My intern Siew Loon is back with yet another mouthwatering and decadent dessert recipe—Indonesia layer cake or kek lapis.
This is not a Nyonya recipe but the exotic taste and inviting aroma of kek lapis is legendary and one of my favorites, and Siew Loon and I wanted to share it with you. Check it out!
I can still remember vividly how my friends and I used to look forward to the sweet delicacies served during the Lunar New Year. Our favourite is the Kek Lapis or Indonesian Layer Cake.
As this is an expensive cake, we only get to eat it during very special occasion. As a passionate baker, I told myself that no matter what I must learn how to make Kek Lapis…
Kek Lapis is a very unique cake where spices are added in to give the sweet aroma smell. It is a very rich cake with very high contents of eggs and butter. Therefore, it is usually served in very small pieces.
Making Kek Lapis is a very tedious job but it is worth the hard work when you see the beautiful layers of the cake. More so when we see our friends and loved ones enjoying every bite of it.
Kek Lapis is not actually a Nyonya recipe, but a great baking recipe to share with Nyonya Food readers.
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Indonesian Layer Cake (Kek Lapis)
Kek Lapis is a very unique cake where spices are added in to give the sweet aroma smell. It is a very rich cake with very high contents of eggs and butter. Therefore, it is usually served in very small pieces.
Ingredients
- 12 oz (340g) butter
- 2 Tbsp condensed milk
- 20 eggs yolks
- 5 oz (141g) icing sugar
- 2 oz (56g) superfine flour, sifted with
- 1.5 tsp all spice
- 2 Tbsp brandy, optional
Instructions
- Lined and greased a 6 inch (13cm) cake pan. Preheat oven at 380 degrees Farenheit.
- Beat butter and condensed milk till smooth. Leave aside.
- In another bowl, beat the egg yolks and icing sugar till pale and thick.
- Fold butter into egg yolk mixture.
- Lastly, fold in sifted flour in 2 batches until combined. Add brandy.
- Turn the oven to grill function. Put cake pan into oven for 1 minute.
- Put a small ladle ( about 2.5 oz/70g) batter into pan and spread evenly. Bake for 5 minutes or till the top is brown.
- Remove from oven and and scoop the same amount of batter for the second layer. Repeat the same process.
- After you have finished the last layer, turn the oven to bake function. Cover top of the cake with aluminium foil and bake for another 5 to 10 minutes.
- Remove and cool on wire rack.
Jojo
I would like to ask, is Commercial oven suitable to bake layer cake? Coz i m hving problem with the cake when i m using commercial oven. The side always too dry.
Rasa Malaysia
I don’t know. I never tried.
Elsie
any video to teach us?
Rasa Malaysia
No.
Shaheda Bhabha
i would like to double the recipe and make it in a 9×13 pan / will it be okay ?
Rasa Malaysia
I think you can.
Sharon
Does ithe oven have to be on broil mode, instead of the normal bake mode when baking this layered cake? Thank you.
Rasa Malaysia
Bake mode would work.
Su Yin
Wondering why are these in Fahrenheit and pounds and ounces when the website claims Malaysia?
Rasa Malaysia
Su Yin – I live in the USA and more than 90% of my readers are based in the US.
Gunther-Heinz Zucchelli
What to do with all the egg whites?
Rasa Malaysia
You can fry them. :)
Sharon Adelman
Or make angel food cake.
Julie
Hi could you please check the recipe and confirm that everything is right including the instructions? I have followed exactly but failed twice. How long did it take you to get the egg yolk + icing sugar mixture to pale? Does it get thicken to stiff peak? The butter was oozing out of the cake while baking. Am I doing something wrong?
Sharon Adelman
20 egg yolks? Really that many?
Sharon Adelman
20 egg yolks? Really that many? Also, I am currently baking this cake. I am also having the similar issues: runny, and the batter literally melted with the heat. Is there too much butter in this recipe? Or is the brandy the issue, being liquid and making everything else break. Looking forward to your reply, Rasa Malaysia.
Sharon Adelman
So, here is what I think. The entire list of ingredients were spot on. I followed the original recipe for the first half of the cake. Then I experimented and made a few changes to the flour. I added 3 more tbsp to the mixture. Mixed it well and continued on with the baking process. I’ve noticed the cake mixture was slightly better. The lower half of the cake always a hot mess. The top half of the cake, it showed more distinct lines.
I just need to continue experimenting with this cake, using Rasa Malaysia’s recipe, as it would be such a waste to just give up on it.
Looking forward to more experimentation to perfect this. I wish there is an option for me to upload a picture of what I had baked, so you can see what I had done.
Rasa Malaysia
Please send me an email with your photos. bee@rasamalaysia.com
Jaclyn Chia
Hi! Thanks for posting this. I’m REALLY excited to try this!! One question – how high does the kek lapis get with your recipe? I am looking to buy the 6″ pan as I don’t have one that small, and they have a choice of 2″ or 3″ height. What is your recommendation? Thank you!!
Christie
Hi, what size of egg should I use to bake this cake?
Thank you.
Rasa Malaysia
Normal size.
Chang
Hi, may I please know if I can use broil function on my oven when grill function is required? Thanks!