Pandan Chiffon Cake

I went to a baking ingredients shop and found some pandan paste. Yay, no need to make it on my own. Decided to make pandan chiffon cake with it to test out the pandan paste. I found a simple chiffon recipe here, which I adapted it to make the pandan chiffon cake.


The chiffon turns out a bit too green to my liking. Overall, the texture and the taste of the chiffon cake is good. I will use this as the base for my future chiffon cakes. However, I will stick with homemade pandan paste in the future.

Preparation Time: 25 minutes
Cooking Time: 50 minutes

Pre-Steps
Preheat the oven at 165 degrees Celcius.

Ingredients:
(A)
2 1/2 cup of cake flour
1/4 teaspoon of baking soda
2 teaspoon of baking powder
1/2 teaspoon of salt
3/4 cup of castor sugar

(B)
7 egg yolk (at room temperature)
1/2 cup of sunflower oil
2 tablespoon of pandan paste (store bought)
1 1/2 tablespoon of vanilla extract
3/4 cup of water (at room temperature)

(C)
7 egg white (at room temperature)
1/2 teaspoon of cream of tartar
3/4 cup of castor sugar

Steps
1. Sift (A) together in a large mixing bowl.

2. Mix (B) together in a separate bowl. Mix well.

3. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredient. Mix well and set aside.

4. In the mixer, pour the egg white in a dry mixing bowl.

5. Whisk it for about a minute until it is slightly foamy.

6. Add cream of tartar at this stage and continue to whisk for another minute.

7. Gradually add the sugar in small batches and whisk at medium to high speed until you have reach hard peaks.

8. Add this egg white to the egg yolk mixture. Add in 3 batches, using large folding strokes.

9. Pour into the un-greased baking pan.

10. Bake for 50 minutes.

11. Once baked and tested with cake tester, turn the cake upside down for an hour until cool. 

12. Remove from the baking pan and serve.

Chocolate Butter Cake Recipe

I wanted to try a chocolate butter cake and to experiment a bit...by mixing the recipe I found for a marble cake at Joy of Baking - Marble Cake and see if I could make a chocolate butter cake out of it.

I reduced the amount of ingredients that is required as I wanted to make a smaller cake.

Preparation Time: 30-40 minutes

Cooking Time: 50-60 minutes

Ingredients used

210 gm of semi sweet chocolate (I only had semi sweet chocolate chips from Hersheys at that time, so I used that)

128 gm of salted butter (left at room temperature)

188 gm of granulated sugar

3 normal sized eggs

1 1/4 teaspoon of vanilla essence

222 gm of plain flour

1 1/4 teaspoon of baking powder

1/4 teaspoon of baking soda

120 ml of fresh milk (I used Farmhouse)

Pre-Steps

1. Preheat the oven at 180°C.

Steps

1. Melt the chocolate until smooth in a bowl using the double boiler method. Set aside to cool to room temperature

2. Beat the butter for 1 minute on low speed. Gradually add the sugar and beat at low speed.

3. Once the sugar has been mixed, increase the mixer speed to medium for about 5 minutes until the colour is lighten. You can still feel the sugar bits.

4. Add in 3 eggs, beating one at a time at low speed.

5. Add in the vanilla essence and mix at low speed.

6. Sift in the plain flour, baking powder and baking soda into the batter in 3 portions. Add in the milk and mix until it is all incorporated. Do not over mix.

7. Fold in the cool melted chocolate using a spatula.

8. Pour into a greased baking pan and bake for about 50-60 minutes (I am using a loaf pan. Adjust your baking time accordingly based on the type of pan you use. Do not open the oven during baking to prevent sunken cake).

Note: 

- Do not open the oven door during baking.

- Use a cake tester / toothpick to check if the cake is cooked. I used a small knife as the cake is too tall for a toothpick.

- At 35 minutes - the middle is still not cooked.

- The cake has a rich chocolate taste to it