Assorted Cakes
Lunch @ "Sapphira Cake House".
This place is famous for its wide array of local colourful cakes! Such cakes are also found in neighbouring Malaysia and Indonesia.
I have nothing against colours and colours are very much a characteristic of these local delicacies as they are meant to be celebratory in nature.
I had opted to try the layered cakes, "Kek Lapis" and "Kek Batik".
Kek Lapis or Kek Lapis Sarawak (The Sarawak Layer Cake) has a richer, more velvety and more luscious bite as they should be made with lots of butter. Its origin is rooted in Indonesia's Kueh Lapis Legit or Kueh Lapis Betawi, having found its way to Sarawak in the 1970s and 1980s. The cake boasted a unique blend of spices like cinnamon, cardamom, clove, and star anise, creating a distinctive flavour profile. After arriving in Sarawak, new ingredients, flavours, and colours are added into the layered cake, leading to the emergence of the modern Sarawak layer cake.
Kek Batik has a harder but chewier texture. It is a type of Malaysian no-bake fridge cake dessert inspired by the tiffin, purportedly during the British Malaya period and adapted with Malaysian ingredients. This cake is made by mixing broken Marie biscuits combined with a chocolate sauce or runny custard made with egg, butter/margarine, condensed milk, Milo and chocolate powders. It is very similar to the Hedgehog Slice.
Starting from the left in the foreground is the Kek Batik Pandan. Seemingly this green pandan layer is a Bruneian twist. Quiet frankly, with so much chocolate in play, I really could not taste any pandan flavours but I do enjoy the chewy texture as it is softer than the Hedgehog Slice.
Next on the right is the yellow-orange-green Kek Lapis Manam Manis - the layered cake with hawthorn slices inserted. I really enjoyed this sweet-tangy version since I do enjoy these childhood-favourite of hawthorn slices with its slight plumy taste.
The middle photograph and placed right on top is the Kek Batik Classic with just chocolate being the leading flavour. Below it, in the middle is the red-brown-white Kek Lapis Cadbury for chocoholics.
The secondmost photograph to the right and placed right on top is another chocolatey confection, the green-white-brown Kek Lapis Nutella, in an ode to the famous bread spread.
Last but not least, the rightmost photograph and placed right on top is the red-white-green Kek Lapis Romania, and despite the name, has nothing associated with Romania used. Instead, the malty Horlicks found its way between the layers. I quite fancy this taste!
Assorted Cakes
Lunch @ "Sapphira Cake House".
This place is famous for its wide array of local colourful cakes! Such cakes are also found in neighbouring Malaysia and Indonesia.
I have nothing against colours and colours are very much a characteristic of these local delicacies as they are meant to be celebratory in nature.
I had opted to try the layered cakes, "Kek Lapis" and "Kek Batik".
Kek Lapis or Kek Lapis Sarawak (The Sarawak Layer Cake) has a richer, more velvety and more luscious bite as they should be made with lots of butter. Its origin is rooted in Indonesia's Kueh Lapis Legit or Kueh Lapis Betawi, having found its way to Sarawak in the 1970s and 1980s. The cake boasted a unique blend of spices like cinnamon, cardamom, clove, and star anise, creating a distinctive flavour profile. After arriving in Sarawak, new ingredients, flavours, and colours are added into the layered cake, leading to the emergence of the modern Sarawak layer cake.
Kek Batik has a harder but chewier texture. It is a type of Malaysian no-bake fridge cake dessert inspired by the tiffin, purportedly during the British Malaya period and adapted with Malaysian ingredients. This cake is made by mixing broken Marie biscuits combined with a chocolate sauce or runny custard made with egg, butter/margarine, condensed milk, Milo and chocolate powders. It is very similar to the Hedgehog Slice.
Starting from the left in the foreground is the Kek Batik Pandan. Seemingly this green pandan layer is a Bruneian twist. Quiet frankly, with so much chocolate in play, I really could not taste any pandan flavours but I do enjoy the chewy texture as it is softer than the Hedgehog Slice.
Next on the right is the yellow-orange-green Kek Lapis Manam Manis - the layered cake with hawthorn slices inserted. I really enjoyed this sweet-tangy version since I do enjoy these childhood-favourite of hawthorn slices with its slight plumy taste.
The middle photograph and placed right on top is the Kek Batik Classic with just chocolate being the leading flavour. Below it, in the middle is the red-brown-white Kek Lapis Cadbury for chocoholics.
The secondmost photograph to the right and placed right on top is another chocolatey confection, the green-white-brown Kek Lapis Nutella, in an ode to the famous bread spread.
Last but not least, the rightmost photograph and placed right on top is the red-white-green Kek Lapis Romania, and despite the name, has nothing associated with Romania used. Instead, the malty Horlicks found its way between the layers. I quite fancy this taste!