Pandan cotton cake - by 陳靖蕓

Pandan cotton cake

180 g egg whites
½ tsp cream of tartar / lemon juice ( I prefer use lemon juice )
50 g sugar

60 g egg yolks
50 g sugar
60 g vegetable oil
¼ tsp salt
100 g cake flour, sifted with baking powder
1/2 tsp baking powder
80 g freshly squeezed pandan coconut milk

Tips: try to use young pandan leafs.

Preheat oven to 150°C

Wash and roughly chop pandan leaves. Blend with coconut milk and 1 tbsp water. Strain, pressing leaves hard. Discard pulp. Set aside green liquid, which should weigh 95 g.

Whisk egg whites with sugar and cream of tartar till just reaching stiff peaks. Set aside.

In a separate bowl, whisk egg yolks and sugar till pale, thick and creamy (ribbon stage). Add green coconut milk, then vegetable oil, whisking till evenly mixed. Gradually add flour mixture, along with salt, again whisking till just evenly mixed. Add egg whites in 3 batches, whisking gently by hand in electric whisk's direction. Scrape down with spatula before mixing last batch of egg whites.

Bang mixing bowl against worktop 2-3 times to remove air bubbles. Pour batter into 21 cm 2-piece chiffon tin that's not non-stick, slowly so that air bubbles still trapped in the batter are released. Run a chopstick round side of tin to remove more air bubbles. Level and smooth top.

Bake the cake in the preheated oven 150C ( 2nd lower rack) for about 45minutes or when the surfaces turns golden brown

Remove cake from oven. Invert onto a bottle. Leave till cool, an hour or so. Cut cake out of tin.