Spekkoek - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Spekkoek or more popularly called lapis legit in Indonesia is a Dutch

Netherlands

The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...

-Indonesian layered cake

Cake

Cake is a form of bread or bread-like food. In its modern forms, it is typically a sweet and enriched baked dessert. In its oldest forms, cakes were normally fried breads or cheesecakes, and normally had a disk shape...

. It was developed during colonial

Dutch Empire

The Dutch Empire consisted of the overseas territories controlled by the Dutch Republic and later, the modern Netherlands from the 17th to the 20th century. The Dutch followed Portugal and Spain in establishing an overseas colonial empire, but based on military conquest of already-existing...

times in the Dutch East Indies

Dutch East Indies

The Dutch East Indies was a Dutch colony that became modern Indonesia following World War II. It was formed from the nationalised colonies of the Dutch East India Company, which came under the administration of the Netherlands government in 1800....

and may have been based on Dutch cake recipes using local ingredients.
The cake may be connected to a type of Dutch biscuit called speculaas

Speculaas

Speculoos is a type of shortcrust biscuit, traditionally baked for consumption on St Nicholas' Eve in the Netherlands , Belgium . and Northern France. In recent decades it has become available all year round...

and the mixture of spice

Spice

A spice is a dried seed, fruit, root, bark, or vegetative substance used in nutritionally insignificant quantities as a food additive for flavor, color, or as a preservative that kills harmful bacteria or prevents their growth. It may be used to flavour a dish or to hide other flavours...

s is similar to kek lapis, with the pepper

Black pepper

Black pepper is a flowering vine in the family Piperaceae, cultivated for its fruit, which is usually dried and used as a spice and seasoning. The fruit, known as a peppercorn when dried, is approximately in diameter, dark red when fully mature, and, like all drupes, contains a single seed...

being replaced with mace and anise

Anise

Anise , Pimpinella anisum, also called aniseed, is a flowering plant in the family Apiaceae native to the eastern Mediterranean region and Southwest Asia. Its flavor resembles that of liquorice, fennel, and tarragon.- Biology :...

. In Indonesia, the cake is very popularly known as lapis legit, which literally means (very) sweet layer-cake.

The name of the cake is derived from the typical bi-coloured layered structure which is reminiscent of bacon

Bacon

Bacon is a cured meat prepared from a pig. It is first cured using large quantities of salt, either in a brine or in a dry packing; the result is fresh bacon . Fresh bacon may then be further dried for weeks or months in cold air, boiled, or smoked. Fresh and dried bacon must be cooked before eating...

(lit. bacon-cake). This layered structured is achieved by using two colours of batter

Batter (cooking)

Batter is a semi-liquid mixture of one or more flours combined with liquids such as water, milk or eggs used to prepare various foods. Often a leavening agent such as baking powder is included to aerate and fluff up the batter as it cooks, or the mixture may be naturally fermented for this purpose...

, dark and light, which are poured on top of the cured layer consecutively. This makes the baking of spekkoek a very labour-intensive process. The product is therefore a rather expensive delicacy: about EUR

Euro

The euro is the official currency of the eurozone: 17 of the 27 member states of the European Union. It is also the currency used by the Institutions of the European Union. The eurozone consists of Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg,...

20 per kg in 2010. In Indonesia, a 20x20cm-sized spekkoek (or lapis legit) costs IDR

Indonesian rupiah

The rupiah is the official currency of Indonesia. Issued and controlled by the Bank of Indonesia, the ISO 4217 currency code for the Indonesian rupiah is IDR. Informally, Indonesians also use the word "perak" in referring to rupiah...

150,000 (approx. EUR 12.5).

In Indonesia, spekkoek is enjoyed during Chinese New Year

Chinese New Year

Chinese New Year – often called Chinese Lunar New Year although it actually is lunisolar – is the most important of the traditional Chinese holidays. It is an all East and South-East-Asia celebration...

