Buttery and moist butter cake with an amazing aroma from gula Melaka is a perfect fusion of Western and Southeast Asian in a form of a cake. This butter cake doesn’t require an egg separation. It gives you a butter cake with a moist and tight crumbs like a traditional butter cake is.
This is probably one of my most favorite butter cakes from all the butter cakes I’ve baked so far. I like all butter cakes, but gula Melaka / gula Jawa/gula Aren butter cake is out of this world if you ask me. I LOVE the aroma of gula Melaka. They are so aromatic to the max. They smell like a combination of caramel and molasses. Oh so good! It’s hard to describe.
Substitution to gula Melaka
Gula Melaka is not easy to be found where I am. I have them because my mom brought tons of them for me the last time she visited. They usually comes in blocks. Every now and then I might find them at certain Asian grocery stores, but they are not always in stock. The closest substitution to gula Melaka would be coconut sugar, which is very widely available here in the U.S. (thank goodness!)
Gula Melaka/Gula Jawa
Type and size of pan you can use
I use an 8 x 8 inch square cake pan. You can also use:
9 x 5 inch loaf pan
9-inch round pan
9-inch (10 cups) bundt pan
8-inch tube pan
How to make gula Melaka butter cake
1. Preheat oven at 325 F (165 C). Mix the flour, salt, and baking powder. Set aside. Make sure the butter is soft but not melty. You can easily push it with your finger. If it’s melty, put it in the fridge for a bit but not too long that it becomes cold solid again
2. If using square, round pan, or loaf pan, line the bottom of the pan with parchment paper. If using tube pan, grease the pan with non-stick spray or butter. If using a bundt pan, grease the pan thoroughly with non-stick spray or shortening/butter and then flour the pan. Tap out excess flour
3. Put gula Melaka and coconut milk in a saucepan and cook over medium low heat to melt the sugar. Don’t let it comes to a boil or the coconut milk will separate. Let the mixture cools down completely. Crack the eggs in a bowl and whisk them. Set aside. It’s better to do this than cracking an egg one by one into the cake batter later. The eggs incorporate into the batter much better
4. Cream the butter and sugar until creamy, light, and fluffy with a stand mixer or hand mixer over high speed. The color turns pale too.
5. Then slowly add 1/3 of the egg and continue to beat until it’s mixed before adding the next 1/3 until you run out of the egg
6. Sift in 1/3 of the flour mixture and mix over low speed and alternate with 1/2 of the gula Melaka mixture, and continue and end with the flour mixture
7. Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Smooth the top if needed. Tap the cake pan few times on the counter top to pop any large bubbles inside the pan. Place the cake pan in the middle rack and bake for about 70-75 minutes for square or loaf pan or until a cake tester comes out clean. If the cake turns dark too quickly before it cooks through, you can tent with an aluminum foil (shiny part up) after about 60 minutes of baking
8. Remove the cake from the oven and let the cake rest in the pan for about 10 minutes and then loosen the edge and let the cake cools down completely on a cooling rack. If you are using tube or a bundt pan, turn the cake upside down on a cooling rack to let it cools down completely
9. The butter cake is not meant to be served on the same day. I suggest let the cake cools down completely and then wrap it up with a cling wrap and keep at room temperature for 24 hours before serving (trust me, it worth the wait). The cake will be moist and develop a full flavor after 24 hours and longer
Tips for success
1. Use light color baking pan
I use aluminum pan and the baking temperature and time is accurate for light color pan. If you use darker pan, you may need to shorten the baking time
2. Preheat the oven
The oven needs to be preheated for at least 15 minutes. If you have an oven thermometer, it’s good to check how accurate your oven is as well
3. Room temperature ingredients
Ingredients need to be at room temperature especially the butter and eggs. I leave the eggs out at the counter for few hours before I start working on the recipe. Butter needs to be softened but not melty. You can easily make indentation on the butter with your fingers but it retains it shape and doesn’t look oily. If it’s oily, it is too soft
If the eggs are cold, they will not leaven the cake properly and they will separate when you add into the butter mixture
4. Do not overbeat the eggs
Overbeaten eggs will cause your cake to collapse. When you reach the thick ribbon stage after beating the eggs and sugar, this is where you will stop beating them
5. Do not overmix the batter
Overmixed batter will give you dry and dense cake (not in a good way). You can use your mixer to incorporate flour at lowest speed or folding manually by hands
Did you make this gula Melaka butter cake recipe?
I love it when you guys snap a photo and tag to show me what you’ve made 🙂 Simply tag me @WhatToCookToday #WhatToCookToday on Instagram and I’ll be sure to stop by and take a peek for real!
