Kueh Lapis

It has been 15 years since I baked a kueh lapis!

When I was learning to bake in the 80s, making kueh lapis was the ultimate test of a baker’s skill. We all saved for a Baby Belling that had the best temperature control for cakes.

Of course, I could never afford one that cost $300. So, after I got married, I had no more access to my father’s oven, and it was rare to install an oven in a newly wed’s house, I baked with anything I could find: the microwave oven, the toaster … I could whip up everything by modifying the recipes. And I kept baking anyway. To this day.

Baby Belling is no longer something we see in the market. Today I bake with the Miele oven installed in my Ang Mo house. Hehehe… what a luxury compared to what it used to be.

So here’s my kueh lapis recipe. I quite like it, though today, I realized all my pans are round and the only square pan I have is really quite shallow. I don’t have the kueh lapis leveler, so I  tapped until it is level. After some practice, it worked well on the second cake.

[amd-yrecipe-recipe:83]

This cake takes a whole 2 hours to bake! So that’s why it might be another 15 years before I bake another!

Note about the ‘moistness’ of the cake:
If I leave it a little longer, so that the cake is dryer, I get a fluffier cake. I reason it is because when you put a new layer on, it ‘sits’ on the prior layer and suppresses it. But if the lower layer is fluffed up and cooked, it doesn’t get pressed down so easily.

Also, I like to do this closer to winter, when the room temperature is lower, so the batter doesn’t ‘melt’ as I pile on the layers between grills.