar taste of this pandan chiffon cake. Recipe below is updated.
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The cake of legendary lightness, fragrance and delicateness in taste - the pandan chiffon cake is one of our favorite types of cake. Easily purchased from the Bengawan Solo chain of shops in Singapore, I don't know many who would make it at home. It's not easy to make it too - getting that feathery soft texture takes skill, which I do not have. But as I've discovered these past two weekends, the right recipe makes a difference.
Last week, my first attempt collapse and sunk. I used a recipe a colleague in Singapore had given me before we left. She said that she had tested the recipe several times and this version she gave me was proven to work. I guess it needed too much skill because I couldn't reproduce it well. Friends on FB tried trouble shooting for me - and mostly, we concluded that we needed a baking pan that was not non-stick.
That started a hunt around Midland and online for such a tube pan. Those I asked looked at me quizzically, and I tried explaining how I needed non-non-stick sides so the cake can crawl upwards and stay there as it cooks. In the process, I learned that NO ONE SELLS such a pan anywhere offline here, or online on amazon.com for that matter! I also learned that anodized aluminum and silicone bakeware are also non-stick.
The husband was getting a bit impatient. Even though the cake last week wasn't successful, quietly, he finished three-quarters of it by himself! The container was even quickly washed and stored away so that by the time I realized what had happened, the cake has well and truly lodged itself in his belly. The man loves his cake...
So today, we decided on the spur of the moment to make another using my secondary school friend's recipe. Sylvia Sweeney (Beh) bakes the most delicious looking cakes, and pipes/makes the prettiest cream/sugar flowers on them too. She kindly agreed to let me share her recipe here if it works.
Ingredients
Group 1
200g cups sifted cake flour (we didn't have that so we found out online that you can make cake flour if for every cup of all purpose flour, you remove two tablespoon and substitute with two tablespoons of corn starch)
100g castor sugar
2tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
115ml canola oil
140ml coconut milk
6 egg yolks
2tsp pandan essence
1 tsp vanilla essence
Group 2
9 egg whites
100g sugar
1 tsps cream of tartar
Instructions
1. Preheat oven to 335F.
2. In your mixer (I use KitchenAid) mix egg yolk and sugar for 5 minutes.
3. As the machine continues to mix, add in oil, coconut milk, pandan essence, vanilla essence and mix for 3 minutes or so. The mixture should look thick and yellowish now if it was light yellow before.
4. Add in sifted flour, baking powder and salt and mix for another 3 minutes or so until you get a gooey yellowish mixture. Set aside.
6. In your stand mixer with a large bowl, beat the 9 egg whites until frothy - about 1 minute at speed 4.
7. Add in cream of tartar and increase speed to 8 and mix for 1 minute.
8. Slowly add in sugar and mix until soft peaks form. Do not over mix.
7. Gently fold the egg whites into the egg yolk batter until just blended. This needs to be done gently. Best to do so with a large balloon whisk, mixing egg whites in three batches into the yellowish egg yolk mixture.
8. Pour into tube pan (10 inches wide) from one spot only - the batter will distribute itself - and bake for 55 minutes.
9. Once done (test with a cake tester stick), invert the cake and place it over a wine bottle or raised wire rack to cool completely.
10. Once cooled, loosen the sides with a long metal spatula and remove the cake. If you've a removable center core (most angel food cake tube pan do), you will need to use the spatula or knife to remove the inner tube too.
11. Slice and enjoy!
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The cake of legendary lightness, fragrance and delicateness in taste - the pandan chiffon cake is one of our favorite types of cake. Easily purchased from the Bengawan Solo chain of shops in Singapore, I don't know many who would make it at home. It's not easy to make it too - getting that feathery soft texture takes skill, which I do not have. But as I've discovered these past two weekends, the right recipe makes a difference.
 |
| Success! With Sylvia Sweeney's recipe. |
That started a hunt around Midland and online for such a tube pan. Those I asked looked at me quizzically, and I tried explaining how I needed non-non-stick sides so the cake can crawl upwards and stay there as it cooks. In the process, I learned that NO ONE SELLS such a pan anywhere offline here, or online on amazon.com for that matter! I also learned that anodized aluminum and silicone bakeware are also non-stick.
The husband was getting a bit impatient. Even though the cake last week wasn't successful, quietly, he finished three-quarters of it by himself! The container was even quickly washed and stored away so that by the time I realized what had happened, the cake has well and truly lodged itself in his belly. The man loves his cake...
So today, we decided on the spur of the moment to make another using my secondary school friend's recipe. Sylvia Sweeney (Beh) bakes the most delicious looking cakes, and pipes/makes the prettiest cream/sugar flowers on them too. She kindly agreed to let me share her recipe here if it works.
Ingredients
Group 1
200g cups sifted cake flour (we didn't have that so we found out online that you can make cake flour if for every cup of all purpose flour, you remove two tablespoon and substitute with two tablespoons of corn starch)
100g castor sugar
2tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
115ml canola oil
140ml coconut milk
6 egg yolks
2tsp pandan essence
1 tsp vanilla essence
Group 2
9 egg whites
100g sugar
1 tsps cream of tartar
Instructions
1. Preheat oven to 335F.
2. In your mixer (I use KitchenAid) mix egg yolk and sugar for 5 minutes.
3. As the machine continues to mix, add in oil, coconut milk, pandan essence, vanilla essence and mix for 3 minutes or so. The mixture should look thick and yellowish now if it was light yellow before.
4. Add in sifted flour, baking powder and salt and mix for another 3 minutes or so until you get a gooey yellowish mixture. Set aside.
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| Leon helped with the egg yolk mixture while I did the egg whites. |
7. Add in cream of tartar and increase speed to 8 and mix for 1 minute.
8. Slowly add in sugar and mix until soft peaks form. Do not over mix.
 |
| Stiff egg whites. |
7. Gently fold the egg whites into the egg yolk batter until just blended. This needs to be done gently. Best to do so with a large balloon whisk, mixing egg whites in three batches into the yellowish egg yolk mixture.
 |
| Messy process. |
9. Once done (test with a cake tester stick), invert the cake and place it over a wine bottle or raised wire rack to cool completely.
 |
| The cake rose so much it expanded beyond the inner tube pan and didn't cook evenly around the center. |
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| Rough sides! The previous failure wasn't the non-stick pan's fault! |
What is the size of the eggs? 7 eggs are alot!
ReplyDelete4 x AA size (big size) eggs can fill up a 9 inch pandan cake tin.
Anyway, the cake looks great!
erm about 60g per egg? I think my cake tin is bigger than 9 inches.
ReplyDelete