Pulut Hitam Chiffon Cake

I had been wanting to try pandan chiffon for a long time, since my last chiffon cake blog 2.5yrs ago, but alas, the need to grind fresh pandan leaves doesn't allow me to do so. This pulut hitam cake is the closest I can get to and it wasn't even planned.

Last Saturday, I helped my elder brother prepared 4kg of cooked pulut hitam dessert for his hosting and I kept about 0.5kg for a mouse cake I had intended to bake. A belated birthday cake for our younger brother. However, the plan was for us to do a picnic with some long time friends on Sunday and I decided against it as chiffon cake keeps better at the picnic ground, bearing in mind the kind of weather we have here in Singapore!

The recipe is similar to pandan chiffon, except for 200g of cooked pulut hitam which I had grind together with the coconut cream and mixed into the yolk & flour mixture. The oil was reduced by half for my recipe, as the cream has a high fat content. Another online blogger baker grind the rice into powder and mixed that with the flour. This should be similar to the sesame chiffon cake I used to bake. I was somewhat expecting the cake colour to be some faint traces of purple, but it wasn't. It looks very much like the sesame chiffon, except for the faint traces of rice grains embedded in the cake.

I was worried the pulut hitam puree may be too heavy for the cake to rise, but it had risen well.

Love the frangrance and texture of this cake.

The cake turn out really well. It has a nice coconut fragrance with hint of rice, though not distinctly pulut hitam. Texture is soft and moist. I have made a note to add in more pulut hitam puree for my next attempt and compare how that fares.

As it turned out, we didn't get to go for the picnic and the cake was kept in airtight container in the fridge for 2 days. My heart sank when my brother told me my 2 year old nephew didn't quite enjoy pandan cake. Despite his young age, he has gotten quite well know for his discerning taste for food. You can imagine how great my joy when my brother send me a text message the  next morning that my little nephew has asked for serving during his breakfast time!

Chiffon Cakes

I love chiffon cakes for their super soft, fluffy, moist texture and light taste. Of late, I have baking them quite often for family gatherings, especially orange chiffon cake.

It took my a long time before I bought my first tube pan for my first attempt, mainly because I don't like baking cakes which requires whisking separated egg yolks and egg whites. Further more, chiffon cakes requires quite a big amount of eggs, which gives it it's eggy fragrance. I do not own a high end mixer and what I have takes me a long time to whisk up the yolks and whites separately. But after that first attempt, I never grew tired of making it, simply because it taste so good and it is often well received.

Orange Chiffon Cake, an all time favourite with my family and friends

Black Sesame Chiffon Cake, an attempt on a new flavour

The grounded black sesame gives this chiffon cake it's unique colour

It is only after my attempt that I then realised why established bakeries charge so much for their chiffon cakes. Chiffon cakes takes quite a fair bit of time, from preparation of ingredients, to whisking, mixing, baking and cooling. The key factors to successful chiffon cakes:
- fresh quality ingredients, to gives it's good taste as well as healthier choice (I squeezed and zest my own oranges, used canola oil instead of palm oil)
- properly whisked eggs, so that proper aeration can be achieved to give the cake its rise
- avoid over mixing, so that air bubbles is not deflated
- correct baking temperature, to help the cake achieve it's rise
- correct baking time, too long a time the cake will dry out while too short a time, the cake will not be fully bake through

I guess my next attempt would be either a banana or pandan, the latter if I can get around to juicing my own pandan juice as I do not own a blender for that at this moment.