When I swapped pandan with Matcha, few people noticed. But someone did come up to me to confirm it: that wasn’t pandan, was it?

Making pandan juice requires tenacity and patience by the ton. To save myself the trouble, I traded it for matcha (also, was in the mood for all things matcha).

After many years of fiddling with the Pandan Chiffon Cake recipe, I’m beginning to think it is exceedingly over-rated. Pandan gives off a faint sweet-smelling fragrance and the light green colour but that’s it. The star ingredient that gives pandan chiffon cake its alluring caramelized taste? It’s the coconut milk. But who’s to say you can’t mix and match coconut milk with something else?

Read about my misadventures with the Pandan Chiffon Cake here.

Here’s the Matcha Coconut Chiffon Cake Recipe (for a 21 cm tube pan). Replace the coconut milk with fresh milk for a more subtle taste or replace the matcha for an entirely new chiffon cake.

Ingredients
• 5 egg yolks
• 6 egg whites
• 125 g sugar (1/2 cup + 2tbsp)
• 150 g cake flour (1 cup + 2tbsp)
• 16 g Matcha powder (4 tsp or more if you prefer a stronger matcha taste)
• 175 ml coconut milk/cream at room temperature  (3/4 cup, heat in oven for 2 minutes to bring to room temperature)
• 80 ml coconut oil (5 tbsp)
• 1 tsp vanilla oil/extract
• 1/2 tsp baking powder (optional)
• 1/4 tsp cream of tartar (optional)

Method
1. Separate the eggs while chilled. Cream the egg yolks, vanilla oil and half of the sugar till pale yellow. Add the oil, coconut milk, green tea powder and mix well. Mix in the flour. (I’ve thrown all the wet ingredients together at once and then dumped all the dry ingredients into that mixture and that worked too).
2. Whip the egg whites till foamy. Add the cream of tartar, then the sugar. Whisk till firm peaks. Fold in the meringue 1/3 at a time until evenly mixed.
3. Pour batter into pan. Bang pan to get rid of air bubbles. Stick it into the oven (170°C, preheated) for 15 minutes, slip in a foil to cover the top and bake for another 30-40 minutes.
4. Remove from oven, let cool upside down to prevent sinking. After 30 minutes, remove cake from pan and serve.

The Coconut Milk

When it comes to the coconut milk, there are ample options ie Kara, Ayam. I use Heng Guan’s Coconut milk because of its creamier texture and stronger aroma and I can save the unused portion in the fridge for another bake, which you can’t with fresh coconut milk. Get them from the wet market (S$2 for 500ml).

And viola! Here’s the Matcha Coconut Chiffon Cake.

References: kitchentigress, ieatishootipost, justonecook