From time to time, I get very domestic and perhaps some sort of maternal instinct in me will kick in and make me feel like venturing into the kitchen to experiment and (hopefully) churn out mouth watering delicacies!
I prefer baking though, to cooking mains. (It is my hope that I will one day ‘graduate’ to cooking main dishes) And so, when a friend passed me a recipe for Gula Melaka Coffee Rum cake, I pounced on the chance to try it out, especially when I found out she got the recipe from a famous chef when she took baking lessons from him.
I find baking to be very therapeutic but this time I was on a very tight schedule and only managed to start baking at 9pm! I had promised I’d bring the cake along for our day trip to Ipoh the next day and I had to honor it. Being unfamiliar with the recipe didn’t help and I had a tough time grating the very hard block of gula melaka. (probably the next time I’m gonna try melting the whole block instead!! wonder if it’ll change the texture of the cake??)
But finally, I had creamed, mixed and folded everything and it was ready to go into the oven.
My cake 40 minutes later
I took half with me on my trip which was polished off (even after the very filling Foh San dim sum!) and I found out that the other quarter I left for my mom disappeared in one day!
So, I can safely say that my cake was a hit!
Ingredients
8 oz butter
6 oz gula melaka – grated
8 egg yolks (Use grade C eggs, I found out those are large eggs)
Coffee Mixture: 2 teasp instant coffee
1 Tblsp dark rum
1 teasp each coffee, rum and vanilla essence
Sieve: 8 oz plain flour
2 teasp baking powder
1 teasp salt
2 oz castor sugar
2 egg whites
2 oz mixed fruit tossed in a little flour
Method
1. Cream butter and gula melaka (4 minutes)
2. Add Coffee Mixture
3. Beat in egg yolks
4. Fold in Flour Mixture
5. In a separate bowl, whisk the 2 egg whites and 2 oz castor sugar (at max speed for 3 – 4 mins) and then manually fold the meringue into the cake mixture.
6. Finally fold in the mixed fruit
Bake
Using a 8” – 9” round or funnel tin (greased & floured)
350ºF for 20 mins, then 325ºF for another 20 mins
*Special Notes:
Bagan restaurant in Penang also serves Gula Melaka Cake, but I think this recipe differs from theirs mainly because this one has fruit mix.
Looks yummy!
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Hi! I just tried making your cake today! I made it into cupcakes, omitted the fruits and they turned out heavenly! I baked it at 350f for ten mins, then 20mins at 325f. As for the gula melaka, my mom told me to get the ones that crumble easily, that’s when you know its the pure stuff? So anyhow, instead of grating, I put it into a little ziplock bag and pounded it. Then further crumbled it by hand into the butter and creamed it. SOOO YUMMY! I sprayed the cupcakes down with some rum and grated gula melaka over the tops. that gave it a stronger alcoholic taste. But its good plain as well! thank you so much for this wonderful recipie!
hi serene! im so happy to hear that you’ve had success with this recipe! and yes very smart of you to put the gula melaka in a ziplock bag and pound it! i shall try it without the fruits next time 🙂
what a surprise!! my mum always used to make this when i was a kid and i live in sydney now. i went back to KL a couple of weeks ago and feeling rather nostalgic, i leeched off the recipe so i could try it when i got back to sydney.
i was just doing a random search for an alternative recipe and your site was the first to come up. and this is EXACT same recipe my mum uses 🙂
Hi, i have been looking for rum essence for awhile. Much appreciated if u could forward me any information on the availibity of the product in penang.