Pandan Butter Cake

Since I had quite a fair bit of pandan and coconut milk with a block of butter left, I thought I'd try making a pandan butter cake.  And instead of following Gracious Treatz's recipe, I tried Diana's recipe again, but of course with some tweak of my own.  Diana's recipe (which is an adaptation of another famous recipe) uses pandan paste (which I really don't like) and requires separating the egg whites from the yolks before finally combining them together again.  I thought this should be worth a good try.

I'm strongly against pandan paste and such because if you'd take a look at the ingredients section, you'll notice that they are made up mainly of propylene glycol and glycerine.  If you've taken up chemistry before, you'll know that both propylene glycol & glycerine are essentially a type of sugar alcohol.  To further drive my point across, I should also mention that food grade propylene glycol is mainly produced from propylene oxide which is a probable human carcinogen.  I know the end product is purported to be "food grade", but the point of baking my own cake is to avoid ingesting unnatural substances as much as possible, especially if they could probably cause cancer, as such I insist on making my own pandan extract naturally.  

I didn't take any photos, but I started by blendering 3 pandan leaves with 65 ml of coconut milk.  That was quite a disaster because there was too little liquid and the pandan leaves didn't blend in perfectly.  I should have used either a slow juicer and then mix the pandan extract with the coconut milk or used a bullet blender with finely cut pandan leaves for better result.  Will keep this in mind next time.  

As soon as the pandan extract was ready, I started creaming the butter and sugar.  This time I took out my 6 year old 1000 watt Kenwood Chef Premier to do the beating.  

Creaming Butter & Sugar - Galaxy Note 9

After creaming the butter and sugar, it was time to pour in the pandan extract and the flour + salt + baking powder mix in a wet, dry, wet sequence.  The green colour is very faint in the photo, but it was really there.

Mixing Pandan Coconut Milk With The Cream Mixture - Galaxy Note 9

After I was done with the butter, it was time to beat the egg whites.  

Beating The Egg Whites - Galaxy Note 9

That was very straightforward and done very quickly.  

Then I took a third of the meringue and folded it into the butter yolk mixture before folding in the remaining meringue into a homogenous mix. 

Folding Meringue Into Butter Mix - Galaxy Note 9

Once done, pour the batter into an 8 inch springform pan, tap on the table a few times to remove large air bubbles followed by running through the batter with a chopstick to remove the smaller air bubbles.  

Ready to Go Into The Oven - Galaxy Note 9

Next, put it in the oven to bake in the oven at 170℃ for 50 minutes.  

Looking Good - Galaxy Note 9

The end result certainly didn't disappoint.  I nailed it good this time.  Perfectly crumbly, moist and soft with butter and heavenly pandan aroma.

The (al)Most Amazing Pandan Butter Cake - Galaxy Note 9

Looking back, I attributed the success this time to 3 factors:

1. I ensured the butter is at room temperature by cutting them into small blocks and let them warm up for about 5 hours
2. I also ensured that the eggs and the coconut milk are both at room temperature
3. I used a more powerful machine with a different beater to cream the butter

I'm not sure how crucial point (3) is, but it's one of the changes I made this time around.

Recipe for an 8 inch round cake pan: 

Team Yellow

- 250 gr butter @ room temperature

- 140 gr caster sugar

- 65 ml coconut milk @ room temperature 

- 3 pandan leaves, cut to small pieces after washing thoroughly 

- 4 egg yolks @ room temperature

- 200 gr cake flour 

- 1/2 teaspoon salt 

- 1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

Team White

- 4 egg whites @ room temperature

- 50 gr caster sugar 

Method: 

1. Put pandan leaves and coconut milk in a bullet blender and blend finely.  Alternatively, run the pandan leaves through a slow juicer and mix with the coconut milk.  

2. If using blender, strain the pandan coconut milk mix 

3. Cream the butter and sugar until mixture turns light and fluffy (be patient, this could take up to 10 minutes) 

4. Add the egg yolks one at a time after each has been mixed well into the creamed butter    

5. Next add the dry ingredients mix (flour + baking powder + salt combined together) and the pandan + coconut milk in a wet - dry - wet sequence.  Mix until well combined and set aside.  

6. Beat egg whites.  Once soft peaks form gradually add in the caster sugar 

7. Continue beating till stiff peaks formed.  

8. Take a third of the egg white batter and fold into Team Yellow until homogenous.  

9. Take the rest of the egg white batter, fold into Team Yellow and fold until no white streaks remained.  

10. Pour batter into an 8-inch round cake pan 

11. Lift the pan up several cm and drop onto table a few times

12. Gently run a chopstick or skewer to remove smaller air bubbles 

13. Bake at 170 degrees C for 50 minutes.   

14. Once baked take the cake out and let cool until ready to cut

Here's a closing shot for this sweet entry: 

Just Look at That - Galaxy Note 9

~ Photos Taken With Samsung Galaxy Note 9 ~