Pandan Chiffon Cake

Dad decided to come over to my place one day to make some Pandan Cakes. I guess that's our way to bond, we love to bake stuff! :) The problem was that he was a professional baker, well, he used to own a bakery, self taught, so his style of baking is more, free style. Me, being the anal one, likes everything to be perfect. So it was... challenging. Haha...

So anyway, I got this recipe from someone else, but it was altered, so I'll just called it mine. :)

PART A:
3 egg yolks
50g caster sugar
60g oil
70g coconut milk
1 teaspoon baking powder
pinch of salt
1 tablespoon pandan juice
1/2 teaspoon pandan essence
100g cake flour

PART B:
5 egg whites
50g caster sugar
1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar

Yields 4 small cakes

1. Preheat oven 180C.
2. Mix everything in PART A together, except for the cake flour. Sift flour into batter until combine.
3. Whisk everything in PART B until stiff and glossy.
4. Add 1/3 of the whisked egg whites into the pandan batter to get a light green batter. Gently fold rest of the egg whites into the pandan batter.
5. Pour the batter into the cake tins. Give the tins a few sharp bangs on the table to release the trapped air bubbles.
6. Place the tins into the oven at the lowest rack for about 45 minutes , or until the crust is golden brown.
7. When the baking is done, overturn the tins and let it cool.
8. To remove the cake, use a sharp knife and with one movement, separate the sides of the cake from the tins.

Mandarin Orange Chiffon Cake

My daughter loves Pandan Chiffon Cakes, but since the Chinese New Year was coming to a close, I was inspired to find a way to get rid of some of my Mandarin Oranges. I found this recipe on My Kitchen Snippets, and it turned out beautifully!. As usual, I halved the ingredients and made a smaller version of the actual recipe. Below are the ingredients for the full sized 10" pan.

(A)
1 3/4cup Self Rising Flour
1/8 tsp of salt

(B)
6 egg yolks
1/2 cup of sugar
3/4 cup Mandarin orange juice
zest of 1 orange
1/4 cup of vegetable oil

(C)
3/4 cup of sugar
6 egg white
1 tsp of cream of tartar

1. Pre-heat oven to 160°C. Sieve all the (A) ingredients in a mixing bowl until well combined.
2. Mix ingredient (B) until well blended and then add in ingredient (A) and mix until smooth. Set it aside.
3. Under ingredient (C), beat the egg whites till they are fluffy. Add in the sugar and cream of tartar high speed until stiff peaks are formed. It should not fall out when you turn the mixing bowl over. Fold 1/3 of the egg whites into the egg yolks mixture and continue to do so until egg whites is finish. Remember to fold in gently until well mixed.
4. Pour batter into ungreased 10" tube pan (about 3/4 full) and bake for an hour or used a bamboo skewer to test the cake. Just insert the skewer into the center of the cake and it should comes out clean.
5. Invert cake and let it cool complete in the pan. When it is cooled, loosen the edge of the pan and remove cake.

Like I said, I halved the ingredients so for my smaller version, so I used a 5" tube pan and baked for only 40mins. The end result is a slightly moist cake. If you like it more dry, bake longer. I think my cake pan was too full, so I ended up with a mushroom-like chiffon cake. Nothing wrong, just that it makes it more difficult to remove from the pan.



There was even leftover cake batter, so I poured the rest into muffin cases and baked for only 20 mins.



Turns out quite nice actually! Little chiffon cakes, no need to cut, great for tea breaks, perfect for little hands. :)