[Recipe] Pandan Ogura Cake

April 2, 2014

The Internet has so much buzz about this Ogura Cake earlier on that I feel I ought to give it a try, though the fuss about it has since quite died down. Well, I only manage to find TIME and MOOD to do what I feel like doing now.

And as I went for a Dianxin making class yesterday, what the instructor said about cake making does harbor some truth in it. For one, you need to be in a good mood whilst baking cakes. Next, you probably gotta “speak” to your oven before baking to ensure she doesn’t throw tantrums during the bake. And lastly, you have to “sayang” her often enough so that she know she’s well take care of. Sounds amusing ? Hahaha. But it’s quite relevant though. We need the fairy godmother of bakes to be around every time we begin a bake. I am sure every baker has encounter this one time or another that for the wildest reason of all, while all settings being made the same, method, ingredients, whatsoever, sometimes the exact same bake will just produce different results on separate occasions. Beats you ? Beats me too !

Coming back to the Pandan Ogura Cake, after baking it, I realised it’s nothing something that I fancy. Neither does the family members. We all prefer the chiffon cake in an almost harmonious agreement. The Ogura cake texture is probably the cross-breed of a steam cake and a chiffon cake. While it is tenderly soft like a chiffon, it also encompasses a high level of moisture that makes it “too soft” for my liking.

If you notice, my cake seems shorter than usual is because the recipe calls for a 7-inch cake pan and I do not have it. Therefore, I replace it with a 8-inch one which results in a shorter height.

The method of making this cake is very similar to the popular egg cake recently and also the chiffon cake, by the split eggs method. The only difference lies in the fact that an Ogura cake is made using a steam-bath which is the method we used for the Japanese-styled light cheesecake.

The very plus point about this cake is that it is totally wholesome and natural. There were no baking powder, soda, essence nor artificial coloring used. What you see is what you get. The very pale pastel green of the cake comes naturally from the extract of pure pandan leaves itself.

If you are afraid that the cake will shrink too much upon taking it out from the oven immediately, you could let it rest in the oven with the power switched off and leaving the oven door slightly ajar to ensure that the cake has adjusted to the difference in temperature before removing it. That probably will take around 15 to 20 minutes for my oven.

While the family member do not fancy this cake at all and there was so much leftover that I brought to the office for the colleagues to savor. And bravo ! Fortunately there were some appreciation from the colleagues who find the cake well done and the leftovers were quickly wiped off. Hahaha. As I always say, one man’s meat is indeed another man’s poison. LOL.

It was featured on a TV show recently that some lemon juice can add to the softness of a cake. But since I do not have any lemons at home, I do without it. But rest assured the texture is still soft, nevertheless.

If you are liked one of my colleagues who appreciates this kind of cakes, feel free to give it a try. But I seriously doubt I will be making this again. Pandan chiffon will do for me next round. ^-^

Pandan Ogura Cake

By Eat What Tonight Published: April 2, 2014

Yield: 1 7-inch square cake (4-5 Servings)

Original recipe from Aunty Young http://auntyyoung.blogspot.jp/2013/09/pandan-ogura-cake.html

Ingredients

5 nos egg yolk Ingredients A
1 no whole egg Ingredients A
1/4 tsp salt Ingredients A
60 g oil Ingredients A
80 g pandan juice Ingredients A
20 g coconut milk Ingredients A
75 g flour Ingredients A
5 nos egg white Ingredients B
80 g sugar Ingredients B

Instructions

Beat the egg yolk, whole egg, salt, oil, pandan juice and coconut milk until fluffy.
Sift in the flour, then mix it until smooth and well combined, set aside.
Beat egg whites and sugar until stiff. Mix the egg yolk batter earlier with egg white mixture evenly by using the chiffon cake mixing method.
Pour the mixture into a 7-inch square pan (lined the bottom with baking paper only) and get rid of the air by tapping the pan lightly on a tabletop.
Put pan into a larger pan half-filled with hot water, Bake with preheated oven at 160 degrees for 30 minutes then turn down to 150 degrees for 15 mins or until baked.
Once baked, leave the pan in the oven with the door slightly ajar until it has slightly cooled down, approximately 20 minutes.
Remove cake from pan, inverted on a rack and let it cool completely before serve.