Pandan Gula Melaka Cupcakes (Recipe)

(What do you think about this GIF that I made? Hehehe)

PART A - Pandan Juice

Ingredients:

About 10 pandan leaves

3-4 tablespoons of water

Directions:

1. Wash clean the pandan leaves and cut them into small pieces.

2. Grind the pandan leaves and add 3 tablespoons of water to the ground leaves.

3. Squeeze (as much as you can) the juice out and sieve. Set aside.

PART B - Pandan Cupcakes (About 24 cupcakes)

Ingredients:

2 eggs

200g cake flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt (if you use the normal salted butter, leave this out)

125g unsalted butter (softened)

150g castor sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

65g coconut milk + 25g water

2 1/2 tablespoons pandan juice (from Part A)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees C. 

2. Sift cake flour, baking powder and salted into a bowl. Put aside.

3. Mix (as in stir) well coconut milk, water, pandan juice and vanilla extract and set aside.

4. Beat butter and sugar at medium speed until creamy and fluffy.

5. Add eggs, one at a time until the mixture is incorporated.

6. Add flour mixture from step 2, alternating with the coconut+pandan mixture from step 4, in three additions. Mix until the batter is incorporated. Make sure not to overbeat the batter.

7. Bake for about 20-22 minutes. (I normally go with 20.)

PART C - Gula Melaka Syrup

Ingredients:

50g gula melaka

3 pandan leaves

2 tablespoons water

Directions:

1. Place together gula melaka, water and pandan leaves in a saucepan over low heat. 

2. Stir until all sugar is dissolved and mixture comes to a boil.

3. Set aside and let it cool completely.

PART D - Gula Melaka Meringue Buttercream

Ingredients:

3 egg whites

50g castor sugar

1/4 teaspoon fine salt

150g unsalted butter (softened)

5-6 teaspoons gula melaka syrup (from Part C)

Directions:

1. Place egg whites, sugar and salt in a mixing bowl over a pot of simmering water. (Like the double boil method)

2. Whisk continuously until the sugar is dissolved.

3. Transfer into a mixing bowl, and beat the mixture at medium high speed until stiff peaks are formed and until the mixture has cooled to room temperature. You can check by touching the bottom of your mixing bowl.

4. Turn your mixer to medium speed and add butter, piece by piece. Beat until mixture turns creamy.

5. Add gula melaka syrup 1 teaspoon at a time, until incorporated. Now this is really up to you. If you don't really fancy sweet frosting you can add maybe around 3-4 tablespoons of syrup.

6. Frost the cupcakes any way you like and drizzle the leftover gula melaka syrup over the frosting!

Pheeewww that is one long recipe. IF you're not a fan of sweet desserts (really sweet) you should cut down the sugar for the cupcake batter or maybe you could leave out the syrup drizzle over your frosting. The syrup alone is already so sweet!! But the cupcakes, I promise you they're really moist. Anyway, good luck and have fun trying! (If you ever wanna try.. Hehe)