Pandan Chiffon Cupcakes (A Fail-proof Chiffon Cake Recipe)

Can you bake a chiffon cake without using a chiffon cake pan?

Yes, you can. Really?

Yes, you can and I'm not joking.

Typically, most chiffon cake recipes require baking the cakes in un-greased aluminium tube pans which make them look tall and beautiful in circular shape with a characteristic hole in the center... but but but what if I bake a chiffon cake without using a chiffon cake pan??? It will sink in the middle but the ones made with this recipe can survive the sink pretty well!

This recipe by Pick Yin (Life is Great) is said to be a very-stable chiffon cake recipe. Its higher flour-over-liquid ratio produces good success rate and also fluffy chiffon cakes to eat. I did like what Pick Yin has mentioned and used lined muffin tray to bake these chiffon cakes and it works beautifully! If baking chiffon cake has been a daunting experience for you, I would highly recommend this recipe to overcome your fear of chiffon cake baking.

If you still prefer to bake this recipe using chiffon cake pans but don't have a 25 cm chiffon cake pan. Pick Yin has this nice conversion table for you...

14cm tin - 1 egg
17cm tin - 2 eggs
21cm tin - 4 eggs
23cm tin - 6 eggs
25cm tin - 8 eggs

Brilliant, isn't she?

We are baking chiffon cakes for our bake-along with Joyce from Kitchen Flavours and Lena from Frozen wings. If you wish to bake-along with us ... with this recipe? I hope that this fail-proof recipe will work well for you.

As this is a fail-proof chiffon cake recipe with higher flour-over-liquid ratio, I hope that you are not expecting this recipe to yield a silky soft cake like the most ideal pandan chiffon cake that I have baked previously. With less coconut milk / flavouring and added fat, I have to say that these chiffon cakes are of course, not as moist and flavoursome as the cooked dough (Tang Mian /烫面 ) pandan chiffon cake that I have baked previously... Trust me. Even my 5-year old boy can taste the differences.

Hope that my description is not resisting anyone from baking this recipe... Hey, it is fail-proof! I'm not expecting much... Are you???

Pandan chiffon cupcakes made with a fail-proof chiffon cake recipe

Always my favourite thing to do: Extracting pandan juice!

Instead of adding 1 tbsp of coconut oil, I have added 1 tsp of this instant coconut milk powder.

Like most chiffon cake recipes, this is how I mixed the egg yolk mixture

This is the egg white mixture, beaten to stiff peaks.

Combine both egg yolk and egg white mixture... very gently!

Do this and bake!

To avoid sudden change of temperature, I cooled my cupcakes slowly in the oven with its door ajar

My cupcakes sunk slightly in the middle but survived pretty well.

Impressed? Yes, I am. Pretty good chiffon cake texture, isn't it?

Here's the recipe adapted from Pick Yin (Life is Great)

Makes 12-14 cupcakes or one 21 cm chiffon cake

6 pandan leaves
3 tbsp water
1 tbsp coconut milk or 1 tsp instant coconut powder (optional)
90g self-rising flour, preferably bleached with 7-9% low protein content
(alternatively if self-rising flour is unavailable, use 90g cake flour with 1 1/2 tsp baking powder)
20g castor sugar
4 egg yolks (from 60g eggs)
3 tbsp rice bran oil (or any light-flavoured oil)
1/8 tsp baking powder
4 egg whites (from 60g eggs)
50g castor sugar
1/4 tbsp cream of tartar (Yes... This recipe uses tablespoonful of cream of tartar!)

Preheat oven to 170°C (or 150°C fan forced) with a metal rack at the second lower position. Line a 12-hole standard size muffin tray with baking paper cups or prepare one 21 cm chiffon cake tin, clean and un-greased.

Wash and snip pandan leaves into small pieces. Place into a processor and add 3 tbsp water. Process to form a thick paste. Instead of using a processor, a mortar and pestle can also be used to pound the leaves into thick paste. Remove and squeeze out all the liquid from the paste through a muslin cloth. The amount of pandan juice yielded should be about more or less 30 ml. Top pandan juice to 60 ml with 1 tbsp coconut milk or 1 tsp instant coconut powder (optional) and the rest with water.

In a large mixing bowl, whisk the egg yolks with oil to form an emulsion. Add the pandan mixture and sugar and whisk until sugar has melted and all are well combined. Sift flour and baking powder into the mixture and whisk well into a smooth batter. Set aside.

Using an electric mixer, whisk egg whites and cream of tartar in low-medium speed until egg whites start to foam. Increase mixing speed and add sugar gradually in 3 additions. Whisk until the meringue is smooth and glossy, with stiff peaks. With the addition of 1/4 tbsp of cream of tartar, the meringue form stiff peaks quickly and easily. I have also noticed that the meringue is smoother with smaller bubbles. Be careful not to over-beat the egg whites as in a glance, it can become dry and lumpy easily.

Fold in the egg white mixture into the flour batter gently and in three batches. Make sure that the cake batter is well combined. Be careful not to over-mix the batter as over-mixing will deflate the air in the meringue.

Pour batter into the prepared muffin tray or chiffon tin. Tap the tray or tin on tabletop to release any big air bubbles. For the cake in 21 cm tin, bake it at 170°C (or 150°C fan forced) for 10 min. Lower the temperature to 160°C (or 140°C fan forced) and bake for another 45 to 50 mins or until cake is cooked completely. For the cupcakes, bake it at 170°C (or 150°C fan forced) for 10 min. Lower the temperature to 160°C (or 140°C fan forced) and bake for another 20 to 25 mins or until cupcakes are cooked completely. Do not open the oven door while the cakes are baking as the sudden change of temperature especially during the first 30 mins of baking will deflate and damage the cakes completely. It is always better to over-bake chiffon cakes slightly rather than under-bake the cake. Personally, I didn't like to insert a skewer to test if my chiffon cakes are cooked or not. Instead, I choose to be on the safe side by baking my chiffon cakes with an extra 5 mins or if the cakes looks slightly over-brown, I will bake it with an extra 10 mins at slightly lower temperature. Another thing, it is ok if the chiffon cake cracks a little as the cracks mean that the cakes have risen well.

When the cake in chiffon tin is cooked, remove it from the oven and invert it immediately to cool completely. When the cupcakes are cooked, switch off the oven and leave the oven door ajar and let the cupcakes cool in the oven slowly. Remove the cupcakes from the oven when the oven is cooled to room temperature. Remove the cupcakes from the muffin tray immediately. Serve.

To unmould the cake from the chiffon tin, run a knife along the sides of the cake tin and also bottom of the tube and remove the cake from the tin accordingly.

Cut with serrated knife and serve.

Happy Baking
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Please note that the linky tool for bake-along is no longer available.