1/24/2015

KitchenTigress: Pandan Chiffon Cake

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Pandan Chiffon Cake (I)

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THURSDAY, 24 MARCH 201

1

I'm in the mood for a local cake, and no cake is more local than Pandan Chiffon. I start by comparing
recipes from Epicurative, The Best of Singapore Cooking, The Raffles Hotel Cookbook, and the

POPULAR RECIPES

four featured by ieat. I put everything in Excel with the amount of flour in every recipe
standardized to
100 g, and all the other ingredients adjusted proportionately. (Yup, I'm a geek, and proud of it.)
Here's the spreadsheet (strictly for geeks like me):

Once I'm comparing apples and apples, it's obvious The Best of Singapore Cooking has heap loads
of everything, from coconut milk to oil, egg whites, egg yolks, and especially sugar and baking
powder. Every . . . single . . . thing! Hmm, doesn't seem right. BSC out!
Epicurative and Raffles Hotel share practically the same oilless ingredients, but the mixing methods
are different. The "Grande Dame of Singapore" or rather her servant, Ah Teng whisks only the
egg whites, and all of the sugar bar 10 g is added to unwhisked yolks. I don't like the method
because whisked egg whites with only 10 g of sugar may be unstable, and unwhisked yolks doesn't
have much volume. Ah Teng out!
I decide to try Epicurative's recipe, splitting the sugar between the whites and yolks, then whisking
each lot separately. I bake the cake for 40 minutes, which is plenty for a 21cm chiffon. The crust is
brown, but the inside is still wet whilst
the cooked part is dry. As the cake
cools down, it shrinks badly since it isn't
cooked through. There's probably too
much

coconut

milk

in

the

recipe.

Epicurative out!
RECENT COMMENTS

So, I'm left with ieat's four recipes. Hmm,

KT

Asianbakes seriously stinche s stinges

I understand...

on yolks, whites, sugar and oil. Out!

Anna Chan's is an oilless recipe, and
my experience with Epicurative's oilless
chiffon hasn't been good. Out!

Strawberry Shortcake 10 hours

ago
Sharmaine
Hi kitchentigress,...
Kueh Bangkit 10 hours ago

Of the remaining two, ieat recommends the one "with more egg whites" from Kiamniangwong.
Actually, the recipe has less whites than Prima's, per 100 g of flour. But it has more in absolute
number because it's for a bigger cake. (See? A spreadsheet helps!)

Goodyblogger
Thanks for the info...
Portuguese Egg Tarts 15 hours
ago

I take the doctor's order since he has clinically tested his prescription. My verdict? I'm very
impressed by the cake's texture which is as soft as Bengawan Solo's. But the taste, using pandan

Sharon

essence/paste, leaves much to be desired, not to mention the hideous colour.

Tried to post my...

In case you don't know, squeezing juice out of pandan leaves is like squeezing blood out of stone.

Marble Butter Sponge Cake 1 day

ago

That's why most people use pandan essence, artificial green food colouring and, maybe to appease

Sharon

their conscience, a token amount of real pandan juice.

To make a pandan cake without fake food colouring, I have to figure out something: how to squeeze
blood out of stone! Epicurative soaks finely ground stone s leaves in water overnight, strains, then

Hi KT, Thank you...

Marble Butter Sponge Cake 1 day
ago

lets the mixture settle, and finally skims off the excess water floating above the juice. After trying her

http://kitchentigr ess.blogspot.com /2011/03/pandanchiffoncake.html

KT

1/8

method, my verdict is: there're far too

many steps, it takes way too long, and
it's difficult getting rid of the excess
water, so the juice is too diluted.

I could but I...

Kueh Bangkit 1 day ago
Keirra Lynn
Could you enlighten...

Epicurative's juice extraction method

Kueh Bangkit 1 day ago

isn't good, but the principle behind it is.

Why don't I mix the pandan with coconut

FOLLOW BY EMAIL

milk instead of water? Bingo! The

coconut milk turns from virginal white to
Martian green, and all I have to do is get

Email address...

Submit

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rid of the fibrous pulp with a strainer.

