Saturday, November 28, 2009

Pandan chiffon cake

Weekend is here again. I am gonna bake one of my childhood favourites: Pandan Chiffon Cake (PCC). My mum requested me to bake it too. I have some friends from Hong Kong who love the PCC from Singapore. I will always bring some over whenever I visit Hong Kong. To me, baking PCC is a big challenge for me. I kept procrastinating in baking this whenever I look at the recipe. 9 egg whites!! 8 yolks!! Whisking the egg whites with caster sugar till stiff peaks is an art in my opinion. When do I know I've reached the peak? Search me. I've seen pictures which illustrated how soft/stiff peaks look like. Still, there is always this unexplained 'fear' in carrying out this mission. Yes,  a Mission. Mission Possible or Mission Impossible? *Shivers*

I have been studying recipes after recipes for PCC. Finally, I decided to adapt the recipe from Little Corner of Mine . And the result: I succeeded in baking my first Pandan Chiffon Cake. It didn't sink after the cake was left to cool on the wire rack. Hip hip, Hooray!!! Hip Hip Hooray!! I have this urge to open a bottle of champage to celebrate. I know I know, I was overreacting. I was feeling so nervous waiting for my PCC to finish the baking process. I read horror stories of the failure of PCC, so you can't blame me for getting so uptight. :) The texture was soft and fluffy but tasted a tad too dry. I should have followed the recipe all the way and not tweaked it since I'm not an experienced PCC baker. I will attempt to make this again.

I posted some pictures on the step by step procedures on whisking the egg whites till stiff peaks.

Whisk the egg whites till foamy which resemble like the foam present in beer.


Add the caster sugar slowly into the egg whites and whisk till shiny and stiff peaks.




Fold in the egg white mixture gently into the egg yolk mixture using a big spatula.







Recipe:
(A)
1 3/4 cup plain flour (I use 1 3/4 cup cake flour, sifted twice)
1 tbsp baking powder ( I use 0.5 tbsp)
1/2 cup caster sugar
1 tsp salt

(B)
1/2 cup canola oil (I use sunflower oil)
3/4 coconut milk (I use coconut cream)
1 tsp pandan paste
6 egg yolks

(C)
6 egg whites
1/2 tsp cream of tartar
3/4 cup caster sugar

Method:

Pre-heat oven to 175 deg celsius.

Place (A) in a bowl and stir well to blend. Add (B) in and whisk till smooth using electric mixer.

Beat (C) till moist peaks formed. Add cream of tartar. Gradually add caster sugar, beating until stiff and shiny peaks are formed. Fold in 1/3 of egg whites into the egg yolk mixture, fold to mix and then add in the rest of the egg whites. Fold in gently but thoroughly. Pour batter into ungreased tube pan.

Bake for 60 mins or till a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean. Invert pan and cool completely in pan. When cooled, loose the edges and shake the pan to remove the cake.




Enjoy!

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