Colorful layers of cake that is naturally gluten-free is steamed layer by layer is a popular Indonesian snacks or dessert.
Kue or Kuih is a fairly broad term which may include items that would be called cakes, cookies, dumplings, pudding, biscuit, or pastries in English. Lapis means layers in Bahasa Indonesian/ Malay. My sister is a big fan of this steamed kue lapis and mine too. My daughter is a fan of this kue lapis too (especially when pink is involved).
This particular Kue lapis I made is a steamed version. There is also a baked version, often called Kue Lapis Surabaya or Kueh Lapis Legit. The steamed kue lapis is “easier” to make compare to the baked version. Most people will make it with three colors: green, red and white. Mine is more of a pastel colors, since my daughter adores pink with her whole heart.
Kue Lapis (Steamed layered cake)
Ingredients
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 1/2 cup water
- 1 1/2 cup coconut milk
- 1 1/3 cup rice flour
- 1 cup tapioca flour
- Gel-food coloring
Instructions
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Mix the water and sugar in a pan and bring to a boil to dissolve the sugar and let it cool down a little bit
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In a bowl, mix together coconut milk, rice flour, and tapioca flour. Pour in the sugar syrup you boil earlier and mix together. Divide the mixture into 2 equal portion and scoop 1/2 cup out for final layer. Mix one part with the red coloring; the other portion with green and orange color for the final layer
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Take a glass baking pan (7-inch square or round) in which the cake will be steamed and preheat it by steaming it empty over hot water for 5 minutes. Give the mixture a stir and pour in enough of the white mixture (no color) to form a layer of 1/4 inch thick. Steam it for 5 minutes for each layerto set. Now add a layer of the red mixture 1/4 inch thick and steam, covered, over hot water for 5 minutes. Repeat this sequence until you use up all the mixture and left with the final red layer. Pour this on top and let it steam until the layer is set, another 5 minutes. Remember to stir the mixture each time before pouring as the flour tend to settle on the bottom of the bowl sometimes
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Cool well before cutting. It took about 3-4 hours to cool down completely. When ready to cut, use an oiled knife or plastic knife to cut to prevent sticking
It’s the kinda of cake that you have to peel layer by layer when you eat it.
Thanks for this recipes. I replace 1 1/2 C flour with 3/4 C White Rice flour and 3/4 c Brown Rice flour, it turned our wonderful.
Hi Philly,
That’s a nice substitution. I’d try to substitute with what you did too in the future. Thanks for sharing and glad they turned out wonderful
You’re welcome. I’m also from Indonesia and I was so glad when I found this recipes, I love kue lapis 🙂
Hi again Philly, sorry I didn’t realize there’s another comment from you. Which part of Indo are you from (if you don’t mind me asking of course) ? Nice to meet another friend from the same “kampung” 🙂
Btw, I did remake the kue lapis again, but I couldn’t find brown rice flour here though, so I actually use tapioca flour and rice flour and they turn out fine too.
Amazing! My grandma used to make this a lot for us!!
Surely bring lots of memories 🙂
Me too. I remember grandma made this too 😉 How food can make you feeling nostalgic