'Nyonya Kueh' Pandan Gula Melaka Chiffon Cake

My humble attempt to recreate various nyonya kueh such as ang ku kueh and the pretty rainbow kueh lapis sagu from chiffon cake. It was for my friend's grandma who's a nyonya kueh specialist =p. So you can imagine it was both a rather stressful but fun experiment.

Gula Melaka is trending, so I tried a yummy Pandan Gula melaka chiffon version that is really fragrant for the base cake!

As I wasn't quite sure how to layout the various kueh on the cake, I did a trial layout on a cutting board. I thought they were looking quite cute!

And here's my final cake!

The brown layers are Pandan Gula Melaka with pandan juice. The green layers are Pandan Gula Melaka with added pandan paste. In my opinion, the green layers with added pandan paste tastes even better as the combination is so right! One thing to note is that browning can't be avoided due to the brown sugar, so you get an earthy tone for both the brown and green layers. But fits the rustic theme in this case =).

I've scaled down the recipe below so that it won't be so daunting for you to try a 10 egg recipe. Here goes!

Pandan Gula Melaka Chiffon Cake (7-inch to 8-inch chiffon tube pan)
5 egg yolks (69g)
127g gula melaka (1 block)
70g coconut milk
6 pandan leaves, knotted
10g pandan juice
3g vanilla extract
75g coconut/vegetable oil
100g Prima cake flour, sifted
1/3 tsp baking powder
1/3 tsp salt
½ tsp pandan paste

7 egg whites
39g castor sugar
1/4 tsp cream of tartar

1. Melt 1 block of gula melaka (127g) in coconut milk (70g) with pandan leaves under low heat until it dissolves. Sieve out the pandan leaves and leave to cool. Yields approximately 173g gula melaka syrup.

2. Sift cake flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.

3. Whisk egg yolks with coconut/vegetable oil till well-mixed. Add in gula melaka syrup from (1), pandan juice and vanilla extract, and whisk till well-combined.

4. Whisk in the sifted cake flour mixture in 2 additions. Mix well ensuring there are no lumps.

Optional step for 2-tone pandan gula melaka: Divide the batter into two. To one batter, add ½ tsp pandan paste.

*If you are not doing the 2-tone, you can add the pandan paste to all the batter.

5. Meringue: Beat the egg whites with ¼ tsp cream of tartar till foamy. Add in caster sugar in 2-3 additions and beat till firm peaks form.

Optional step for 2-tone pandan gula melaka: Divide the meringue into two for each egg yolk batter.

6. Gently fold meringue into egg yolk batters 1/3 at a time.

7. Fill the final batter into tube pan leaving 2-cm from the brim.

Optional step for 2-tone pandan gula melaka: Spoon brown batter into the base of the pan and alternate with layers of pandan batter.

8. Bake at 160°C for 15 min, then 150°C for 10 min, 140°C for 30 min, or until skewer into centre of cake comes clean. *I used steam baking with a thin layer of water in a tray at the lowest rack. But it is optional.

9. Invert the chiffon cake immediately once out of the oven to cool

10. Unmould by hand after the cake is cool. (see 'Hand Unmoulding Chiffon Cakes for a Smooth Finishing' video tutorial). 

Chiffon 'Nyonya Kueh'

Kueh Lapis sagu or 九层糕:

Bake different colours sheet cake. Cut out squares and stack them up, using melted marshmallow as glue. Then slice into two.

Kueh salat: 

Bake green (pandan) and blue (blue pea flowers) chiffon batter in square cupcake liners. Stack them up, using melted marshmallow as glue. Slice into two.

Ondeh ondeh: 

Bake green pandan chiffon batter in cake pop molds (I used the same pandan gula melaka recipe above). Roll in dessicated coconut.

Kueh dadar: 

From green pandan chiffon swissrolls. Make sure you trim the ‘V’ at the edge before rolling.

Ang ku kueh: 

Bake red (strawberry) and orange (orange) chiffon batter in 5-cm cake pop molds. Unmould before cooled and gently place/press into similar sized ang ku kueh molds while the cake is still warm. 

For the shine, I mixed the batter with some broken down meringue before baking =p. A crazy experiment that worked. Leaves below are from pandan sheet cake.

Kueh tray: 

Chiffon sheet cake


With lots of love,

Susanne

More creative chiffon cakes ideas here:

Deco Chiffon Cakes (2nd chiffon book)

Creative baking: Chiffon Cakes (1st chiffon book)

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Kuih Bahulu (Bake & Celebrate!)

Kuih Bahulu or Ji Dan Gao, is my family’s favourite during Chinese New Year! I actually started baking simple stuff during CNY before I started my creative chiffon journey. Today I have a date with some of my dear baking friends to share about our contributions to "Bake & Celebrate: Cookies and Treats", which is a cookbook compilation of various CNY cookies and cakes that has just been launched at all major bookstores.

The contributed Kuih Bahulu recipe was my 3rd try on the recipe. The feedback from family and friends is that it's moister and spongier on the inside, while retaining it's crispiness on the outside, so it's yummier than those sold in stores! I think it's due to the lower flour content I used in my recipe, which sort of follows my version of light chiffon cakes =p. So I'll like to share it with you.

Ingredients:

1 Large egg (80g)

30g Castor Sugar

1/2 tsp Vanilla extract

30g Plain flour

1/4 tsp Baking powder

Baking temperature 190°C. For 9+ min.

Key points to note: 

1) Before using the flour, it is useful to sift the flour and baking powder 2x, as well as toast this flour/baking powder mixture lightly in the oven before using it to fold in. For a very light, crispy outside.

2) Whisk large egg with castor sugar and vanilla extract till ribbon-stage, before folding in the flour with baking powder lightly with a hand whisk. 

Ribbon-stage: this is very important for a very nice spongey inside! 

Folding in flour lightly with hand whisk: also very important for yummy, spongey inside! Do not overfold with a electric mixer.

3)  A high temperature 190°C and short baking time is used. For a brown crispy outside and moist spongey inside. 

4) Lastly, it is very important to oil the moulds generously 2x, as well as preheat the moulds with the oil for the cakes not to stick, as the cakes stick easily.

As usual, being a little free-spirited in my baking, I have baked these in both traditional aluminion molds (from baking shops), as well as silicone molds and muffin pans. Yes they work and taste equally yummy!! Those from the bundt pans are very pretty especially!

The recipe with many other cookies and treats from other baking friends are in Bake & Celebrate (published with Marshall cavendish), available at all major bookstores. The book is retails at $14.90 and is a nice, small handy-size unlike my chiffon cake books. 

I've also made a book flip video on my Instagram stories for today. 

Wishing everyone 新年快乐 in advance! 

With lots of love,

Susanne

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