Pandan Kaya Cake 班兰咖椰蛋糕

I am back. Finally back after neglecting this space for so long.

We were away for an annual vacation. Went to Seoul and Jeju this year and we had a great time eating that 8 days away.  You did not hear me wrong. We enjoyed the food more than the shopping! And I always thought that Korea was a shopping heaven! Oh well... At least Korean food was yummy enough to make me miss Korea and wanna go back again.  Not much clothes yield but I arent too disappointed because I was prepared. I had a good stock up of my make ups and facial products though!

Jeju was a relaxed place filled with beautiful cherry blossoms. We went at the right time for cherry blossom viewings :)

Returned to Singapore with a reluctant heart and mind for I had enjoyed not working, not cooking and baking for a period, and I wished I could go on with this relaxed life for a little longer haha! Wishful thinking! I can only tell myself to come back, work and save more and plan for next trip soon. With that as a motivation, I got by that first week of post trip syndrome. Am back to the kitchen again. Still going slow, but steady :) Will be back in full swing soon (hopefully!). Do bear with me keke.

Never had the courage to try making this cake for I thought it was not easy to make. Okay... I gave that judgement just from the number of steps I saw everywhere, from recipe books to food bloggers' recipe posts. so yup... I should not have been that judgemental afterall. 

I tried after years of stopping myself from doing it.  It was really not difficult and it was delicious! 

Searched the web for a recipe that uses natural pandan extract and found Fong's Kitchen Journal. It was what I wanted and straightforward enough for the blur me to understand keke!

Pandan Kaya Cake
Recipe by Fong's Kitchen Journal

Sponge
(A) 4 eggs + 80g fine sugar + pinch of salt
(B) 100g plain flour, sifted
(C) 30g melted butter + 50g corn oil + 20g pandan juice* + 1/2 tsp pandan paste (mix together).

Method

Whisk (A) at high speed till stiff (the eggs would be tripled in volume).  Fold in plain flour in batches and follow with the melted butter mixture.  Fold the batter well and pour into a greased and lined 8" round pan.  Bake in preheated oven of 160C for about 45 minutes.  Cool the cake and slice into 3 layers.

Kaya filling

400ml pandan juice* + 50g butter + 120g fine sugar

250g packet fresh coconut milk + 150g water, mix together

70g hoen kwe flour

2 tsp instant jelly powder

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp pandan paste (optional)

2 to 3 drops of yellow food colouring(optional)

* After washing the pandan leaves (about 7 to 8 leaves), warm them briefly in a microwave oven and cut into small pieces.  Blend the leaves with about 500ml water.  Sieve the pandan juice and discard the leaves.  Use about 20ml for making the sponge and the remaining for making the filling.

Method

1) Combine pandan juice, butter and sugar in a pot and bring to boil.

2) Mix coconut milk, water, hoen kwe flour, instant jelly powder, salt, pandan paste and yellow colouring together.  Pour this mixture to (1), stir and cook till mixture thickens.

3) Remove from heat and let the mixture cool slightly before pouring onto sponge.

To assemble

1) Place a slice of cake into a cake ring and pour 1/3 of the kaya filling onto the cake.  Repeat layering of cake and kaya filling (2x).  

2) Cool the cake first before placing in the fridge to set.

3) Remove cake from cake ring and coat the sides with dessicated coconut (I used freshly grated coconut, add 1/4 tsp salt and toast in an ungreased pan till dried). - I left out the dessicated coconut deco. (I forgot to line the baking tin and have some hangovers at the side so that I can just remove the cake when ready to serve. I tried my luck by turning it over and fortunately no damage to the top kaya layer - pls do not be so blur like me!!)