Pandan Cake

We have not tried our built-in oven at all. It was big enough for roasting chicken. We are not that ambitious, we only try its function for baking a cake.

My mum is a risk-averse person. Unless it is a tried-and-tested and proven recipe, she is adamant in trying. The only cake that we have ever successfully baked before it is a pandan cake. The choice this time round is again pandan cake.

After gathering the ingredients which can be abit hard to find these days, especially fresh coconut milk and pandan leaves, the process of sifting, beating and mixing begins. With smaller eggs, adjustments should be made to ensure that the proportion of the various ingredients are still round. My mum forgets to factor that into account, so the mixture is slightly off.

The biggest disaster is yet to come.

When everything is ready, the next step is to pre-heat the oven. Alamak, the whole house's power trips whenever the oven is switched on. We try a few more times and the outcome is always the same. We cannot get the oven on for more than a minute.

The melt-down begins. My mum starts to despair. She then starts to feel like a failure and starts complaining and grumbling. She is on the verge of giving up when she recalls she has a smaller portable oven. We quickly fetch it out and heat it up. Uh-uh (fingers wagging), this is not the time to pop champagne yet. More trouble awaits.

The original mixture cannot be fitted into the smaller oven. This means that we will need to transfer the mixture into another container before we can shove it into the smaller oven. Once it is done, it is waiting for the mixture to be heated up.

For some reason, the top soon became charred and burnt within 10 minutes into the baking. This is too early for any burning. To prevent further burning, we turn off the top heat and only allow the bottom heat to remain. More drama await. About 20 minutes into the heating, the top starts to rise more and more and the mixture starts to move away from the side and cracks appear at the top.

We have no choice but to turn on the top heat again. Despite baking for about 40 minutes, the mixture still appear wet. We are starting to get worried.

Fortunately, the final product is ok but not as fluffy as what my mum thinks it should be and except for a little burnt at the top which can be easily cut away. Nevertheless, it is still moist and soft.