The cake shares common ingredients with other cakes, which includes flour, eggs, butter or margarine, and sugar.
However, the distinct ingredient is the use of pandan leaf, which give the cake its distinct green colouration.
The cakes are light green in tone due to the chlorophyll in the leaf juice.
It sometimes contains green food colouring to further enhance its colouration.
The cakes are not always made with the leaf juice, as they can be flavoured with Pandanus extract, in which case colouring is only added if a green colouration is desired.

The original pandan cake common in Indonesia, the Netherlands and Singapore are usually soft sponge cake akin to light and fluffy chiffon cake, made without any additional coating or frosting.
The other variant are actually derived from other cake recipe with similarity only in the usage of green pandan flavouring extract.

In the Philippines, pandan cakes are rarely made with pandan alone, but are made as a buko pandan cake (or coconut pandan cake), from "buko pandan", a traditional pairing of young coconut (buko) and pandan flavours used in various desserts.
Philippine pandan cakes generally have strips of coconut meat and/or macapuno as toppings or fillings as a result.
In contrast, pandan cakes in neighboring countries are traditionally served plain.
The cake shares common ingredients with other cakes, which includes flour, eggs, butter or margarine, and sugar. However, the distinct ingredient is the use of pandan leaf, which give the cake its distinct green colouration. The cakes are light green in tone due to the chlorophyll in the leaf juice. It sometimes contains green food colouring to further enhance its colouration. The cakes are not always made with the leaf juice, as they can be flavoured with Pandanus extract, in which case colouring is only added if a green colouration is desired.
The original pandan cake common in Indonesia, the Netherlands and Singapore are usually soft sponge cake akin to light and fluffy chiffon cake, made without any additional coating or frosting. The other variant are actually derived from other cake recipe with similarity only in the usage of green pandan flavouring extract.
In the Philippines, pandan cakes are rarely made with pandan alone, but are made as a buko pandan cake (or coconut pandan cake), from "buko pandan", a traditional pairing of young coconut (buko) and pandan flavours used in various desserts. Philippine pandan cakes generally have strips of coconut meat and/or macapuno as toppings or fillings as a result. In contrast, pandan cakes in neighboring countries are traditionally served plain.
Pandan cake