Rose, Pistachio & Pandan Two Toned Bundt Cake
An Original Recipe by Lorraine Elliott
Preparation time: 35 minutes
Cooking time: 1 hour
- 3 cups/360g/12.8ozs. plain all purpose flour
- 2.5 cups/527g/18.6ozs. sugar
- 1/2 cup/125g/4ozs. custard powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 455g/16ozs. butter, softened, cubes
- 7 eggs, room temperature whisked
- 1/2 cup/125ml/4flozs. buttermilk
- Rose essence (not rosewater)
- Pink colouring
- Pandan essence*
Rose Syrup
- 1/2 cup/100g/3.5ozs caster or superfine sugar
- 1/2 cup/125ml/4flozs. water
- A few drops of rose water to taste
Icing
- 1 cup icing sugar
- 1-2 tablespoons rose water
- 1/2 teaspoon honey
- 1 tablespoon slivered pistachios
- Edible dried rose petals
Pandan essence can be found at Asian grocery stores
Step 1 - Preheat oven to 180C/350F and butter your bundt tin well (see instructions above). This is a 10 cup Kugelhopf bundt tin. Whisk the flour, sugar, custard powder, salt and baking powder in the bowl of an electric mixer. Then start adding the cubes of butter into the flour mixture. It will start to look like damp breadcrumbs.
Step 3 - Whisk the eggs and buttermilk together and then add to the mixture making sure that there are no lumps. Divide the mixture evenly into two bowls (weigh the cake batters if you want them to be exactly the same weight). Add pink colouring and rose essence to one and pandan essence to the other. Place in large piping bags.
Step 4 - Snip off the ends of the piping bags and pipe alternate blocks of colour in the tin until you fill the tin 3/4 of the way up. Tap the tin gently on the benchtop to get rid of any air bubbles. Bake for 50 minutes to 1 hour or until the top springs back when pressed gently.
Step 5 - While the cake is baking, make the rose syrup. Simmer the sugar, water and rose water together until reduced and slightly syrupy.
Step 6 - Cool the cake in the tin for 10 minutes. Then trim the top (which is the base of the cake) and brush the bottom with syrup. Place a serving plate underneath the cake and upturn it and let it slide out. Brush the cake with the rest of the syrup.
Step 7 - Add the icing sugar to a food processor and blitz until powdery and all lumps are removed. Add rosewater and honey and colouring and make sure that it becomes a thick, dollopable consistency-you don't want it too thin or you'll get long, thin and opaque drips. Add more sifted icing sugar if you need to or a few drops of water if it is too thick. Using a teaspoon drip 1/2 teaspoon at the top of the cake. Add pistachios and rose petals before the icing dries.