Pandan Cake

This recipe was kindly brought to you by Christine from http://en.christinesrecipes.com/2011/06/pandan-chiffon-cake.html

Pandan Chiffon Cake
This cottony soft cake, with its subtle fragrance of pandan leaves and coconut, won’t let you down. I added a few drops of pandan essence so the cake is in light green. If you want a totally natural pandan cake, just skip the pandan essence. Your cake would look a bit light yellowish, not bright green though.
Prepare an ungreased 20cm (8 inch) round tube pan (removable base preferred)

Prep time: 20 mins
Cook time: 40 mins
Yield: 8 serves

Ingredients of batter:
5 egg yolks
20 gm caster sugar
100 gm cake flour
1 tsp baking powder
100 ml coconut milk
2 Tbsp pandan juice (see below for making pandan juice)
a few drops pandan essence/pandan paste, optional
3 Tbsp olive oil
Ingredients of egg whites:
5 egg whites
60 gm caster sugar
1/2 tsp cream of tartar
Ingredients of pandan juice:
10 pandan leaves, fresh or frozen
1 1/2 Tbsp water

Method:
Preheat oven to 170C (338F).
Beat the egg yolks with a balloon whisk and mix in 20 grams of sugar. Add coconut milk, pandan juice, and a few drops of pandan paste (if desired). Combine well.
Sift in cake flour and baking powder in three batches into the egg yolk mixture. Mix well. Lastly, add olive oil. Set aside.
Use a large clean bowl, making sure there’s no water or oil in it. Beat the egg whites with an electric mixer until bubbles form. Add the cream of tartar. After mixing well, add the 60 grams of sugar in three batches, about one-third at a time, and beat well between additions. Continue to beat until stiff peaks form.
Spoon out 1/3 of the beaten egg whites and fold into the egg mixture. Lightly fold in the rest of the beaten egg whites with a spatula, until just combined.
Pour into the cake pan and bake in preheated oven for about 35 to 40 minutes. After baking the first 15 minutes, if you find your cake gets browning, reduce heat to 150C（302F）, continue to bake until cooked through. A needle comes out clean when inserted in the middle.
Remove cake from the oven. invert the pan immediately. Allow it to cool completely.

To make pandan juice:
Chop pandan leaves into chunks, pop in a food processor and add about 1 1/2 tablespoons of water. Process to small pieces.
Place pandan leaves in a muslin bag and squeeze out the juice. You need about 2 tablespoons of it to make this cake. If you don’t have a muslin bag, just use your clean hand to squeeze out the juice.
Source: Pandan Chiffon Cake [Christine's Recipes]

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To note: I also found out that we do not have cake flour in Australia.
So, we need to do our own mixes, info can be found here: http://www.cheftalk.com/t/13031/no-cake-flour-in-australia

TIPS: For recipe measurement conversions:
http://allrecipes.com/HowTo/Cup-to-Gram-Conversions/Detail.aspx

2 tablespoons [Australian = 8 teaspoons] of cornflour* placed in a measuring cup and covered with enough plain flour [all-purpose flour] to make up the full measuring cup [1 cup in total]
EQUALS
1 cup cake flour substitute

* either wheaten or maize cornflour can also be used.

2 tablespoons [Australian = 8 teaspoons] of custard powder placed in a measuring cup and covered with enough plain flour [all-purpose flour] to make up the full measuring cup [1 cup in total]
EQUALS 1 cup cake flour substitute

Custard Powder is either based on maize or wheaten cornflour: tweaked during manufacture to produce a pre-mix powder.

TRIVIA: [totally irrelevant}
Custard powder was invented by a man for his wife who was allergic to eggs - the major ingredient of custard.

Corn in cornflour refers to the fact that corns are the grains, kernels or seeds of cereal crops such as wheat, rye, barley, and maize. Subsequently, Australian cornflour can be either maize or wheaten in origin.

And there you have it....NOM NOM NOM

Happy St Pat's Day all ;)