Baked Pandan Cake (Kuih Bakar Pandan)

When we were kids we used to tag along with my dad to visit his Muslim colleagues during Hari Raya (the Muslim New Year). My dad's colleagues would have "open house" during the two days of the Muslim New Year. "Open House" is a local custom whereby you literally open your house for friends and relatives to visit you during the celebrations. During such festivities, you would visit and at the same time partake of either a meal which could be snacks or even lunch.

I remember we loved going to a particular "open house" as my dad's collegue's wife bakes the most amazing Kuih Bakar Pandan. The cake was soft, rich with coconut flavour and had the constitency of very thick kaya (coconut jam). It was so, so good that we would eat at least two piece per person. Unfortunately when his wife passed on, no one else seemed able to replicate the recipe.



So can you imagine my excitment when I came across this recipe in Zurin of Cherry On A Cake's blog. Her pictures reminded so much of the Kuih Bakar I used to love when I was a kid. And the mere sight of her pictures made me want to try out the recipe as well. Coincidentally I also realized that I had the same flower paper cake mold as Zurin's. I had bought a few packs from Daiso a few months back and had used some for previous bakes.



Baked Pandan Cake (Kuih Bakar Pandan)
Recipe Adapted from Here
Makes one 7" round cake

Ingredients:

300ml coconut cream (I used Kara brand)
100ml water (divide equally into 2 glasses)
4 fresh pandan leaves (each about 15 inches in length), snipped
125g granulated sugar
4 eggs
150g plain four
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp all spice
1 Tbsp sesame seeds
1 Tbs unsalted butter

Method:

1) Preheat oven to 180C.

2) Combine coconut cream and 50ml of room temperature water. Keep aside

3) Into a blender add 50ml water and the pandan leaves. Blend until the leaves become a pulp. Remove and strain the liquid through a sieve. Squeeze the pulp to extract all the juice. Pour the strained pandan juce into the coconut cream mix and keep aside.

4) Sift flour, salt and all spice.

5) Beat eggs and sugar together with a whisk until well combined (about half a minute). Do not over beat. Add the coconut cream and pandan mixture and stir to combine.

6) Add the sifted flour mix and using the whisk fold in the flour mix into the mixture until there are no lumps left. Strain the batter using a sieve to remove any lumps.

7) Add the butter into the cake pan. Place the pan into the oven for about 3 - 5 minutes until the butter has melted and starts to brown around the edges. Remove the pan from the oven and swirl the butter around to coat the pan's sides.

8) Then pour the pandan batter into the pan and bake for about 10 minutes. Remove the pan from the oven and sprinkle the sesame seeds on top of the cake. Continue baking for a total of about 35 to 40 minutes or until the centre feels firm and is not wobbly when gently pressed and the edges are a light golden brown and crusty. Allow to cool completely before cutting into wedges and serving.