Just another weekend project

The last 2 weekends, I had enough fun experimenting with things that I put in a 'to-do-but-never-get-a-chance' list. I made yogurt. And I baked cake: Pandan Kaya Layer Cake.

My yogurt experiment went quite well. The yogurt was too runny for my liking. On the second attempt, I managed to get the texture that I want, at the expense of the fat and calories. Well, life is full of trade-offs. You can't get your creamy yogurt and not get fat!
Note: A friend who watched Oprah's Dr. Oz told me that calcium actually helped to bind the fat. So, if yogurt is full of calcium, so I don't have to worry about consuming too much of the full cream milk yogurt, do I? Again, I did not watch Oprah, so I don't know how true is the statement.

If people ask me on what can define the south-east asian food, my answer will be: Pandan. In the funny english terminology, it is also called screw pine. While green-tea is now such a hit, I still favour my old fragrant friend, Pandan. Although my son thinks that it's smelly, I still think that this is an exotic herb from south east Asia. Something that define Indonesian, Malaysian, Singaporean, Thai, and all the other Asian countries. The soft fragrance that the leaves ooze, that is so comforting.

People in Singapore and Malaysia are more than familiar with Pandan Kaya Layer Cake. I think this is a modern twist on traditional cake. The so-called pandan kaya fudge is supposed to be the kaya layer of the cake, made of coconut milk, pandan (screw pine) and green pea flour. It reminded me of the custard layer in kue sarlat. The same tastiness of the coconut milk. And don't forget the Pandan smell. The cake is either sponge or chiffon cake. I chose chiffon cake. Chiffon cake is not something that I have mastered, so I figured, it's good to have a chance to practice. For some reason, my chiffon cake always shrank after I took it out from oven. I figured it has something to do with the temperature management.
This time, I baked my chiffon cake in 160 C. The cake did not shrink at all, to my delight.

The fudge turned out easier than I thought it would be. It's not too runny. In fact I enjoyed making the fudge so much, I was thinking of making this cake every week.
One problem, though. My other half does not like Pandan. So, he sacrificed himself when he ate this cake for his breakfast.