kue lapis legit

Unveiling the 3rd creation from my mad baking session last weekend….

Ta-dahhhhhh..

 A labour and electricity intensive, calories packed, sinfully rich but extremely tasty kue lapis legit. This cake has always been and will always be a favorite during Lunar New Year celebrations. The amount of heart and sweat that is poured into this 9 x 9 inches of cake…you can literally taste it. Not the sweat, of course. The heart. Hehe.

I made this to give away to some good friends. What? Just a 9 x 9 inch cake to distribute to a few? Well, everyone gets a small square. Hey, one can’t be too greedy with this cake. There are 30 egg yolks in that 9 x 9 inch cake! Imagine the calories in a thin slice.

This is not my first attempt at kue lapis legit. The last attempt destroyed my counter-top. It is still not repaired and I don’t think it will be. To repair that we would have to renovate almost the entire kitchen. My dad didn’t say a word. He just took a tile and covered up the imperfection. Sometimes his quietness in the face of the results of my madness touches me. As mentioned before, I get away with a lot at home, probably because I’m an old youngest chick that has not flown the coop yet. Pardon the confusing terms. I’m old in terms of age and I’m the youngest in the family. 😛

This amazing recipe is from Sweet Samsations. It is different from my last attempt as it uses only egg yolks. The pictures of the cake she made really captured my attention. As I read her post, I got so interested in this Wijsman butter. Though it was already late at night, I promptly surfed the net to search for any available stores in Singapore that sold this butter. I found only one. Belanja Store. (Update: Shop is closed. See note below) This shop stocks Indonesian foodstuff, as well as the famous Wijsman butter! Elated, I tried to order online. No available stock. Ahhhhhhh. Noooooo. Then a thought struck me, why not call them up tomorrow and check? Maybe they will have a few cans in the furthest corner tucked away somewhere….

The next morning, I called the shop and thank God the shop at Lucky Plaza had stock, though the online store showed they had no stock for that butter. They probably keep reserve stock for the shop. I dashed down and wiped out their stock. Now the shop has no stock too. 😛 At S$18.70 for a 454 grams can of butter, this has got to be the most expensive butter I’ve ever paid for so far.

The smell of this butter is different. I don’t know how to describe it exactly. Rich, thick and creamy, if something can smell that way. One wiff and you’ll know what I mean. It does not have the delicate fragrance like french butter. It is not as yellow as SCS butter nor as creamy as Dutch butter. But when baked into kue lapis legit, the flavor somehow intensifies and now I know why lapis bakers swear by this brand. If I’m going to take that much effort to make kue lapis, then I would prefer to use the best ingredients I can lay my hands on.

Oh, this is the first kue lapis from my new oven too. An oven with a grill function. I was somewhat apprehensive and worried that the oven would malfunction. I guess the last experience really traumatised me. Hahahaha. This oven worked beautifully. I grilled the layers at 150-160 C for 5 minutes or so. The cake only darkened whenever the grill heated up to maintain temperature. Other than that, it would remain lightly brown or pale in color. I couldn’t place the cake on any higher rack as doing so would block my view of the cake when it is in the oven.

The heat was not evenly distributed, hence the cake was lighter at the edges and darker towards the centre. Making this cake, I could not step away for long, especially when the grill was heating up. When the grill heats up, a few seconds late and that layer would be burnt beyond repair. I watched the cake like a hawk and toilet breaks were out during the 2 1/2 hours baking of the cake.

All in all, an exhausting but exciting cake to make. Using the best ingredients I can find, cracking and seperating 30 eggs, slowly and patiently grilling layer by layer. A total of 5 hours from starting the making process, to baking, to finish and clean up. It is worth it. When the cake cooled sufficiently, I wrapped it in cling wrap, placed it in an air-tight container and let it sit for 4 days before slicing up.

The funny part about this cake is, when baking, the fragrance is not much. But a day after resting, when I opened the container, wow! The smell was so fantastically..er…lapis! I made it to 18 layers! Woohoo! The taste is rich, buttery, with the fragrance of spices. One almost forgets to ration the slices and it is hard to keep from chowing down 10 small thin slices at one shot. But I must control. I must restrain myself. I must. Because after the Lunar New Year celebrations, our company is sending us for a full medical check-up. Darn it. 😦

I am delighted with this cake and hope my friends will be delighted with my gift. Here’s wishing everyone a Happy Lunar New Year and a brilliant year ahead! 祝福大家新年快乐，万事如意，好事当头，蛇年行大运！恭喜发财！

I am submitting my entry to Aspiring Bakers #27: Through Thick and Thin – Kue Lapis hosted by Sweet Samsations.

Note: Belanja Store is no longer in operation. Instead, a new indonesian minimart IndoStop has taken over at #02-108, Lucky Plaza. This shop also stocks Wisjman butter.