Pandan cake is a popular Asian chiffon-style cake flavored with pandan leaves or extract, and often combined with coconut milk. The cake is made by creating a meringue and folding in a mixture of flour, egg yolks, and pandan flavoring. The finished cake is usually a mint green color and is not typically iced.
Originating from Malaysia, pandan cake is a chiffon-style cake flavored with pandan leaves. Fluffy and often made in a tubular pan, pandan cake is usually a mint green color due to the presence of pandan. This cake is popular in many regions of Asia and Indonesia.
Like chiffon cakes, pandan cakes generally use egg whites and egg yolks. Although the whole egg is used, each egg must still be separated. In addition to eggs, sugar and cream of tartar or baking powder are normally used. Cake flour is also a necessary ingredient.
The key ingredient in this cake, however, is pandan. The flavoring can be obtained from the leaves themselves or from pandan extract, which is often more readily available in some areas of the world. Both the extract and the leaves are often combined with coconut milk during cooking, and some versions of pandan cake may add shredded coconut to the topping of the cake to accentuate the coconut flavor as well.
To make a pandan cake, a meringue is first created. The egg whites and cream of tartar are beaten until the mixture begins to stiffen. Then the sugar is added gradually and the mixture is whisked to blend each portion. Once the stiff peaks have formed, the meringue can be set aside.
The other ingredients are combined in a separate bowl. If pandan leaves are used, they are knotted and simmered in coconut milk. Then, the leaves are removed and the pandan flavored milk is quickly placed in an ice bath. Once cool, the pandan-milk mixture can be combined with flour, baking soda, and egg yolks. Pandan extract is simply poured into the mix without any additional preparation, but even if the extract is used, coconut milk is often added to this cake.
After both mixtures are complete, the flour mixture is folded into the meringue in small portions. It’s important to fold to combine, rather than simply mix, in order to conserve the air content of the batter created by the meringue. This excess air is needed to make the finished cake light and fluffy.
The finished batter is then pushed into a pan or round cake tins. The pans need to be buttered and floured before the batter is included. If a tube pan is used, the cake should be cooled by suspending the pan upside down from its center hole once the cake is baked. While a pandan cake is not usually iced, a meringue topping may occasionally be used.
Protect your devices with Threat Protection by NordVPN
