green sponge cake

April 26, 2009 webmaster 13 comments

Location: My tiny kitchen

“Do you like
green eggs and ham?

I do not like them,
Sam-I-am.
I do not like
green eggs and ham.

Would you like them
Here or there?

I would not like them
here or there.
I would not like them
anywhere.”

How about a piece of green sponge cake? Would Dr. Seuss’s character like a piece of green sponge cake? I would guess initially he won’t but in the end, Sam will successfully convince him to try it and he will discover that it is delicious. Indeed, there is nothing not to like about this sponge cake. It is not too sweet and it has a light and airy texture. This is my mom’s sponge cake that we ate growing up. My mom’s version is yellow and I turned it to green by using a flavouring agent made from the leaves of a plant called Pandanus.

Pandan leaves are commonly used in Southeast Asian desserts and like vanilla, they have a lightly sweet fragrance. When used in food, the food turns to green because Pandan leaves are green.

I bought the leaves from a local Asian supermarket. The leaves were pureed in a food processor. After that, I squeezed the juice out of the puree. Lastly, I reduce the juice to intensify the colour and flavour. That sounds like a lot of work isn’t it? Well, while the ready-to-use Pandan extract is available in grocery stores in Southeast Asia, I have yet to find the extract on the shelves of North America grocery stores. Next time I travel to Southeast Asia, this is on my list of item to stock up.