Pandan Chiffon Cake + Kaya (Coconut Jam) Lamingtons

makes 25

For the Cake:

10 egg whites (at room temperature)
5g cream of tartar, sifted
290g caster sugar
10 egg yolks
210ml coconut milk
90ml vegetable oil
5g pandan paste
300g plain flour, sifted
17.5g teaspoons baking powder, sifted
pinch of salt
200g fine desiccated coconut

Preheat oven to 180C (or 160C fan forced). With an electric mixer, beat egg whites and cream of tartar until soft peaks form. From here, add 145g caster sugar - one tablespoon at a time - beating until stiff peaks form. Beat egg yolks and remaining 145g of caster sugar in a separate bowl, until fluffy. Add oil, panda paste, coconut milk, flour, and baking powder until well combined. In a few batches, gently fold the egg whites into yolk mixture. Pour mixture into an ungreased and unlined 24x32cm lamington tray, or two 20cm square cake tins, so they are 2/3rds full. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until skewer is clean on removal. Remove cake from the oven, leaving inverted in the tin on a cooling rack until completely cool. 

For the Kaya:

3 eggs
2 egg yolks
50g brown sugar
100g castor sugar
250ml thick 100% coconut cream
3 pandan leaves, knotted
1 teaspoon cornflour, mixed thoroughly with 1 teaspoon cold water

Half fill a pot with water and bring to the boil. Lower the heat until simmering.

In a separate pot, warm coconut cream until boiling, then quickly remove from the heat.

In a large metal bowl, add eggs, egg yolks and sugars, beating until all sugar is dissolved.

In a thin stream, slowly pour the coconut cream into egg mixture, whisking throughout so the eggs do not scramble.

Add knotted pandan leaves to the mixture, placing the bowl on top of the pot of boiling water. Keep stirring, scraping the sides and bottom of the mixture constantly with a silicon spatula to prevent the eggs from cooking. As you scrape, ensure that you pour the mixture over the pandan leaves in order to extract maximum flavour from the leaves.

Once a clean line can be drawn through the bottom of the bowl and the mixture is sticky and thick, remove from the heat, discard pandan leaves and blend mixture until smooth.

Return blended mixture to the double boiler, and add cornflour, stirring until well combined. After a further minute of stirring, remove from heat and let cool. It should thicken even further as it cools.

Store in a sterilised jar for up to 5 days at room temperature, or in the fridge for up to a month.

For the chocolate sauce:

150ml water
175g caster sugar
50g unsweetened cocoa powder
250ml thickened cream
100g dark chocolate, chopped

In a small saucepan, bring water, sugar and cocoa powder to the boil.
Reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes, before adding the cream and returning to the boil.
Place the chopped chocolate in a metal bowl and pour over the cocoa mixture. Let the chocolate soften in the mixture for a minute before stirring until chocolate has melted and sauce is combined.
Leave the chocolate sauce to cool before coating lamingtons. 

To assemble:

Cut cakes into 3x4cm pieces. Top each piece with a teaspoon of kaya, then sandwich together, jam-sides facing. Drop cakes into chocolate sauce, then roll in desiccated coconut until well coated. Place laming tons on a wire rack and leave to set for at least an hour before serving.