Lapis Surabaya (a.k.a. Spiku)

I made this cake about a week ago. I've never made this kind of cake before but it is on my "to-make/to-try" list for quite some time now and I've been trying to make a single one of the item on that list. But strangely, the list is not getting shorter. In fact, it's getting longer and longer by day :P

So, as usual I did research first before making this cake. What is the traditional method to make this cake, what is the standard minimum egg yolk for this cake (you won't believe it if I tell you), what are the tricks and tips, etc.

I settled on one recipe out of a couple of them. This recipe requires 15 egg yolks for each layer!!!!! and usually, it consists of three layers of very moist and dense sponge type cake with the chocolate layer cake in the middle, sandwiched between two golden sponge cake.

I made the yellow layer first and since I didn't know how the batter would turn out, it failed!!!!!!!. There's a thin layer of dense and rubbery layer on the bottom of the cake. I had a feeling that this cake would failed anyway before I put it in the oven because the batter was so thick (since it's only using the egg yolks) and the butter was beaten, not melted. It was so hard incorporating the two together because both are super duper thick. Besides, it's winter and so the butter is not soft enough to be folded to the yolk mixture. So, I made another one, the chocolate one this time. I was getting a little smarter by using my KA mixer to do all the butter folding in low speed. The result was satisfying.

I started to gain confidence so the day after, I bought a couple dozens of eggs and made another golden layer. I don't want to make two layers for the golden sponge cake so I cut each cake into three parts and so I had two cakes with two yellow layer and two chocolate layer (see pictures). I sandwiched them together using blueberry jam because that's what I have on hand. Traditionally, it's using strawberry jam.

In conclusion, I'm satisfied with the result although I think it's just a tad too sweet for my taste. The texture was very soft. Next time, I would use the better quality butter. I used regular American butter. In Indonesia, the best Lapis Surabaya is made using Dutch butter called Wisjman (I might be wrong with the spelling). But since this is my first time and the Dutch butter cost three times more expensive than regular butter, so I decided to make do with just regular butter.

I wanted to type the recipe, but I'm too lazy. Maybe next time if I have time. For now, enjoy the pictures :) (I should start learning --> taking class of how to make a great picture)

Oh, one more thing. There's a story behind the name of this cake. "Surabaya" is the name of a city in Indonesia. But the term "Lapis Surabaya" is only known by people outside Surabaya, while Surabayanese (pardon my language) doesn't even know that name. It is popular by the name of "Spiku". So, most of the people in Surabaya won't even know what Lapis Surabaya cake is. Oh well, fun fact to know and tell.