Lapis Legit/Traditional Kue Lapis

I've always wanted to make this traditional Indonesian cake for a long time. What keeps me from doing it? Like most people would say, it is VERY time consuming. You have to literally sit or stand in front of your oven for hours to monitor the cake, to add another layer, etc.. Not to mention the amount of egg yolks and butter involved in here. It's beyond your imagination!

Last Thursday is Chinese New Year, and I just found out that this cake is one of the traditional cakes during this Chinese celebration. So, I thought I would give this cake a try. I browsed through some Asian food blogs (I think only Asian people know/make this cake, considering the amount of fat and the cholesterol). There are some recipes using less amount of egg yolks (only 10), but I believe the real traditional Kue Lapis, in Indonesia at least, using at least 20 egg yolks for a standard loaf pan.

So I settled on one recipe that's using 20 egg yolks for half of the recipe. I made some adjustments based on my liking, but nothing major though. I used the best quality ingredients for this cake, although I hesitated a little since this is the first time I try making this cake. But then I thought if I want to go through all the process of making it, might as well give it a best shot. I can always learn something if something goes wrong.

So after hours patiently waiting and adding layers, it's finally done. I couldn't wait to cut through the cake to see if I did it right and if the layers really show. Well, as expected (not wanted), it was not perfect, especially the first couple of layers (as you can see in the picture). I might have burnt one or two layers and I think for the last layer, I baked it for too long since the texture is a little dryer than what I expected it to be.

Also, it's not easy baking this cake in the US standard oven. In Asia (most of them), we can set the fire/the heat of the oven, whether we want it to be from the bottom or from the top of the oven and we can also set the temperature just like normal baking. In the US, bottom heat is called bake and top heat is called broil. we can't really set the temperature in broil since it is not normally used for baking. Luckily, my oven has two temperature settings for broil, high and low. I used low broil so that the cake won't burnt after 5 minutes.

All in all, it was a great experience making it and I am so looking forward making it again with the lesson learned and modifications :). Now, I just have to figure out what I'm going to do with all those leftover egg whites.

Here's the recipe that I used:

Classic Lapis Legit

20 egg yolks
150 g confectioners sugar
350 g butter, at room temperature
2 Tbs. sweetened condensed milk
1/4 tsp. bumbu Spekoek (All Spice powder)
1/2 tsp vanila powder
35 g all purpose flour
10 g powdered milk

• Beat the butter and the sweetened condensed milk until white and fluffy using paddle attachment, set aside.
  
• Meanwhile, sift together all the dry ingredients (flour, bumbu Spekoek, vanili powder, and powdered milk) and set aside.
• Beat the egg yolks and the sugar using the balloon whisk attachment until very thick.
• Add the sifted dry ingredients and continue whisking until well incorporated.
• Add the beaten butter to the egg mixture and mix well using the paddle attachment or fold gently using spatula. Make sure that there's no streak of butter left, or else you will have a rubber like layer in the bottom of your cake. The batter would be very thick with spreadable consistency.
  
• Preheat the oven to 350 F
  
• Grease and lined a standard loaf pan with a parchment paper.
  
• Spread about 2-3 tablespoons of batter into the prepared pan and spread the batter evenly using the back of a spoon. Bake for about 10 minutes until the top is golden brown. The time will vary depending on different oven and how much batter you put in the pan.
• Remove the pan from the oven and change the oven setting to low broil (if you're in the US). Press the top of the cake using anything that's flat (I even use the back of a spoon). Then, add another couple of tablespoons of batter and spread it evenly. the heat from the pan will help soften the butter to make it easier to even out.
• Put the pan back in the oven and cook for about 6-10 minutes until the top is brown (not burnt!).
• Repeat this step until all of the batter is used up.
• Remove from the oven, let cool on a cooling rack for 5 minutes, then unmold.
• Cut the four sides of the cake to make it neat and so that all of the layers are shown.
  

Mango Mousse and Strawberry Mousse Cake

I got these cakes from an upscale grocery store in a city nearby (I forgot the name of the grocery store). They are mango mousse cake and strawberry mousse cake, although if you go there, it will say cassis mousse cake rather than strawberry mousse cake. My French is as good as my mandarin (which I really don't understand), but I know enough that Cassis is black currant, so I think they give this cake a totally inappropriate name. Fraise is the French name for strawberry if they want something French-y.

Anyways, back to the cake. The cake itself is good, although not mind-blowing. They're definitely better compared to some other patisseries that I've tried, but I think the mousse is a little too stiff. In my opinion and taste, mousse should be creamy yet light in the palate. But most of patisseries or bakeries tend to put too much gelatin in it to hold it's shape. Appearance is important but taste and texture should as important too. Giving the mousse too much gelatin would definitely help the cake holding its shape, but it would make the texture rubbery. Besides, gelatin takes away flavor. Other than that, the joconde (the thing with stripes and heart that's wrapped around the cake) is too dry. I think it has been in the store for a couple of days already.
I'm not being picky or anything, this is just my personal opinion. I've never said that the cake is bad at a;;. It is very good, it's just not amazingly good.

