When you marry Pandan with Cendol, you get the most delicious and delicately fragrant labour of love cake ever!
Today, in light of the upcoming Christmas season, we are delighted to share with you a recipe for Pandan Cendol Cake. A word of caution though, you'll need a lot of patience and dedication to create this one. But it's totally worth it. So, without further ado, let's jingle all the way through the story behind this delectable dessert!
Cendol (/ˈtʃɛndɒl/) is an iced sweet dessert commonly found in Southeast Asia. It is highly popular in Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei, Cambodia, East Timor, Laos, Vietnam, Thailand, Singapore, and Myanmar. The mere mention of Cendol is enough to make people feel faint with delight as its taste practically transports you to paradise. It is the one dessert that has everyone hunting for the best cendols all over with the best ones to be found in a little stall by the roadside.
The Cendol dessert is generally made up of bits of green rice flour jelly, coconut milk and palm sugar syrup. Every chef has their own unique way of dressing up their cendol. Some add diced jackfruit, sweetened red azuki beans, or even durian (those who do not mind its particular "aroma"!)
Here's the Pandan Cendol Cake recipe
Group A: Pan size (Pandan Chiffon)
7” round pan (with removable bottom cake pan), height is 3”
4 egg yolks (large or A size)
20g castor sugar
50g corn oil
70g Pandan Milk ( Mix 10g or more Pandan powder with 70g milk or coconut milk)
1 tbsp Pandan leaf extract for green food colouring (more for a deeper green colour)
100g cake flour
4 egg whites (large or A size)
1tsp lemon juice or 1/4tsp cream of tartar
60g castor sugar
Method
Lightly whisk egg yolk with sugar.
Add corn oil. Stir to combine. Then add Pandan milk. Stir and combine well.
Add cake flour. Stir to mix well. Set aside.
Add lemon juice into the egg white and beat until foamy.
Gradually add sugar and beat until almost stiff or firm peaks form (hand mixer at speed 2 takes about 4 mins).
Take 1/3 portion of meringue and use a hand balloon whisk to mix with the egg yolk mixture until light.
Fold 1/3 of the meringue into the egg yolk mixture using a silicone spatula. Fold well. Then fold in the remaining meringue and then fold to combine.
Pour batter into the pan. (Note: It is not necessary to line the pan with paper. If you have a normal cake pan, just line the side and bottom with baking paper then remove cake from cake pan as soon as you take it out of the oven)
Bake in a pre-heated oven at 140C for 25 mins. If you use the lower rack, place it on the second rack from the bottom. Then, increase to 170C and continue to bake for 30 mins.
Immediately invert the cake pan onto a wire rack. Let it cool for about 10-15 mins. Remove cake from the cake pan and continue to cool on wire rack. If you want to maintain a nice dome shape, then you will have to remove the cake from the cake pan as soon as it is taken out of the oven. Then, leave it to cool on a wire rack.
Cut away the dome on the top, then cut it into 3 pieces.
All these beautiful desserts are made with @my.blue.tea Superfood Super Powder.
From top left - (1) Pandan, Pitaya & Durian Madeleines, (2) Chilli Cake (3) Pandan Ondeh Ondeh Swissroll (4) Dragon Fruit Cloud Cake (5) Purple Sweet Potato Angku and (6) the classic Pulut Tai Tai
Group B: Cendol Jellies
1tbsp Pandan leaf extract (you can add more to get your desired colour)
200ml water
25g cornstarch
5g mung bean starch (You can substitute this with rice starch.)
5g wheat starch (Not compulsory. You can omit this if you can't find it.)
15g granulated cane sugar
¼ tsp lye water (optional)
Method
Prepare an ice bath by placing ice in a large bowl filled with water.
Add 200 ml water, cornstarch, mung bean starch, wheat starch, sugar, pandan extract and lye water (if you have it). Turn on the heat to high, then stir the mixture with a spatula.
Once the mixture starts to thicken, reduce the heat to low and continue to cook until it becomes a translucent paste. Cook for another 2 minutes.
Remove from heat and carefully transfer the paste to a potato ricer -- working in batches, squeeze the paste through the ricer over the top of the ice bath, ensuring the "cendol noodles" are submerged in the ice water.
Leave the cendol in the ice water for 15 minutes.
Drain the cendol and set aside in the refrigerator until ready to use.
Group C: Sago Layer
120g pearl sago
70g castor sugar
100g pandan milk water ( I use the balance pandan milk from making the sponge cake, about 13g, then I add 87g water.)
Method
Wash the pearl sago then soak in clean water. Keep adding more water as the sago will begin to expand once it is soaked. Do this for 45 mins.
