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)

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

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! (: