Malaysia – Kek Lapis Sarawak

by Fauzan Anandika

Southeast Asia place where more than a thousand island lays around the equator, create multiple culture and tradition. Dominated by Malay race and share the same history. Malaysia is a country surrounded by 2 two ocean, the Indian ocean, and the Pacific ocean, have a beautiful snack called Kek Lapis Sarawak. This cake is well known because it has a beautiful pattern. A special cake baked only to celebrate national and religious ceremonies. As a tourist, you can found Kek Lapis Sarawak national feast like on Eid Al-Fitr, Christmas, or Deepali. In this event, most Malaysian citizens cook Kek Lapis so tourists could find it easily.

There are two kinds of Kek Lapis, original and with a pattern. Some cake shop usually modifies it into a roll shape, similar to Swiss rolls. But all cake type has at least two different color layer to be called Kek Lapis. Dominated with a sweet taste and smooth texture make Kek Lapis become Malaysia’s most wanted gift to take home. This uniqueness becomes more popular after Malaysian baker introduces it on  Le Meilleur Pâtissier, France – Belgium show in 2018.

Kek Lapis mix butter, margarine, egg, wheat, and sugar as their main ingredients. Stir the dough until all blended. For making patterns, it uses special equipment and art technique. Sound delicious? Let’s try together. For now, let us make the original one without making any pattern.

Ingredient A

• 300 grams of butter
• 100 grams margarine
• 150 grams fine sugar

Ingredient B

• 36 egg yolks
• 155 grams fine sugar
• 1 tablespoon skim milk

Topping

• 10 prunes, slice into two-part
• ½ cup apricot jam

Other Ingredient

• Natural food coloring (I used red, purple, and green, but you can go wild with it!)

How to cook

1. Mix and blend butter, margarine, and butter. Add skim milk slowly mix with a low-speed mixer for 7 minutes. Keep blend until it becomes smooth and white. Place in a refrigerator for a moment.
2. Mix ingredient B until the dough expands and smooth. Usually, it takes 12 minutes.
3. Mix Ingredient A and B, stir slowly.
4. Heat oven until 200 Celsius.
5. Divide dough into 90 grams dough and give different coloring for each dough.
6. Flatten each dough separately on a baking sheet. Add some prunes for the most top layers.
7. Bake for 10 minutes.
8. Stock all the cake layers apply apricot jam between layers. Then bake again for 5 minutes.

Kek Lapis can fill you up fast. So you probably won’t able to eat it in a day. But the good thing is you can store Kek Lapis for several days in an airtight container at room temperature.