Recipes: Kue Lapis Legit

After I quit my job in June this year, I had a few months to kill before moving to Jakarta. One of the things I did during this time is to travel back to Kluang for some Asian cooking lessons from Mom. My Mom, she loves Kueh Lapis and annually for Chinese New Year, we will get one for her from Lavender Bakery in Pavilion.

Having saw how easy it was to make on Poh's Kitchen on Asian Food Channel and hunted down the recipe here, I convinced Mom to make this together with me. This original recipe actually works, but Mom and I have made some modifications to it, mainly the spice ingredients and tone down the sweetness. Try it out to impress family members or guests with your labour of love. :)

Kue Lapis Legit

6 egg whites
3 tsp vanilla essence
220 gm icing sugar
15 egg yolks
400 gm unsalted butter at room temperature, softened and beaten
120 gm plain flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp all-spice powder
2 tbsp brandy

- Whisk egg whites and vanilla to soft peak. Gradually add icing sugar till stiff peak form
- Add egg yolks one at a time, beating well between each yolk
- Add butter and beat till well incorporated.
- Sift the flour, baking powder & spice powder together
- Fold in the flour mixture in three batches. Then stir in brandy
- Grease a 20-22 cm square cake tin with a lift-up base and line outside of tine with foil so batter does not leak through any gaps
- Turn oven to grill function
- Warm cake tin in oven for about 1 minute as this this helps to spread the 1st layer evenly compared to a cold tin
- Put about a third of a cup of cake mixture onto base of cake tin and spread evenly
- Put the tin under the grill for about five minutes or the top turns golden brown (Roughly takes about 3-5 minutes)
- Remove from oven and scoop the same amount of batter for 2nd layer. (No need to wait for the cake to cool between layers)
- Repeat the same process. Keep going until you have finish all the batter.

Tips: After you have about 4-5 layers, it helps to use a weight of some sort, in this case I used a slightly smaller loaf tin and gently pressed down to compact the layers. This will ensure tight layers once you cut the finished cake. 

The batter sorta melts when comes into contact with heat, so this helps to spread it out evenly

Cake browning under the grill

How one layer looks like once browned

Voila! And it's done! :)