Pandan Ombre Butter Cake ~ 班蘭牛油蛋糕

Whenever I want to make a butter cake, Mrs. Ng's butter cake recipe will come to my mind.  Her recipe is foolproof and you can use it as a basic recipe and play around with variations of flavours to your liking.  Today, I'm sharing with you a Pandan Ombre Butter Cake.  I've used pandan paste instead of pandan juice as I need to have a distinct green colour to bring out the 'Ömbre' effect, which is from a darker to a lighter shade of green.  I'm pleased with the result and the texture of this cake is soft and moist and it still stays in this manner even after the third day, kept in an airtight container.

Pandan Ombre Butter Cake ~  班蘭牛油蛋糕
Ingredients (A)                                                 

• 230 gm unsalted butter
• 140 gm caster sugar
• 200 gm self-raising flour 
• 4 'L' egg yolks
• 60 ml milk
• 1/4 tsp vanilla (to be added into the plain batter)
• 1/4 tsp pandan paste to one portion
• 1/8 tsp pandan paste to another portion
• pinch of salt

(B)

• 4 'L' egg whites
• 30 gm caster sugar

Note :  As I ran out of self-raising flour, I used plain flour + 2.1/4 tsp baking powder.  Sifted twice.

Method

1. Line the base of an 8" square pan, grease and dust the sides of the pan OR line the whole pan wtih parchment paper.
2. Sift the flour twice.  Set aside.
3. Cream butter with sugar till light and fluffy.  Add in the egg yolks one at a time, mix till well incorporated.  
4. Fold in sifted flour alternating with the milk.
5. In a clean bowl, beat the egg whites till foamy, add in sugar in batches and beat till firm peaks form but not dry.
6. Fold the egg whites into the egg yolk mixture till well incorporated.
7. Divide the batter into three portions.  Add vanilla to a plain portion.  Add 1/4 tsp pandan paste to the second portion and 1/8 tsp pandan paste to the third portion.
8. Scoop the darker pandan portion onto the prepared pan.  Tap the pan twice, on the worktop.  Then spread the lighter pandan portion on top of the darker batter.  Tap the pan twice, on the worktop.  Finally cover with the plain portion, level the surface and tap the pan, once.
9. Bake in a preheated oven @ 170 deg.C for 45 mins.  If the cake turns brown, reduce to 150 deg.C for the last 20 mins.  Test with a skewer till it comes out clean.
10. Remove the cake from the oven, let cool for about 10 mins. Unmould the cake on a cooling rack and let cool completely.