Aspiring Bakers#1: Chiffon Cakes (Nov 2010) - Pandan Chiffon Cakes

In order to meet the timeline to support Small Small Baker's first blogging event that she had initiated, I told myself I have to prioritise to put up this chiffon post ahead of other bakes. ;)

I may not have put up this because I thought pandan chiffon cake is boring? :P It is the most common chiffon cake and I believe anyone who had attempted a chiffon cake would have made it. In fact I'm always keen to try out new variations of chiffons but my mum only recognises pandan chiffon cakes and is always asking me to bake either pandan chiffon cake or butter cake. My attempts to change her tastebuds for other variations failed.

I thought since she love pandan chiffon cake so much, it may not be a bad idea that I keep doing it, so that at least I may be able to perfect a pandan chiffon cake one day, out of my own modifications. ;) So there you go, there are actually two chiffon cake recipes in this post. I made one after the other on the same day, for hubby and his parents, and not to waste the packet of coconut cream as well.


I used Judy Koh's recipes that I got from her class, using a 3 egg recipe. According to the recipe, it can make a 17-inch chiffon cake with additional 6 muffin size. I made using a 21-inch pan, so the cake was not very tall. I was feeling unrest while waiting for the chiffon cake to cool as I thought I had under beat the egg whites, and fortunately it came out beautifully. :D

Pandan Chiffon Cake Recipe 1

Ingredients:

3 egg yolks

30g sugar

pinch of salt

20g corn oil

36g cconut milk

54g cake flour

1/4 tsp pandan paste

3 egg whites

40g sugar

1/8 tsp cream of tartar

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180°C.
2. Whisk egg yolks, salt and sugar first. Remove from the mixer (I used a hand whisk), add in corn oil, pandan paste and coconut milk. Stir well with a hand whisk before adding in the flour. Mix till smooth.
3. Beat egg whites and cream of tartar with an electric beater, adding sugar gradually.
4. Fold 1/3 of the egg white batter gently into the egg yolk batter until slightly incorporated, add another 1/3, fold and finally the remaining egg whites and fold till well incorporated.
5. Pour mixture into chiffon cake pan and bake for about 30 minutes (for 17-inch pan) or 45 minutes (for 21-inch pan).

Recipe Source: Creative Culinaire, recipe by Judy Koh

I attempted this recipe from Food Travel magazine (May 2009 Issue). From the picture, it looks as tempting as it was described - fragrantly fluffy. There are some differences in the recipes so I thought it would be a good one to try it and compare the result side by side.

Verdict? Sure, it was very soft and fluffy but my poor moulding skills spoilt it all. :P There is just something about the 17-inch pan that always resulted in a less than perfect moulding! I hope it is an excuse but I can't figure out the reason why. :P

I believe it is the raising agent that gives it the extra fluffiness. In fact I thought it was too soft that it gets flatten easily. Taste wise, there was not much of a difference. If you were to compare the proportion of the ingredients, you'll see that this recipe has more liquid content, while Judy's recipe has lesser, hence a firmer structure. Personally I prefer Judy's recipe because of it's structure, yet equal softness. You can try out the two recipes and see which you prefer. ;)

Previously I tried the recipe posted by Aunty Yochana (It was actually from Kelvin Chai's Chiffon Cake is Done as I have that book) but I personally do not like the taste as it uses more coconut milk than oil.

Pandan Chiffon Cake (Recipe 2)

Ingredients:

3 egg yolks

50g caster sugar

60g self-raising flour

40g coconut milk

32g oil

1/4 tsp salt

10ml water mixed with 1 tsp pandan paste

3 egg whites

1/8 tsp cream of tartar

30g caster sugar

Method:

The method is the same as the one posted above. You just need to mix the 10ml of water and pandan paste evenly before adding to the egg yolk batter. Temperature and baking time remains the same.

Recipe Source: Food Travel magazine (May 2009 Issue) - Original recipe uses 7 eggs for a 25-inch pan but I scaled down the recipe and baked in a 17-inch pan. It reached the top of the pan nicely.

The one on the left is the recipe by Food & Travel. It was greener in colour because of more pandan paste used. Next time, I would experiment with pandan juice.