Pandan Ogura Cake

I love this cake! It is soft, moist and so delicious. This irresistible cake comes from Christine's Food@Home Sweet Home. Christine's Ogura cake is with buttercream which I have omitted as I prefer my cakes plain. She has a few other types of Ogura cakes which I have bookmarked to try.

If you are familiar with chiffon cake, you will have no trouble baking this cake. It is similar because there are two batters i.e. the egg yolk and egg white mixture. The tricky part is beating the egg whites to the correct stage of stiffness and folding the two batters together. 

Batter before baking.

I know I should use natural pandan as I have a pandan plant in my garden but I did not have the time to make the pandan extract. This is not a good excuse and I should plan ahead and prepare the pandan juice ahead of time. In place of the natural pandan I used pandan essence and I admit that nothing beats the real thing. But it comes quite close. And I substituted the corn oil with extra virgin coconut oil for  added fragrance. So my Pandan Ogura Cake pretty much smells like Pandan Chiffon Cake which I am happy to say is one of my most popular posts. 

Just out of the oven.

When it comes to folding the two batters together, somehow I can't get it right with a spatula. And I reckon there is no harm using my favourite tool of choice, my bare hand. I have more control and I can feel the density and evenness of the batter. It works for me and I will continue to fold my batters this way.

Cooling upside down. The cake shrinks a little bit.

I find that baking in a 9" pan is better as the batter rises quite a bit in the oven and requires more room to expand. You have to adjust the baking temperature and baking time to suit your oven. I gained a lot of experience from baking Mango Yogurt Cottony Cake and it helped me a lot when it came to this cake.

In my first attempt, I baked the cake at 150C for 45 minutes. The top was nicely browned (not too dark) and the cake was very moist. A bit too moist even though there is nothing wrong with that. In my second attempt, I extended the baking time by another 5 minutes and that was perfect for me. The top browned a little bit more, which was nice and the moistness of the cake was just right.

The level of sweetness I believe has been adjusted to accommodate the buttercream and it is just nice for me as I don't like things too sweet. Just to be sure I checked with my partner and he agrees. But for those of you with a sweet tooth, you may prefer to add a little bit more (if you are doing without buttercream). But trust me, this amount of sugar is enough for you. Too much sugar is bad.

Another thing I want to mention, in case you experience this problem. The egg yolk mixture is runny even after addition of flour because there is very little flour used in this cake. It is not like the egg yolk batter for chiffon cake. I had tiny lumps in the batter after adding the flour and I could feel them while folding the batter. My partner commented that he could feel the lumps when eating the cake (strange that I did not come across lumps while eating). So in my second attempt, I sieved the egg yolk mixture after adding flour.

And then I asked Christine about this lumpy problem and she advised me to add the flour a little at a time. So I did that in my third attempt, sifting the flour into the batter a little at a time and mixing. And I got a smooth batter yay! And thank you Christine!

For the steam bake method and other details such as lining the pan and inverting the cake, you can check the way I did it here. All in all, this is a very good cake which I find a breeze to bake. For more Ogura or Cottony cakes, hop over to Food@Home Sweet Home and Cooking Pleasure.

Pandan Ogura Cake
Recipe source : Adapted from Food@Home Sweet Home

Ingredient A (Egg Yolk mixture)
- 65ml corn oil or any neutral tasting vegetable oil (I used Extra Virgin Coconut Oil because I like the coconut aroma)
- 80ml milk
- 5 egg yolks
- 1 whole egg
- 65g Superfine flour
- 1 teaspoon pandan essence
- a few drops of green coloring)

Ingredient B (Egg White mixture)
- 5 egg whites
- 75g castor sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar

Method :

Ingredient A
1. Mix egg yolks, whole egg, coconut oil, milk, pandan essence and green colouring until well combined
2. Sift in flour a little at a time and mix until well incorporated.

Ingredient B
1. Add cream of tartar to the egg whites and beat until foamy.
2. Gradually add in sugar and continue to beat until stiff peaks.

To complete the cake :

1. Fold in 1/3 of egg white mixture into the egg yolk mixture until well combined.
2. Add the combined mixture into the remaining egg while mixture and fold until well combined.
3. Pour batter into a lined 9" square pan, even out the top using your spatula and give the pan a few firm taps to remove any trapped air bubbles.
4. Steam bake at 150C for 50 minutes.
5. Remove from oven and invert on cooling rack to cool.