A few months ago I saw a recipe by Alan of TravellingFoodies for a Pandan Chiffon cake and I knew I had to make it. I had recently come across the pandan flavor in a cookie, but there the flavor was called screw-pine…and I loved it. It’s taken me this long to finally make it! Now if you’ve been reading along with me you will know that I recently started a new way of eating which does NOT include alot of cake. Fortunately I picked a way that allows one “free” day a week where you can eat ANYTHING you want. (Love it!) The rest of the time you eat really “clean” with a balance of protien to carb to fat (40-40-20 if you really want to know….yawn…..boring).
The most important ingredients!
Now Alan uses fresh pandan leaves to start out with, but I don’t have easy access to that, so these little bottles will have to do. You can check his site in the link above if you’d like to use that method which is probably better. So we start off by creaming together:
- 4 egg yolks
- 50g superfine sugar (caster sugar)
Cream until the yolks get pale and creamy.
Like this.
Then add:
- 60 g of vegetable oil
- 100 g coconut cream
- 3 Tb pandan essence
- 1T pandan paste
- 1 tsp vanilla
Combine well and then add in 130 g cake flour and 1 tsp baking powder and 1/4 tsp salt.
Now we make a meringue using:
- 6 egg whites
- 60g of superfine sugar (caster sugar)
- 1/2 tsp cream of tartar
Whisk until stiff peaks are just obtained (I think I went too far).
Don’t beat to this stage.
Fold 1/3 of the meringue into the pandan mixture until well combined, then add in the rest of the meringue in two parts folding gently. Because I beat the merengue too much I had to fold more vigorously to make sure there were no clumps of egg white. You want to keep as much of the meringue texture and air as you can.
Pour into a tube pan, rap the pan against the counter to remove any trapped air bubbles and bake in a preheated oven at 350F for about 40 mins. Immediately invert the pan to cool.
Thanks Alan! Mine didn’t turn out as pretty as yours but it tasted wonderful.
What else did I get to eat on my free day? Well pancakes and burgers and mac and cheese! Oh and chocolate of course!
delicio8 
ah! you’d finally tried it! the cake is served upside down actually, with the portion on the bottom of the pan facing upwards. And the tube pan should be raised when it was inverted for cooling. I usually prop a jam jar underneath the “chimney” of the tube pan to elevate it. Nonetheless, it looks wonderful for a first attempt! Keep trying yeah? 🙂
I will! I did have it upside down with a bottle in the chimney and the cake fell out! I had to catch it before it broke in half or something. I also think I took the merengue too stiff because I had to break up some lumps of merengue that were in the mixture so I don’t think it rose and high as it could have. But pretty good for the first time!
Wow, that is bright!
Flourescent even!
Sounds like an awesome free day! Who doesn’t love cake 😀
Especially when it’s green 🙂
Cheers
Choc Chip Uru
It was very, VERY green. I need to make something chocolate for the next free day.
Have not tried a cake with pandan essence before… interesting! Have used the leaves with some Thai cooking. At least you had an enjoyable free day. 🙂
Did you love the taste?! I used it in making rice and it’s so nice. I don’t know if I could find the leaves locally, it’s very possible but I would have to know what they look like first.
Pandan is DELICIOUS. Where are you located? I can find screwpine leaves in the freezer section of my local asian supermarkets! LOVE pandan chiffon cake, actually have an angel food pan I borrowed from my sister to make JUST this cake! Sometime in the next few weeks, am going to attempt this too.
I’m near Seattle. I’ve never checked the freezer section. I didn’t even consider that you could freeze something like that. I really like this cake and will look around for the leaves.