Pandan Chiffon Cake

      If you've never had a taste of chiffon cake, you are so missing out. It's the most lusciously light and airy cake that you could ever eat. You could easily devour a whole cake in one sitting because it's so light. Growing up in an Asian family, most desserts I've been introduced to are flavoured with pandan or coconut or both. It's quintessentially the South East Asian equivalent to Vanilla. Remember my pandan waffles? Hence why my very first chiffon cake I learn to bake is of course a pandan one. And everytime I've baked one, it just disappears so quickly. I've also tried a couple of variations from Pandan but the classic childhood favourite always reigns supreme. I think they call that nostalgia.

      The chiffon cake is something that I have always feared until recently. I have always marvelled at those who are able to bake perfectly straight standing chiffon cakes at home but never thought I could ever master it. The chiffon cake's airy texture comes from whipped egg whites, pretty much similar to that of the souffle. I've been able to churn out some stunning souffles (and also befriended the fickle macaron recipe) so my twitter friend  (and talented photographer) Mr Dexter Kewpie said I should be able to easily master the chiffon. He shared a couple of recipes with me which I sat on for a while because I was too chicken, and feared failure.

      One day I decided to buy myself an angel cake tin (or bundt/tube pan) and some cake flour and thought I would tackle it head on. One of the blogs I was referred to had a lot of details on what you should and should not do and that was all so overwhelming at first but I kept going over the recipe again and again in my head until it was all clear to me. A few tips from Mr Kewpie also helped.

Recipe - Pandan Chiffon Cake

12 - 16 serves (approximately)

Adapted from the blog I Eat I Shoot

Part A

• 150ml coconut cream
• 100ml vegetable oil
• 1 teaspoon pandan extract
• 1/4 teaspoon of salt

Part B

• 6 egg yolks
• 75g caster sugar

Part C

• 190g cake flour
• 2 tsp baking powder

Part D

• 9 egg whites
• 1 tsp cream of tartar
• 75g caster sugar

1. Preheat the oven to 170 degrees celcius. You need a 25cm angel food/straight edged bundt cake pan with a detachable base. DO NOT grease it.
2. Combine all the ingredients of Part A together in a bowl or jug.
3. Beat the egg yolks together with the sugar until it is a pale creamy colour and has tripled in volume, approximately 5 minutes on medium to high speed. (Part B)
4. Gently beat Part A into Part B.
5. Sift ingredients of Part C into the egg yolk mixture and mix through.
6. In another clean bowl with clean beaters, beat the egg whites together with the cream of tartar until foamy. Add all the sugar and beat until firm peaks form. (Part D)
7. Fold one quarter of the egg white mixture into the egg yolk mixture to loosen the batter.
8. Gently fold the rest of the egg white into the cake batter until it is thoroughly mixed through.
9. Pour into the cake tin and bake on the middle shelf for about 45 minutes and then turn off the fan and bake for a further 15 minutes.
10. Take the cake pan out of the oven and invert it over an upside down funnel or narrow necked weighted bottle (e.g wine bottle). Leave it to 'hang' and cool completely before removing from the pan. Run a knife around the middle tube and then around the outside edge of the pan to release the sides and middle of the cake. Push the base out of the pan and invert the cake onto a plate and then run the knife between the base and the cake to release it.
11. Enjoy your chiffon cake with a cup of tea, just don't eat it all in one sitting.

Notes:

