CNY is around the corner.... Part 4

Good morning my fellow bloggers.. CNY is just in 2 days time.. I am so excited and sad at the same time. The only reason I am sad is because I cant spend it in Sibu like I usually do. All those visiting different relatives and friends as well as enjoying the spectacular fireworks at night at 12am does really make me miss celebrating it in Malaysia. In addition to that, food during CNY is always awesome... we have a whole range of cakes, cookies, random snacks and sweets to be consumed. One would normally gain at least 2-3kg's in the few days of chinese new year visiting. But no matter! Its still an awesome time to be at.

Continuing on like I usually do, I've decided to show everyone the type of cakes that we eat during chinese new year. Cakes from Sarawak are usually steamed and not baked. The result? A spongy yet sticky and moist cake which is absolutely delightful to the tastebuds. It takes a lot of time to make layers if you do decide to make layers but they taste awesome and its totally worth it at the end of the day. The two cakes that I decided to make are the Kek Lapis Kopi (Coffee Layer Cake) and also Kek Horlicks/Belacan (A cake with a mixture of horlicks and kaya). This is the first year that I have succesfully made them so I am plenty excited! =)

Kek Lapis Kopi Recipe / Coffee Layer Cake Recipe

Kek Lapis Kopi (Coffee Layer Cake)

Ingredients:
10 eggs
227g of butter
300g of kaya
375g of condensed milk
1/2 tsp of salt
142g of castor sugar
227g of flour (plain/hk)
2.5tsp of baking powder
25g of coffee powder

Steps
1) Beat the sugar and butter together till it becomes fluffy. Then combine the eggs in one at a time while beating.
2) Pour in the kaya, condensed milk and salt. Then add baking powder+flour mixture. Mix till it looks even and there are no clumps remaining.
3) Seperate the mixture into two. Now, dilute the coffee powder in some hot water and add to one of the mixtures.
4) Now that the mixtures are ready, steam it over high heat in the wok/double boiler. Alternate the layers as seen in the photo. Each layer takes roughly 10-12 mins depending on the temperature of the day and the strength of the fire. The layer is ready when it is no longer fluidy.

Tips:
* This may seem stupid... but... try not to use cold butter/eggs.... they clump REALLY badly and I had to warm them both up before I used it. So if you live in Australia, leave it outside if its a really cold day for at least a few hours.
** Add more coffee if you are a coffee-holic like me =) I LOVE ME SOME COFFEE WOOOOO~
** This recipe is NOT sweet... so you do not need to modify the recipe anymore unless you want a really bitter cake.
*** If you dont have HK flour, you can use plain flour. The main reason for using HK flour is that it is bleached and is more glutenised. So it holds its shape a little bit better. 

Kek Belacan/Horlicks Recipe

Ingredients

225g of butter

110g of caster sugar

5 eggs

200g of sweetened condensed milk

200g of kaya

100g of horlicks (can be substituted for milo if preferred)

150g of plain flour

1/2 tsp of vanilla extract

40ml of browning essence

Optional (2.5tsp of baking powder) if you prefer a fluffier cake

Steps:

1) Beat the sugar and butter together till it becomes fluffy. Then combine the eggs in one at a time while beating.
2) Pour in the kaya, condensed milk and horlicks. Then add flour. Then add vanilla extract and browning essence.
3) This recipe makes a 15cm cake.
4) Now steam the mixture on high heat for at least 30mins. You can test the cake by poking it with a stick/chopstick and the stick should come up clear. When that is done, the cake is ready.

Tips
* If you steam it for 4 hours, then it will last a little longer than a week. So if that is preferred, you can do that. Make sure though, that you do not let the pot run dry!
** Any ingredients can be increased be it horlicks, kaya or condensed milk depending on your tastes. I love my horlicks so I added another 20g to it!




Credits DUE!
Kek Lapis Kopi Recipe (http://www.malaysiabrides.com/forum/Layer-Cake-Kek-Lapis-reciple-t5402.html)
Kek Belacan/Serikaya/Horlicks (http://cornercafe.wordpress.com/2008/10/02/kek-belacan/)

Please go thank these fantastic fellows for actually sharing their recipe online!! And thank me too :P Took me half a day just to look for those recipes!

Douglas.