Fluffy Pandan Chiffon Cake (made with pandan leaves)

Pandan chiffon cake on a white marble cake pan.

4.50 from 8 ratings

Fluffy Pandan Chiffon Cake (made with pandan leaves)

This tasty and fluffy pandan chiffon cake is made with both pandan extract and fresh pandan leaves, giving it the fullest pandan flavor.

Prep Time30

Cook Time1

Resting Time1

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: Vietnamese

Diet: Vegetarian

Keyword: pandan cake, pandan cake recipe, pandan chiffon cake, pandan chiffon cake recipe

Servings: people

Calories: 310kcal

Author: Becca Du

Equipment

Ingredients

Pandan Juice

15 pandan leaves
¾ cup water

Pandan Chiffon Cake

2 cups cake flour
1 cup granulated sugar
1 tbsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
7 eggs room temperature
¾ cup coconut milk
½ cup vegetable oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
½ tsp pandan extract
½ tsp cream of tartar

US Customary - Metric

Instructions

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (163 degrees C). Move the oven rack to the bottom third of the oven.
Combine 15 pandan leaves and ¾ cup of water in a blender. Blend until the pandan leaves have completely broken down (~2 minutes on the highest setting). It helps to cut the leaves into smaller pieces before blending. Set aside.
Sift 2 cups of cake flour, ½ cup of granulated sugar, 1 tbsp of baking powder, and ½ tsp of salt into a medium bowl. Set aside.
Separate 7 egg yolks from the egg whites. Add the egg yolks to a very large bowl and the egg whites to the bowl of a stand mixer.
Strain the pandan juice from step 2 into the very large bowl with the egg yolks. Press the broken down leaves into a fine mesh sieve to wring out as much pandan juice as possible. Next, add ¾ cup of coconut milk, ½ cup of vegetable oil, 1 tsp of vanilla extract, and ½ tsp of pandan extract to the large bowl. Whisk until well combined.
Pour the dry ingredients from step 3 into the large bowl with the wet ingredients. Mix until a thick batter forms. Be careful not to over mix.
Now it's time to make your meringue! Add ½ tsp of cream of tartar to the bowl of the stand mixer. Whisk the egg whites on medium high until small bubbles start to appear. Slowly start adding the last ½ cup of granulated sugar, a teaspoon at a time. Whip until stiff peaks appear.
Add ⅓ of of the meringue to the pandan batter. Mix until well combined.
Add the rest of the meringue to the bowl and gently fold the meringue into the batter. Be careful not to deflate the batter too much.
Pour the batter into a 9 inch ungreased angel food cake pan. Bake for 1 hour until a toothpick comes out clean and the cake bounces back at you.
Once the cake comes out of the oven immediately turn the cake pan upside down to cool. Cool for 1-2 hours before serving. The cake should be completely cool before you try removing it. The spikes on the angel food pan will help the cake cool without deflating it.
To release the cake from the cake pan, use a knife to cut around the edges of the cake to release the center part of the cake pan. Once released, run your knife on the bottom edge of the cake and around the center tube to release it from the center insert. Place a plate on top and invert the cake to fully release.

Notes

If you don't want to use pandan leaves, increase pandan extract to 1 tsp and reduce flour to 1 3/4 cup.
Storage Instructions. Pandan chiffon cake should be covered and stored in an airtight container for up to 2 days at room temperature.
Update 8/31/25. I retested and updated the recipe instructions to include sugar while whipping the meringue. In testing the recipe again, I found that adding sugar to the meringue created a more stable, fluffy meringue.

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