Salam once again, dear friends!
Welcome to another edition of Norbaini Cakes blogspot!
Today, the Saturday before Valentine's Day of 2011, Chef Baini hosted 3 guests for her Kek Lapis homeclass. Just after the Chinese New Year break, things are still moving in the pace of the holiday season as another public holiday looms just around the corner, that is the Maulidur Rasul, or the Prophet Muhammad's birthday. it is entirely possible that Malaysia ranks as one of the top countries in the world when it comes to public holidays.
Today's guests dropped in to learn the
Kek Lapis, or layered cake, that is a traditional
Malay delicacy which served on religious festivals, like the
Eid Fitr. Now the
Kek Lapis is simple to make, its just that the many repetitions that make it a test of patience, which is a great skill by itself. So let us meet today's students:
This is
Kak Ros, who is mixing the batter according to correct proportions.....
Then we have
Nana...she is pouring in the prescribed amount of water in the flour....
Last but not least is Nora. Here she is mixing the spices that give the cake its unique flavour..
Be warned! The recipe for each cake requires a copious number of egg yolks, anywhere from 20 to as high as 40! The egg yolk give the cake its richness, too little and the cake is dry, too many and the cake yields fat or oil upon the slightest touch. In other words, though it may be delicious to the palette, you probably shouldn't eat too much of this cake! Just as well that it is served on special occasions only! Come to think of it, that is probably the reason why it is served sparingly in the first place!
Which is why cakes like these are more fun to make when you are in the company of friends. It takes away the boredom can can make a real damper on things. This is one of the occasions when three is definitely not a crowd! Unlike Valentines Day!
Now, once the layers are applied, the pan has to go in the oven for about two minutes. Thereafter, the pan is removed and another layer of batter is applied and back into the oven it goes for another round of baking....which means....
That you have approximately 2 minutes to wait. That's two minutes that you can spend on productive activities...now, what could be more productive than good and juicy gossip! Which is exactly why this cake should be made in the company of friends! By the way, you know as well as Chef Baini that gossiping is strictly a girl's vocation; so make sure that there are no men around, especially nosy husbands! Otherwise what you had discussed might just find its way to the Internet to a worldwide audience!
Now in addition to the
Kek Lapis, today's class also included the
Siber Roll ane the
Ketupat Roll. These are also layered cakes in multi-coloured combinations that are in triangular and squared shapes respectively. Let us have a look see on how the three fared today.....
Here is Kak Ros once more...she is laying the green batter into the pan....Think she just realised that Chef Baini has been watching her all this while!
Nana is cutting the layers into strips...before assembling them into rolls....
And here is Nora, who is preparing a smattering of chocolate based batter.....you'll see why later....
And at the end of the day, this is what was baked... You can see how many thin layers are there in the cake...bear in mind that each layer takes approximately 2 minutes to bake...So if you'd cared to count, you can estimate the amount of time it took to bake a cake... And the amount of time that spent on the attendant gossiping!
Chef Baini did asked
The Babams to count them, but he found it difficult to do so as he suffers from astigmatism...he mumbled something about getting a bar code reader if Chef
Baini insisted on counting all the layers...
Here are the
Ketupat and
Siber Rolls...you can see why there are popular due to their multi-coloured attractiveness...
Now you see why
Nora made the chocolate batter? Its for the background of the green and yellow strips, making them easier to see....
And finally we have the
Siber Rolls to close out this blog entry. Many people find this confection very, very likable. In fact
Chef Baini gets plenty of orders for them during the festive season.
So there you have it, dear friends, today's goings-on at Norbaini Cakes. Please note that each class comes with breakfast, morning tea, lunch and evening coffee. In addition, for some classes where special tools are required, students get to keep these tools as part and parcel of the package. Which is a great deal, we think. Nothing but the best for Chef Baini's friends!
Well, that's it for today's post, dear friends! Hope you've enjoyed reading today's blog. See you again real soon, okay? Until next time, take care!
Love always,
Chef Baini