Two hours later, I'm chomping on
pandan cake that's full of the aroma of real pandan. It's light as air, soft as cotton, and green as a
Martian as good as Bengawan Solo's but baked by yours truly!

Posts

Comments

7 May 2012 Update:

Click here for more
video:

tips

in baking the perfect pandan chiffon cake, and here's my stepbystep

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POSTS B Y DA TE

2014 (10)
2013 (18)
2012 (34)
2011 (59)
December (2)
November (1)

PANDAN CHIFFON CAKE

October (8)

Source: Adapted from Kiamnianwong's recipe

September (5)

(Recipe for one 21 cm cake)

August (7)
July (3)

100 g pandan leaves, use only soft and moist young leaves

June (4)

buy 250 g and use only 100 g of the innermost, light green leaves

May (5)

70 g freshly squeezed coconut milk, undiluted

April (3)
March (9)

180 g egg whites

Prawn Paste Chicken

tsp cream of tartar

The 'Mee Siam Mai

Hum' Mystery

50 g sugar

Pandan Chiffon Cake (I)

60 g egg yolks

Chicken Satay & Peanut

50 g sugar

Sauce Thai Stuffed Chicken

Wings Stuffed Tau Pok

60 g vegetable oil

Steamed Garlic Pork Ribs

tsp salt

Korean Sweet Crispy Chicken

(Dak Kang Jung)

100 g cake flour, sifted with baking powder

1 tsp baking powder

Chinese Rojak
February (8)
January (4)

Don't use old, dark green pandan leaves. Not only do these not have any
juice, they actually absorb liquid because they're very dry. If you blend old and young

2010 (38)
2009 (22)

leaves together, the juice of the young ones would be absorbed by the old leaves.
RECIPES BY INGREDIENT

7 May 2012 Update: Click here for my stepbystep video and more
the perfect pandan chiffon cake.

tips

on baking

beancurd

beans

chicken

and

nuts

chocolate crab duck

eggs fish frog fruits mutton

pork prawns rice and
noodles vegetables

RECIPES
GMETHOD

BY

COOKIN

Preheat
(355F).

oven

to

180C

baked boiled poached

simmered
steamed
braised

Wash

and

roughly

chop

pandan leaves. Blend with coconut

milk

and

tbsp

water.

Strain,

deepfried

stewed

favourite recipes
or almost no cooking

grilled no

panfried roasted stir

fried

pressing leaves hard. Discard pulp.

Set aside green liquid, which should

RECIPES BY COURS
E

weigh 95 g.
breakfast

Whisk egg whites with sugar

and
cream of tartar till just reaching
stiff
peaks.
aside.
In

Set

cookies

cakes

desserts

candies

dim

and

sum

favourite recipes finger

foods main course rice
and noodles

salads

side dishes

soups vegetarian

separate bowl, whisk egg

yolks and sugar till pale, thick and

creamy (ribbon stage). Add green
coconut milk,

RECIPES B Y REGIO
N

cantonese chinese
favourite recipes french
hakka indian japanese korean nyonya
american
english

then vegetable oil, whisking till evenly mixed. Gradually add flour mixture, along
with salt, again whisking till just evenly mixed. Add egg whites in 3 batches, whisking
gently by hand in
electric whisk's direction. Scrape down with spatula before mixing last batch of egg
whites.

others

Bang mixing bowl against worktop 23 times to remove air bubbles. Pour batter into 21
cm 2 piece chiffon tin that's not nonstick, slowly so that air bubbles still trapped in
the batter are released. Run a chopstick round side of tin to remove more air
bubbles. Level and smooth top.
Bake cake in bottom of oven till risen and almost level with top of tin, about 15
minutes. Cake should now be very slightly brown and not cracked. Place baking tray
in top of oven to block top heat. Continue baking till inserted skewer comes out clean,
20 minutes or so. Cake should now be slightly cracked. Remove tray from top of oven.
Continue baking till top of cake is dry and mediumbrown, another 510 minutes (7
minutes for my oven).
Remove cake from oven. Invert onto a bottle. Leave till cool, an hour or so. Cut cake
out of tin.

POSTED BY KT AT 1:17 AM

136 COMMENTS

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1/24/2015

KitchenTigress: Pandan Chiffon Cake

(I)