Pandan Chiffon Cake II

When I first started out baking, my first bake was a Pandan Chiffon Cake. Back then, I was browsing Bakingmum's blog and her bakes got me enticed. Without giving much thought, I plunged foolishly into making the highly temperamental chiffon cake. Needless to say, I ended up with five failures before I managed to get a decent chiffon cake. Had I known better, I would have started with simpler bakes.

It can be frustrating to bake chiffon cakes at times, especially when most recipes state the number of whites instead of the specific weight. Egg whites are the building blocks of a chiffon cake. How well a chiffon cake would turn out depends on the volume of egg whites and if they are whipped appropriately; almost stiff but still moist.

When whipping egg whites, a number of factors influence the resulting volume, such as: presence of fats (eg. traces of egg yolks) in the mixing bowl, on the beater or in the egg whites; temperature of whites; quality of eggs (my deduction); time when sugar is added to egg whites and most obviously the weight of egg whites used. Humidity might also play a part, since meringue is moisture sensitive. The amount of liquid is important too. If the cake is too moist, the weight of the cake may cause it to fall out of the tin when the tin is overturned to cool. Just my take on making of chiffon cakes.

For consistency, I will be baking chiffon cakes in future by weighing the egg whites, a cultivated practice/habit that is attributed to Rose's (Rose Levy Beranbaum) influence. After all, baking is an exact science where precise measurements are required for consistent results.

Pandan Chiffon Cake (Recipe slightly adapted from Bakingmum)

Serving size: 10-12 slices

Taste and texture: soft, light and fluffy.

Equipment and materials:
1) Stand electric beater/ handheld electric beater
2) Measuring spoon set
3) Spatula
4) Mixing bowl
5) Metal bowl
5) Wire rack
6) 21 cm or 22cm chiffon tin (oil-free)
7) Balloon whisk

Ingredients:
1 tbs pandan juice (5 pandan leaves blended with 3 tbs water)
65g egg yolks
30g castor sugar
a pinch of salt
3 1/2 tbs corn oil
100ml coconut milk
3/4 tsp pandan paste
100g cake flour
1 tsp baking powder
160g egg whites at room temperature
1/2 tsp cream of tartar (optional, I did not use this)
70g castor sugar

Method:
Preheat Oven - Preheat oven to 170 degrees C.

Mix dry ingredients - In a mixing bowl, sift cake flour and baking powder. Whisk using a balloon whisk to distribute the dry ingredients evenly.

Make pandan juice - Wash the pandan leaves and cut into thin strips. Blend with 3 tbs water. Add more water if needed. Pass the pandan puree through a sieve and set aside 1 tbs of the pandan juice.

Making the egg yolk batter - In a mixing bowl, whisk together the egg yolks, 30g sugar, salt, corn oil, coconut milk, pandan juice and pandan paste until smooth and combined. Stir in flour mixture into egg yolk mixture and mix until smooth and combined.

Beating egg whites - In a metal bowl, beat eggs whites on low speed until frothy. Add cream of tartar if using at this point. Continue beating and gradually increase speed to high until egg whites are at very soft peaks. Add remaining 70g sugar slowly and continue beating until egg whites are almost stiff but still moist. This is when the bowl is overturned, the egg whites would not budge. Egg whites form shiny and creamy upright peaks when beater is withdrawn.

Folding egg whites into egg yolk batter - Fold one third of beaten egg whites with a balloon whisk into egg yolk batter to lighten and mix well. Incorporate the rest of the egg whites and fold gently to obtain a smooth, uniformly coloured foamy batter. Scrape sides and bottom of bowl with a spatula to ensure batter is well mixed.

Baking the cake - Pour batter into chiffon cake tin carefully and bake for 40-50 minutes, or until an inserted skewer comes out clean. Invert chiffon cake tin to cool before unmoulding.

