 Pandan cake | |
| Alternative names | Pandanchiffon cake[1][2] |
|---|---|
| Type | Cake |
| Region or state | Southeast Asia |
| Associatedcuisine | Malaysia,[3]Indonesia,[4]Singapore[4] |
| Main ingredients | Juice ofpandan leaves or Pandanusextract, flour, eggs, sugar, butter or margarine |
Pandan cake is a light, fluffy, green-colouredsponge cake[5] flavoured with the juices ofPandanus amaryllifolius leaves.[6][7]It is also known as pandanchiffon.[1][2] The cake is popular inMalaysia,Indonesia,Singapore,Vietnam,Cambodia,Laos,Thailand,Sri Lanka,Hong Kong,China, and also theNetherlands.[8][9][10][4] It is similar to thebuko pandan cake of thePhilippines, but differs in that it does not use coconut.
The cake shares common ingredients with other cakes, which includes flour, eggs, butter or margarine, and sugar. However, the distinct ingredient is the use of pandan leaf, which gives the cake its distinct green colouration. The cakes are light green in tone[11] due to thechlorophyll in the leaf juice. It sometimes contains greenfood colouring to further enhance its colouration. The cakes are not always made with the leaf juice, as they can be flavoured withPandanusextract, in which case colouring is only added if a green colouration is desired.[12]
The original pandan cake common inIndonesia, theNetherlands, andSingapore is a usually softsponge cake akin to the light and fluffychiffon cake, made without any additional coating orfrosting.[2][13] The other variants are actually derived from other cake recipes, with any similarity only in the usage of green pandan flavouring extract.
In Southeast Asia, cake-making techniques were brought into the region through European colonization.Malaysia and Singapore wereBritish possessions, whilstIndonesia was formerly aDutch colony. European colonists brought their cuisine along with them, with the most obvious impacts in bread, cake, and pastry-making techniques.[14] InSoutheast Asian cuisine, thepandan leaf is a favourite flavouring agent used to give off a pleasant aroma, and added to various dishes ranging from fragrantcoconut rice,traditional cakes, to sweet desserts and drinks.[15] It was the fusion of European cake-making techniques with locally grown ingredients that created the pandan-flavoured cake.
In 2017CNN named the pandan cake as the national cake of Singapore and Malaysia.[4] This has led to reactions in Indonesia that regarded the pandan cake, locally known askue bolu pandan, as Indonesian. In Singapore pandan cake was popularised by one of the city's most popular bakeries, Bengawan Solo,[13] a cake shop owned by a Singaporean citizen ofIndonesian origin.[3]
According to CNN Indonesia, this cake originated from Indonesia, which can be traced to the cake-making techniques of Dutch colonists in theDutch East Indies (now Indonesia).[3] The colonial Dutch andIndo peoples combined cake-making techniques from Europe with the available local ingredients like the pandan leaf as flavouring and colouring agents. This cake is also known as pandan cake inDutch, and is quite popular in the Netherlands due to its historical link to Indonesia. Other than its use in chiffon pandan cake, pandan leaf is also used as green colouring and flavouring in the Dutch-Indonesian favourite pandanspekkoek orlapis legit (layered cake), demonstrating the prominence of pandan leaf in Dutch-Indonesian cake and pastry making.[16]
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