I like to experiment with a variety of sugar for cooking and baking, so a stash of sugar starts to build up inside my fridge. Today, I decided to clear remaining 75g of granulated palm sugar, something I bought to add to my morning coffee, but I switched to Ceylon tea lately, and honey is a better sweetener for it.
The original recipe from here bakes in a 6 inch round pan, but I used a loaf pan measuring 8″ x 3.5″ x 3″. I also altered the sugar type (from white sugar to palm sugar), milk (to soy milk), and amount of walnuts as I have only 50g left at home, instead of the 60g in the recipe and omitted another 30g as topping.
WALNUT PALM SUGAR BUTTER CAKE
adapted from here 125g salted butter, softened 75g granulated palm sugar 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 2 large eggs (approx 80g ea) 110g cake flour 1 teaspoon baking powder 2 tablespoon soy milk 50g walnuts
To prep : process walnuts in a processor till fine and set aside. Line a cake pan with parchment paper. Combine cake flour and baking powder, sift this mixture once.
In a mixer bowl, cream softened butter, granulated palm sugar and vanilla extract till fluffy with a paddle attachment. I alternate between KA speed 2 and 4, stopping the mixer once or twice to scrape down mixture from the side to the center of the bowl to make sure the mixture gets beaten evenly. Palm sugar are dark brown in color, so it is kind of tricky to know if the butter has been beaten properly to “pale color”. The original recipe stated 4 minutes at speed 2 with a hand mixer, I followed closely to this time, and observed that the color of the batter has turned slightly to a lighter shade.
Next, add in the eggs, one at a time, making sure that the egg gets incorporated into the mixture before the next egg is added. The mixture will appear curdled at this point, fold in the flour and baking powder mixture, soy milk, and ground walnuts.
Pour batter into lined cake pan, and bake at 170C for 35 – 40 minutes. When done, cool on a rack before serving.
MONO and CO 