In my previous post, “Rice Cooker Pandan Sponge Cake – Third Time Lucky?”, I mentioned that the first successful cake I have ever made from scratch on my own was the Malaysian Honeycomb Cake. If you have read an earlier write-up I posted way back in July 2010, Baking is Not Really My Cup of Tea or is It?, it was then that I hinted my craving for a ‘spongy, bitter-sweet, nutty and caramelised, dark brown cake resembling bee-or-ant nesting holes’, which I recalled – as a child – calling the cake “Beehive cake”.
Being a noob cook, I carried on dauntlessly searching on the net for “Beehive Cake”, but each search brought me to a totally different kind of cake!
Uh-uh! I definitely did not search for Marge Simpson’s hairdo look-alike. LOL! No offence to all those who carry Marge Simpson’s hairdo *chuckle*
Then I tried “Honeycomb Cake” because of the close semblance of the cake to a honeycomb-like pattern, like so …
And there, on the top search list was Malaysian Honeycomb Cake Recipe from the House of Annie. There are other bloggers who have made this cake and they have always seemed to refer to Nate & Annie’s foolproof recipe. Nate mentioned that he referred to Jo’s Deli Bakery’s website; however I could not trace back that particular link anymore. I wonder…?
House of Annie made a fantastic step-by-step instruction of the recipe on YouTube for dummies, like me. LOL!
I actually followed the YouTube Nate posted to a tee without actually reading the recipe on beforehand. But, it was C*R*Y*S*T*A*L clear from inception to completion! Thanks, Nate and Annie 🙂
And by the way, I wonder why you guys are so ‘silent’ these days? Do come back and keep posting…
Re-visited
The Malaysian Honeycomb Cake aka Kek Sarang Semut (Anthill or Ant Nest) is similar (re texture) to the Vietnamese Honeycomb Cake (Bánh Bò Nướng) and the Indonesian Kuih Bingka Ambon, however, the glaring difference is that the Malaysian Honeycomb Cake recipe has no coconut milk and is dark brown in colour, due to the process of the caramelizing or browning of the sugar.
I must confess that this is about the only cake I have re-visited gazillions of times. My sons love this cake and the older one has become quite addicted to it, hence dubbing the cake, “space cake”. LOL!
I made this cake again recently. I guess my childhood craving got the better of me 😉
I felt a sense of nostalgia hanging over me at each mention of the “beehive cake”… erm…I meant the Honeycomb Cake. The BIG difference, though, was that I home-baked the cake from scratch! Not store-bought that was labelled with a shelf life.
Introducing my Malaysian Honeycomb Cake made in my kitchen in Belgium. It was fresher than FRESH! It was simply divine 😉
Instead of a round cake pan, I used the Gugelhupf or Bundt pan and I think I will stick to baking this cake in that pan. Why? Because, it made the cake looked more like a ‘Beehive Cake’, hence, reconciling how I used to call the cake as a child versus the appearance. LOL!
Un-melting sweet moments …
Usually when a recipe calls for sugar, I opt to use raw cane sugar as much as possible. Well, sugar is sugar. No matter what, it gets into our system. Unfortunately, our liver cannot tell whether the sugar we used is raw, white or organic.
Since raw cane sugar are less processed compared to most other sweeteners, I would like to believe that it’s just a tad healthier 😉
But what happened when I chose to use raw cane sugar in my home-baked honeycomb cake?
Wrong choice!
The raw cane sugar just did not caramelize!
The sugar crystals remained whole even when the pan was smoking away! I did add some cassonade light brown sugar to see the effect. Both sugars did not melt at all. In fact they hardened! Well I did not want to wait until next May or a century for the caramel sauce to develop, hence, exit the raw cane sugar.
Definitely, not the right choice of sugar to make the caramel sauce.
This recipe is adapted from House of Annie, with a few changes that suit me best.
Ingredients –
- 210 g sugar (Table sugar or granulated white sugar is best to optimize the caramel effect – in a jiffy!!)
- 240 g water
- 80 g butter (I used Carlsbourg Ardense roomboter with sea salt – which was perfect)
- 6 eggs
- 160 g condensed milk
- 180 g APF (or SRF – sifted)
- 2½ tsp baking soda
Method –
- In a saucepan over low heat, caramelize the sugar until it turns a dark golden brown.
- Slowly and carefully pour the water into the caramel. Be careful. It’s very hot! Stir until the caramel is dissolved in the water and it becomes thin syrup. Remove from heat.
- Add the butter and set the pan aside to cool.
- Preheat oven to 180C
- Mix together the egg and condensed milk in a bowl.
- Sift the flour and baking soda together into the egg and milk. Mix well.
- Pour the caramel butter sauce into the batter and mix well.
- Pour the batter into a greased, 9-inch round cake pan. Let it sit for 5 minutes for the bubbles to begin developing. (I used a Gugelhupf / Bundt pan, greased)
- Bake for 55 to 60 mins with bottom heat only (no convection!) or until a skewer inserted into the cake comes out clean.
- When the cake is cool, turn it out onto a plate. Slice and serve. (I cooled my baked cake on a wire rake)
By the way, the Honeycomb Cake can be steamed as well – if I’m not mistaken, using a different type of flour. I have not tried steaming the cake, but I think I might give it a go in my Rice Cooker … one fine day *wink*
The milk used in the Honeycomb Cake recipe was the Sweetened Condensed Milk, hence, I thought linking up to the May 2014 LTU event with the selected item “MILK” hosted by Tze from Awayofmind Bakery House would be most appropriate. Little Thumbs up (LTU) is organised by Doreen from my little favourite DIY and Zoe from Bake for Happy Kids. The May 2014 entries can be found on this post, which included the linkup of this write-up.
Because this extraordinary cake reminded me of my childhood days, it was made with LOTS of love and care. I thought a link up to Javelin Warrior’s Cookin w/ Luv‘s Made With Love Mondays: Week of 5th May 2014 would be most appropriate.
Enjoy the rest of the week!
Cheers!
By the way ... 