• Cake flour is available at Asian grocers however I buy mine from Woolworths - I use the Lighthouse brand which comes in a red and white box. It is a lower protien flour that gives the cake it's light as air texture. The flour already has a raising agent but I still add the additonal baking powder - it gives extra lift to the cake.
• Coconut cream is all I had when I made my first pandan chiffon but I like using it now because it gives a nice rich flavour. You can use coconut milk which is what the original recipe calls for.
• I have not given a time or speed for the beating of the egg yolks and whites as every mixer is different. The best way to judge when it is ready is by looking at it. It also helps if you have previously made meringues and creamed egg yolks.
• If you are using a stand mixer and only have one mixing bowl, transfer the egg yolk mixture to a separate bowl before beating the egg whites, make sure the bowl and beaters are squeaky clean.
• I used a 25cm non stick angel food cake pan with removable base, this recipe yields a very large cake. It is preferable that the cake pan is not non-stick as this may effect the cakes rising ability as the batter does not have a non slippery surface to 'grip' to as it rises. However, after many uses the non stick cake pan will have been conditioned enough that it will provide more grip for the cake batter.
• I don't really recommend baking your chiffon in a regular cake pan. I had trouble with my cake gripping to the bottom of the pan as I lined mine with baking paper so that I could turn the cake out easily. You could bake without the baking paper lining the bottom of the pan but it is a little trickier to remove the cake.
• Your oven may work differently to mine so always monitor your cake. It will need at least the 45 minutes to cook.
• As great as the temptation is to turn the cake out before it is cold, DO NOT touch it before it has completely cooled down. It is also important to invert the cake pan as the cake 'stretches' down as it cools. This helps to stabilise the cake and minimise the chance of it collapsing on you. I've had my fair share of sinking cakes the first few times I made chiffon. The excitement is just so great you want to see what it looks like out of the pan. Still tasty though ;)
• There are many different recipes out there and at the end of the day, sometimes it just comes down to personal preference and experience. I started with this recipe and am so happy with it, I won't try and 'fix what isn't broken'.
• Practice, practice, practice! Every chiffon cake I make gets better and better and better, until I was recently brave enough to let a pastry chef try it and he declared it a 'perfectly baked chiffon cake'. Thanks Simon! ;)

Variations

Earl Grey: Omit the pandan extract and replace the coconut cream with some warm milk. Infuse the milk with 3 earl grey tea bags before added the rest of the ingredients in Part A. Break open an extra earl grey tea bag and mix the contents through the egg yolk mixture after the flour is mixed in.

Ube: Omit the pandan extract and replace the coconut cream with milk. Add 1 cup of ube mash with the milk and mix into the egg yolk mixture before adding in the flour.

*Ube is available from Filipino grocers, it comes cooked and grated in a frozen pack. Defrost before using.*

      Pandan extract is available is most Asian grocers. My Mum buys it by the litre so we always have it at home.

      Ube Macapuno Chiffon Cake for Ryan's mum's birthday. She loved it so much she even dared to say my version of the ube macapuno cake was even better than the traditional Filipino ones. Ube is a purple yam that is popular with Filipino desserts, similar to how taro is popular with other South East Asian countries.

Macapuno is a young coconut fibre (or sport) that comes from a mutilated coconut. I sandwiched layers of ube chiffon cake with ube cream cheese frosting and macapuno strips and then covered the cake in some more ube cream cheese frosting and then decorated it with some dessicated coconut.

      For my uncle's 50th birthday I made a pandan chiffon cake with a luscious coconut butter cream made with coconut cream and covered it in some hazelnut praline I had sitting around leftover from another cake. Topped the cake with some Ferrero Rafaello balls.

      This is the 'perfectly baked' earl grey chiffon which I made for our pop up DESSERTed Dinner Party which we held last month.

      The latest pandan chiffon cake that I baked was even more perfect then perfect. They do say, practice makes perfect! Good luck if you will be attempting a chiffon cake for the first time.

Brazo De Mercedes (Take 2)

        I am a perfectionist. I am a control freak. I just set my expectations too high for myself and get upset when I fall short of them, even when other people think I've done a good job (maybe they are just too kind) I still think I can do better. I guess I just have to learn to lower those expecations or keep working on reaching perfection. And keep remembering that practice makes perfect.

        This is my second attempt at the well loved Filipino dessert Brazo De Mercedes (Meringue Swiss Roll with Egg Yolk Custard filling). And it wasn't a perfect job. It fell short of perfect, though it was definately better than my first go on so many levels. I guess all I can do now is learn and try again to reach perfection. You can have a look at my appalling first go here. I decided to have another go at it and make it to take to a catch up lunch with Ryan's cousin. This recipe is my adaption of a few that are around on the internet.

Brazo De Mercedes

Ingredients:

• 10 large eggs, seperated

• Pinch of Cream of Tartar
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 can of sweetened condensed milk (Nestle 395g)
• 1 tsp vanilla bean extract
• Icing sugar, to dust

        I decided I wanted to make two rolls, so had 20 eggs to seperate. I did it on my bedroom floor in front of the TV. You might also want to make the custard a day before you make the meringue. It allows the custard to set and thicken which makes it easier to handle.

        To make the custard, combine the egg yolks, condensed milk and vanilla bean extract in a saucepan. Cook on a medium low heat, stirring constantly until thickened, this will take approximately 20 minutes or so. You need to be patient with this. I cooked my custard over direct heat, you could also do it over a pot of simmering water if you're worried about the mixture curdling.

