Pandan Chiffon Cake

Cake top was perfect when hot off the oven and will shrink a little after cooled.

Still light and fluffy, but not too dry nor too oily.

Ingredient

60g egg yolks (about 4x55gm eggs)

25g castor sugar

20g corn oil

65g fresh pandan juice

80g cake flour

1/8 tsp salt

* I omitted the baking powder from the original recipe. The batter still rises substantially, just like with baking powder.

150g egg white (about 5x55gm eggs)

60g castor sugar

Method

Egg yolk mixture:

1) Using hand mixer, whisk egg yolks and 25g castor sugar till thick and pale.

2) Add corn oil and continue to whisk till well combined.

3) Add fresh pandan juice and salt. Continue to whisk till evenly mixed.

4) Sift cake flour into the mixture. Change to a wire whisk and whisk till just evenly mixed. Set aside.

Egg white (meringue):

1) Wash mixer whisk thoroughly. Ensure no residue of oil and water on whisk.

2) Whisk egg white till it foams up (small air bubble).

3) Gradually add 60g castor sugar while continuing to whisk. Keep whisking till firm peak.

4) Preheat oven to 160 degree C.

5) Add egg white to yolk mixture in 3 batches. Use wire whisk to mix gently (not whisk) till mixture is just evenly mixed without streaks of egg whites. 

6) Use a spatula, dig into the bottom of the mixture and use the folding method to ensure the oil and pandan juice at the bottom of the bowl are well mix. Make sure this is done gently to ensure the meringue doesn't collapse. Bottom of cake will be densed if the oil and pandan juice sank and sit at the bottom of pan.

7) Tap the bowl gently against table top to get rid of big air bubble before pouring into cake pan.

8) Pour mixture into cake pan slowly to burst the remaining small bubbles in the mixture.

9) Gently wiggle the cake pan or use a spatula to level the top. Levelled top will produce less crack during the rising when baking in the oven.

10) Bake till cake is golden brown and slightly springy, about 30min (according to my oven behaviour).

11) When done, remove from oven and immediately cool on wire rack with the cake pan turned upside down. 

Note: Cover top of cake during start of baking, leaving room for cake to rise. Remove cover during last 5 minutes to brown the top.

Adapted from: http://kitchentigress.blogspot.sg/2013/07/orange-chiffon-cake-video-recipe.html

Cheese Chiffon Cupcake

This is suppose to be a cotton cheesecake. But since I was lazy to wash the cake pan, I modified the temperature and timing and baked in baking cups instead. It turned out great! The only thing that is no so good is the colour. My oven has very uneven temperature therefore the top did not browned as proper as I want it to be.

I should seriously consider getting a proper oven

Ingredient

80 ml milk

40 g butter, cut into small pieces 

140 g full-fat cream cheese block, cut into small pieces 

50 g cake flour, sifted

15 g corn flour, sifted

⅛ tsp salt, mix evenly with sifted cake flour and cornstarch

75 g egg yolks 

180 g egg whites 

90 g caster sugar

Method

1. Melt milk, cream cheese and butter over a double broiler. Cool the mixture.

2. Add in egg yolk, mix evenly. Then sieve the mixture so that it becomes silky smooth.

3. Add in sifted cake flour, corn flour and salt. Mix till just even. Do not over mix.

4. Beat egg white till bubble become small. Slowly add in sugar while continue to whisk the egg white till soft peak.

5. Mix egg white into cream cheese mixture in 3 batches. Ensure mixture is mixed evenly with no streaks of egg white. The butter in the cream cheese mixture may also have settled at the bottom during this stage. Use the spatula "dig" from the bottom and fold the batter. While doing all the mixing and folding, you have to ensure the egg white does not deflate (batter becomes watery). Ok it sounds contradictory and difficult, but with practice it is actually quite easy.

6. Bang the bowl on worktop 3-4 time to burst big bubbles in the batter.

7. Pour batter into baking cup. Wiggle the baking cup to level the batter. Levelled batter less crack.

8. Transfer baking cups into oven then cover the top loosely with a layer of baking paper.  This is to prevent the top being burnt before the cake is done as the top brown very easily. Leave ample room for the cake to rise and not "touch" the baking paper.

9. Bake in preheated oven at 160 degree C for about 60 minutes. Remove the cover 10 minutes before it's done to brown the top (self note: cake top will be sticky when cooled if it's not brown long enough).

10. Once done, cool on wire rack.

Adapted from: http://kitchentigress.blogspot.sg/2012/10/cotton-soft-japanese-souffle-cheesecake.html

Plain Pan Cake

Girls love this plain and simple pancake. They will eat it all up before I even manage to finish frying. It's plain and simple but it takes patience and time because you have to fry the pancake one by one.

It has a crunchy side rim, with springy centre. I love this too ...

Ingredient (Makes about 30 pieces of the size in the photo)

2 cups plain flour

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 egg

2 cups water

Method

1. Combined all ingredient. Whisk till no lumps.

2. Heat oil in pan. Scoop a spoonful of batter and drop onto the oil. Fry both side till golden brown. Do not over fry as pancake will become hard. Depending on the size of the pan, you can drop 4-5 spoonful each round. You may need to add oil after each round.