Egg Custard / Kaya (Pandan)

I have lots of pandan plants growing in my garden. With eggs, santan and sugar available in my pantry it was easy for me to whip up the pandan egg custard to spread on my bread. I do not add any preservative egg custard. It is very fragrant and less sweet compared to those store-bought ones.

Ingredients:

• 4 eggs
• 160 g sugar
• 250 ml thick santan (either fresh or from the box)
• 3 long pandan leaves (for a lighter kaya) or 5 (for a darker one)

Method:

• To obtain the green colour:
• Cut the pandan leaves into small pieces.
• Take a bit of the santan and blend it with the pandan leaves.
• Sieve to obtain the pandan juice.

• Beat eggs and sugar with a whisk till the sugar is dissolved.

• Add the santan and pandan juice to the egg mixture. Mix.

• Strain the mixture to ensure that there are no impurities.

• Pour the mixture to the top pot of the double boiler.

• Add water to the bottom pot of the double boiler.

• Put on the top pot.

• Turn on the fire (low heat). A high heat will curdle the mixture.

• Stir the mixture till the egg custard is formed. If you find that your custard is not smooth, you may add all the custard to a blender and blitz it till it is smooth.

• Let the egg custard cool down completely before keeping it in a glass bottle. Refrigerate the egg custard. (It can easily last for 2 weeks in the refrigerator.)

Pineapple Carrot Cake

      

I was informed that carrot cake with pineapples is very delicious and I just had to try baking it to savour it. So, I went about experimenting with the ingredients that I have and the result was a delicious Pineapple Carrot Cake. It was moist and not too sweet. (I am always careful with sugar as I did not want my family to eat too sweet cakes.) I will be baking it again once I get hold of a can of pineapples as I did not have enough of it this time; the cake was gone in no time as I had my in-laws with me.

Ingredient:

Dry Ingredients:

• 250 g flour
• 7 g baking powder
• 4 g baking soda
• 3 g salt
• 3 g cinnamon powder

• 100 g chopped walnut (roasted)

Wet Ingredients:

• 130 g castor sugar
• 30 g brown sugar
• 4 eggs
• 250 ml melted butter (can use corn oil)
• 225 g carrot
• 200 g pineapples (from the can)

Decoration:

• 12 pieces roasted walnut

Method:

• Whisk sugars and eggs till sugar has dissolved. Use all white sugar if you do not want a dark cake.

• Add melted butter and continue to mix till oil is incorporated.

• Add eggs, one at each time and whisk to incorporate each egg fully.

• Add flour and mix.

• Add carrots and pineapples. Mix well.

• Finally, add the chopped walnuts.

• Pour into 8 inch x 8 inch lined baking pan.

• Bake at a pre-heated oven at 180 deg C for 35 minutes or when a skewer inserted comes out clean.

• Immediately remove the cake from the pan and let it cool down completely before slicing it up.

• Enjoy.

 

Carrot Cake - Mixing Method

I sometimes use the creaming method and at other times the mixing method to bake my cakes. While the creaming method takes a longer time for me to bake a cake, I feel that the resultant crumb is finer. The mixing method is very easy and less time consuming as it just involves mixing all the ingredients and baking the batter. But in my opinion the crumb of the cake is not as smooth as the cake produced by the creaming method. However, I still use the mixing method due to time constraint.

Ingredients:

• 120 g all-purpose flour
• 120 g grated carrot
• 2 eggs
• 75 g light brown sugar
• 115 g melted butter
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp cinnamon powder
  
• 50 g chopped walnut (can add more) and a few pcs for decoration

Method:

• Sieve flour, baking powder and cinnamon powder.

• Beat eggs and sugar till sugar dissolves.

• Add the melted butter and continue to mix till the butter is incorporated.

• Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients. Use a spatula to mix till all is well combined.

• Add the carrots and mix.

• Finally, add the chopped walnut. Mix till walnuts are evenly mixed.

• Pour batter into a 7 inch pan lined with parchment paper on the base. However, a 6 inch pan would give you a taller loaf. (This is a very small loaf.)

• Bake in pre-heated oven at 170 deg C for 30 minutes or when a skewer comes out clean when inserted at various parts of the cake.