Pandan Cupcakes with Gula Melaka Swiss Meringue Buttercream Frosting

I've been meaning to bake pandan cake & pair it with some form of gula Melaka frosting since the school holidays last year. I did some research & narrowed down on a few recipes, but had not got down to doing it. When school reopened, the idea just faded away. But recently, when I saw Rima posted her gorgeous pandan cake with gula Melaka frosting, I was inspired again to bake one myself.

I decided to be less ambitious... If you had been following my blog, you would know I'm not into frosting & decorating cakes. So I adapted a recipe of a frosted layered cake to make cupcakes instead. I've also never liked buttercream too because I find it too rich & I don't like the aftertaste (which I realised, could be because margarine is used instead of butter). But I've read about Swiss meringue buttercream & it seems to earn pretty good reviews. 

I came across a recipe of pandan cake with gula Melaka Swiss meringue frosting from Life Is Great. The cake recipe is actually adapted from Magnolia's vanilla cake & it uses the creaming method of mixing. That's a good thing as  I didn't need to do a lot of washing up!

The cake & the frosting are just perfect! The pandan cake is so moist & delicious that, if I don't control myself, I can eat a few in one go! All the hard work preparing the pandan juice really paid off.... the cakes are very fragrant & the natural pandan flavour is hard to beat. The frosting is just amazing. It's smooth & silky, & even after so many hours in the kitchen in this humid weather, it still holds its shape perfectly. It also doesn't taste too rich & the gula Melaka caramel gives the frosting a uniquely Asian flavour. I just love everything about this cake. The only change I would make to the frosting in future is to reduce the granulated sugar & pour more gula Melaka caramel into the buttercream. Now let's look at the recipe, study it carefully & bake it!

(Update 1: Go to this post where I also drizzled salted gula Melaka caramel on the cupcakes.)
(Update 2: Go to this post for the sliced version of this pandan cake.)

Pandan Cupcakes with Gula Melaka Swiss Meringue Buttercream Frosting

Pandan cake:
200g cake flour
1/2 tsp baking powder (double acting)
125g unsalted butter, softened

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp vanilla paste / essence

200g granulated / castor sugar
2 large eggs, at room temperature

*75g coconut milk (from a box) + 25g water

*2 tbsps pandan juice (refer below)

*green colouring
* (combined & mixed)

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180°C. Line muffin pan with cupcake liner or, if using cupcake paper cups, place cups onto a baking pan.
2. Combine flour & baking power. Sift & set aside. 
3. In a large bowl, on medium speed of an electric mixer, combine butter, vanilla & salt. Cream until smooth. 
4. Add sugar gradually and beat until fluffy, about 3 minutes. 
5. Add in eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. 
6. Add the dry ingredients in three parts, alternating with the coconut milk. With each addition, beat until the ingredients are incorporated, taking care not to over beat.
7. Fill paper cups or muffin pan with batter, 3/4 full.
8. Place baking or muffin pan on the middle rack of the oven & bake for about 25 minutes.
9. Cool cakes completely on a wire rack before icing. 

Gula Melaka Swiss meringue buttercream frosting:

50g gula Melaka, crushed 

2 pandan leaves, torn lengthwise & tied a knot
1/8 cup water

3 large egg whites
110g granulated sugar
150g unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 tsp pure vanilla paste
pinch of salt

Method:

1. To prepare gula Melaka caramel, combine water, gula Melaka & daun pandan in a heavy-based saucepan over medium low heat. Stir until all the sugar has melted. Then continue heating up the syrup & let it reduce slightly, about 3-4 minutes. Remove from heat, strain & leave aside to cool completely to room temperature. The caramel will thicken  as it cools. If it becomes too thick, thin out with a little bit of water before using.
2. Combine egg whites, sugar and salt in a heatproof bowl over a pan of simmering water. Whisk frequently, keeping it over the heat, until the mixture reaches about 70°C and the sugar has dissolved (rub some between your fingers - if it feels grainy, it hasn't dissolved). 
3. Transfer the mixture to a mixer with a whisk attached and beat on medium-high for about 5 minutes, until stiff peaks have formed and the mixture has cooled to room temperature. 
4. Turn down the speed to medium and start adding small chunks of butter, checking that it has incorporated before adding more. Keep beating until the mixture comes together, this will take about 5 minutes. 
5. With the mixer running, add in the gula Melaka caramel, one teaspoon at a time, beating until well combined between each addition.  I added 5 tsps.

Pandan juice:
10 pieces mature pandan leaves, washed & torn into 1-inch pieces
2 tbsps water

      With a mortar and pestle or a blender, combine the leaves & water & mash into a paste.  Press through a fine sieve or squeeze through cheesecloth to extract the green juice only. Let it sit for a while. The green extract will settle at the bottom. I used 2 tbsps of the extract.

Notes:

1. The pandan extract can be prepared before hand and chilled until required.
2. Swiss meringue buttercream can be made ahead and refrigerated until needed. Bring to room temperature and whip to a smooth consistency before frosting. The buttercream requires no refrigeration for up to 5 days. It will keep in the refrigerator for 3 weeks and in the freezer for at least 3 months.
3. Make sure you use the pure gula Melaka for the best flavour. I usually buy mine from Geylang Serai market & ask for the one from Indonesia. It costs about $4-5 per kg. I don't buy mine from the supermarket because I'm not sure if it's pure.
4. This recipe yields 12 medium or 30 small cupcakes & there was some leftover frosting after I piped on all the cupcakes.