, Eid ul-Fitr

Eid ul-Fitr

Eid ul-Fitr, Eid al-Fitr, Id-ul-Fitr, or Id al-Fitr , often abbreviated to Eid, is a Muslim holiday that marks the end of Ramadan, the Islamic holy month of fasting . Eid is an Arabic word meaning "festivity," while Fiṭr means "breaking the fast"...

and Christmas

Christmas

Christmas or Christmas Day is an annual holiday generally celebrated on December 25 by billions of people around the world. It is a Christian feast that commemorates the birth of Jesus Christ, liturgically closing the Advent season and initiating the season of Christmastide, which lasts twelve days...

celebrations. It is also served or given as gifts in many local festivities, sometimes in a birthday party and wedding. In the Netherlands, the sliced cake is traditionally served as dessert

Dessert

In cultures around the world, dessert is a course that typically comes at the end of a meal, usually consisting of sweet food. The word comes from the French language as dessert and this from Old French desservir, "to clear the table" and "to serve." Common Western desserts include cakes, biscuits,...

in rijsttafel. The cake has a firm texture, similar to the one of a Baumkuchen

Baumkuchen

Baumkuchen is a kind of layered cake. It is a traditional dessert in many countries throughout Europe and is also a popular snack and dessert in Japan...

in a baking plate but without a chocolate

Chocolate

Chocolate is a raw or processed food produced from the seed of the tropical Theobroma cacao tree. Cacao has been cultivated for at least three millennia in Mexico, Central and South America. Its earliest documented use is around 1100 BC...

or sugar shell. Baking the cake requires much patience. Each thin layer is made by pouring a small amount of the batter from a small cup, baked one layer after another in the oven until golden with heat from the top. Cakes baked in electric ovens have a better taste as the cake can bake a lot faster gas is not recommended, but Dutch ovens with charcoal

Charcoal

Charcoal is the dark grey residue consisting of carbon, and any remaining ash, obtained by removing water and other volatile constituents from animal and vegetation substances. Charcoal is usually produced by slow pyrolysis, the heating of wood or other substances in the absence of oxygen...

fire on top of the lid produces the best results. In some cases where clove

Clove

Cloves are the aromatic dried flower buds of a tree in the family Myrtaceae. Cloves are native to the Maluku islands in Indonesia and used as a spice in cuisines all over the world...

buds or cardamon seeds are difficult to find, bakers use spekkoek powder as a replacement. Milling

Mill (grinding)

A grinding mill is a unit operation designed to break a solid material into smaller pieces. There are many different types of grinding mills and many types of materials processed in them. Historically mills were powered by hand , working animal , wind or water...

and mixing the spice before baking produces a cake with an excellent aroma.
Actually the spice must be seived into the flour at least 3 times as the spice is very fine and balls of spice will appear in the batter

In Indonesia, spekkoek varieties are even greater, including the addition of cheese

Cheese

Cheese is a generic term for a diverse group of milk-based food products. Cheese is produced throughout the world in wide-ranging flavors, textures, and forms....

, almond

Almond

The almond , is a species of tree native to the Middle East and South Asia. Almond is also the name of the edible and widely cultivated seed of this tree...

s, prune

Prune

A prune is any of various plum cultivars, mostly Prunus domestica or European Plum, sold as fresh or dried fruit. The dried fruit is also referred to as a dried plum...

s, raisin

Raisin

Raisins are dried grapes. They are produced in many regions of the world. Raisins may be eaten raw or used in cooking, baking and brewing...

s, cashew

Cashew

The cashew is a tree in the family Anacardiaceae. Its English name derives from the Portuguese name for the fruit of the cashew tree, caju, which in turn derives from the indigenous Tupi name, acajú. It is now widely grown in tropical climates for its cashew nuts and cashew apples.-Etymology:The...

s and even in different flavours (such as chocolate and pandan

Pandanus amaryllifolius

Pandanus amaryllifolius is a tropical plant in the screwpine genus which is known commonly as pandan and is used widely in Southeast Asian cooking as a flavoring. The plant is rare in the wild but is widely cultivated. It is an upright green plant with fan-shaped sprays of long, narrow, bladelike...

See also