Pandan-Coconut Chiffon Cake

Look at all these lovely pictures of pandan desserts! The bright green colour makes them look so fresh, cool and delicious!

Pandan cake (from teafactory.wordpress.com)

Kuih Talam - Pandan agar with a salted coconut on top (noodlies.com)
 

Coconut-pandan panna cotta (coconut.casavenercion.com)

Pandan extract is derived from Pandanus amaryllifolius, a tropical plant that is used widely in Southeast Asian cooking.  Apart from its bright green colour, the fragrance of the pandan is also a speciality - in fact, it is pandan that gives jasmine and basmalti rice their delicate aroma.  Pandan extract and also pandan leaves are used in  rice dishes, cakes and pancakes.  A popular method of using pandan is in combination with coconut.    

We decided to have a go too, and followed a recipe we found online for making pandan-coconut chiffon cake:

One tin of coconut milk
5 eggs with the yolk and whites separated.
50ml vegetable oil
100g self raising flour
90g caster sugar
15g baking powder
1 tsp of pandan extract

Preset the oven to 160-180ºC.

Mix in the vegetable oil with the coconut milk and the pandan extract.
  

Whisk the egg yolks with 20g of sugar.  Add this to the pandan-coconut-oil  mixture.

Fold in the self raising flour, mis well and set aside.

   

Whisk the egg whites with the baking powder and 70g of sugar until it forms a soft peak.  Add this to the mixture.

Spoon the mixture into a cake tin that has been greased and lined with baking paper.  Bake this for 40 minutes at 160-180ºC.  Remove, let cool and serve.

   

The cake itself is soft and fluffy.  The delicate, piney, nutty taste of the pandan combines well with the sweet coconut.  All in all, very delicious, especially when served warm.  Indeed a lovely dessert!