Put dried blue pea flowers and water in a small saucepan, bring to a boil and then turn off the heat. Let them steep for 10 minutes. Strain out the juice
Cooking sticky rice with a steamer:
Soak the rice for at least 4 hours or overnight in water
Drain the water you use to soak the sticky rice. Place the sticky rice in a tray. Pour in the coconut milk and salt and stir to mix. Place this in a steamer and steam on high heat for about 25-30 minutes or until cooked through and soft. Remove from the steamer. Refill water in the steamer if necessary and get it ready to steam the cake again later. Wrap the lid of the steamer with a cloth to prevent water dripping back on the cake, which will make the surface of the cake not smooth
Cooking sticky rice with Instant Pot pressure cooker:
No need to soak the rice. Place all the ingredients for the rice (bottom layer) in a pan that is at least 3-inch height and can fit in your instant pot. Stir to mix and make sure the rice is covered by liquid. Pour 1 cup of water into the inner pot of the instant pot. Put a trivet in and place the pan with rice on top. Close the lid. Turn the steam release valve to "sealing". Press "pressure cooker" and make sure it's on "high pressure". Set timer to 30 minutes. Wait 10 minutes and then fully release pressure
Pressing the rice cake:
Get about 1/2 of the cooked sticky rice and dot the rice with the blue pea flower extract all over
Grab an 8x8-inch square tray or 9-inch round tray and brush with some oil on the bottoms and all sides. Cut a parchment paper to line the bottom of the pan. This will make your life easier when you try to remove cake from the pan. Transfer the blue sticky rice and white sticky rice to the tray. Cover with a piece of parchment paper and really use your palms to pack the rice down so your cake won't fall apart when you cut it
Prepare the top layer:
Mix all ingredients for pumpkin layer. Strain this mixture if necessary to get rid of lumps
Steaming the cake:
Bring the water in the steamer to a boil. Place the tray with the pressed rice cake in the steamer
Strain the pumpkin mixture over the rice cake very gently to avoid any bubbles. Close the lid (wrapped with a cloth) and lower the heat to medium-low. Steam over 45 minutes or until the top layer is no longer wet. Do not crank up the heat or you will end up with the surface that is not smooth
Remove the cake from the steamer and let it cool down completely before cutting, about 4 hours or so
When ready to serve:
Loosen the edge with an oiled knife or plastic knife and then gently transfer the kueh out from the pan. Trim off the 4 edges to make the cake looks "neater". I forgot to do so and you can see in the photo that the edge of the cake curved up. Cut the cake into the size you like