Guest post: Linda's pandamingtons

There are still plenty of people unfamiliar with Asian desserts but most would have come across the distinct flavour of pandan at some point (whether they know it or not). It goes incredibly well with coconut and in curries and the bright green colour makes it fun to eat and a delight to the eyes. For those unfamiliar, pandan or pandanus is a subtropical plant used to flavour both sweet and savoury Asian dishes and is commonly found in Malaysian and Singaporean cuisine. The leaves themselves are usually fairly easy to obtain from your local Asian grocer but for this recipe you will need pandan essence (equally as easy to find, if not more so). 

This slightly modified recipe is from my good friend Vi who is a bit of a whizz in the kitchen – thanks Vi! You can also omit the ‘lamington’ stage of this recipe and have yourself a chiffon cake!

Pandamingtons 

Ingredients:

- 1 cup self-raising flour
- ¾ tsp baking power
- ¾ tsp cream of tartar
- 1 ½ tsp of pandan essence (from any Asian grocery)
- ¾ cup castor sugar
- 50ml vegetable oil 
- 8 eggs separated 

Method:

1. Pre-heat oven 170 - 180 degrees fan-forced.
2. Sift flour and baking powder together and set aside .
3. Whisk egg whites to soft peaks and gradually add cream of tartar and half of the castor sugar. Beat until egg whites are stiff and glossy.
4. Beat the egg yolks with remaining sugar and gradually pour in oil until egg yolks are look light and creamy. Add pandan essence to egg yolk mix and stir until colour is even.
5. Add sifted flour and baking powder to the egg yolk mixture until well combined.
6. Gradually fold in egg whites into your green mixture (egg yolk and flour mixture). Start with a small amount of egg white mixture and combine well, then carefully fold in the rest until just combined.
7. Distribute the mixture into two brownie trays (or a bunt tin for chiffon cake). Make sure the tins are well greased and lined or the cake will stick. Bake in oven 170-180 degrees until cake springs to touch and the top starts to brown (about 20-25 mins)
8. Take cakes out of tins carefully and allow to cool
9. For lamingtons: Melt 600g white chocolate with 300ml of cream over a double boiler or a glass bowl over a saucepan of water (make the water doesn’t touch the bowl). Once it is all melted, add a few drops of the pandan essence (depending on how green you want it to look).
10. Cut the cooled cake into neat squares. Dip cakes in melted chocolate using a fork or skewer and roll in desiccated coconut.