Steamed Melon Milk Pandan Bit Cake

Embarking on a leaner steamed cake baking in terms of calories and energy saving 😜 Tried a new ingredient - Japanese Melon Milk paired with chopped pandan leaf bits. The cake has a nice sweet scent coming from both the melon flavour and the pandan leaf bits.

I used chopped pandan leaf bits instead of blended pandan leaf paste, as it was more convenient to chop one pandan leaf than having to blend a few pandan leaves in a food processor.  Further, the tiny pandan bits also served as decorative bits to the plain steamed cake 😍

Ingredients

All ingredients in room temperature 

Using 57 to 59g eggs

{A}

2 egg whites 

Pinch of low sodium salt

20g fine sugar

20g raw sugar/fine sugar

2 egg yolks

{B}

70g top/cake flour

{C}

50g Japanese Melon flavoured milk

10g condensed milk

10g rice bran oil/mild flavour vegetable oil

5g pandan leaf, chopped finely

green food colour, optional

Directions

1. Line a 135x45mm round pan with parchment paper. Set it aside.

Picture for demonstration

2. Start to bring 130g of water in a 18cm sauce pan or a small pot to a boil in medium-low heat. Cover the pot with a glass lid with a steam vent.

3. Mix {C} ingredients in a small glass. Set aside.

4. In a clean and dry mixing bowl, beat egg white with salt, fine sugar and raw sugar till reaching firm peak. 

Mix in yolks and beat till reaching ribbon stage as {A}.

5. Sieve and mix in 1/3 of {B} using an electric hand mixer.

Pour and mix in 1/2 of {C} melon milk mixture from Step 3. Continue to mix in the remaining {B} and {C} in alternating sequence. End the mixing with {B}. Use a silicone spatula to do a final mixing into a smooth batter.

In the sequence of: 1/3 B → 1/2 C → 1/3 B → 1/2 C →1/3 B 

Add a drop of green food colour to the batter and mix well. This step is optional.

6. Pour the batter into one 135x45mm round pan lined with parchment paper prepared in Step 1.

7. Lower the pan into a pot of boiling water, and stand over a low steamer rack. Steam at medium-low heat for 5 minutes; lower to low heat and continue to steam for 13 ~ 15 minutes

Turn off the heating, without opening the lid, let the cake simmer for 5 minutes to gradually “cool down” in the pot.

8. Open the lid carefully to avoid the steam condensation from dripping onto the cake surface. 

Drop the cake with pan over a cloth thrice. 

Let the cake cool down for 5 minutes over a cooling rack before lifting out of the cake pan. 

Peel away the parchment paper, and cut the cake after cooling down. Enjoy 😋