Adapted recipe from Life Is Great.

Doughnuts - Japanese gelatinised-dough method

I'd been searching high & low for Alex Goh's Magic Bread in bookshops here in Singapore as well as in Malaysia ever since I made the Chicken Floss Buns. Finally, I found it at a Popular branch recently. Didn't have to think much.... I just took a quick browse & paid for it. 

All the recipes in this book use the gelatinised-dough method in which part of the dough is cooked in boiling water & left overnight before adding to the rest of the ingredients. It was introduced by the Japanese chefs & like many Japanese bread, the texture of the bread using this method is supposed to be soft & springy without having to add bread improver & chemical food additives. I was quite surprised there's also a doughnut recipe using this method. Naturally, I became quite curious with how the doughnuts would turn up. 

So last weekend, I made a batch of sugar doughnuts using the recipe in the book. As expected, the doughnuts turned out very soft, especially when eaten within a few hours from frying them. After almost 24 hours, the texture of the doughnuts was denser but they were still delicious.

Doughnut 

Gelatinised dough:
100g bread flour
70g boiling water

Pour boiling water into flour & mix until well blended to form a dough. Cover & set aside to cool. Then keep it in the refrigerator for at least 12 hours.

Dough:
250 g bread flour
150g plain flour
10g milk powder
1 tsp baking powder
50g sugar
8g instant yeast
1 whole cold egg
160 g cold water
50g butter
6g salt
cooking oil for deep-fry

Method:

1. In a mixing bowl, combine bread & plain flour, milk powder, baking powder, sugar & instant yeast & mix well. 
2. Add in egg & cold water & mix until  a rough dough is formed. Add in gelatinised dough & mix until well blended.
3. Add in butter & continue mixing well. 
4. Finally, add in salt & continue mixing to form a smooth & elastic dough. Check for membrane.
5. Remove from bowl & mould into a smooth round dough.  Place the dough into a greased bowl, and cover. Set in a warm place to rise until double. Dough is ready if you touch it, and the indention remains.
6. Turn the dough out onto a floured surface,  mould into a smooth round dough & leave to rest for 10 minutes. 
7. In the meantime, cut grease or baking paper into pieces, each slightly bigger than the doughnut cutter. Sprinkle with flour. 
8. Gently roll out the dough to 10mm thickness. Cut with a floured doughnut cutter. Place cut doughnuts onto the grease or baking paper. Place on a tray. Let doughnuts sit out to rise again until double. Leave to proof for about 30 minutes.
9. Heat oil in a deep-fryer or large frying pan. Slide doughnuts into the hot oil.  Turn doughnuts over as they rise to the surface. Fry doughnuts on each side until golden brown. Remove from hot oil & drain on a wire rack.
10. Leave to cool slightly. Then sprinkle doughnuts with sugar or decorate top with chocolate.

Recipe by Alex Goh from Magic Bread, with some modifications to the method.

I'm linking this post to the Cook-Your-Books No 9 event hosted by Joyce of Kitchen Flavours.

Nestum Pinky Cookies

There's just one  more week to go before the month of March... Time really flies when you are so busy. So this is my first post for February. Actually, this one has been in my folder for months....

I learnt to make these Nestum Pinky Cookies during one of the weekend baking classes  a few years ago. Love them a lot & I've made them a few times for Hari Raya. There's just one extra step for these crunchy cookies, you need to bake them twice! And just be warned, the dough is very dry, so we need to press it into cookie moulds to shape the cookies. This is certainly not the straight forward type of cookies to make, but definitely one worth a try!

Nestum Pinky Cookies

Ingredients:
60g ghee (clarified butter) - I used QBB.
140g butter (softened)
160g caster sugar
1/4 tsp salt
40g egg yolk (from 1-2 eggs)
30g sweetened condensed milk
1 tsp strawberry paste/emulco
1/4 tsp pink colour
*1/4 tsp baking soda
*30g tapioca flour
*100g plain flour (I used top flour / pastry flour)
*150g self-raising flour
* combine & sift these ingredients
240g Nestum Cereal Original

Topping:
egg white
Nestum Cereal Honey (I used  Nestum Cereal Original.)

Method:

Diameter of base is 2cm.

1. Combine butter, ghee, sugar & salt  in a mixing bowl & mix thoroughly. 
2. Add in egg yolk, condensed milk, strawberry paste/ emulco & pink colour & mix well.
3. Add in the flours & Nestum Cereal. Mix well. (Note: The dough is quite dry but DON'T add anymore butter.)
4. Take some dough & press it into the cookie mould (diameter of base is 2cm). Place the mould on a baking tray. Continue until finish.
5. Bake at 150 deg C for about 20 minutes. Remove from oven. Do not switch off the oven.
6. Remove cookies from the moulds. Brush the top of each cookie with egg white & dip it  onto the Nestum cereal. Arrange the cookies on a baking tray. Bake them again in the oven for about 30 minutes. 
7. Remove from oven & transfer cookies onto a wire rack. Leave to cool completely. Store in airtight container.

Recipe by Nurul Imah.