Spekkoek

Spekkoek

Spekkoek, plain and with pandan
Alternative names	Kue lapis legit, spekuk, spiku
Type	Cake
Place of origin	Indonesia
Main ingredients	Egg yolks, butter, sugar, cinnamon, clove, mace and anise

Spekkoek (kue lapis legit or spekuk in Indonesian) is a type of Indonesian layer cake. It was developed during colonial times in the Dutch East Indies. The firm-textured cake is an Indo (Dutch-Indonesian) version of the European multi-layered spit cake. However it is not baked on a rotating spit, and contains a mix of Indonesian spices, such as cardamom, cinnamon, clove, mace and anise. The cake is made of flour, yolk, rich in butter or margarine.

Spekkoek is popular in Indonesia and served as holiday treat, especially for natal, imlek and lebaran. It is also served or given as gifts during many local festivities such as at birthday parties and weddings. In the Netherlands, the sliced cake is traditionally served for dessert in rijsttafel.

The Dutch 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. The English translation is often given as thousand layer cake, or thousand layer spice cake.

As a spekkoek commonly has more than 18 layers, baking it 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 grilled from above until the layer has turned golden from the heat. The tin is then removed from the oven and the process repeated to build up the remaining layers. Dutch ovens with a charcoal fire on top of the lid are said to produce the best results, while electric ovens are superior to gas ovens as cakes bake much faster in the former.