Pandan Chiffon Cake

Pandan Chiffon Cake... ahh. One of my favourite things to eat when my mom buys one back from pasar malam/local bakery. If you haven't tried Pandan Chiffon Cake, you're missing out big time.

So for the past month I have been researching about this cake. I was looking at countless recipes, hoping to find one that is foolproof and delicious because baking is not cheap, I don't want to be wasting my ingredients on a cake that sucks. Then I found this Youtube video:

 

 

The end result looked promising so I went to her blog and decided to use her recipe. Her Pandan Chiffon Cake post doesn't only contain the recipe, she included lots of info you need to know in order to bake a good Pandan Chiffon Cake too. How can anyone not love bloggers like that? 

Since she got the recipe from another blogger, I went to the other blogger's post. Once again, the blog post contains a massive amount of info you cannot do without if you want to bake a good Pandan Chiffon Cake. This is why you don't need recipe books or go for cooking classes these days.

I highly recommend reading their posts if you're serious about making not just a Pandan Chiffon Cake, but a GOOD Pandan Chiffon Cake. I cannot give them enough of credits for putting so much of info in their blog posts for just a cake. All credits go to the both of them; kitchen tigress and i eat. i shoot. i post. I used the latter's recipe (the blogger's a doctor by the way, I've never thought that doctors can bake! :P) because my chiffon tin was a large one so it's just easier to use his. Kitchen tigress adapted his recipe to fit a 21 inch chiffon tin, which is a lot smaller.

First of all before everything, you need to think about the pandan flavour. There are 2 options: natural or artificial. For artificial flavourings, there's pandan essence (usually colourless) and pandan paste (a deep green). Nothing wrong with using artificial flavourings, in fact it gives a stronger pandan flavour, and richer green if you use the paste. I chose the natural version which is of course using real pandan leaves but the green turned out really faint. The flavour's there but definitely not strong, but I still liked it. Real pandan leaves are mildly fragrant anyway. It's all about that rewarding feeling when you know you've made it from scratch.

If you choose to use artifical flavourings, you can skip the next part of this post and go strainght to the recipe.

In Melbourne, you can find pandan leaves in Little Saigon Market in Footscray. There's only 1 shop which sells it though, the one nearest to Sun Wong Kee restaurant. I got mine for $2.50/bunch of about 15 leaves. 

Then of course you need to extract the 'juice' from those fragrant leaves. From the Youtube video it shows clearly how to do it. You can blitz it with a blender, food processor or a stick blender. If you don't have either, you can pound it with mortar and pestle but... why would anyone go through such torment? Get a blender! They're really useful in the kitchen. 

It's a really clever idea to blend the leaves WITH coconut milk, because then you're not diluting it but instead you're infusing the coconut milk with the pandan extract. I would highly suggest using this method.

I didn't do that because my pandan leaves which I've kept for days in the fridge was not looking good anymore and I knew I had to do something with it pronto or they will go bad. But I wasn't sure if I was gonna bake anytime soon, if I extracted the leaves with my coconut milk and left it there they might go bad TOGETHER, which is even worse.

So I extracted the leaves the conventional way which is to blitz it with water. I found this technique in Wendy's blog post to obtain a concentrated version of pandan juice. Brilliant!

Basically you blitz it with some water. You'll know how much you need because without water, the blades won't be able to blend properly so add slowly until everything is moving constantly. Once you get a fine paste, squeeze and strain the juice. Leave the juice for a few hours to a day and what happens is the chlorophyll will settle to the bottom, and you'll see 2 layers of the juice. The bottom layer is a deep, forest green while the top layer is a translucent greenish (sometimes brownish) colour. I scooped out the translucent layer as much as I can and only used the bottom layer. The chlorophyll is the component which gives your cake that green tint, the extract itself has that mild pandan fragrance.

Pandan Chiffon Cake

Adapted from: kitchen tigress, i eat. i shoot. i post

Mould: 25/26 cm

A:

Corn Oil 115ml

Coconut Milk 140 ml

Condensed Milk 2 tbsp

Pandan Juice 2 tbsp (Or paste/essence 2 tsp)

Salt 1/4tsp

B:

Cake Flour 200gm

Baking Powder 2tsp

C:
Egg Yolks 6

Castor Sugar 65gm

D:

Egg White 9

Castor Sugar 95gm

Cream of Tartar 1 tsp (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 180°C, or 160-170°C if fan-forced.

