Growing Up in Nonya kitchen

My mother baked several of these and gave them away to her friends for Chinese New Year.
The perception is that baking spekkoek is a laborious task because one would have to stand
by the oven and spread a new layer of batter every few minutes or so. It does not actually
take as much time if you have prepped the oven temperature properly.

To judge if a spekkoek is of refined quality, one looks at the thinness of each layer. My
mother would use a satay stick to prick any air bubbles found in each layer. She also had a
wooden stamp to press down the baked layer before adding batter to make the next layer.

The important thing is to make your own spice powder. It makes a world of difference.

In the past, spekkoek was baked over charcoal. Beginning in the 1960s, my mother only
used one special oven to make her spekkoek. It was a Baby Belling and could double up as
a grill and an oven. For my mother, the oven’s appeal was that it could set the temperature
lower at the bottom of the oven, higher at the top. This ensured that the cake would not
burn so easily. If you do not have a Baby Belling, you can bake spekkoek in most modern-
day ovens since these would also include a grilling feature.

2 teaspoons ground nutmeg (buah pala)
12 egg whites
510 g or 1 pound 2 ounces sugar
30 egg yolks
740 g or 1 pound 10 ounces butter, softened
2 tablespoons condensed milk
90 g or 3 ounces ground almond (optional)
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
2 tablespoons brandy

5 cm or 2 inches cassia bark
(kayu manis) * or substitute with
cinnamon stick, or 1 teaspoon
ground cinnamon

* Kayu manis is often assumed to be cinnamon.
It is actually cassia bark which is of a lower
quality and tastes slightly different. You can
distinguish between the two in that cassia is
rolled from both sides toward the centre.

1. Rinse and dry the ingredients. Place them on a pan over
low heat for about 20 minutes to toast until fragrant.

2. Grind the ingredients, preferably in a clean coffee
grinder, until the spices form a fine powder. Sieve through
a fine mesh to filter out any small lumps. Store in an
airtight container.

1. Preheat the oven using the grill mode at moderate heat
(160 degrees C or 325 degrees F). Brush a rectangular cake
tin about 22.5 cm by 27.5 cm (9 inches by 11 inches) with
some butter. Line the base with parchment paper.