Pandan Sponge Cake

Further to my earlier post on pandan kuih (Kuih Seri Muka-Aug 13), I realised it was actually Pandan Sponge Cake, and not the kuih kuih. Anyhow as my curiosity got the better of me, I searched for the recipe online, found and liked the one at thestar's Kuali, from Amy Beh.

I must have done something out of sync, or the fire wasn't right, or is it the recipe? That final one is a defence, after all "a poor carpenter blames his tools". Is it?

Here's the recipe:

4 large eggs
125g sugar
125g flour, pinch of salt sifted together
1 tbsp pandan juice
1/8 tsp pandan essence
60g butter, melted


Method
Grease and flour a 23cm round cake tin. Preheat oven to 180°C. Place eggs and sugar in a mixing bowl over a large pan of simmering water and whisk briskly until mixture thickens and almost doubles in volume.Remove bowl from the simmering water and continue to whisk until mixture turns cool. Mix in sifted flour. Gradually drizzle in the cooled melted butter. Fold in gently with a metal spoon.Pour mixture into prepared tin. (smoothen the surface with a spatula.) bake in preheated oven for 25 to 30 minutes or until cooked. The cake is cooked if the surface is golden brown and it shrinks slightly from the sides of the tin.Remove cake from oven and leave to cool in the tin for five to six minutes before turning out on a wire rack.

Having followed the recipe to the "t", I am puzzled - can anyone help?

By the way, I have an even bigger bump on this than on the "seri muka"...

















Inside the hump:

I know it looks funny - try not to laugh ok.

As it looks, the texture is hard, not sponge as its supposed to be. Pandan flavour is not very strong as I did not use essence,but fresh pandan juice only, but not quite enough. Our pandan plant is still very young and the dry season is not doing it favours, the leaves were rather dry therefore too litte juice and not fragrant enough. But its not about the taste alone, as totally I am disappointed with the outcome of this mis-adventure.

My late mother-in-law used to tell a tale of how her first cakes turned out flat, and how my father-in-law would call such cake "ah ngek", how he would tease her about her baking. But she overcame all the "ah ngeks" and had become such a wonderfully good cook. If she was around, I know what she will most certainly say - "don't let ah ngek stop you - try till you get it right"

Just what I will do... Meanwhile I shall search for another recipe and try to find out what went wrong. Watch this space...