Pandan Sponge Cupcakes with Gula Melaka Swiss Meringue Buttercream

Inspired by my friend's instagram post on Pandan Cupcakes with Gula Melaka Buttercream, I sought to search for recipes online.

I didn't want to use a butter cake for the cupcake since that's more fattening. So, I found a pandan sponge recipe at kitchentigress.com, and a Gula Melaka Swiss Meringue Buttercream recipe at cooklovesgod. I'm partial towards Swiss Meringue Buttercreams because they are lighter. ^^

I decided that pandan paste hasn't been giving me good results, so I finally got down to making my own pandan juice. Following instructions from kitchentigress.com, I got 50g of pandan leaves, washed it and whizzed it in my food processor.

Unfortunately, I couldn't get any sort of juice out of it, even after adding a little water (though she did say we shouldn't add water). I then mashed the already whizzed pandan leaves in my mortar & pestle, and managed to get.... 5g of pandan juice/extract.

Since I REALLY wanted to make the pandan cupcakes, and the recipe called for 10g of pandan extract, I used the 5g of pandan juice/extract I made, and added 3g of pandan paste to it (figuring that the pandan paste I have is probably more concentrated).

The result, as you can see, are cupcakes that are super green. They may also more dense: they fell out of the cupcake holders when I turned them upside down to cool - I did that because they started to sink in the middle, and I though, like Chiffon cakes, this might help to reduce the sinking centres.

Since they fell out of the cupcake holders, I decided to turn them upside down when frosting them. I just felt that the green bottoms were prettier than the brown tops, since the greens would give a nice contrast to the brown buttercream. ;)

The Swiss Meringue Buttercream was great, but was a tad sweet. May have to reduce the amount of sugar the next time. The taste of Gula Melaka was HEAVENLY though. ^^

The only issue I had with the Swiss Meringue Buttercream was that it kept separating. So I had to use this trick I read online - take half / 1 cup of the curdled buttercream, melt it in the microwave for 10-15 seconds, then stream the melted buttercream into the remaining buttercream while whisking it. This trick worked like a CHARM.

This sponge cake has a tendency to sink in the middle. So, perhaps I should consider using the pandan cupcake recipe at cooklovesgod.. though dad LOVES the taste of this spongecake from kitchentigress.com (even without frosting!).