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Sunday, August 5, 2012

Pandan Kaya Cake


This has been once of those cakes that I've been wanting to bake but hesistant to do so.. especially since I've heard of failures from friends around me when attempting it. However, since dad's birthday was approaching, I decided to give it a try to shy away from the usual chocolate cakes I'd bake. This is my second trial as I did the first one with merely half recipe.

This recipe is from Richard Goh but I took reference from Fong's Kitchen who modified RG's recipe to churn out this cake. This cake is on the less-sweet scale due to the reduced sugar. It was pretty well liked by those who tried. I even had 2 slices when I first baked it! 

This cake is one of the SIMPLEST layered cake I've ever baked as it's pretty much effortless after the sponge cake has been baked as compared to the usual layered cakes I bake. Nevertheless, this cake should take about 2 hours to prepare and this recipe yields a 9" round cake.

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Updated 17 August 2014
This cake was baked more than 2 years ago! My baking skills have since improved and I'd like to recommend an improvisation to this recipe.. The quantity is tweaked to get a cake that is easier to manage.. The proportions for the improved version will be listed below the original.. 


Pandan Kaya Cake Recipe
Ingredients:

PANDAN SPONGE CAKE
4 eggs (I used 60g Seng Choon Eggs)
100g plain flour
90g fine sugar
80g butter, melted
1/2 tsp pandan paste
20g pandan juice 

PANDAN KAYA 
(A)
50g butter (salted)
120g fine sugar
(B)
70g Hoen Kwe flour
2 tsp agar agar powder
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pandan paste
250g fresh coconut milk
150g water

30ml whipping cream
3 tbsp dried dessicated coconut
A small bit of pink gel food colouring (I used Wilton)

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This is the 'improved' version I baked today.. 
Improved version
Ingredients:

PANDAN SPONGE CAKE
4 eggs (I used 55g Seng Choon Eggs)
100g plain flour
90g fine sugar
80g butter, melted
1/2 tsp pandan paste
20g pandan juice 

[Bake this in a 7" round tin instead of a 9" as recommended in this recipe. Cake will be taller and easier to slice. Cake ring should still be 9" so that it leaves a good gap at the side between the cake and the kaya.]

PANDAN KAYA 
(A)
400ml pandan juice
50g butter (salted)
120g fine sugar
(B)
70g Hoen Kwe flour
2 tsp agar agar powder
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pandan paste
250g fresh coconut milk
150g water

5 tbsp dried dessicated coconut
1 tbsp cocoa powder



Steps:

Preheat oven to 160 degree Celsius. Melt the butter on a double boiler or in a microwave oven in 10 second intervals. Add the pandan paste and pandan juice.

Mix well! (:

Sieve the plain flour.
Whisk the eggs and sugar together till stiff peaks form. 
After which, fold in the flour and melted butter solution. 
This video will help! 


Bake the cake for 20 - 25  minutes or till the toothpick comes out clean from the middle of the cake.
Allow cake to cool in a covered cake caddy to prevent drying out. 

PANDAN KAYA

The Hoen Kwe flour I used.. can be found in Cold Storage and NTUC in the baking section. I used white agar agar powder. 

Mix contents of Pandan Kaya (B) together.


Well mixed.


Place ingredients for Pandan Kaya (A) in a pot. Heat up till mixture boils.

Boiling!

Pour in contents of (B).

Stir well till mixture thickens. Set aside to cool.

Slice of the top part of the cake that's usually brown as it's usually dry after the cake cools. 

Have your cake ring ready. As my cake ring is an expandable cake ring, it has small gaps at the bottom of the ring that might allow the kaya to seep out. Hence, I placed a layer of aluminium foil at the bottom of the cake ring. If you're using a fixed size cake ring, you should have no issues (:

[Update: This can be done in a cake tin with removable base so that it doesn't leak as much as it would in a cake ring..]

Slice the cake into 3 layers. Place layer 1 into the cake ring. I left a small gap at the sides of the cake to allow a "wall" to form so that the desiccated coconut can stick to the sides later on.

Scoop 1/3 of the pandan kaya into the cake ring. Smooth out with a spatula if required. Repeat layers twice.

Smooth our the final layer and allow cake to cool for about 15 minutes in room temperature before placing it in the chiller to set completely. It'll take between 30 - 60 minutes to set thoroughly. 

When cake has set, whip up the whipping cream for decoration till stiff peaks form.

Separate 1/2 of whipped cream into another bowl and add a small bit of pink gel food colouring. Fold in colour. Return to whisk for a few seconds to firm up the whipping cream.

Two bowls! 

Set aside the desiccated coconut in a deep plate/tray. 

My completed and set cake!

Using the back of a small knife, free the sides of the cake from the cake ring.
Apply/Coat the sides of the cake with the desiccated coconut using the plate/tray as a catchment. 

Pipe designs that you like onto the cake! (: Mine was kinda old-school! 

Enjoy the cake as much as I did! (: This is sure a huge hit with those who don't like chocolate or those who want something less like the conventional cake! (:


I'd love to see the bakes or stuff you've cooked using the blog's recipe! Do share photos of stuff you've baked or cooked using the blog's recipe with me either via FB message to http://facebook.com/limcynthia OR http://facebook.com/thebakingbiatch OR via email at cynthia.lim.hl@gmail.com! I look forward to hearing from you! (: 



40 comments:

  1. Hey Cynthia! This is a really unique concepts of cake. I haven't tasted Pandan in a cake so this is really breathe of fresh air!

