Cupcakes in the green

And green was the way to go and im not even Irish hahaa.. As you can see it is all green cupcakes right down to the frosting .. I guess I wasn’t kidding when I said I loved green – the color of peace, the color of envy, the color of my many days of chats with ‘c’ .. anyways, why I went all green is cause of the pandan or screw pine leaves that I used for this recipe. I actually had a dream of this cupcake so I decided to follow my dream and make this recipe – in other words it’s a dream come true though I wish I had other dreams that would come true but anyways …

The recipe for this was from an improvised devil’s cake recipe. But instead of cocoa powder I used fresh screw pine leaves or pandan leaves, I blended it with milk. It turned out to be this beautiful green liquid and it smells amazing. What can I say I love the smell of pandan especially in the car and the air condition really gives the car a refreshing smell, or simply in tea. Ooooooooooo so delicious im almost drooling now … ;)) ..

Pandan or screw pines leaves are widely used in Asian cuisines especially in our desserts - its used to infuse syrups, used as bases, it enhances taste and of course

gives out that wonderful aroma. Here is a picture of of the pandan leaves .....

Anyways, the cake process was fun though tedious – add this minus that divided this. I didn’t use the whole recipe just in case it back fired (talk about confidence huh). I made half and that too was a bit much. The sizes of my cupcakes varied this time round – I did a baby, a mini and a standard sized one, sounds like on big happy green family.

When the cake was in the oven, it emitted such an inviting smell. It’s almost intoxicating. There is just something about the smell of a cake baking in the oven especially a pandan based cake …. So finally after about 20mins the cake was done and I was really excited to taste it – hot and fresh out of the oven. I think I have a thing for all things hot out of the oven .. The taste of cake freshly out of the oven is indescribable – I prefer them then rather than when it’s cooled off for some reason – and this goes for all cakes except for fruit cake. And my pandan cupcake was no exception…..

Personally I liked it – everything was there though I think I have to figure a way to make it more fluffy and soft. There was enough moisture in the cake – it wasn’t dry which was a positive sign so in my book I think I did ok but the true taste test will be with mom - *bites fingernails* .. oh oh .. and that test did come .. She came over today and I got her to taste it – she said it was nice then I told her how I did and all that and I wished that it was fluffy, well according to mom, the best type of cakes for pandan leaves are sponge cakes any other way it doesn’t work – now in my mind I wanted to prove her wrong hahahah but she is the professional I am still her apprentice. So I would like to think I passed the cake test – in spite of it not being fluffy enough, mom liked it so did my cousin. Mom & I speak in Malay though I struggle translating English to Malay..

Mom explained that pandan cake was a little special than most cakes. It needs a special kind of baking tin and how you cool the cake is also crucial – it has to be alleviated for some reason or other. Advice taken, but I still am keen on tweaking the recipe even more when I get the chance so I can get the perfect green cupcakes – but till then I will enjoy my all green cupcakes with butter cream frosting just the way it is ……