2. Mix A together except for salt, strain, then add salt. Set aside.

3. Mix B together, sift, and set aside.

4. Beat C until thick and pale. (It took me 5 minutes)

5. Add A into C and beat till incorporated, then add B and continue beating till incorporated.

6. Beat/whisk egg whites till foamy, add cream of tartar and beat till soft peaks form. Add sugar a little at a time while continuously beating until stiff peaks form.

7. Fold in D into the C mixture in 3 portions.

8. Pour into an unlined and ungreased chiffon tin, smooth out the top and bake for 45-55 minutes, depending on size of mould.

9. When cake is done, invert it and leave it elevated from the surface and leave to cool completely.

10. To remove cake, run a spatula/knife along the sides and base of the tin carefully.

* I started off at 165°C. My cake was cracking like nobody's business, so I turned down the temperature to 160°C.

 

* Instead of baking it at 55 minutes as suggested, I did only 45 and the cake was perfectly cooked. That could probably be due to the larger tin I used, (26cm, recipe uses 25cm) the batter is more spread out.

* Cake/Low protein flour is necessary. I used all purpose flour once for another chiffon cake and the cake was dry and 'cakey', not soft like chiffon.

* I used to ignore the use of cream of tartar, but I won't anymore because it does make a difference.

* I used condensed milk because someone commented that the use of it gives a better texture/taste. Not sure if it does make a difference but I'm really happy with the outcome of this recipe.

* I didn't use vanilla essence. It's a pandan chiffon cake and I like it to smell only like pandan.

This is what you get when you rush to remove the cake from the tin =.= Take your time when running your knife at the base to get that perfect, brown layer.

As you can see, it doesn't have that type of green you see in most chiffon cakes you buy at the bakery. If compared with kitchen tigress's chiffon cake, the colour of her cake is more saturated than mine, considering we both use natural pandan juice. The only explaination I can think of is her pandan leaves are most probably nicer, the freshly plucked from the garden type while mine were old.

But I'm not complaining as I am really happy with the taste. If there's one word to describe this cake, it's soft. It's soft in almost every aspect; colour, flavour, texture. It's different from the pasar malam/asian bakery ones but I still like it. It's soft, pillowy... like eating clouds.

Hong Kong Day 5 (Macau)

This was our last day, there wasn't any tour planned for us and our flight was in the late afternoon, so it was free and easy for us. We took a bus to Largo do Senado, can't remember how much we had to pay. Later we found out we could've traveled there for free.

You could take a shuttle bus from whichever hotel you're staying at, it'll take you to the Taipa Ferry Terminal. And from the terminal there are many other shuttle buses from the other hotels/casinos. Depending on where you're going, if the hotel is near the location you're trying to get to, just hop on and you'll get your free ride! It takes a little bit more time, but it's a free experience.

For example to get to Largo do Senado (Senado Square), you can hop onto the Hotel Lisboa's shuttle bus. Apprently it stops a few blocks from Largo do Senado.

The reason we went to Largo do Senado was because I wanted to look for a Yee Shun Dairy Company. We first had trouble finding it because according to my research, it should be inside Senado Square. But it was nowhere to be seen! Fortunately there was one spot with free wifi, so I quickly made my search and found out in one post (out of 1987531) it has actually moved to another place which was luckily not too far away.

I wanted to go to Yee Shun because in Swee San's post she mentioned how good their scrambled eggs were. Also, they make this double-boiled milk thingie which I have no idea what it was, I really wanted to try it!

Again, everything in the menu was in Chinese :( I didn't know what it's called, so I could only point at pictures. And I even tried to order a scrambled egg sandwich, but I didn't know what scrambled egg's called in Chinese! So I literally said "Scrambled eggs", describing in Cantonese that it's... sort of fried, and the guy who took my order said ok, so I thought he understood. But when my sandwich came my egg was just plain fried egg :((((((

But the double-boiled milk was DA BOMB! Ok it's not like atomic bomb good but I've never tried it before so I found it really interesting in a good way!

It's like eating tau fu fah but instead of soy milk, this is made with fresh milk! Some say it's made with water buffalo milk. I don't know lah, but I know the milk taste was very apparent, and different, but somehow I'm not sick of it! And this is coming from someone who hates drinking milk.

If I'm not wrong, it's called "Sheong Pei Lai", literally means double-skinned milk. Texture is like a pudding made with milk. We ordered one with red beans 红豆双皮炖奶 but if I were to recommend, just order the plain one without red beans because the pudding itself is really good.

We also ordered a Ginger Milk Curd 姜汁撞奶 cos I've seen other bloggers recommending it. Pretty good, but it leaves a bitter aftertaste.