    Regards,
    Haley McAdams
    Online Food Safety Certification

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hey Haley! Thank you! ((: This is pretty popular in Asia! Do you get pandan leaves easily where you are now? How do you usually use these leaves then? (:

      Delete
  2. Hi Cynthia! Where can I get the pandan paste? Would like to try out this recipe! :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Jolyn,

      I got the pandan paste from Sheng Shiong.. However, NTUC/Phoon Huat etc sells it too, though it may be a different brand (:

      Love,
      Cynthia

      Delete
  3. hey Cynthia. im in the states and i cant find hoen kwe flour. can i find a replacement? thank you :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Estee,

      It's relatively similar to green bean flour.. or mung bean flour.. Maybe you can try souring for these in the more asian markets/supermarkets. Alternatively, try online stores.

      If all else fails, drop me an email ok? I'll gladly mail you some by snail mail! (:

      Love,
      Cynthia

      Delete
  4. Hello,

    nice cake! Planning to do it for my dad's birthday next month.

    I didn't see the cake board in your pictures during the pouring of kaya to the cake layers.
    Did you tranferred the cake to the cake board after it sets?
    If so, is it difficult to do it?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hello Cyn! (same name! HAHA!)

      The cake board was present (: But as I used those re-usuable metal cake boards, it didn't really show in the picture (:
      You can opt to use baking paper to line to base in alternative to the aluminium foil.. it's somewhat easier to pull out (: I've not tried removing the entire cake after it's set though as it is quite fragile in my opinion (:

      Love,
      Cynthia

      Delete
  5. Hi,

    I try baking yest but the kaya is bitter, y is this so?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hello!

      Did you follow the recipe closely in terms of pandan juice?

      Delete
  6. Hi Cynthia, Check with you, for the coconut milk can we use the packet coconut milk instead? Many thanks

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hello,

      Yes you may though I personally prefer fresh ones.

      Delete
  7. Hi Cynthia,
    Can you teach me how to make the pandan juice?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. hello,

      please click on the words pandan juice in the list of ingredients. It will bring you to the related post for making of pandan juice.

      Delete
  8. Hi Cynthia,

    Can share how to make the pandan juice? Can buy ready ones?

    ReplyDelete
  9. Hi Cynthia,

    Can you please share how to make the pandan juice? Can we buy the ready ones outside?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. hello,

      please click on the words pandan juice in the list of ingredients. It will bring you to the related post for making of pandan juice.

      Delete
  10. Hi Cynthia,

    May I know the cake pan size for the sponge cake and alao when doing the layering? Thanks.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. hello, as indicated in the recipe, it's a 9" cake (:
      when layering, adjust the cake ring to leave a small gap at the side..

      Delete
  11. Dont put pandan paste possible?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. then your cake will lack the pandan flavour.. and the kaya layer will also lack flavour..

      Delete
  12. Hi Cynthia... I tried the recipe today but sadly to say the kaya was bitter and the taste of pandan juice is too strong. But overall is OK.. can u guide me on What went wrong?I followed ur recipe closely... :(

    ReplyDelete
  13. Nice pandan layered cake that you have baked! Love Richard's recipe for all these old school cakes. In the above, you baked using 9" right? But noticed you suggested to bake the sponge in a 7" pan, but use a 9" ring when pouring the pandan fudge. This will give a thick 1" to 1.2" pandan fudge circumference around the cake, since the sponge will shrink slightly after baking, i.e. smaller than 7". Even for those who loves to eat the pandan fudge, a 8" sponge in a 9" cake ring is more than sufficient. On another note, using the above recipe in a 7" pan will give a nice tall cake, but baking time will need to be adjusted. If you are using an adjustable cake ring for the 7" tall cake, you may end up with "not enough height" to pour in the top layer of pandan fudge.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you! yes yes! I did the subsequent cakes in 7" and even 6" but it slipped my mind earlier on! Sometimes I also do 1.5 times fudge with 1 portion cake (:

      Delete
  14. Hi Cynthia, may i noe roughly how many pandan leaves n how much water u use for tis recipe? Thx

    Jer

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. i didnt count (: but about 1.5 packs.. 1 pack would be good too :) btw, click on the words.. it'll bring you to another link that leads you to the page that tells you how to prep the pandan juice.

      Delete
  15. Hi cynthia,I tried your recipe but the kaya tasted of pandan leaves strongly and a bitter taste after eating. Can u pls advise What went wrong?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. hello! i believe that you used 1.5 packs of leaves? Maybe you can reduce it to 1 packet with the same amount of liquid (:

      Delete
  16. How to move the cake to cake base? It so soft n afraid the cake will break that i leave it on the aluminium foil.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I tore the foil out gently when I made this a long time ago... You can use a cake tin with removable base to do this cake instead (:

      Delete
  17. Hi Cynthia, can I steam the cake instead?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hello!
      I'm sure you can but I do not have a recipe for it..

      Delete
  18. Hi can I replace butter with margarine?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. hello, margarine is very unhealthy and I'm not sure if it'll melt down to the right consistency. You may replace the butter for the cake with oil though.

      Delete
  19. Hi! I followed your steps to make the cake however my cake didn't turn out properly, it looked like a "kueh" rather than a sponge cake. I was wondering if it's the flour I used? Should it be baking flour, or cake flour? Nonetheless, this seems like a really gd and easy recipe to follow! Thanks! :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. hello, it's plain flour. cake flour works well too..

      if it's kueh like, your eggs are not the right stage as it should be, hence the denseness.. try to make sure that the eggs are really nice and fluffy at the right stage :)

      Delete
  20. Hi, tried your recipe today and I find the cake underbaked at 25 mins. Baked for almost 45 mins before its cooked

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. hello,

      it varies from oven to oven.. so as long as it's completely cooked, it's good (:

      Delete
  21. HI,may I know if I can use pandan paste or pandan essence to replace the pandan juice for kaya?thank you.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. hello, you can do so but I'm not sure of the proportion..

      Delete