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Thursday, August 30, 2012

Pandan Soufflé Cake

This is the fifth Soufflé Cake that I have baked after my previous attempt with coffee.  I used pandan paste and coconut milk for this cake. 
The cake is cottony soft, light and moist with a nice aroma of pandan and coconut.
Ingredients
3 egg yolk
1/2 egg (about 30g) or 1 small egg
15 gm sugar [I used 1 tbsp]
1/4 or 1/3 tsp salt [helps to bring out the flavour of coconut milk/pandan]

40 ml coconut milk 
3 tsp pandan paste
35 ml vegetable oil [I  used 2 tbsp]
40 gm cake flour  - sifted - set aside
3 egg white [large eggs]

1/4 tsp cream of tartar
55 gm sugar [used 3-4 tbsp]
a drop of green colouring - for colour tone [optional]
  1. Line base of a 7" square tin [loose bottom pan] with grease proof paper.
  2. Preheat oven to 150 degrees C.    Place a baking tray on the lowest rack, pour in enough water for steam baking, then place a baking rack over it.  This way, you need not have to wrap baking tin with foil.
  3. Mix coconut milk, oil and pandan paste together.  Set aside.
  4. Use a hand whisk mix egg yolks, half egg, sugar and salt together.
  5. Drizzle in liquid mixture [coconut milk, oil and pandan paste] and whisk until well combined.
  6. Fold in sifted flour and stir until batter is smooth.  Set aside.
  7. Use a cake mixer, whisk egg whites until frothy, then add in cream of tartar.  B eat until soft peaks then gradually add in the sugar in 3 batches and whisk until stiff peaks formed.  Do not over beat egg whites otherwise it may be difficult to fold in to egg yolk mixture.
  8. Fold in 1/4 of the meringue into the egg yolk mixture until combined.   Then fold in the rest of the meringue lightly in two portions until well combined.  Remove 1/3 of cake batter to another bowl.  Add in a drop of green colouring, mix well.
  9. Pour the 2 batters alternately to create layers of different colour tone into prepared cake tin.  Place it over the baking rack to steam bake [make sure the water is enough to last until baking time is over].    Tap baking tray on work surface a few times to release trapped air bubbles before baking.
  10. Steam-bake cake in a preheated oven at 150 degrees C for 55 mins.
  11. Remove cake at once from tin [otherwise the cake base may be moist because of vapour from steam-baking].   Invert the cake after baking, remove the bottom paper lining and cool it on a wire rack.  The cake may shrink a little when cooled.
 Note:
I usually chill the cake in the fridge before slicing.  This cake taste as good when chilled.
 I'm submitting this post to :
1.  Aspiring Bakers #22: Lightened Up Cakes (August 2012) 
 hosted by Qi Ting of A Dessert Diet.
2.  Sweet Treats and Swanky Stuff by Something Swanky
 3. Recipe Box 12 hosted by Bizzy Bakes

10 comments:

Unknown said...

Looks very tall and no shrinkage. Well done! I had try and shrink. Still don't have the courage to try again.

Kimmy said...

Hi Vivian, so far I was lucky. I think it shrinks more if it is too moist. Please try and we can share our experiences. I really love the texture and flavours.

Anonymous said...

Thank you for the recipe.
Never expect my first attempt on steam baked cake will turn out so cottony soft!
Fiona

Kimmy said...

Hi Fiona, so glad you tried. Do try the other flavours, you will like them too. Moreover, this cake keeps well for at least a week refrigerated [I discovered that accidentally].

WAHM said...

Hi Kimmy,

Thanks for the recipe. I modified it and made a durian one. But I have one question. How big is your tin (height and width?). I tried using a baking pan of about 5cm height (that's the biggest rectangular one I have!) and it was ok. But when it cooled, it became rather short. The taste is still good but aesthetically, it doesn't look very 'pretty'. I tried using a taller square pan but when cooled, it's hard to cut as it tends to be too soft.

Another prob is, when I invert the cake, the top layer tends to stick to the rack. I tried putting a piece of parchment at the bottom then it stuck to the parchment. As a result, the top layer isn't very pretty.

But on the overall, the texture is perfect and I love the cake. Just trying to cool and cut it beautifully!

Kimmy said...

Hi, I used 7"x7"x3" square tin. Because it's a low gluten cake, it tends to shrink a little after cooling. You can try brushing the wire rack with some butter before inverting the cake. Make sure is really cool before turning it over. If the cake base is not moist after removing the paper linings, it is not necessary to invert the cake. BTW mind sharing your durian flavour cake?

WAHM said...

Hi Kimmy,
I left a comment last night on the durian recipe and some other remarks but had a feeling that it was not sent through so I'm just dropping a note to find out if you had received it.

Kimmy said...

Hi Wahm, msg not received.

WAHM said...

I did leave a comment couple of nights ago but not sure why it didn't go through.

For durian souffle, I omit half egg and reduce oil to 25 ml. Added 15-20gm of durian flesh.

I also tried using the following in another bake:
5egg whites
4 egg yolks
20ml oil
70gm durian
40ml milk
45g flour
i maintain the same amt of sugar as your recipe since the durian is sweet and I like to keep the sweetness mild.

Ah... so I don't have to invert the cake... do you remove the greaseproof paper on the base too? Do you remove the paper after cake is cool or when it's out from the oven.

I have another question... is your crust 'dry' or 'sticky'? I realized that my 'crust' (top layer) tends to be a little damp and sticky when I touched it...

Kimmy said...

Hi WAHM, Tq. I'll try when I've the durian [about 1 tbsp?]. I remove the paper linings immediately. The crust is dry. I invert it only when the base is slightly moist. Too much steam can also result in moist base. Maybe can bake a further 5 mins [all these variations depends on different oven used]. Probably practice will make perfect. There was once the water bath dried up before baking time was over, the cake base was dry.