Pandan Chiffon Cake

This pandan chiffon cake recipe has been sitting in my draft folder way long ago. This soft and fluffy chiffon cake is my family’s all time favourite dessert. I make this cake quite often. This cake is perfectly suitable for teas or party.

Having posted the Chinese version of the recipe, I’ve nearly forgotten to translate and publish here. Thanks to the tv productions. Watching this season’s Masterchef, surprisingly found that Dan Hong's pandan chiffon cake was set as a pressure test for their contestants. The episode, shown on 6 June 2011 (Elimination Day: The race to recreate Dan Hong's dish is on), reminded me of this silently awaiting recipe.

Upon viewing the episode, my urge inside yielded for trying Dan Hong’s recipe as I wanted to give my family a surprise. Too bad, after a long haul searching, Dan Hong's pandan chiffon cake recipe was not found on the Masterchef’s official site, even up to the time of this writing. Will try if it’s up there later for sure.

Looking back to my old photos taken by my point-and-shoot camera two years ago, feeling it’s better to reshoot some new ones when I made this cake again. If you can’t find Dan Hong's pandan chiffon cake recipe like me, give my recipe a go. This cottony soft cake, with its subtle fragrance of pandan leaves and coconut, won’t let you down either.

The cake was gone quickly. And I might bake one again for bringing along to a tea party on this weekend.

Pandan Chiffon Cake Recipe

(Printable recipe)
By Christine’s Recipes
Prep time: 20 mins
Cook time: 40 mins
Yield: Prepare an ungreased 20cm (8 inch) round tube pan (removable base preferred)

Ingredients:

• 5 egg yolks
• 20 gm caster sugar
• 100 gm cake flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 100 ml coconut milk
• 2 Tbsp pandan juice (see below for making pandan juice)
• a few drops pandan essence/pandan paste, optional
• 3 Tbsp olive oil

Ingredients of egg whites:

• 5 egg whites
• 60 gm caster sugar
• ½ tsp cream of tartar

Ingredients of pandan juice:

• 10 pandan leaves, fresh or frozen
• 1½ Tbsp water

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 170C (338F).
   
2. Beat the egg yolks with a balloon whisk and mix in 20 grams of sugar. Add coconut milk, pandan juice, and a few drops of pandan paste (if desired). Combine well.
   
3. Sift in cake flour and baking powder in three batches into the egg yolk mixture. Mix well. Lastly, add olive oil. Set aside.
   
4. Use a large clean bowl, making sure there’s no water or oil in it. Beat the egg whites with an electric mixer until bubbles form. Add the cream of tartar. After mixing well, add the 60 grams of sugar in three batches, about one-third at a time, and beat well between additions. Continue to beat until stiff peaks form. (Note: please refer to this video “How To Beat Egg Whites”.)
   
5. Spoon out 1/3 of the beaten egg whites and fold into the egg mixture. Lightly fold in the rest of the beaten egg whites with a spatula, until just combined. (Note: please refer to this video "How To Fold-in Egg Whites.)
   
6. Pour into the cake pan and bake in preheated oven for about 35 to 40 minutes. After baking the first 15 minutes, if you find your cake gets browning, reduce heat to 150C（300F）, continue to bake until cooked through. A needle comes out clean when inserted in the middle.
   
7. Remove cake from the oven. invert the pan immediately. Allow it to cool completely.
   

To make pandan juice:

1. Chop pandan leaves into chunks, pop in a food processor and add about 1½ tablespoons of water. Process to small pieces.
2. Place pandan leaves in a muslin bag and squeeze out the juice. You need about 2 tablespoons of it to make this cake. If you don’t have a muslin bag, just use your clean hand to squeeze out the juice.

Notes:

• I added a few drops of pandan essence so the cake is in light green.
• If you want a totally natural pandan cake, just skip the pandan essence. Your cake would look a bit light yellowish, not bright green though.