Bingka Sarang (HoneyComb Cake)

Rhiana, Imogen & Natalie said, 'It's wierd. We can't even taste the honey!'
That was the response from the three little girls (some of my usual guinea pigs) when I gave them the Honeycomb Cake.
Ehmm, it just looks like honeycomb (the look) not the taste, children. So conclusion: this is an oldies cake and if you under 25 you prob cant appreciate it.

It is interesting to know that some people actually take such effort to come out with cakes like this, so much precision needed for a few bites. Malaysians must be real real food lovers. O maybe, like Greg would tell you, it was a mistake, they forget the lid so accidentally created the Honeycomb effect. Oh well whichever way, it is still a very nice cake/snacks, ingredients not difficult find and mixed, just the method of baking requires certain precision. This cake exist in Malaysia and Indonesia (they called it Bika Ambon) and it is siding slightly more towards Nyonya Kuih rather than Cakes. Recipes varied slightly. Both have leavening it in to create the comb effects.



Nee's freshly baked Bingka Sarang

A:

300gm of coconut milk (use about 1/2kg of santan + 3/4 of water, squeeze juice out)

220 - 250 gm of castor sugar

4-5 no of pandan leaves, washed and wiped clean

1) Put the above in small pot and over medium fire and stir consistently to melt sugar. Right before boiling (seeing little bubbles on side, off the fire). Let it cool, will take approximately 1 hour or so.

B:

1 tbsp of yeast (instant ones)

1/2 tbsp of plain flour

4 tbsp of water

2) Mix the B ingredient, stir til even. Side aside for 10-15 min.

C:

1/2 teasp of vanilla essence

10 egg yolks

160 gm of good quality sifted tapioca flour (Use of tapioca flour are common in Nyonya Kuih). If quality no good, your cake may turn out too soft and not chewy enough.

3) Hand whisk egg yolks til even, add essence, cont stirring

4) Add B mixture, cont stirring

5)Add flour, stir til even, and finally add A mixture. Use a spatula to press out the lumps. Set aside for 2 hours to allow yeast to take reactions.

The baking (after trying out 4 times):

1)Prepare an approx 10 cm high pot, 24 to 28 cm diameter. Preferrably a thicker pot as you will be placing in on fire. Pot must not be too high as circulation will not be even.

2)Grease the bottom of a 8-9 inch cake tin. Note only the bottom, not the side and do not let grease touch the side as it will cause cake to collapse into the middle. No baking paper as well as the heat from bottom will push the paper to the top or worse into the middle of cake.

3) Place a 1 1/2 - 2 inch stand in the pot and put your cake tin on it. If stand is too low, bottom of cake will be too close to fire and turn black. Put layers of aluminium foil around the cake tin to prevent heat from escaping from the side of pot.

4) After 2 hours, pour your mixture through a sift into your cake tin. Turn on the fire. This part you need to explore as different stove has different fire strength. Use medium or slightly lower if your stove is very strong. Let it bake for 35 to 45 min uncovered. The cake will cook from the side towards the centre. Little airholes can be seen on top of cake. Once only about 3 inch diameter of centre left uncook, this stage is completed.

5) Turn the fire lower on your cake while you prepare your top cover pot (about 5 cm or lower in height) over high fire. Will take at least 10 min.

6) Take the top cover pot and flip it onto the cake pot (they should fit well). Let it cook over low fire for another 10 min. This will properly brown the surface. If you want it browner, chuck into your oven with top fire or grill mode and cook for another min or so just to brown the surface.

7) Let cake cooled before taking it out the cake tin. You may experience some difficulties as no baking paper can be used. Cut only after the cake is cooled. You should get bottom to top combs.

Suggestion: No tested yet! Use bottom oven fire, then top fire together with bottom. Same concept of using heat bottom to lift the cake from bottom thus creating little airholes as there is leavening in the cake. Then heat on top to brown the cake. My guess is oven will prob take longer. Will try this soon but a little sick of honeycomb cake for now, after 4 x baking (being an engineering academic makes me dangerously experimental and tenacious). So if you burn your pots or your stove or worse your kitchen, the blogger holds no responsibilities for the suggestion or method given. Good Luck!