Mix soaked sago, sugar and pandan milk water in a mixing bowl. Stir to mix well.
Pour into a 7” steaming tray and steam over medium heat for 30 mins. Set aside to cool.
Now we can start assembling our two pandan sponge cakes (Group A) and sago layer (Group C) before making the coconut mousse layer. I used the same 7" removable bottom cake to assemble.
Cendol
The ingredients of cendol rely heavily on aren (sugar palm) and coconut. The original or basic ingredients are coconut milk, jelly noodles made from rice flour with green food colouring (usually derived from the pandan leaf), shaved ice, and palm sugar. Cendol is known as Lot Chong in Thai, chè ba màu with beans in Vietnamese and in Myanmar, mont let saung. They all have something in common - shaved ice, pandan and coconut milk. (Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cendol#cite_note-Minuman_Tradisional_Indonesia-31)
You can sprinkle our Durian Latte Powder or Jackfruit Latte Powder over this Cendol to zest it up a bit. It completely sold out at the Malaysian Festival 2018 with our Cendol with Durian Powder.
Group D: Coconut Mousse Layer
(Prepare this after placing the chiffon cake and sago layer into the cake pan)
20g gelatine powder
50g hot water
250g thickened cream
50g castor sugar
175g coconut cream
Method
Mix the gelatine powder and hot water. Stir it while the gelatine is melting in the hot water. Mix well.
Mix sugar and coconut cream in a saucepan, bring to boil. As soon as you see it boiling, pour in the gelatine powder and stir to mix well. Remove from heat and set aside.
Beat the thickened whipped cream over another big bowl that is filled with ice and water. Beat over high speed until stiff and firm.
If the gelatine mixture still feels hot, place the saucepan over the big bowl with iced water to bring the mixture to room temperature. Then mix it well with whipped cream.
Group E: Gula Melaka Agar-agar
(Prepare this after the coconut mousse has set)
1/2tsp Agar-agar powder
10g coconut milk
40g Gula Melaka or palm sugar, chopped
1tbsp castor sugar
180g water
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Method
Mix all ingredients in a saucepan. Bring to boil and mix well.
Place the saucepan over a bowl of tap water to bring down to room temperature before pouring on the cake.
To Assemble the Cendol Cake
Slice the pandan sponge cake into 3-4 pieces (4 pieces to get a thinner cake layer).
Remove the sago layer from the steaming tray (you can place a piece of cling film on it). Place the first piece of pandan cake on the sago layer. Trim the sago layer to the same size as the pandan cake.
Place the removable bottom disc from the cake pan on to the first pandan sponge cake and place them in the cake pan. You should be able to see a small gap along the sides of the pan - this gap is to to be filled in with coconut mousse later.
Place the second piece of pandan sponge cake on top of the sago layer.
Pour 300g of coconut mousse on top. Scatter in the cendol jellies and fill the gap along the sides. You may also put in a few cooked red beans. Then shake the pan to let the coconut mousse flow and fill the gap. Place the cake tin into the freezer for up to 5 mins to set.
Remove the cake pan from the freezer. Touch the coconut mousse to see if has set, then place the third piece of pandan sponge cake on top.
Pour the remaining coconut mousse on the sponge cake and level it. Store in the refrigerator for 1-2 hours to let it set (you may place it in the freezer to speed up the process).
Lastly, pour in Gula Melaka agar-agar on the coconut mousse. Store in the refrigerator for several hours or overnight.
And after a long and arduous day in the kitchen, perhaps the best way to truly enjoy the fruits of your labor as well as get into the holiday spirit is to enjoy your beautiful Pandan Cendol Cake with some piping hot Blue Tea. Hope this delicious sweet dish makes your Christmas season all the more sweeter!
Choose our beautiful range of Blue Tea or blue tea blends e.g. Blue Myrtle, Blue Goddess
About Catherine
Thank you Catherine for another beautiful recipe! Catherine has been sharing a lot of recipes along with beautiful photos of her creations. She considers herself to be someone who loves baking and not so good a cook. Catherine works as a specialist psychologist during the week and enjoys baking over the weekend. She sees baking as an extremely healthy and healing activity as it helps calm the senses and restore the mind and spirit. Not to mention, it absolutely delights the stomach!
Catherine has contributed quite a few recipes containing our Superfood Powders and the most shared and viewed is her Blue Butterfly Mochi recipe. That is one recipe you´d really want to sink your teeth into! Another beautiful recipe for you to try is her Durian and Pandan Crepe. She is clearly not shying away from fruits that have very strong flavours!
Follow Catherine on her Instagram for inspiration and ideas - https://www.instagram.com/catherine_cang/