Pandan Chiffon Cake is an extremely light, fragrant & sweet cake. I love the fragrance and the super light texture of this cake. It is fairly easy to make but there are a few tricks that need attention in order to achieve a light and fluffy chiffon like texture. The proportion of egg white to egg yolks, the baking temperature and the type of cake tin all play a part to ensure a success.
I have tried to bake this cake in a normal round cake tin but without any success. The texture is just not fluffy enough. So I decided to invest in a 8 inch chiffon cake tin – round cake tin with a hollow tube in the middle. It looks like this.
With this cake tin, it is easy to bake a beautifully risen and light pandan chiffon cake. Here is my recipe.
Video Link: https://youtu.be/acxraS8kgtA
Ingredients
(for a 8 inch chiffon cake tin)
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- 4 egg yolks
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- 50 gm sugar
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- 50 ml rice bran oil
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- 100 ml coconut milk
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- 1 tsp vanilla essence
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- 1-2 drops of pandan paste
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- 90 gm flour
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- 1 tbsp cornflour
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- 1 tsp baking powder
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- Pinch of salt
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- 5 egg whites
- 50 gm sugar
Method
- Pre-heat oven to 170°C. Place an oven tray on the top oven rack. This will help prevent the top of the cake from over browning.
- Separate egg whites from the egg yolks.
- Whisk egg whites till frothy.
- Add sugar and continue to whisk till stiff peak. Set meringue aside.
- Whisk egg yolks with sugar.
- Add salt, oil, coconut milk and continue whisking till well combined.
- Add pandan paste and vanilla essence. Stir to mix well.
- Sift flour, cornflour and baking powder into the egg mixture and whisk to combine.
- Mix 1/3 of the meringue into the batter. Stir to combine well.
- Pour the batter into the remaining meringue and fold in gently.
- Tap the bowl to release big bubbles.
- Now pour the batter into the chiffon cake tin from one side. Keep pouring from the same side; do not turn the bowl as that will introduce air bubbles into the batter.
- Use a bamboo skewer to stir the batter in one direction to release any trapped bubbles.
- Place the cake tin on the lowest oven rack.
- Bake at 170°C until the top of the cake starts to crack (around 20-25 mins).
- Lower the oven temperature to 160°C. Continue to bake for another 25 mins. Total baking time: 45 mins. During baking, do not open the oven door or the cake will collapse.
- Cool the cake by turning the cake tin over over a bowl. This will help prevent the cake from collapsing. The bowl will lift the cake over the table top, preventing condensation.
- Cut the cake only when cooled- this may take an hour. Drape a wet towel over the bottom of tin to hasten cooling.
- Once cooled, use a skewer to separate the sides and bottom of the cake from the tin.