Stacked JCC (Japenese Cheesecake)

This is actually a failed JCC :(. I had a block of cream cheese in the fridge that I needed to use up, so I decided to make JCC in different sizes of pans for experiment and so that I can give it to a couple of different people. I made JCC so often that I felt that I didn't need to look at my recipe anymore.

Everything went well until after about 20 minutes of baking time, the top of the cake in the small size pans (3 in) started to crack. Usually cheesecake or any type of cake will crack if the temperature is too hot. I thought this is still ok because the pan size is smaller. Then I checked my recipe file and apparently, I bake them in higher temperature than what it's supposed to be. The result is fine though, completely and perfectly edible and normal. It's just wasn't the way I like it to be. As expected, the texture is dryer than what I have normally. Usually, it just melts in your mouth, but this time you have to use your teeth to chew it a little.

I really hate it if something doesn't turn out as I wanted to be (who doesn't?), I really do. So, I was ready to threw it all away, but I didn't. I stacked, glazed, and decorate the cake with the frozen berries that I keep in my freezer, mandarin oranges and a red cherry for color. The red one is red currant, which I rarely find in the US. I packed it in a box (that appeared to be a lot shorter than the cake itself) and brought it to my friends' apartment. They're big guys and are willing to eat anything :).

It certainly looks like a mini wedding cake though.

Mini Black Forest Cake

I've been posting the same old things lately. Oh well, my apologies, but I just can't let the leftover creams, cakes, and the other good stuff go to waste.

This one is a quick and dirty version of Black Forest cake using the leftover rum whipped cream, chocolate whipped cream, and black cherry from the previous BF cake. Fortunately, I also have some leftover chocolate shardsto decorate with, then I dusted some cocoa powder on top. Usually, BF cake is decorated using red maraschino cherries, but I feel like I have been using red cherries as decoration a little too often (don't you think?). Not that I can't decorate with something else or anything, it's just that most of the cakes I made lately required red cherry as a traditional decoration. Besides, it's red, it's pretty and it's quick!! It doesn't look like leftover anymore, does it?

Thank You Cakes

I made these cakes a week ago as a thank you cake for my friends. It was nothing fancy. Inside the little boxes is a mini classic cheesecake, and the other one is Black Forest cake, with slightly improved recipe from the last one. The mini cheesecake was 3-in in diameter, while the BF is 6-in. I hope this little something can show them how thankful I am to have friends like them :)

Classic Indonesian Cheese Cake (Again)

Another cheese cake it is. It turns out that my friends who enjoyed the previous cheese cake that I made, liked it so much that they want another one. I'm really really happy that they liked it :D.

Classic Indonesian Cheesecake

I got this cake request last minute for a friend's birthday, just two days before the birthday. Although I was super busy at work and taking care of school stuff, I just couldn't say no (this is one of my weaknesses). Luckily, the cake she wanta was not the kind of cake that requires multiple layers of fillings, but instead, just a standard indonesian sponge cake with vanilla buttercream and cheese filling. This must be at least the fourth or fifth indonesian cheesecake I post in this blog. Although I only made it one for myself, it seems like this is the most popular cake among my friends.

It turned out that although I'm always busy at work, that week or especially those two days were unusually busy. I got to come home at least 10 o'clock at night and went to work as early as I can. I set my alarm at 6 o'clock in the morning so that I would have time to make the cake before I go to work.

I had to make two batches of buttercream because the amount that I made the first time wasn't enough to cover the whole cake. Also, I have to mention that working with buttercream in a cold weather is not easy. The buttercream is not spreadable at all. It was as if the were just out from the fridge. I warmed the bowl for the second batch and it made it better and easier to spread afterwards.

The original plan was that the cake will be covered with shredded cheese, but whenI was about to decorate it, I thought it was kind of plain, especially for a birthday. If it was just for personal consumption, then it would be okay. So I tried to make some decorations for the side using white and dark chocolate. I have never liked working with chocolate for a lot of reason, but I always admire something that's well-decorated with chocolate decorations. It just looks professional. I didn't say that mine look professional. In fact, it's a far cry from professional, but at least I tried despite the fact that I don't like to go through the hassle of chopping, melting, molding, crafting the chocolate. Not to mention that the tools, the bowls and all the equipments are pain to wash. Someday, I'm planning to take chocolate decorating class in a college here in Santa Clara when I have a spare time.

Back to the cake, I was also planning to decorate the top with buttercream swirls and red cherry on top, but I forgot and have used up all of the buttercream. So I just used some royal icing butterflies that I have left from previous cake. Although, the colors of the butterflies don't really go together with the cake as a whole, but at least they give some touch.

I'm not sure if you know this (or don't want to know), but it's always an honor for me if someone wanted me to make a cake for them, even if it's just for snack, special occasion, or anything at all. So far, as busy as I can get, I have never said no to them, I just can't. Oh well, maybe once, but it was because it's impossible to do. The only time I said no was when I was asked to make a birthday cake for the same day as she called. It was still work hours and I won't get home until 8 o'clock at night and the cake was for 10 o'clock. So, I have good reason.

Anyways, from what I heard, the cake was a hit, everybody loved it, especially the birthday girl. Pheeewww, it's like everything that I did, every sacrifice that I made (if any) to make this cake was paid off.