Anzeige
Bika Ambon – Honeycomb Cake with Coconut Milk
Bika Ambon is a yellow cake from Medan whose crumb is threaded with vertical air channels, like a honeycomb. You whisk plenty of egg yolks with sugar, tapioca starch and coconut milk, which you first infuse with lemongrass and makrut lime leaves. The yeasted batter rises for 3 hours, then bakes with bottom heat only so the bubbles climb from the base to the top.
Bika Ambon – Honeycomb Cake with Coconut Milk
Laura Chen
12
240 minutes
60 minutes
280
Indonesian
Dessert
Bika Ambon is a yellow cake from Medan whose crumb is threaded with vertical air channels, like a honeycomb. You whisk plenty of egg yolks with sugar, tapioca starch and coconut milk, which you first infuse with lemongrass and makrut lime leaves. The yeasted batter rises for 3 hours, then bakes with bottom heat only so the bubbles climb from the base to the top.
Ingredients
For the starter:
- 1 tsp instant dry yeast
- 1 tsp sugar
- 50 ml lukewarm water
- 2 tbsp tapioca starch
For the coconut milk:
- 400 ml coconut milk
- 2 stalks lemongrass, bruised
- 6 makrut lime leaves, torn
- 2 pandan leaves (screw pine leaves with a vanilla note), knotted
- 1/2 tsp salt
For the batter:
- 10 egg yolks
- 2 eggs
- 250 g sugar
- 250 g tapioca starch (starch from cassava)
- 1/4 tsp turmeric powder
- 1 tbsp butter for the pan
Instructions
- Stir the yeast, 1 tsp sugar, lukewarm water and 2 tbsp tapioca starch together and let the starter stand for 15 minutes, until foamy.
- Heat the coconut milk with the lemongrass, lime leaves, pandan and salt until steaming. Take the pan off the heat and let the coconut milk steep for 30 minutes while it cools to lukewarm. Strain out the leaves.
- Whisk the egg yolks, eggs and sugar for 3 minutes, just until the sugar has dissolved. Do not whisk the mixture to a foam.
- Stir in the tapioca starch and turmeric, then the starter, and finally the lukewarm coconut milk, until you have a smooth, thin batter.
- Cover the bowl and let the batter rise in a warm place for 3 hours, until the surface is covered in bubbles.
- Grease a 22 cm square pan with butter and preheat it in the oven at 170 °C (340 °F), bottom heat only, for 10 minutes.
- Stir the batter once and pour it into the hot pan. Bake the cake for 15 minutes with bottom heat, until holes appear around the edge.
- Switch to 160 °C (320 °F) top and bottom heat and bake for another 35 to 40 minutes, until the top is golden brown and a wooden skewer comes out clean.
- Let the Bika Ambon cool in the pan for 2 hours, turn it out and cut it into 12 pieces.
Reviews
No reviews yet. Did you cook this recipe? Tell us how it turned out.
Anzeige
More recipes: Indonesian recipes · Asian desserts · All Asian recipes