Pandan chiffon cake – it never goes out of style. The donut craze has come and gone. The popularity of cupcake is slowing down. And here we have, a cake that has no icing, no sprinkles, but just plain green in colour. Yet this ordinary-looking cake has withstood the test of time and is still very much in style. I have heard stories of how tourists will snap up boxes of this legendary cake before boarding their flights. And it is no surprise that there is a Bengawan Solo outlet at Changi Airport Terminal 3.
Given its strong heritage in Singapore, you can easily find them in almost any mainstream bakeries, of course unless they are sold out. And now, they can be found in supermarkets as well. That just show how much Singaporeans love this cake.
I baked a pandan chiffon cake on a Sunday in my new 21cm chiffon pan. It was a scaled-up version of a recipe that I have tried successfully for many times. But due to the misjudgment in the baking time required, the cake collapsed and I was utterly depressed. I only recovered when my 2nd attempt was a success! And now I know, 55 minutes is the key.
Standing proud and tall!
Pandan Chiffon Cake
This recipe (16cm version) is submitted and featured in Ascendas Calender 2013 (month of November). Credits to Mister for the submission of recipe.
Ingredient A
Cake flour 80g
Egg yolks 5
Caster sugar 20g
Olive oil 40g
Fresh milk 40g
Coconut cream 40g
Condensed milk 40g
Pandan extract 1/2 tsp
Pandan paste 1/8 tsp
Ingredient B
Caster sugar 90g
Cornflour 10g
Egg whites 5
1. Preheat the oven at 180℃.
2. For Ingredients A, comine egg yollks and caster sugar into a mixing bowl. Mix till well-combined.
3. Add olive oil, fresh milk, coconut cream, condensed milk and pandan extract/paste into the egg yolk mixture. Stir to combine.
4. Fold in cake flour til well-mixed. Leave the flour mixture aside to stand.
5. For Ingredients B, beat egg whites, caster sugar and cornflour together until stiff peak stage for the meringue mixture.
6. Take about 1/3 of the meringue mixture and fold in gently into the flour mixture till well-combined. Repeat this step for the remaining 2/3 of the meringue mixture.
7. Tap the batter gently on the table top to remove air bubbles before pouring into the 21cm chiffon pan. Once poured in, tap the chiffon pan gently again on the table top to remove air bubbles before putting into the oven to bake.
8. Bake at 180℃ for 55 minutes, or until a skewer inserted comes out clean.
The hardest part of baking this cake is definitely judging whether you have attained the stiff peak stage. What I always do is to turn my mixing bowl over to make sure the meringue doesn’t fall off the bowl. If it doesn’t, then I can be pretty sure I have reached the stage.