I was asked by Kitchenware Direct whether I wanted to review some products. They gave me free choice of anything. After some consideration, I decided I wanted to try out some bakeware items that I've always wanted. Making the decision to review bakeware was easy. Picking the actual bakeware took me a week, as there were so many options my head was spinning. So many things caught my eye but finally I decided on some items.
To test out these items, I knew that I wanted to make my favourite Pandan Chiffon Cake. I've always loved that cake but have found it to be a bit too dense and was hoping to see if a proper chiffon tin would improve it. By chance, I had brought the cake to April's house for a dinner. She loved the cake so much that she got the recipe from me, and then improved it. She then developed her own Pandan Chiffon Recipe, which she said produced a super fluffy cake. So of course I had to try it to test out these bakeware.
Firstly, let me show you the money shot of the amazing end result. The pandan cake was super fluffy and delicious. I decided to ice it "Thanh Style" by using my normal pandan fudge recipe and then decorating it with dessicated coconut. I find the fudge makes the cake even more moreish and prettier as well. In the photo below, you can see the hyper green cake sitting on a beautiful cake plate to show it off to it's full beauty. I hadn't heard of cake plates before but I'm sure going to be buying some now.
One item that I've wanted for an eternity but just didn't think was an essential item and hence never bought is a cake stand. A cake definitely looks far more stylish placed on a cake stand rather than a plastic plate. I found the stand actually was useful, aesthetically and practically. I was able to leave it on the kitchen bench and when guests came over the weekend, the whole cake was demolished so there wasn't a worry that the cake would need to go back into the fridge. Obviously, if you don't eat the cake as fast, you will need to transfer it into the fridge, but it will still be conveniently displayed and ready to eat for a day or two.
Another item that I never quite bought was a cake server. I mean, you can use a knife to cut the cake and then a combination of a knife and fork to transfer the cake. But I will say that the cake server does work well, ensuring the cake can be transferred and not destroyed. I would still probably continue using a knife and fork to transfer my cake.
When you go to make the cake, two tips I can give you is that when you think the egg whites and yolks are beaten enough, continue beating for a few more minutes to be extra stiff and voluminous. Second tip is when you go to mix the whites into the yolks, make sure that it mix the whites through properly. When I first started making this chiffon, I was far too worried about beating the air out of the mixture and always under-mixed, leaving the cake light at the top and dense at the bottom. Nowadays I know to mix well until the colour of the batter is completely uniform. Once the mixture is ready to go, I transferred them into two cake tins I again always wanted. I used to make my pandan chiffon cake in a standard round tin, but I love the look of the proper chiffon/angel cake tin more and I think it does make it rise higher. I also made my pandan cake in the square tin for a bit of fun. Square tins just have that sophisticated look to me. It probably doesn't work for a chiffon cake but I can't wait to make a chocolate fudge cake using the square tin.
Once the cakes were baked, I cooled them before icing them. If you've seen and eaten my cakes before, you will know that my icing isn't exactly good. It's so hard to ice a cake properly, and the turntable is again something that I've wanted. I couldn't believe how much easier it was to spin the cake around and ice it rather than twist my arms into all sort of contortionist styles. I also got a spreading knife with the bend in it. I have a flat spreading knife already but I will definitely only be using this bent spreading knife to do all my icing. This bend in the knife allows you to hold the knife in a comfortable position and then just spin the turntable. The final results, you can see for yourself in the top photos.
If you have been tempted by the Pandan Chiffon cake, you can have the recipe for free below. Enjoy as it's the most delicious cake and my favourite of all time. Thanks to April for her wonderful recipe. There's very little changes to my original recipe but somehow the results are so different. We were hypothesizing that the reduction of oil, reduction of flour and increase in coconut milk is what has made the cake more fluffy. But we don't know. If you have any clues as to how to make cakes fluffier, I'd love to hear it.
Pandan Chiffon Cake
INGREDIENTS
6 egg whites, room temperature
125 g caster sugar
6 egg yolks
80g sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla essence
165 ml can thick coconut milk
2 tbsp oil
1 ½ tsp of pandan essence
120 g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder (or 120g self raising flour and leave out the baking powder)
1/8 tsp salt
METHOD
1) Preheat oven to 160C.
2) Whisk egg whites for about 1 minute until foamy, then gradually add caster sugar and whisk until stiff peaks form. If you turn the bowl over, the whites should not drop out. Set aside.
3) Whisk egg yolks, sugar and vanilla essence till light and creamy. Should take about 5 minutes and mixture should be pale and tripled in size.
4) Mix oil, pandan essence and thick coconut milk in a separate bowl and add it slowly to egg yolk mixture while whisking slowly.
5) Stir in sifted flour and salt to egg yolk mixture and fold gently until combined.
6) Add one third of egg whites to green mixture and fold to loosen up the batter. You do not need to be too gentle at this stage. Then add the rest of the mixture and fold extra gently as not to deflate the batter.
7) Before pouring the mixture into the tin, give your batter a few sharp blows by banging it on the table. This will get the big bubbles to rise to the top and burst. Pour mixture slowly into ungreased ring pan.
8) Bake for 50-55 minutes or until set. If the top browns too quickly, put some aluminium foil over the top.
8) Cool completely in the tin upside down.
Pandan Fudge Icing
This can ice one cake thickly or two cakes thinly.
INGREDIENTS
600g coconut cream (99% or 100% stuff, look on label)
80g caster sugar
20g custard powder
1/2 tsp pandan flavouring
Dessicated coconut to decorate
METHOD
1) Mix all ingredients together in a saucepan and bring to boil over medium heat.
2) Stir till it thickens. Immediately coat cake with the warm fudge.
3) Decorate with dessicated coconut.
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COMPETITION CLOSED
Thank you for entering. Lots of varied answers but the correct weight of the cake stand + cake plate + cake server is 1440g exactly. That makes Michelle Chin the winner with a guess of 1450g. Congratulations Michelle. I will contact you directly.
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Along with the free Pandan Chiffon Cake recipe, I am giving away some of the bakeware items for you, my dear reader, to win.
You will win the Cake Stand, Cake Plate and Cake Server
+ 
+ HOW TO ENTER
Leave a comment with your guess to:
How much is the combined weight of the cake stand, cake plate and cake server, to the nearest gram.
Make sure there is a way for me to contact you, either via Twitter, a blog or an email. If you don't want to publish your email in the comments, please email me at ieatblog[at]yahoo[dot]com and let me know which comment was yours. If I do not hear back from you after 5 days upon contacting you, I will redraw the prize.
PLEASE HELP VOTE FOR MEWhile this is not part of the entry conditions, I would really appreciate if you can help vote for my entries to the Malaysia Kitchen Competition. Just click on the three links below and click the Facebook "Like" button. Thank you.
*Malaysia Kitchen Post 1 - Kuala Lumpur vs Star Wars
*Malaysia Kitchen Post 2 - Omahs vs Lady Gaga
*Malaysia Kitchen Post 3 - Lim's Nyonya Hut vs Hollywood Movies
- One entry per person.
- Australian readers only.
- Competition closes Sunday August 28th 8pm AEST. The winner will be announced at 9pm and published on this same post.
- The winner is the person with the closest answer. Should more than one person win, I will randomly draw the winner from those finalists. I will contact the winner directly to inform them they have won.
