If you are looking for ways to use leftover egg whites, you have to try this egg white pandan chiffon cake (No, it's not an angel food cake). The cake is so soft and fluffy.
Let the egg whites comes to room temperature before you start working on the recipe
Preheat oven to 330 F (170 C) for conventional oven. If you have a convection oven, I suggest lowering the temperature by 20 F (15 C)
Prepare the cake batter:
Combine oil, coconut milk, and pandan juice. You will notice they are hard to combine because oil and water just don't mix. Sift in cake flour, cornstarch, salt, and milk powder. Use a whisk to mix the two. You will get a thick but flowy batter. Set aside
Prepare meringue:
Beat the egg whites on medium speed until frothy, add cream of tartar or lemon juice/vinegar and whip until it turns whitish and air bubbles are fine. Gradually add the sugar as you beat, in 3 batches. I beat them at medium speed (speed 6 on Kitchen Aid). This will take a bit longer compared to beating at high speed. I used to do higher speed (speed 8), but the meringue is smoother and nicer when I maintain the speed on 6. I highly recommend stopping several times to check on the consistency and scraping the sides of the bowl to make sure no sugar left on the side of the bowl. Whip until you reach a stiff peak but still have a slight bent on the tip. Then lower the speed to 4 and whip for 1 minute to even out large bubbles and stop beating
How to check if meringue is ready:
If you beat until the meringue clumps on the whisk attachment in one HUGE chunk/lump, you know you've gone too far beating the meringue. If you use it, the meringue will separate when you fold it into the cake batter and won't hold much air and your cake will deflate later
Combine meringue and cake batter:
Gently fold 1/3 of the meringue into the thick batter. Using a whisk, using a cutting motion and fold over to mix. Repeat this motion several rounds. Continue on with the second 1/3 of the meringue again to mix. For the last 1/3 of the meringue, use a rubber spatula instead to ensure you get all the batter at the bottom of the bowl mixed in as well. Use a cut down in the middle and fold over motion to fold gently but quickly. Make sure you don't see any more white meringue. The mixture should be fluffy and voluminous.
Pour the batter into an UNGREASED chiffon cake pan. Use a rubber spatula to smooth the surface. Gently drop the cake pan from about 10 cm height on the counter 2-3 times. Use a skewer to draw a zig zag to pop bubbles inside the cake batter
Baking:
Pop into the oven, middle rack, and let it bake for 80 minutes. Egg white chiffon cake is much higher in moisture content, which makes it more fragile and we want the cake to bake at a temperature that is not too high or too low and it needs to be bake much longer so the cake won't collapse due to the high moisture content
The cake will rise during baking and then shrink back a bit and this is normal
The top should be springy and dry to touch. You can insert a cake tester into the cake and it should come out clean with maybe a few crumbs, but it shouldn't be wet. If it's still wet, bake for another 5 minutes and check again. I need a total of 80 minutes with my conventional oven
It is safer to overbake a bit than underbaking. Underbaking will cause the cake to shrink and collapse when you take it out from the oven
Invert to cool down immediately:
Once out of the oven, drop the cake pan from about 10 cm height on the counter several times to prevent shrinkage. Then carefully invert the pan upside down immediately.Please don't be tempted to remove from the pan if it's still warm. It takes about one to two hours to cool down completely
Once it's cool down completely, use a spatula knife to run through the edge and the outer center of the tube to help release the cake. Gently push the base to lift the cake out. Use the knife again to run through the base of the pan and then carefully release the cake.