You may also like these butter cakes
Mandarin Orange Butter Cake
Mango Butter Cake / Kek Mentega (Whole-Egg Method)
Easy Chocolate Cream Cheese Butter Cake
Mrs. Ng SK Pandan Butter Cake Recipe
The recipe is adapted with some modifications from Victoria Bakes
Gula Melaka Butter Cake (Palm Sugar Kek Mentega)
Ingredients
- 200 gr gula Jawa/gula Melaka chop into small pieces
- 100 gr coconut milk room temperature
- 250 gr butter unsalted, softened
- 40 gr brown sugar
- 5 large eggs, room temperature about 58-60 grams each with the shell
Dry ingredients:
- 220 gr cake flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- â…› tsp baking soda
Instructions
- If using square, round pan, or loaf pan, line the bottom of the pan with parchment paper. If using tube pan, grease the pan with non-stick spray or butter. If using a bundt pan, grease the pan thoroughly with non-stick spray or shortening/butter and then flour the pan. Tap out excess flour
Melt gula Melaka:
- Put gula Melaka and coconut milk in a saucepan and cook over medium low heat to melt the sugar. Don't let it comes to a boil or the coconut milk will separate. Let the mixture cools down completely
Prepare the cake batter:
- Preheat oven at 325 F (165 C). Baking it at lower temperature will bake the cake more evenly and it gives you a softer lighter cake
- Mix the flour, salt, and baking powder. Set aside. Make sure the butter is soft but not melty. You can easily push it with your finger. If it's melty, put it in the fridge for a bit but not too long that it becomes cold solid again
- Crack the eggs in a bowl and whisk them. Set aside. It's better to do this than cracking an egg one by one into the cake batter later. The eggs incorporate into the batter much better
- Cream the butter and sugar until creamy, light, and fluffy with a stand mixer or hand mixer over high speed. The color turns pale too. Then slowly add 1/3 or even 1/6 of the egg and continue to beat until it's mixed before adding the next 1/3 until you run out of the egg. The slower you add the eggs, the less likely the butter and eggs will separate
- Sift in 1/3 of the flour mixture and mix over low speed and alternate with 1/2 of the gula Melaka mixture, and continue and end with the flour mixture
Bake the cake:
- Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Smooth the top if needed. Tap the cake pan few times on the counter top to pop any large bubbles inside the pan. Place the cake pan in the middle rack and bake for about 70-75 minutes for square or loaf pan or until a cake tester comes out clean. If the cake turns dark too quickly before it cooks through, you can tent with an aluminum foil (shiny part up) after about 60 minutes of baking
- If baking with a tube or a bundt pan, bake for about 55-60 minutes. You can start checking for doneness at about 50 minutes mark and tent with a foil at that point if the cake starting to gets too dark. The time is just for reference. Your oven may need shorter or longer time. You can start checking at about 1 hour mark
Cool down:
- Remove the cake from the oven and let the cake rest in the pan for about 10 minutes and then loosen the edge and let the cake cools down completely on a cooling rack. If you are using tube or a bundt pan, turn the cake upside down on a cooling rack to let it cools down completely
Serving:
- The butter cake is not meant to be served on the same day. I suggest let the cake cools down completely and then wrap it up with a cling wrap and keep at room temperature for 24 hours before serving (trust me, it worth the wait). The cake will be moist and develop a full flavor after 24 hours and longer
6 comments
Hi Marvellina, Happy New Year! Thanks for sharing this delicious looking gula melaka cake. I have all the ingredients so I would like to try baking this. However, my family & I can’t take too sweet, if I reduce the gula melaka to 170g and brown sugar to 30g, does it works and will it affect the texture? Thank you.
Hi San Lee, Happy New Year to you too. It should be okay considering you didn’t reduce it by too much. Sugar also helps to keep moisture in baked goods, so cutting down by too much can make the cake drier. I hope this helps.
Hi, greetings from Malaysia.
I have tried this recipe twice, both times the creamed butter & sugar mixture didn’t mixed very well with the eggs mixture that i poured it. The mixture become watery & lumpy. I wonder why? I took out my butter & eggs from the fridge earlier so they are not cold.
The resulting cake is still tasty just a little dense and not as fluffy as yours.
Hi there, this is quite a common problem when doing butter cake. Just make sure the butter is soft BUT not melty and the eggs need to be added slowly. The separation can happen when the eggs are added too quickly. You can try to whisk the eggs first and then gradually add them in, I would say in 4-6 addition making sure it’s combined before adding the next batch. I believe this will help to solve the separation problem.
This cake looks good! In your instruction “no. 4 Cream the butter and sugar until creamy, light, and fluffy”, how much sugar?
Hi Therese, So sorry that I left that out. There should be 40 grams of brown sugar.