Orange Digger Pandan Chiffon Cake

This is a happy digger made out of chiffon cake for a really cute boy who loves digger! This is my second digger cake; the last time I made a chiffon digger was for my nephew who's also crazy about diggers. After a few generations of vehicles, my digger now has a smile after my chiffon bus as I think it makes the vehicle look happier hee ^_^. The digger is placed atop a pandan chiffon cake so that the backdrop is brighter and sweeter (than chocolate in my previous digger cake). I further added in some cocoa soil and m&m's rocks so that the digger looks happily busy at work!

The digger is cut out from orange chiffon cake baked in a big square tray. My previous post Orange chocolate chiffon digger has pictures and details on its construction. The pandan chiffon cake is baked in an 8-inch square chiffon tin (borrowed from my dear friend Evon.. thank you!). The same pandan chiffon cake recipe is used in Peppa Pig chiffon cake, but scaled up to 7 egg yolks for the big tin. For your convenience, the scaled up recipe is below :).

Pandan Chiffon Cake (for 20 cm square chiffon tin)
7 egg yolks
47g sugar
91g vegetable oil
56 ml coconut milk
26 ml pandan juice
5 ml vanilla extract
13 ml pandan paste
140g cake flour
A pinch of salt

Meringue:
9 egg whites
105g sugar
1/4 tsp cream of tartar

Method:
1. Prepare fresh pandan juice by blending fresh pandan leaves (10 leaves cut into small pieces, omitting the tips) with 50 ml water. Strain with a sieve and press out all the liquid with a spoon.

2. Preheat oven at 160°C.
3. Beat egg yolks with sugar with whisk till pale yellow before stirring in oil, milk and pandan juice. Add pandan paste, vanilla extract and a dip of green food coloring if desired (optional). Mix well.
4. Add in sieved flour and salt and whisk till no trace of flour found.
5. Meringue: Beat the egg whites with ¼ tsp cream of tartar till stiff peak, mixing in caster sugar in 2 additions.
6. Fold in the meringue gently into the batter 1/3 at a time.
7. Pour the batter into the chiffon tin from a height.
8. Gently tap the tin on table 3x to remove air bubbles
9. Bake the cake for 15 min at 160°C then 35 min at 150°C.
10. Invert immediately once out of the oven to cool
11. Unmould by hand after the cake is cool. For square chiffon tin, a spatula is needed for the corners to get sharp edges.

Freshly unmoulded cake!

I filled the hole with some m&m rocks and flowers, and decorated with more around the digger :).

Here's a final look at the cake!  

Thank God my friend shared that the kids loved it and asked for second helpings :).

Happy belated birthday Isaac!

With lots of love,

Susanne