Another food generally recommended by food bloggers when in Macau is their Pork Chop Bun. Nothing to shout about.

Yee Shun Dairy Company 義順牛奶公司
60, Avenida de Almeida Ribeiro (San Ma Lou)

Took a stroll along the streets near Senado Square. It leads to the Ruins of St. Pauls. There are lots of shops selling food, souvenirs and whatnot. Lots to try too.

Then we went looking for this place famous for their Portuguese Egg Tart. It's called Margaret's Cafe e Nata. We didn't get to try any other Portuguese tarts so we couldn't compare it to anything but I'd say it's nice. The custard didn't taste too egg-y and it wasn't too sweet.

Can't remember how much they were selling at, but it's definitely clear in my memory that it wasn't cheap. I remember having their Iced Yin Yeong and it was MOP20 (RM10)!!

Margaret's Cafe e Nata 瑪嘉烈葡塔
Gum Loi Building, Rua Almirante Costa Cabral

I think the address is quite pointless unless you have Google Maps in hand. The location is a little hard to describe. Some bloggers said it's right next to Hotel Lisboa, but I found an instruction online which I followed and successfully found the place. Unfortunately, I only printscreened the post, I can't remember which website was it. Credits go to him/her.

"At the entrance/exit of Hotel Sintra, turn left into a northeasternly direction, cross Avenida Infante D. Henrique, and then turn at the first alley on your left - there should be a sign pointing in the direction of the cafe."

Then we went back to our hotel, took a shuttle bus, switched to a Venetian shuttle bus and went to The Venetian and spent the rest of our time there shopping before leaving to catch our flight.

***

Finally done with HK/Macau. Normal posts will resume soon.

Hong Kong Day 4 (Macau)

Another boring day. Lots of sight seeing. We took a boat/ferry/idunno from HK to Macau. In the boat/ferry/idunno, there were LOTS and LOTS of China people (who look like they're from kampung, literally) and they were SO. FREAKING. RUDE.

They talk as though they're in a noisy club, or as though they're about to start a fight, they PUSHTHEFUCK out of you, they don't listen to the attendants when asked to move their baggage to the supposed area, they cut queue or rather, create their own line, they stand so close to you as though they're going to kiss you. I have this thing about people standing really close to me while waiting in a line. Except for my bestfriend and bf, I cannot cannot tahan ppl standing close to me or touching me while they're standing. And that wasn't my first experience with these rude China people already. In Disneyland I even scolded one.

AAAAAAAAARGHHHHHHHHH!

Upon arrival it was raining quite heavily so the itinerary had to be rescheduled. We were first sent to The Venetian, a popular hotel and casino resort, with the world's largest casino. No pictures of the casino because my 12YO sister obviously couldn't get in.

I suppose the name Venetian indicates that the building and its structure are made to resemble those in Venice. There's a canal within the building itself completed with sky-like ceilings, gondolas and gondoliers who sing.

 

It's a really huge building with lots of shops, from luxurious brands to mid-range. We didn't get a lot of time in the Venetian so we went back the next day and actually did most of our shopping there throughout the entire trip.

Then we were brought to the City of Dreams to watch this 4D show called Dragon's Treasure. It's basically watching an animation in panoramic view, projected in a huge, dome-shaped theater called The Bubble.

Never seen anything like that before so I'd say it was quite awesome although the entire show took only about 15 minutes.

Then we had lunch and then headed to Macau Tower. There's an observation deck with see through floors and see through walls for us to get a 360 view of Macau but of course it's not free. Nobody in our tour wanted to go except for us siblings.

There was this stupid bitch in our group who said, "Aiya this kind of tower I go to KL Tower also can see lah"

Eh idiot? Do you know what is the difference between KL Tower and Macau Tower? ONE IS IN KL ONE IS IN MACAU! Even a 5 year old can tell you that lo! Stupid bitch didn't want to spend her money to see it, so she had to say it's not worth spending when we siblings actually paid for it??

STUPID SOUR GRAPE! I bet in saying that she actually didn't even go up to KL Tower to see also!

It's not just this one incident that annoyed us, that same bitch annoyed me many times already so its an accumulation of lots of annoyance wtf.

It's not about paying for things that's worth it or not, it's about paying for a view that you can never find anywhere else in the world. It's a different experience, in a different place. Since we're all the way here, why  cannot go for it? Sadly some kiamsiap stupid sour grape cannot understand this.