        My custard is not curdled as such but it is quite lumpy as I keep turning the heat up and down because I got impatient. This is why it is important to constantly stir over a consistently low heat to avoid the custard scrambling or seperating.

        I don't recomment that you do this, but it did work for me. I placed my lumpy custard into my blender and whizzed it to get rid of the lumps and it came out nice and smooth. I guess it would only work if your custard hadn't turned to scrambled eggs. Place into the fridge until the custard is thick and cold (preferably overnight).

        To make the meringue, combine the egg whites and cream of tartar in a mixing bowl and beat on high speed until stiff peaks form. Pour the meringue onto a lined and greased tray and spread out with a spatula. To even out the surface, run the blade of a knife across the surface scraping away any excess meringue. Optionally, you can use a comb to smooth out the meringue and create ridges/patterns on the surface.

        Bake in a pre-heated oven at 140 degrees celcius for about 45 minutes, the meringue is ready when it is a nice golden brown. Leave to cool before dusting with icing sugar and then inverting the meringue sheets onto another lined tray.

Thick, sticky custard.

        Recipes tell you to spread the custard along one (long) side of the meringue sheet and then rolling the meringue around the custard. I decide to experiment with two ways and also spread the entire meringue sheet with custard hoping to get nice even spiral layers of custard and meringue. It's probably easier to handle spreading the custard down the one side and then rolling the meringue around it.

        I find that I have to use the baking paper to help roll the meringue as it is very fragile to handle. It also holds the rolls together nicely. Place them into the fridge to set a little before attempting to remove the paper.

        Unveiling one Brazo De Mercedes. You can see that this one cracks a little in some parts along the side. Perhaps my meringue was a little too thin, or slightly over cooked.

        The ends don't look too nice so I cut them off, this isn't such a good idea as the custard seeps out. It was a warm day too so that didn't help either. I also divided the rolls to give out, this meant that there were more exposed ends which resulted in custard slowly seeping out everywhere. It's probably a better idea to cut the meringue to size first and then filling them and then rolling. The two different ways of spreading the custard also doesn't really make that much of a different visually so I'd just go for the easier method next time.

        Sprinkle with extra icing sugar before serving. It may not be perfect, but it's definately a much better attempt compared to my first go. During our critiquing conversation, Ryan suggested perhaps I add some gelatine to the custard to make it more stable. Some recipes include mixing ground cashew nuts to the custard which perhaps gives it a thicker sturdier consistency I suppose? Or else I just shouldn't cut the end off until just before serving to keep the custard from seeping out.

        This dessert is not for the faint hearted. It is super sweet, but is super addictive too. Soft fluffy meringue that just melts in your mouth, paired with a sweet sticky custard that just compliments it perfectly. Serve with a cup of your favourite tea and it's not too bad. It is definately a treat to be had for special occasions only ;) I did attempt to make a blueberry coulis to serve with the dessert to help cut through the richness but ended up stuffing it up (too sweet) so left it out. This is not the last time I will be making this, perhaps third time lucky.

Brazo De Mercedes - Meringue and Egg Yolk Custard Roll

        This is another attempt to make a Filipino dessert. Like the Leche Flan, I was introduced to this dessert at one of the parties which were held at Ryan's place. These dinner parties are usually pot luck style with many people bringing different dishes and it's usually the desserts that I look forward to as Ryan's mum doesn't really cook or make desserts.

        I've only ever seen this dessert once before, just faintly remembering the taste and not remembering the name (Ryan didn't even know what it was called) but I do remember that it looked quite strange and intriguing to me at the time. I remembered that it looked like a swiss roll, but made of meringue and custard. I wanted to try and make another Filipino dessert so did a bit of googling and in my search found that this dessert was called Brazo De Mercedes. The one we had was definately store bought though as it was quite a perfect looking roll and came out of a cake box.

        I was also excited to find that there were recipes to make the Brazo De Mercedes, how awesome to be able to make my own. Like the Leche Flan, the main ingredients of this dessert are eggs and condensed milk, with the addition of a few other ingredients. Ryan thinks this is why so many Filipino's suffer from all sorts of health complications, their desserts are so rich!

