Steamed Layer Cake

Pandan and Mung Bean Flavor

layer cake slices

  • PREP TIME: 20 minutes
  • STEAM TIME: 1.5 hours
  • REST TIME: 5-6 hours
  • SERVES: 8-10 people

    • Steamed layer cake is a popular SouthEast Asian dessert that can be made in many flavors – Pandan and coconut, ube and coconut, mung bean and coconut to name a few. Today, I’ll be showing you how to make pandan and mung bean flavor steamed layered cake. This steamed layered cake will have 9 layers! WOWZA. One of the most eye catching dessert but also a very time consuming one since it takes a lot of time to cook each layer. Very tedious...but worth the glory. There’s a lot of recipes for this dessert depending on what texture you want. So if you like a peel-able, thinner layers, chewy, bouncy, but also soft texture, then this recipe is for you.

    Ingredients

    Pandan Flavor

    • 1 Tbsp Oil

    • 1 cup pandan juice (1 cup water
      blend with 2 pandan chopped
      leaves)

    • 2.5 cups coconut milk

    • 1 cup sugar

    • 1/2 tsp salt

    • 1 1/2 cup tapioca flour

    • 1/4 cup rice flour

    • 1/3 cup arrowroot flour

    • 1 tsp pandan extract

    Mung Bean

    • 1 Tbsp Oil

    • 1/3 cups mung bean soaked
      overnight

    • 1 cupt water for cooking the
      mung bean

    • 2.5 cups coconut milk

    • 1 cup sugar

    • 1/2 tsp salt

    • 1 1/2 cup tapioca flour

    • 1/4 cup rice flour

    • 1/3 cup arrowroot flour

    • 1 tsp pandan extract

    • Yellow food coloring

    Required Equipment

    • 9x3 inch round pan or 9x9 square pan

    • Blender

    • Steamer

    Instructions

    Mung Bean Layer

      pandan mixture
    1. Soak mung beans in water overnight before beginging preparation.
    2. In a pot add in the soaked mung beans and 1 cup of water. Let it come to a slight boil and then turn down the heat to slowly cook and steam the mung beans until they are soft. This should take about 15- 20 minutes.
    3. Then, add it to a blender. Blend well. The mung bean puree should add up to 1 cup. If not, add water until it reaches 1 cup. Set aside.
    4. In another pot add in the sugar, salt, and coconut milk. It does not need to boil. It should take about 1-2 minutes only for the sugar and salt to disolve. Take off the heat.
    6. Add in the mung bean puree and a little bit of yellow food coloring to make it a little bit more yellow. Set aside.
    7. In a bowl add in the tapioca starch, arrowroot starch, and rice starch. Mix well. Then add in the wet ingredients and whisk until all the lumps are broken down. The batter is now ready.

    Pandan Layer

      mung bean mixture
    1. In a blender, add in 1 cup of water and 2 pandan leaf chopped up. Blend well.
    2. Strain over a strainer to get rid of the pandan leaf. Reserve the pandan water and set aside.
    3. In another pot add in the sugar, salt, and coconut milk. It does not need to boil. It should take about 1-2 minutes only for the sugar and salt to disolve. Take off the heat.
    5. Then add in the pandan water and a 1 tsp of pandan extract. Set aside.
    6. In a bowl add in the tapioca starch, arrowroot starch, and rice starch. Mix well. Then add in the wet ingredients and whisk until all the lumps are broken down. The batter is now ready.

    Steaming

      pandan layers
    1. Get your steamer ready. The water should be boiling before steaming.
    2. Get your 9x3 inch round pan or 9x9 square pan and brush it with 1 tbsp of neutral oil. Place it in the steamer to warm up the pan for about 3-5 minutes or so.
    3. Then add in the batter in this order. TOTAL steam time for the whole cake is around 1 hr and 30 minutes.

      4. Cool for 5-6 hours. Then, cut the cake into cubes and enjoy! Refrigeration ok :)