And then we were brought to the A-Ma Temple, or in Canto they call it Ma Kok Miu. It is said that the name Macau came from the name of this temple. When the Portuguese first came, they asked the people who lived in the temple for the name of the place to which the people replied "Ma Kok", and supposedly that's how the name Macau came about.

The tour guide recommended us Macau's local specialty which is their Almond Cookies from a famous bakery in Macau, Pastelaria Koi Kee 钜记饼家, which is near the temple. We thought it's the ONLY store in Macau, until we saw it EVERYWHERE as we traveled -.-

Regretted buying in that place because it was packed with people. Not just people. RUDE CHINA PEOPLE.

They provide samples for customers to try so don't worry about not knowing what you're buying. But if there are China people in the store, don't expect much of the samples left.

I highly recommend their Phoenix Eggroll. It's a crunchy egg roll snack with pork floss and seaweed. The almond cookies are good too, but I like the Phoenix Eggroll more (the name itself is also more extravagant wtf). Wished I bought more, everyone who tried it loved it.

Then we went to the Fisherman's Wharf. Honestly when we first went there, I had no idea what was it. Everything's closed. According to Wikipedia, it's a theme park! Wtf, it surely didn't seem like a theme park to me lor. When we were there everything's closed. All we could do was stand outside the buildings and take pictures. Quite stupid la, why brought us there when it's closed?

Didn't bother taking much pictures because to me, they all looked like fancy man-made buildings which have no interesting history behind it.

Then finally we went to the famous Ruins of St. Paul's where the famous facade of St. Paul's Cathedral proudly stands!

According to the tourguide, the cathedral was destroyed by a fire and only the facade remained because apart from the facade which was built with stone, everything else was built with timber(if I remember it correctly...).

Ok can officially said I've visited Macau lol.

Then we were sent to our hotel. This time we stayed in Metropark Hotel, which is a small one compared to all the other huge casino and hotel resorts around us. It's small but it's pretty good, so much better than the previous one we had in HK. There's free limited internet service we can easily get in the lobby, the room was also more spacious.

That night we had a quick dinner at a nearby restaurant. No pictures because it wasn't interesting. I know I've said this many times before but I will still say it again, Klang has better food.

After dinner we strolled around the city. There were lots of casinos and hotels. 'Lots' is probably an understatement.

There wasn't much to do and we were really tired too. And also for 3 girls to stroll in the city at night, I was getting quite anxious and scared. Afterall, it's a foreign country eventhough we all share the same ethnicity. It's like a land of casinos, like a city that never sleeps. There's people everywhere. But most of them are people who go there to gamble their life away. Walking with all these people around it's impossible to not feel insecure.

We went back earlier and planned for the next day.

Hong Kong Day 3

For breakfast this day, we were supposed to be having dim sum again. The tour guide said it's at a different place this time.

Yeah different place, but SAME FOOD! Knn. Its actually the same restaurant but different branch. Wtf la. Only changed about 2 dishes, the rest were the same and again, no choosing, eat what's served. Pffffftttt.

Then we headed straight for Disneyland. In the itinerary given to us, Disneyland was supposed to take up the whole day. We will be dropped there and only picked up at 9.30pm after the last show in Disneyland which was some fireworks. But a lot of us decided to leave early and have our free and easy time, and the tour guide was fine with it.

Damn the weather. It was SUPER hot and sunny, and then it went slightly gloomy...

Not only was it hot, it was SUPER packed with people. We didn't even get to go on any of the rides or watch any of the stage shows because the queueing time on average for each show was 1 hour or more. If we were to waste those time queueing, there wouldn't be enough time to explore the entire Disneyland and leave earlier as planned to go to explore other parts of HK.

Instead, we made use of the time we had and took pictures with as many characters as we could. Even with that we still had to queue ok! I'm not sure if there weren't that many characters to begin with, or we didn't see them.

With Belle from Beauty and the Beast and Snow White from... Snow White wtf. They not only dress like them, they talk like them too. It was quite.. scary actually wtf.

And then it started pouring heavily!!! :( Sibeh unlucky la. Fortunately it wasn't a very long rain, probably about 20 minutes. Out of desperation I even bought one umbrella. Fucking expensive ok, HKD 170 after discount. But it's ok la, it's a nice and sturdy umbrella and has HK Disneyland printed on it lol.

The only ride we managed to try was the Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters only because it has this fastpass service where you take a ticket and it'll tell you what time is the next ride, so there's no need to queue for hours and waste time.

I was thrown the camera so...

With Princess Aurora from Sleeping Beauty

Minnie Mouse!