        I work with a few recipes, taking pointers from each and making a few slight adjustments such as reducing the amount of sugar used! The main recipe I refer to uses 8 eggs, both the whites and yolks, unlike the Leche Flan that used 12 yolks and left me with 12 whites to use up. The photo on that page, even though messy, still looks a lot better than mine, it's almost what I had pictured in my mind.

        I think the more traditional method of making this dessert involves reducing down some milk for the filling but some recipes, like the one I referred to, call for a can of condensed milk which works perfectly fine. I also read that some recipes included some ground cashews in the filling which I decided to omit this time around.

        As I am beating my egg whites, I am kind of mesmerised at how someone, some time in history invented the method of beating egg whites to make all these yummy desserts (and some savoury dishes too of course). I am simply fascinated by the science happening between my egg beaters and the egg whites.

        The egg yolks are mixed with the condensed milk and are gently cooked over a pot of water (double boiler). As I hadn't really done this method of custard before I had the water on the lowest setting and kept stirring and stirring for about 30 minutes. Looking back at the photo I think I could have done with the heat up a little higher, I don't think I cooked the custard enough as it ended up being quite runny even after refridgeration.

        As I am pouring the beaten egg whites onto the baking tray I panic a little thinking maybe there was too much egg white or my tray was too small (it was as wide as my oven is already so couldn't have been). Looking at the tray side on, it looked extremely thick but I thought that I should follow the recipe to the tee here.

        I havn't really baked meringues before so wasn't quite sure what to expect when making this. When seeing how brown it was I had imagined that it was maybe quite solid but when I touched it, it was very soft to the touch. The outer layer is dry enough to handle, with the soft meringue in the middle so it is still pliable. It looked a little thick still so I was worried wether it would roll up properly or not.

        I panic a little when I discover that the whole thing shrinks! Panic changes to relief as I realise it's now the perfect thickness for rolling. Though the shrinking has made the surface quite ugly. This is generally the side that is used for presentation, sometimes people make groves and patterns in the meringue before baking. It's then flipped over after baking and the other side is rolled and inverted into the roll. I decide that I like the underside of my meringue so make that become the outside of my roll.

        As my custard was a little on the runny side I was worried the hot meringue would melt my custard further. I was hesitant to leave the meringue to cool too as I wasn't sure wether it would stiffen or not. I take a gamble and spread the filling over the meringue sheet. In my mind I had the image of a swiss roll so I wanted to have the alternating layer of custard and meringue. Some recipes tell you to just spoon the filling along the one side and then roll the filling into the centre with the meringue surrounding it.

        I find the whole thing quite fragile and the meringue doesn't quite want to roll up as I had imagined it to. Because the filling is runny it starts to just flow out all of the sides like lava and my hands are just completely covered in sweet sticky custard (mmm they were finger licken good though!). I didn't get the nice perfect roll that I had envisioned. This is as good as it got. I put the whole thing into the fridge hoping that the custard would maybe set and it would be better.

        For photo purposes I decided that I would transer the roll to a nice platter. Tough task it was, I felt the meringue break a little as I attempted to lift it up, it also refuses to budge from the baking paper getting stuck from all the sticky filling. I almost have to flip it twice from the baking tray onto the platter.

        I definately wanted Ryan to try this dessert. I was going to split the log into 3, but ended up cutting it in half, one half for my uncle, aunty and cousins to try and one for Ryan's family. I wasn't sure if anyone at home would want to touch it because they're not fond of strange looking food but I end up cutting a few slices off to leave at home, I end up eating it all anyway. Ryan loved it but commented that it was extremely rich. Apparantly when his parents discovered what they were in posession of they ate almost two thirds of the half that I gave them. Brazo De Mercedes is an extreme popular dessert of the Filipino's. The fact that I got Ryan's dad excited meant alot. He's not one to try strange foods either.

        I found out that Grandma was down from Queensland and staying with my uncle and aunty and had a slice of my log, the next day she was over for dinner and told me how much she enjoyed eating it. I'm definately making this again. I made so many mistakes to learn from, next time I am expecting to make a much more improved roll. I think I like this even more than the Leche Flan now. The soft, almost melting meringue together with the sweet creamy filling. Oh it is blissful to eat!

Leche Flan - The Filipino Creme Caramel (12th June)

        Creme caramel is a dessert I grew up loving. I actually grew up eating the pre-made ones that you buy from the supermarket - my parents would always buy these as a treat and Mum never really had time to make them. I remember that I would never be able to finish a whole serve and absolutely loved eating the caramel, I'd drown the custard in caramel and eat most of it leaving behind just custard with not a lot of caramel left and gave it back to my parents to finish.

