Monday, June 4, 2012

My 1st cake after the long 'break'

It was a long break for me, almost a month since I really bake, and also cook. I stopped baking a week before my trip and started baking & cooking after a week I came back from the trip as I came down with flu, nausea, cough and fever..
I tried making satay at home with my variation to marinate the chicken meat, used ready pre-mix satay pack. And then tried making Pandan Kaya Cake for my Grandma's birthday. I was thinking hard on what should I bake for her as she didnt really want some thing too sweet, and I remembered that she always will have a Pandan Kaya Cake for her birthdays when I was still young. So to recap, I did my own version, reduce a bit of sugar and made it for her.
Deco-wise, it was still not good enuf, in my view. Tastewise, I think I did great as she had 2 slices on the actual celebration and kept on pinching the pandan kaya that was leftover from covering the cake on both attempts.
I marinate the satay to my variation and hubby liked it as it wasnt too dry and flavourful. Here it goes:
Satay (Chicken) - makes approx 30 sticks
1 plate of Chix Breast
1 plate of Chix boneless drumstick
1tsp Cornflour
1Tbsp Oyster Sauce
1Tbsp Lt Soy Sauce
1Tbsp Sesame Oil
Pinch of pepper and grounded tumeric

1st Attempt of cake - Sideview

1st Attempt - Simple deco of cake

2nd Attempt - actual cake

2nd Attempt - Seideview
The 1st attempt resulted in a harder and dense cake as I couldnt figure out how to make the cake batter. But luckily for me, I had some kakis in FB who managed to helped me figure out how to 'beat' the batter and this time round, it grows. I adapted the recipe from Aunty Yochana's blog & I did my own variation. Here is what I amended:
Pandan Kaya Cake - source from Aunty Yochana
Ingredients for cake:
250 gm. Optima flour or sponge cake mix flour
4 eggs
3 Tbsp. Pandan juice **i used milk**
a little green pandan paste or green colouring **i used pandan paste & pandan flavour**
3 Tbsp. Thick coconut milk **i used milk**
1 1/2 Tbsp. cornoil **i used olive oil**
Pandan Kaya:
900 ml. Coconut milk ( squeeze from 1 1/2 coconuts - add water) **i used 500ml Coconut milk + 400ml water**
9 Tbsp. Hoen kwee flour / green pea flour **i used custard powder**
1 Tbsp. Instant Jelly Powder
1/2 tsp. salt
a little green colouring
a little pandan paste **i used 1Tbsp Paste + Extract**
180 gm. sugar **i used 140g sugar**

60 gm. Dessicated coconut for covering cake

Method for cake:

(1) Whisk optima flour and eggs till light. **Beat til light and runny**
(2) Add pandan juice and continue to beat till fluffy. **Beat til soft peak**
(3) Add green colouring and pandan paste.
(4) Fold in coconut milk and corn oil and mix till combined. **Fold in without deflate the batter**
(5) Pour into a 9" round cake tin and bake at 175C for about 40 to 45 mins. or till skewer inserted comes out dry.
(6) Slice on wire rack to cool before slicing into 3 or 4 slices , your preference.

Method for pandan Kaya:

(1) Put all the ingredients into a pot and stir till evenly mixed.
(2) Cook over medium heat till mixture thickens and smooth.
(3) Place a slice of sponge cake into a cake ring, pour in some kaya and continue the same process till the last layer is covered with pandan kaya.
(4) Leave aside to cool and set before chilling in the fridge.
(5) Remove cake from cake ring and cover the whole cake with dessicated coconut.
(6) Slice and serve chilled.


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