Poh's Orange Chiffon Cake

One of my all-time favourite childhood cake is the Pandan Chiffon Cake. At my hometown, this cake can easily be found from any of the local pâtisserie and it is so cheap that my mom usually buys the whole cake. I believe it is the soft, light and spongy texture which makes it so addictive.

To relive my childhood memory, my friend recommended me to use Poh's Orange Chiffon Cake recipe. It is relatively easy to follow and I managed to bake both the original (orange flavour) and improvised (pandan flavour) version. If you want to bake the Pandan Chiffon Cake, follow the recipe below and replace the orange juice & orange zest with 1/4 tsp of pandan paste or pandan essence and 1/2 cup of pandan juice (extract from pandan leaves).

Ingredients
5 egg whites (at room temperature is best)
1/2 tsp of cream of tartar
75g caster sugar (I reduced it to 50g)
5 egg yolks
7 tbs of coconut milk
5 tbs of vegetable oil
75g caster sugar (I reduced it to 50g)
5 tbs of orange juice
1 tbs of orange zest
150g self raising flour, sifted

Method
1. Preheat oven at 180 C.
2. Beat egg whites and cream of tartar with an electric mixer till soft peaks. Add sugar one tablespoon at a time a beat thoroughly after each addition till you achieve stiff peaks. Set aside.
3. In a separate bowl whisk egg yolks with caster sugar till fluffy. Add coconut milk, vegetable oil, orange zest and self raising flour and whisk until combined. Gently fold the egg whites into the yolk mixture 3 batches.
4. Pour into a 22cm baba cake tin (do not use non-stick and do not grease). Bake 30 mins at 180 C, or till skewer comes out clean.
5. When cake is out of the oven, immediately invert the cake still in the tin, and place on a cooling rack and leave to cool completely (about 1 1/2 hours).