Notes:
1) Chiffon tin must be oil-free. Do not grease, line or flour the tin.
2) Metal bowl for beating whites and beater must be oil-free. Egg whites should be at room temperature. These are necessary to obtain maximum volume for beaten egg whites.
3) Batter should fill 2/3 of 21cm tin. My cake rose to almost the brim but deflated slightly upon cooling.
4) The batter should overflow if a 18cm chiffon tin is used.

Hello! Pandan Chiffon Cake

Whew! I am finally done with my cheesecake order. Glad that my friend's colleagues and boss liked it. They mentioned that I can start selling it outside. That was a sign of relief and at the same time some encouragement to me. Even though I have a certain level of confidence in my New York cheesecakes, there was this concern circling me. They had to be at least decent tasting to others as I do not want to embarrass my friend. As to whether I would want to start selling it, it would be highly unlikely. Currently, the only orders I would entertain would be from friends and family members.

Now that the cheesecake baking marathon is over, it is time to bake stuff for my own consumption. Its been ages since I said Hi to my long time friend - the Pandan Chiffon Cake. This was the very first baked good that was produced by my oven after several failed attempts.  

Pandan is a common name known by southeast asians. It is also known as Screwpine to western countries, just like chinese sparsley is known as coriander or cilantro. In Singapore, we use it mainly to prepare Nasi Lemak, peranakan kuihs (colourful and dense chewy snacks), curry and not forgetting our signature green pandan chiffon cakes. Very often, pandan leaves are used in conjunction with coconut, just like the combination of rum and raisins. When the two are combined, a 'lethal' and highly addictive flavour is developed.

I came across a pandan chiffon cake recipe from Tested and Tasted and decided to try it out. The recipe was provided by Judy Koh from Creative Culinaire in the Sunday Times Lifestyle section. Something was puzzling me when I was browsing the recipe. It uses 4 egg whites but uses a 23cm chiffon pan. Previously, I have baked chiffon cakes which required 5 egg whites in a 21 cm pan and the size was just nice. The instructions also stated using a temperature of 190 degrees C which is much higher than what was expected.

Sticking to my instincts and experience, I baked the batter in a 21cm pan at 175 degrees C and reduced it to 170 degrees C. It rose to half the height of the pan, which was something I expected. Afterall, it could'nt have risen higher than a chiffon cake that uses 5 egg whites. Judging from the height of the finished cake, baking it in a 18cm pan would be more appropriate.

When the cake was done, I inverted the pan and rested its 3 'legs' on 3 round pans. Overall, the combination looks like a metal drum set. The cake turned out quite alright, except it sunk a little towards the inner perimeter, which was a first for me. Perhaps I should have stuck to 175 degrees C all the way. Looks like I have lost my mojo for chiffon cakes. Despite the slight imperfection, the cake was polished off in less than 3 hours. I ate three fifths of the light textured snack and my younger brother ate the remaining 4 slices in one shot just before he was tucking in to his takeaway economic mixed vegetables rice which was meant for dinner. So I inquired if he was hungry or the cake tasted good. He gave a unreserved reply agreeing to the latter - 好吃~

Pandan Chiffon Cake (Recipe slightly adapted from Judy Koh's recipe in Sunday Times Lifestyle section)
Serving size: 8 -10 slices
Equipment and materials:
1) Stand electric beater/ handheld electric beater
2) Measuring spoon set
3) Spatula
4) Mixing bowl
5) Metal bowl
5) Wire rack
6) 18 cm or 21 cm chiffon tin (oil-free)
7) Balloon whisk
 
Ingredients:
5 pandan leaves
3 tbs water
50g egg yolk (about 3 yolks)
30g castor sugar
a pinch of salt
1 tbs + 1 tsp corn oil
2tbs + 1 tsp coconut milk (I used packet coconut cream)
1/4 tsp pandan paste
55g cake flour
120g egg whites at room temperature (about 3 to 4 egg whites)
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
40g castor sugar
 
