The First and Greatest Commandment

Pandan chiffon was the only cake my late mum ever baked.  She was the neighborhood Pandan Chiffon expert. I don't know where she got her recipe from, but I know she made everything from scratch. She obtained the pandan extract by pounding the pandan leaves in the pestle and mortar and I know she never used cream of tartar in her egg white.
My mum died young and sadly I never get to know her recipe. She was illiterate and I had just started working then.

Although I learnt to bake when I was about 14, I couldn't remember when I first baked pandan chiffon. I have tried many recipes but this recipe works well for me. Family and friends like it too. I have been using this recipe which I got from the Straits Times for many years now and I don't think I will change or look for a better one.

To support Little Thumbs Up 'Pandan' event, I baked a pandan chiffon in a 18cm pan and rest of the batter into 6 cupcakes frosted with gula melaka buttercream. I added lesser sugar in the cake batter which resulted a less moist, fluffy and tall chiffon. It is still as soft and light, and if you have not tried this recipe before, you might not even notice it.

If you like gula melaka as much as I do, you will love this buttercream.on the pandan chiffon. Pandan leaves, coconut milk, gula melaka, they are supposed to go together, don't they?

Pandan Chiffon Cake
The Straits Times


Ingredients

10 pandan leaves, finely chopped
6 tbsp water
96g egg yolk, from about 6 eggs
140g caster sugar (100g)
1/4 tsp pandan paste
40ml corn oil
72 ml thick coconut milk
108 cake flour
240g egg white, about 7 eggs
1/8 tsp cream of tartar


Method

• Preheat the oven to 190C(170C).
• Blend the pandan leaves with water to a fine pulp. Wrap the pulp in muslin cloth and squeeze to extract the juice. Discard the pulp and set aside the juice.
• Whisk together the egg yolk, 60g sugar, salt, corn oil, coconut milk, pandan paste and pandan juice until well incorp[orated.
• Sieve the cake flour into the pandan mixture and continue to whisk until smooth. Set aside.
• Whisk the egg white, remaining sugar(80g) and cream of tartar until stiff, such that a firm peak forms when the whisk is pulled from the mixture.
• Gently fold the egg white mixture into the cake batter until well incorporated.
• Pour the batter into 23cm tube pan and bake for 50 minutes until the surface is browned.
• Remove the cake from the oven and invert it on a cooling rack. Allow the cake to cool before removing it from the mould by running a palette knife along the circumference of the cake to loosen the sides.

Gula Melaka Buttercream

1 large egg (optional)

125g butter (softened at room temp)

150g gula melaka, finely chopped

1 pandan leave, knotted

Method

• Into a mixing bowl over a pot of hot water on stove, beat egg and sugar with hand beater. Beat until mousse like(if using egg).
• Remove from pot and continue to beat until mixture has cooled.
• Add in the soften butter one by one and beat until you get a smooth creamy texture.
• Chill in the fridge to firm buttercream if it is runny to frost. Alternatively, you can dip cake into mixture and top with grounded gula melaka.

This post is linked to Little Thumbs Up 'Pandan' hosted by Joceline from Butter,flour & Me, organized by

Zoe from Bake For Happy Kids and Mui Mui from My little favourite DIY.

Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.

Matthew 22;37