Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Pandan Sponge Cake



First of all, sorry for the quality of the photos posted (yeah right, as if my other pictures have good quality :p ). The weather is cloudy all day on the day the cake was made. So anyway I have to take picture anyway with my amateur photography skill.
Anyway, our home has pandan and suji on it's yard. I don't exactly remember how it started, but suddenly I wanted to try to make pandan sponge cake, without emulsifier. I know a lot of people now hardly making cake (or even traditional snacks) with real pandan and suji's leaves. Most of people, especially comercial baker choosed to use synthetic pandan paste instead. It is more practical, of course.
It is reasonable perhaps, when I remember my grandma made quite an effort when she needed pandan aroma. She actually had this mortar and pestle made from heavy iron to mashed the pandan and suji leaves to get the color and aroma she wished for. After that, she had to strain and squeeze it to get clean the green liquid. It is taking quite lots of time.
However, I stubbornly browsed for the cake with real pandan leaf and found littleteochow blog. In her pandan spongecake recipe, she just threw a bundle of pandan leaves in food processor, added a little water and blitzed it up, and strain it. Oo.. Aa..that easy.
So I thought I just have to give a shot. Of course in Indonesia we always pair pandan and suji for natural coloring.

but, oh, but, i think i have made some mistake. First, the recipe is really really for small portion. So when I used the 20x20cm pan, the pan was still too big. Find smaller pan, or double, or even tripled the recipe. Second, I follow the recipe too much. It suggested 40 minutes of baking time. You might want to try 30 minutes and see how it goes. The result my cake is a bit too dry. The aroma though, was still great. I am satisfied to make pandan cake with natural coloring. Ow..yay!

Here's the recipe. Don't follow my mistake.

Pandan Sponge Cake

Ingredients:

3 eggs
140g flour
80g caster sugar
1 tbsp condensed milk
1/3 cup melted butter
1/4 cup coconut milk
3 fresh pandan leaves
5 fresh suji leaves

Directions:
- Make knots of pandan leaves and suji leaves and throw into the food processor together along with coconut milk, then blitzed till the leaves became pulpy. After that, pour the leaves juice through a strainer.
- Combine the juice mix with melted butter. Stir well and leave aside.
- In a mixing bowl, beat 3 eggs, condensed milk and sugar until creamy, pale and stiff.
- Fold in the flour in 3 parts, alternating with the juice mix. Start and end with flour. Do not overmix.
- Pour into a pan that has been well greased and floured.
- Bake in a preheated oven at 170 degrees celsius for (try) 30 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean. Tent with a foil if top browns too quickly. Allow cake to cool before cutting

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