Mickey Mouse!

Pluto!

And then we had to literally run to watch the Flights of Fantasy Parade because we took too much time queueing to take pictures with the characters. Luckily managed to make it and watch the parade.

After the parade we continued to venture to the other parts. Honestly if what the parade showcased was all the characters HK Disneyland had, I'm a little disappointed. I expected more! Where are the villains? The evil queen from Snow White, Maleficent, Ursula... etc? Where's The Little Mermaid? Where's Aladdin and Jasmine?

Lol wtf

This Merlin speaks Cantonese

Before we left we managed to watch the Mickey's Waterworks Parade. It's just another parade which involves some water shooting and getting wet, unless you stay in the 'dry' zone, or have an umbrella ready.

We left very shortly after the parade ended.

One last picture before leaving.

The first place we wanted to go was Lui Yan Kai (Ladies' Market) in Mong Kok. So we took the MTR located right outside the Disneyland entrance, to Mong Kok Station. We walked around not knowing where to eat before we spotted a Hui Lau Shan! I've heard about this place from other bloggers who've been to HK. Its famous for their mango desserts.

Everything was in Chinese so I could only point to order, without knowing what exactly it was.

This one is obviously a young coconut, and it has bird's nest, coconut milk, coconut flesh... and I don't know what else. Very nice!

Didn't know which mango dessert to have so we ordered this taster type of thing. Dunno why their mango super refreshing! It's sweet but you know how sometimes mango can taste sweet as though it's going to go rotten? This one is fragrant and sweet, and you can never have enough!

Next round, we decided to eat a heavier meal before walking Lui Yan Kai. I remember reading about a Kam Wah Cafe in Mong Kok so we headed there. Apparently they have the best Polo Bao (Pineapple Bun) in HK. True enough, they were selling like hot cakes. When we sat down the waiter asked (rudely) if we wanted Polo Bao, and said if we don't decide fast it'll be sold out.

I don't know how a good Polo Bao is supposed to taste like, if this is it, I'm disappointed. Comparing to all the other Po Lor Bao I've had before (from bakeries in Malaysia), this one didn't impress me :/ Partly because it carries the "Best in HK" title, I was a little disappointed. I expected more!

Btw Po Lor Bao does not involve any pineapples or pineapple products in its making. Po lor is the the way Hongkies call a pineapple, the bun is called Po Lor Bao only because it (very mildly) resemble the fruit.

The egg tarts were selling well too so we decided to give them a try since in HK TVB dramas I always see them eating egg tarts for tea time. They were really good. I was happier to eat their egg tarts than the Po Lor Bao...

I also remember reading Swee San's post about their Dong Leng Mat (Iced Honey Lemon) being green in colour. I found that weird and I was curious, so I ordered one. True enough, it was green! And... it sucks. I didn't like it all, didn't taste like lemon or honey. Tasted like some leong cha (herbal tea) or something.

For mains, again we were lost in all those Chinese characters. In HK Char Chan Teng (cafes), do not expect friendliness. Expect being pressured to order quickly. I was not bothered to ask them what's what in the menu so I ordered what I know without even trying to read (and fail).

Chan Dan Meen (Egg and Spam instant noodle)

Gon Chao Ngau Hor (Stir Fry Beef Rice Noodle) which is like our Char Koay Teow with beef but Char Koay Teow is 1000 times nicer.

The mains weren't impressive. Not even their Nai Cha (Milk Tea). I've read in some blogs that they think their Nai Cha's good. Comparing to the first Nai Cha I had on Day 1 in Happy Valley, this was not as good.

Overall, I find this Kam Wah Cafe a little overrated period.

Then we proceeded to Lui Yan Kai. We wanted to go to Zhong Wan (Central) after this and because it was getting late, we very quickly browsed through Lui Yan Kai and we didn't manage to walk the entire market.

Look at my sunburnt shoulders and stupid sunburnt nose wtf -.-

By the time we reached Central, most of the shops were already closed. So we could only window shop, sight-see and use their high class toilet wtf. Ooh there's a H&M there, nice and affordable stuff.

But by that time we were already dead tired because Disneyland pretty much drained away all of our energy. Our feet were sore, we're all tanned/sunburnt, exhausted. I don't know how we could stand staying there till 9.30pm as how it was planned initially.

Overall, Disneyland was a little smaller than expected but it was nevertheless fun. Given that the Disneyland is bigger, I don't think I could walk that much too. It was a shame that we ran out of time to properly explore Lui Yan Kai and Central. Maybe next time? :)