Google Earth Laksa

First & foremost, it's very difficult to find detailed street maps of Kuching. Most map are very touristy and centers around the waterfront Golden Triangle area.

This is the typical one which you can easily find on any tourist related site. If you click on it, you can see a larger version on pdf. Take this one as your reference point.

Ok boys and girls! You asked for it - Greg & Nee presents Kuching Laksa on Google Earth!

We'll start from the waterfront perimeters since most hotels are concentrated around that area. Presenting Chong Choon Laksa on Google Earth:

We have not done a review on Chong Choon yet. Just a little bit of warning, you may need to wait for a while for seats.

After you have that, you can head on down to the next one near Grand Continental Hotel. The walking will help you digest so that when you reach there, you'll be ready for more.

We have not tried this one personally. So we don't know the name of the shop. We just know it's on the top 3 list. (Note: Ting's Noodles & Permata Top Spot Seafood is on this map!)

And finally our all time favourite! Fat Cat Laksa Baby! This one's very very off from the city centre!

I saw a new bus stand just in front of Choice Daily. I have no idea which buses go through there or whether the service have started. But if you're taking a cab, any taxi driver will know where Kuching Specialist Hospital & Choice Daily (Tabuan Stutong branch) are! In the words of my bro-in-law, if they donno, they can go eat seeeet! (Note that Mother's Recipe is also in the photo :)

Next: Google Earth Chow Chai Bee Hoon!

Quest to Bake A Bingka Sarang (Honeycomb Cake)

I have been trying to search for a good recipe for Bingka Sarang, also known as Honeycomb Cake. But it is not really that much about the recipe, it is the baking method. For those of you who know this cake, i m sure you understand the frustration of not getting it right. Not chewy, no comb, not enough comb, cake collapsing bla bla bla the list goes on. A good Bingka Sarang is:

Soft yet chewy. Chewy is very very important.

The comb is really obvious coming from bottom of cake to top.

The superb ones the comb is really neat like almost same diameter and spacings.

And the flavour is hmm...how should i put it...let just say very flavourful.

Similar cakes are Hong Kong Cake and Dunlop cake (both are darker brown) and some people called this cake Sarang Semut (Ants' Nest).


Thanks to Mrs Yeo, I finally find the right baking method. It all lies in a pot. The best pot to use is a really old fashioned multi purpose pot (Wan Nern Wor). I walked the two oldest streets in Kuching trying to find this 'magic' pot. Every hardware stores tell me the same thing " where got pot like tat anymore", " no one buys them anymore" , " no one make them anymore" ARGGGGGG...i get so mad at i dont know what. Happen when i cannot find the things that I want when it comes to cooking and baking. I get very UPSET. Almost started ranting at Greg like it is his fault. He quickly drove away from the shops in case i started rolling on the floor.

Well I persevered. I started calling Mum and Mum in law and all ladies over 60. Mum actually gave hers away...WHAAAAHHHH.NOOOOOO....Mum in law said she would try Ah MA, Greg's grandma who is 90+++ and has the oldest collection of antique cooking wares in town (at least to me they are treasures). The answer is Nope, she used a old brass mold (acuan) to do cakes like this, which involves charcoal. Ehmm, no thank you. Oppss, sorry, I have been ranting and I forgot about what is so special about the d*@# pot.

To bake this cake, you must use a short, thick metal pot. You must place the cake tin in the pot and the pot over real fire on the stove. You cook this cake open so that the heat on bottom can push the bubble upwards and thus creating all the combs you want. The last stage of the baking requires you to heat up the cover and multi purpose pot has a solid flat cover that can be put over fire, made of exactly same material as the pot itself. See..where got our pots these days got covers that can be put over fire. And you placed the heated up cover to cover the cake and this is to cook and nicely brown the surface.

I finally calmed down and let my engineering brain ticked. There's got to be another way other than the super elusive pot. So I took out my soup pot and my frying pan of the same diameter and the same material. And use the frying pan as top cover. For those of you who own AMC pots, you can use the 24cm diameter ones with a shorter one as cover. I was really worried that I would burn my kitchen with my experiment so i could hardly dare to take my eyes off the pots. But heay it works, my Bingka Sarang turns out chewy and with the honeycomb. Wooohoo... I feel so smugly smart!