Yam Layer Cake

My dad seriously thinks too highly of my cake baking abilities. For his birthday, my intention was to bake him a Pandan Kaya Cake, something that's different from the usual cakes that I bake for the family. owever, he decided that he wanted a 'non-green' pandan kaya cake! That was kinda insane cos pandan is green! So after some discussion, I decided to give it a try: Yam Layer Cake. 

I adopted the 'kaya' portion of the cake from Angel of Cook Bake Love. However, I made several modifications to her recipe as I realise that it didn't really work out to a smooth cake. I didn't use the French Cake Sponge method that she used but I stuck to my usual whole egg cake sponge method. The cake was still very soft! Also, she used very little thicker for the recipe so the cake took a real long time to set. Nevertheless, the taste and all was good! My family especially my dad LOVED the cake so much that my dad even had 2 slices of the cake! 

This cake took me about an hour to bake and assemble but has a setting time of about an hour. This recipe yields a 9 inch cake.

Yam Layer Cake Recipe

This recipe yields a 9" cake

Ingredients:

SPONGE CAKE

100g plain flour

100g butter (I used LIV salted)

90g fine sugar (I've already reduced this)

4 eggs (I used 60g Seng Choon eggs)

YAM KAYA

(A)

800ml water

150g sugar (I've already reduced this)

A pinch of salt

2 tsp agar agar powder

(B)

300ml coconut milk

300g Thai Yam

(C)

100ml coconut milk

100ml water

120g Hoen Kueh flour

1 tsp yam liquid yam flavour (I got mine from PH)

A small bit of purple/violet gel food colouring (I used Wilton)

DECORATION 

120ml whipping cream

1 1/2 tbsp dried dessicated coconut

Wilton gel food colouring

Steps:

SPONGE CAKE

Preheat oven to 160 degree Celsius. Melt the salted butter either using a double boiler or microwave oven.

This is my 'cheater's way to lining a round tin! Have a piece of baking paper/greaseproof paper slightly larger than the size of the base of the tin. Tuck and 'press' the sides of the paper into the tin to get the shape of the base. Remove it and trim the 'sides' of the paper that's not required. You can trim the sides to be a lil' smaller for a better fit. 

After which, cut out strips more or less the height of the walls of the tin and using butter/oil, grease and 'stick' the greaseproof paper onto the tin.

The melted butter! 

Sift the plain flour.

Whisk the sugar and whole egg on high till stiff peaks form. Fold in the flour and melted butter. I like using the hands folding in method. View the video here! 

Pour the batter into the baking tin and drop the cake tin from a short height to release the air bubbles. Bake the cake for 15-20 minutes or till a toothpick comes out clean from the middle of the cake. Allow cake to cool completely in a cake caddy to prevent loss of moisture. 

The Thai Yam I got from Cold Storage! This was about 600g.

Cut out the required portion.

Dice up the yam. Steam the yam cubes on high heat for 20 minutes or till soft.

The steamed cubes.

Mash up the cubes. I found the mixture still very tough and difficult to 'dissolve' so I'd suggest blending it with the coconut milk in (B), about 300ml. 

You can use any type of coconut milk. These are the 3 types I had in my fridge. I also like this other brand from the chiller section but I can't remember the brand name.

Mix the coconut milk with the yam. 

Mix all in (C).

I like the food colouring!

Boil (A). Add (B) into (A). I LOVE my Happy Call pot!

As the mixture was still lumpy, I blended it. I'd suggest doing this despite the fact that it's a hassle. You may either blend (B) first before adding it into (A) that has been boiled OR you may boil (A), add (B) and then blend the entire mixture before returning it to boil. 

Allow the mixture to boil, stirring it constantly.

Add (C) into the mixture and allow it to thicken.

Beautiful colour!

Prepare cake ring on cake board. If you're using an expandable cake ring like me that has minor gaps at the bottom of the cake ring, layer it with some aluminium foil. 

Slice the cake into 3 layers. Place layer 1 into the cake ring and add 1/3 of the yam kaya into the cake ring. Add layer 2 and 3 the same way.

All 3 layers done! Place cake into the chiller to set for at least an hour. 

The cake all chilled! Using the back of a small knife, release the cake from the cake ring. Remove cake ring and trim the excess aluminium foil. 

Whip up the whipping cream. I portioned my whipping cream as such: 

Yellow: Blue: Pink

2: 1: 1

I lined the side of the cake dessicated coconut and piped vertical strips on the sides of the cake.

I'm glad my dad liked the cake. Enjoy baking the cake and have fun eating this classic cake that's a twist from the usual cakes! 

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! (: