If Cikyah Can Cook, So Can You

My passion for baking started at a very early age. Even though my task was limited to creaming the margarine and sugar, I truly enjoyed my share. It was the time when Mak used her multi-purpose pot for all her baking activities because we couldn’t afford an electric oven. Our Eid-ul Fitri cookies and cakes were baked in this trusted pot and until this very day, although an electric oven is available in her kitchen now, the pot remains Mak’s favourite.

Talking about cakes, I’ve to admit that I’m a cake person. However, I prefer the baking part and usually, I’d leave the eating part to others, for example, my poor colleagues in school who have always been willing to sample the result of my experiments. Thank you so much, guys!  I prefer to bake cakes because the process is straight forward,  takes lesser time and there are no repetitions involved. Although I enjoy watching ‘How It’s Made’ on the telly, repetitions are just not my cup of tea. This explains why I seldom make cookies. However, my kids, especially Atush, prefers cookies to cakes and this entry has certainly reminded me that I’ve promised to cake her favourite choc chip cookies! I will try to allocate some time to keep my promise.

A cake enthusiast I might be but  I only have a few favourites. Throughout the years, I have been  loyal to Mak’s Steamed Fruit Cake, Marbled Butter Cake, Banana Cake and ‘Kek Sarang Lebah’ (Mak calls it Kek Span). I know that the latest craze is Red Velvet Cake and Hummingbird Cake but when it comes to personal choice, I’m quite difficult to be converted. Over sentimental and always traditional, according to Mr KHz.

However, photos of cakes have always been part of my life’s temptation. Some time last week, I came across a cake photo in Secubit Garam and I decided to give it a try. I was very surprised with the outcome. It’s difficult to explain so I guess, you just have to try to bake the cake. How the layers turned out wavy is something that I cannot explain. I’m pretty sure that there’s some some chemical reaction involved. Have a try and be amazed like me!

KEK ALUNAN KASIH

Ingredients :

• 5 eggs
• 250g butter (at room temperature)
• 2 and 1/2 cups of flour
• 1 and 1/2 cups of caster sugar
• 1 teaspoonful of baking powder
• 1 cup of evaporated milk ( I used fresh milk)
• 1 teaspoonful of vanilla
• cocoa powder
• food colouring ( I used Star Brand’s  Apple Green and Cochineal food colouring)

Method :

1. Preheat oven at 150C.
2. Sieve flour and baking powder and keep aside.
3. Beat butter and sugar till pale.
4. Put in eggs gradually and keep on mixing.
5. Put in vanilla essence and milk.
6. Fold in flour a little at a time and mix well.
7. Dive into 3 portions. Mix 1 portion with 1 tsp of green food colouring and the other portion with red food colouring. Leave the third portion as it is.
8. Grease and line a 9×9 inch baking tin.
9. Pour in the red portion and using a spatula, spread the batter. Be careful to make sure the cocoa powder is not mixed up with your batter.
10. Next, using a fine sieve, sift cocoa powder on top of the red batter. The cocoa powder layer should be thin and covers the whole area. Repeat the same procedure with the green portion.
11. Next, spread the third portion on top of the cocoa powder.
12. Bake for 45 minutes.
13. Get ready to be amazed!