        Growing up the pre-made stuff was fine to eat, until I discovered the home made Vietnamese version that my aunty made. Our version is a much lighter custard, I remember my aunty teaching me the recipe, it was pretty much based on ratios and a can of condensed milk to measure. It was made with whole eggs, condensed milk and water. It's also steamed rather than baked which is quite a skill as to not let the custard bubble - something I have never quite mastered.

         Being introduced to the Filipino version called Leche Flan was a whole new revelation for me, it's one of Ryan's favourites. It was dense, it was rich, and it was evil - in a good way! Every time there was a function of some sort in the Romero household you could pretty much guarantee that someone would bring Leche Flan. Ryan's mum doesn't really make desserts, so it was only ever at these functions that we were able to eat it, and it's been a looooong time since they've had any functions at their household, nor have we attended any big Filo gatherings together.

        The first time I had made Leche Flan was back in January this year, according to Ryan and his mum, I hadn't quite hit the mark. It wasn't as dense/rich as a traditional flan and I was told I needed to use condensed milk (which I did). I actually googled Leche Flan and picked one of the first recipes in the search results, I thought I had favourited it but can't seem to find it on my list. I think the recipe was an adaption from the author and at the time reading it I thought it sounded alright. Presentation wise it wasn't the best, the custard got a little caught at the bottom of my ramekins so were a little hard to unmould. My caramel was also just a touch on the dark side.

        Recently (about a month ago) I had the itch to make Leche Flan again and wanted to make it as authentic as I could, this time I had the power of a food blogging community and Twitter. Someone on Twitter actually gave me a link to their blog for Leche Flan. I didn't know this person, nor was I following them so was suprised that they had responded to me. I read through the recipe and thought "wow this sounds really rich" but it was their mum's recipe and who could say no to that. I pretty much had all the ingredients at home except for evaporated milk so had to walk up the road to the shops to buy it.

        The recipe uses 12 egg yolks, yes 12! I've read other recipes which call for 10 yolks with the same amount of evaporated milk and condensed milk. It also meant I had 12 whites leftover! Oh macarons!

        Making creme caramel/leche flan is not all that hard once you find a good recipe. All the ingredients go into the same jug and stirred. The trick is not to stir too hard to cause air bubbles in the mix. Oops, you can see some tiny ones on the surface there. The egg yolks didn't seem to want to break up, should probably have beaten them up seperately before adding to the milk mixture.

        Once combined, use a fine sieve to catch all the bits of egg which havn't broken up. The sieve I had to use wasn't as fine as I had hoped so I still get little bits of egg in the mix, no matter though as they float to the top during cooking and then the whole thing gets tipped over so you won't see it anyway.

        I think I wasn't feeling 100% that day, for some reason it took me 3 goes to cook the caramel, I kept ending up with sugar crystals but couldn't seem to figure out why.

        Last time I made individual custards but I know that it's usually traditionally cooked in a large tin of sorts and then flipped and served onto a plate. I decide to use my two oval dishes which I had bought from Ikea. One for us and one for Ryan's family.

        Golden baked custards. They are cooked in the oven in a bain marie (water bath) and covered with aluminium foil so they don't overbrown.

        For photo purposes I flipped one out, it's so shiney! I end up cutting this one up and putting it into a container for home. I take the other one in the dish to Ryan's place. It's a little thinner than I had anticipated but as it's so rich you don't really need a large piece. I need to practice my unmoulding of these things still.

        So the verdict? Ryan loved it "Very rich but oh so good!". Ryan's mum loved it too but suggested that I should have added some lime peel as that's how it's traditionally done, oh drats why did I have to leave it out. It would have added another dimension to it though, I remember the ones I've had always had a hint of citrus or even possibly ginger. With the amount of egg yolks and condensed/evaporated milk I can see why I only ever get to eat this on special occasions.

        If I were to attempt a double batch, that's a lot of eggs! I might just do it with 10 yolks next time though for comparison. So what did I do with my 12 egg whites? I attempted macarons again of course! Two batches of macarons and a batch of amaretti biscuits and even then still had 2 whites left, posts to come.

***Don't forget to enter my giveaway - An Edgell Hamper worth approximately $100, the basket is pretty sexy! Ends Monday 19th July***