Method:
1) Preheat oven to 175 degrees C.
2) Wash the pandan leaves and cut into thin strips. Blend with the water. Add more water if needed. Pass the pandan puree through a sieve and set aside 3 tbs of the pandan juice.
3) In a mixing bowl, whisk together the egg yolks, 30g sugar, salt, corn oil, coconut milk, pandan juice and pandan paste until smooth and combined.
4) Sieve cake flour into egg yolk mixture and mix until smooth and combined.
5) In a metal bowl, beat eggs whites, cream of tartar and 40g sugar starting with low speed. When the egg whites turn frothy, slowly increase the speed to high and beat until egg whites are at stiff peaks. This is when the bowl is overturned, the egg whites would not budge. Egg whites form shiny and creamy upright peaks when beater is withdrawn.
6) Fold one third of beaten egg whites with a balloon whisk into egg yolk mixture to lighten and mix well. Incorporate the rest of the egg whites and fold gently to obtain a smooth uniformly coloured foamy batter. Scrape sides and bottom of bowl with a spatula to ensure batter is well mixed.
7) Pour batter into chiffon cake tin carefully and bake for 40-50 minutes.
8) Invert chiffon cake tin to cool before unmoulding.  

Notes:
1) Chiffon tin must be oil-free. Do not grease, line or flour the tin.
2) Metal bowl for beating whites and beater must be oil-free. Egg whites should be at room temperature. These are necessary to obtain maximum volume for beaten egg whites.
   

Birthday Cake For Mum

Made this pandan fudge cake at the request of my mum for her birthday. Come to think of it, this is my 4th time baking it. As I have too many recipes on hand to try out, I hardly bake the same cake more than twice especially cakes that would require more attention.

Among all my attempts, I am most satisfied with this. I cut down on the amount of pandan paste and included pandan juice for the 1st time. The results were good. Compared to the previous attempts, I managed to obtain even layers for the cake and pandan fudge. The topping was done simply by melting semisweet dark chocolate and piping them out into words. After tasting the cake, I realised that chocolate and pandan do compliment each other well.

Pandan Kaya Cake (Recipe from Aunty Yochana's blog)

Recipe

Birthday Cake For My Cousin

Baked a pandan kaya cake at the request of my godma (my aunt) last sat. It was meant for her daughter (my cousin) whose birthday is around the corner. When she mentioned that my cousin love pandan cakes, the pandan kaya cake from aunty yochana's blog immediately came to my mind. I have made it twice previously and it was well received by my friends.

Things did not proceed smoothly at first. My handy electric handheld mixer was down a few days back and I thought it would be alright to use a balloon whisk. To my dismay, I was proved outright wrong. I had to use tremendous strength to beat the sponge mix and eggs and the end result was far from satisfactory. It seemed that the volume obtained using manual effort was much lesser compared to using the electric mixer. Nevertheless, I finished up the cake batter and popped the pan into the oven. The baked sponge was only two-thirds of what it should have been. I was rather disappointed because I knew I could do it better if my electric beater was working.

Casting my disappointment aside, I worked the remaining of the cake. As the height of the cake is less than desired, I adjusted the amount of pandan kaya fudge to balance up.

Everything worked out fine in the end. The fudge turned out slightly soft though, perhaps due to insufficient setting time. For the wording, I planned to use white chocolate initially. However, the white chocolate would not melt. After 3 attempts, I changed to using dark chocolate instead. It has been such a long time since I have written any chinese characters manually. I have almost returned all of it to my chinese teachers. My mum was beside to guide me when I was questioning whether the strokes were correct, especially for the word "快".

When I sampled a slice of the cake, it was not as dense as I thought it would be even though the sponge cake did not rise as much due to insufficient beating. On the contrary, I received raving reviews for it from my family members.

I learnt a lesson from this - never attempt to bake without the use of my trusty electric mixer again.

Pandan Kaya Cake (Recipe from Aunty Yochana's blog)
Recipe