Much awaiting Pandan Cake

I have finally baked the pandan cake, with the help of my new baby KitchenAid mixer. Here is the new baby.

I only use it to beat my egg white. Quite happy using it, and most importantly, the sound from the mixer is quite soothing and not too loud.

I used the same recipe again (this is my 4th try) and I take note to save some for cupcakes since my pan is smaller. I can't remember if I should mix the egg white into the egg yolk mixture or other way, but since the mixer's bowl is bigger, I mix the yolk mixture with the egg white mixture. Not quite used to such a big bowl, so I took quite a long time to mix both mixture together. As I blend, I see bubbles popping away.

After the cake went into oven, it rose very high roughly after 5-10 minutes, then as the time goes by, it rose and it started to crack. The final product after 45minutes is a pandan cake with a very explosive top. As usual, I use the lowest shelf and tent the top. I had to go out after the cake and the cupcakes are baked, so I troubled my mother to unmould for me when the cake is cooled, so I did not see the whole cake but the pieces that she already cut. This is how it looks.

As it rose so high, the condensed part at the bottom is expected. This time the pandan cake has bigger holes than the 2nd try (I did not have any cross section picture taken in the 3rd try). I find the cake very moist, unlike those sold in NTUC, but hubby say he like this better as those sold in NTUC are pretty dry.

This time the top is not evenly browned. It seemed to have a "vacuum" at the bottom of the pan, that is why the top seems to have sunk. This also happens to all my pandan cupcakes. Their bottoms are concave. I have 3 more packets of coconut milk. I hope to try again real soon.

買了個新攪拌器，用它做了pandan 蛋糕。 我还得一段時間才能習慣那又大又深的mixer bowl.

在烘爐里，蛋糕發得很厲害，蛋糕頂嚴重“破裂”， 但 裡頭其他部份，那些小洞洞，还真像外邊賣的。期待第五次的製作。

My 2nd attempt on Pandan Chiffon Cake

Its only yesterday that I bake the cake but i realised I hv forgotten if 
there are any impt notes that i shd take down. Was very happy when 
I see the cake rises in the tube pan, but still unsure why the cake 
rises above the tube.
It keeps rising and rising happily till almost reaches the top of the oven.
I know its gog to get burnt on top.  Shd not hv so greedy buy such a big pan. Its a 21 cm pan.




Tested at 30 minutes cos the cake is so sky high.
Got crumbs stick to stick, so allow it to cook to stated time. At 45 minutes, test, still got crumbs, but mum
 says its dry crumbs, so I just took it out, invert it. I hv prepared 
for it to sink since it rise so high.

Boy, it took so long to cool down. Anyway its dinner time.
Rush through dinner preparation, feel so bad that i bake
and neglected dinner (I anyhow cook the dinner).
After dinner, cut the cake and taste it. Hmm heavenly.
So soft inside, besides the compressed part. 
Taste just right as I mentioned in my previous post.



So I am still wondering the part on how come the cake rise so high ..
could it be due to too much batter? 
I forgot that the recipe is for 9 inch pan and and i used the full recipe! Could it be due to the reason that I forgot to add 
cream of tartar when i beat egg whites ?

Notes : Not sure if I hv over beaten the egg white by little
bits, cos when folding into the yolk mixture, I can see some of
them separates into little balls of beaten egg white. Hv difficulty
blending them into the yolk mixture.

Pandan chiffon cake turn malay kueh

Tried making a pandan chiffon cake today. I know it is a difficult cake and i am not
overestimating myself, just that my family is sick of chocolate cakes 
and my fussy little  eaters like pandan cake.

I hv coconut milk in fridge so I thought I give Aunty Yochana's Pandan chiffon cake a try.
Thank you Aunty Yochana for sharing the recipe.

How embarassing. The cake is a total failure. Mixing the egg yolk part is quite a breeze (I wouldn't know if it has gone wrong anyway). There isnt anyone around to confirm my "beating the egg white (which is a first to me)" is correct. Anyway I folded ard 1/3 of beaten egg white  into the egg yolk mixture first then the rest of it. There is still streaks of white thou.

On the cooking portion. The recipe calls for 40 - 45 minutes, but at abt 20 - 25 minutes (but i did half the recipe), I saw the cake rise , dome shape, and cracks in the centre. I even witness a crack starting from the centre, working its way to the side of the cake (like ice cracking in ice age movie). According to baking book, the dome shape is the symptom of temperature too hot. A pity my oven thermometer is not at a correct angle for me to chk properly.

As I can see the inside through the crack, I think it looks cooked, so I tested it. The satay stick comes out clean. I declare its cooked and took it out of the oven. While testing, 
the dome has already sank back to be levelled with the rest of the 
cake, so I thot it will not sink any further and so did not follow
 what the recipe says abt cooling it inverted. 
After a minute, or maybe less, the cake collapsed further. Look at this sorry sight.

 
I did not wait for it to cool too long cos i wanted to taste the cake. This is the look of the inside.
I can imagine how it will look if it has not collasped.

Hubby tried and say not bad, taste like malay kueh. I also find the taste very pleasing, not too sweet, just nice. 
Infact I think I love the taste. Got to try this again soon.

Some minor changes i want to note here.
- Half the recipe is used
- Only 65ml coconut in the packet, so 10ml if HL milk is added to make up the liquid content
- 8 inch square pan is used instead of tube pan (now considering shd i go buy a tube pan instead)
- I lined the pan, bottom and sides (not sure if this affects the rising of the cake)