Pages

Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Haw Flakes Layered Cake


Sarawak Style Layered Cakes... Long time never do this. I'm stingy to pay for the electricity the grilling uses.

I did this for Chinese New Year, I didn't bake any cookies. This is easier, at least I don't need to sit there doing nothing but shaping and filling cookies. For this I just put it in the oven, wait for the buzzer and do another layer. In between baking the layers, I can online, do this blog and fold my laundry, I have more liberty in short. More time for other things.

This time I used this type of Hawflakes, which I find to be not that good. The previous type that I used is the small pink packaging type. That one gives better flavour. To me this one in the picture is a bit too sweet and less tang.


I also changed the recipe this time. Did not use strawberry jam. Didn't use crushed Marie biscuits, but just cake flour.



The recipe this time is,

450gm butter
140gm sugar
10 large eggs
510gm condensed milk
240gm cake flour
few drops of red food colouring

Method:
1. Preheat oven on grill setting. (My oven has either 230C or 250C setting, so I used 230C)
2. Use a 9x9 inch square pan. Line bottom of pan. Warm up pan for step 8 (I do this over the hot water I prepared for the water bath later).
3. Beat sugar and butter until light and fluffy.
4. Add in eggs, one by one. Beating well after each addition.
5. Mix in condensed milk
6. Sift flour and fold into batter.
7. Divide batter into 2 parts. Colour one part with red food colouring, leave the other plain.
8. Spread a ladle of batter(red) evenly onto hot pan.
9. Tilt pan left and right to level batter. Grill for 7 minutes or until golden.
10. Remove from oven and press cake layer to remove excess air. Spread another ladle of batter (plain) over the cooked layer, tilt pan to level batter and arrange haw flakes onto batter. Grill for 7 minutes or until golden.
11. Alternate step 9 and 10 until batter is finished.

****
Pan needs to be warmed up at step 2 for even distribution of batter. You can either warm it up in the preheating oven or over a pot of hot water.

Switch off oven fan when u do this cake, if not, the bottom will burn at the end of the baking. If the fan cannot be turned off, like my oven, even on grill mode, bake this cake in a shallow water bath to prevent the base from over browning…my baking pan is 9X9 and my water bath pan is 10X10. Too big a water bath pan will leave u a very moist cake, and a longer browning time. But even if it gets too moist later, u can dry it up in the microwave on low for 10 minutes and then wrap it up again for even distribution of moisture from within.

Well, in order to make sure all layers are equal and that no either type of batter are in excess, I separate the batter into portions, kept in bowls. So that I will have equal layers, and no leftovers.

To serve,
Cut off dry ends, divide cake into 4 long pieces and slice each piece less than 1cm thick. This cake is not meant to be chomped on, but eaten slowly over tea. Taste better as it ages. I kept this at room temperature for over a week, and it still looks good. If kept in the fridge, it can keep for months.

Oh yes,
Nicole and Aunt Yee Wah, how was the pandan kaya layer cake??

22 comments:

  1. That's a masterpiece! So nice to see Chinese haw slices again...

    ReplyDelete
  2. Wow, so lovley! But lots of work on this, right! I made a chocolate chips cookie one and still not yet posted it out!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Wow, you are good at making layer cakes. In Sarawak, layered cakes are typically baked in a small oven which you do not need to worry about the bottom to get burnt like you said. The cake also remains moist in the inside but brown on the surface so that you will see the distinct layers.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Angie,
    Haha, mine is just the average type. There are so many pretty versions out there that looks like batik.

    My Little Space,
    Not really lots of work la, once u get the hang of it, it's actually pretty easy. The difficult part I didn't do leh, it's the cutting and pasting designs part. Something that I never ventured into cos too lazy. Maybe I should try that one day.

    Home Kreation,
    Yeah, the ovenette does a better job that a big oven. Maybe I should get a small oven just to do this, :) but it takes up space in the kitchen, something that I can't afford now. My kitchen's way too small.

    ReplyDelete
  5. 山楂in layered cake! This is a first time for me. Is this a common recipe? You sounded like there are commercial versions out there but I have never come across them...

    ReplyDelete
  6. 这是我最喜欢的三楂味蛋糕。我想问的是除了用烤的方式,我可以还去蒸的吗?

    ReplyDelete
  7. So tedious and lovely baked layer cake.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Shirley,
    This is a common new cake among the Malays, especially the states on Borneo. The usual Haw flakes version is done using Marie biscuits, a recipe that I got online from some Malay blogs.
    There are people doing this for sale(usually homebakes, but there's one bakery in Selangor specializing in this), and if u google Sarawak Layer Cakes, u will see all the intricate designs that Sarawak styled cakes differ itself from Indonesian versions.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Cherry Potato,
    I don't think u can steam this because all the layers will not be seen.
    You need to bake the surface until brown so that the layers will look prominent.

    ReplyDelete
  10. DG,
    Thanks. I don't find it to be very tedious. :)Maybe I'm already used to it.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Pretty and evenly layered.

    How long you took to bake? 2 hours?

    : )

    ReplyDelete
  12. Irene,
    Yup, almost 2 hours. Which is why I dread the electricity bill :)

    ReplyDelete
  13. Hawflakes! One of my favourite childhood snack! Like I've mentioned, I love and hate lapis/layered cake. Don't think I'll ever attempt to make this cake, too time consuming and high electrical bill :P

    ReplyDelete
  14. Thanks for your sharing and will try it out soon.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Blessed Homembaker,
    I'm paying comercial rates right now, but when I'm moving into my new house later, and that time I'll be paying household rates, it won't be too bad. But still, can't make this too often.

    Cherry potato,
    Hope to see ur layer cake soon!!

    ReplyDelete
  16. 我在上个星期天试做了你这个食谱.大致上都很不错,就是底层的面糊放得少了点,所以烘得有点焦.

    谢谢你详细的食谱也很欢迎你多给我指教.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Cherry Potato,
    Thanks for trying this recipe out.
    Do u have it posted in ur blog?
    Can't wait to see it.

    ReplyDelete
  18. Wow! This cake is amazing! I love haw flakes- I used to bring them to school for snacks all the time!

    ReplyDelete
  19. Von,
    Yeah, most kids loved haw flakes.

    ReplyDelete
  20. my mom n i love haw flakes (yummiexpress.freetzi.com/haw_flakes_index.htm)! when she was a kid she kept on eating hawflakes... and when she went for a pee, she was shocked cuz her urine was kinda red. haha.. she ate too much haw flakes!!

    ReplyDelete
  21. Us the condensed milk sweet or not and how many grams per portion for the layer?

    ReplyDelete
  22. Wong Carmen,
    I don't quite understand your first part of the question.
    How many grams per layer depends on how many layers you want to do, just add up everything in grams and divide.

    ReplyDelete

Thanks for dropping by my blog.
All comments are greatly appreciated.

If you have tried any of the recipes and blogged about it, please provide a link so that others may have a look at it too :)

FOR NON BLOGGERS:
Please select profile and click "Name/URL" if u do not have any profiles on any of those listed, type in the name (leave the URL empty)

It's not nice to call you ANONYMOUS, so please leave a name.
From 15/11/13 onwards, I will NOT reply comments with no name.

Only comments on posts older than 24 hours will be moderated :)
You won't see them appearing immediately if it's not a fresh post.