Lapis legit, also known as spekkoek (; or spekuk), is a type of Kue layer cake. It was developed during Dutch Empire times in the Dutch East Indies. The firm-textured cake is an Indo people (Dutch-Indonesian) version of the multi-layered rice cakes that are usually seen in Southeast Asian desserts but using some Dutch ingredients like flour and butter. It contains a mix of Indonesian spices, such as cardamom, cinnamon, clove, mace and anise. The cake is made of flour and yolk and is rich in butter or margarine.
Lapis legit is popular in Indonesia and is served as a holiday treat, especially for natal, imlek, and lebaran.
Etymology
The
Dutch language term spekkoek translates literally as
pork belly (or
bacon) cake, a name derived from its appearance of dark and light layers.
Its Indonesian name, lapis legit, means sweet layer cake. In English, the cake is occasionally called "thousand layer cake",
although the cake is unrelated to the French
mille feuille (lit. thousand sheets), which is made with
puff pastry.
Origin
Lapis legit is thought to have been made by the wives of Dutch administrators in Batavia (modern-day Jakarta) during the colonial period and served during evening tea.
Preparation
As a lapis legit commonly has more than 18 layers, baking this cake requires patience and is a very labour-intensive process. The batter is mainly made of butter, flour and
sugar with an approximate ratio of 1:1:2. Each layer is made by pouring a small amount of batter into a baking tin, which is then put into an oven and
grilling from above until the layer has turned golden from the heat. The tin is then removed from the oven, and this process is repeated to build up the remaining layers.
with a
charcoal fire on top of the lid are said to produce the best results, while
Electric stove are superior to
Gas stove as cakes bake much faster in the former.
Where clove buds or cardamom seeds are difficult to find, bakers can use lapis legit powder as a replacement. Milling and mixing the spices right before baking produces a cake with an excellent aroma. The ground spices must be sieved into the flour at least three times, as the spice powder is very fine and tends to clump in the batter. In Indonesia, there are many varieties of lapis legit, including cakes containing , cashew, cheese, or , and even cakes flavoured with chocolate and pandan.
File:Spekkoek.jpg|Lapis legit on sale in an Indo people shop in Amsterdam, Netherlands
File:Indonesian kue lapis legit - 20130217.jpg|A festive Indonesian kue lapis legit in Singapore
File:Kueh lapis.jpg|Kue lapis legit with prunes
File:Lapis Legit Pontianak.jpg|Pontianak-style lapis legit
File:Rainbow Kue Lapis Legit.jpg|Rainbow Kue Lapis Legit
Market
Due to the effort required to bake the cake, it is a rather expensive delicacy, costing about
Euro20 per kilogram in 2010 in the Netherlands.
[In 2006, a cook at a restaurant in Enschede was fired after stealing a lapis legit: ] In Indonesia, a similar-sized
lapis legit can cost up to Rp 400,000 (about €12.50).
Generally, a typical lapis legit cake is sold in a square pan (approx 20x20x6) and costs at least Rp 350,000 for a homemade, and up to Rp 900,000 for a special-made (commercialised).
Similar cakes
In
Malang,
East Java,
kue lapis malang or
spiku malang refers to a two-layered cake prepared using a different technique. Two batter mixes are prepared, one with naturally produced yellow colour, the other mixed with cocoa powder to produce a dark brown colour. The batter mixes are poured into two different baking tins and baked in the oven. To assemble of the cake are layered on top of each other with a thin layer of fruit jam in between. Similarly in
Surabaya,
kue lapis surabaya or
spiku surabaya refers to a three-layered cake, prepared using a similar technique to spiku malang. The
kue lapis surabaya is commonly used to make a
birthday cake and
wedding cake in Indonesia.
Lapis legit is similar to traditional Indonesian kue lapis, the difference being that lapis legit is a puffy layered cake, made of flour and is Baking, while kue lapis is a moist layered pudding, made of rice flour and sago, and is Steaming. Confusingly, in Malaysia and Singapore, lapis legit may also be called kueh lapis.
Lapis legit has also spread to Malaysia. A form developed in Sarawak is called the Sarawak layer cake or kek lapis Sarawak which has greater colour and flavour variations.
See also
