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Onbitjkoek - Dutch Spiced Breakfast Cake
Onbitjkoek is the less well known Indonesian spiced cake compared to lapis legit, but much easier to bake and is understatedly delicious in its own right.
If you ask Indonesians what their signature spiced cake is, most of the time they will answer with lapis legit, and only very very occasionally they answer with onbitjkoek. It is very understandable, since lapis legit is definitely the crown jewel of Indonesian cake, with its showy multi layers (hence the thousand layers moniker) and is sinfully rich and buttery in each and every bite. But a lapis legit takes hours and hours of manual labor to bake, and most people only bake a lapis legit to celebrate special events, like Idul Fitri, Christmas, or Chinese New Year. To tide of the lapis legit cravings until the next holiday, we turn to onbitjkoek.
Differences between Indonesian and Dutch onbitjkoek
Onbitjkoek is originally a Dutch cake, but it has been adapted by Indonesian to better suite our palate. Indonesian version of onbitjkoek use regular all-purpose flour instead of rye flour, we use palm sugar instead of molasses, and even the spekkoek seasoning blend (a.k.a. speculaas spice mix) is slightly different than the one used in Netherland. If you want an authentic Indonesian version of onbitjkoek or lepis legit, stick to using spekoek seasoning, though it is totally acceptable too if all you have is Dutch speculaas spice mix. Or, if you want to make your own blend at home, combine equal amount of cinnamon powder, mace powder, and clove powder.
Onbitjkoek - Dutch Spiced Breakfast Cake
Ingredients
- 175 gram all purpose flour
- 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 tablespoon spekoek seasoning
- 5 eggs
- 150 gram palm sugar or brown sugar
- 100 gram unsalted butter, melted
- 25 gram almond slices or sesame seeds
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 190 Celcius (375 Fahrenheit). Grease and flour a 9" loaf pan, set aside.
- Sift together all purpose flour, baking powder, salt, and spekoek seasoning. Set aside.
- In a mixing bowl, mix together eggs and palm sugar until all the sugar has completely dissolved. Add sifted dry ingredients to the egg mixture in 3 batches, mix well in each addition. Slowly add the melted butter into the batter, mix well.
- Pour the batter into prepared loaf pan. Sprinkle the top with almond slices or sesame seeds. Bake in the oven for 30 to 35 minutes or until a cake tester came out clean.
Comments
HI Anita, The cake looks lovely especially the texture. Did you use electric mixer to blend the eggs and sugar? Your recipe does not specify, so it sounds like you just whisk the eggs and sugar. Kindly advise.
Hi Tuty, I use an electric hand mixer.
Hi Anita, You might want to change the name to 'Ontbijtkoek', which is how we Dutchies write it and translates as 'breakfast cake'. Might help others find your page. Otherwise, I love your website. Absolutely addictive. Thanks for your dedication and knowledge. All the best from NL
Hi Bo, thanks for your great suggestion. I'm updating it to Dutch spiced breakfast cake. :)
A lovely spice loaf. It's not a huge cake, but it's a firm and rich one- thanks to the eggs and butter. I didn't achieve the caramel-color like the photo since I used some 'raw crystal' type of sugar which was very light (I should have added a dollop of molasses!) but eh, that's the nature of substitutions. Spice desserts are all winners in my book :9
Aloha Anita, Ketika masih tinggal di Indonesia saya sering sekali bikin Onbitjkoek akan tetapi resepnya entah hilang kemana. Ketika aku dikirimi resep ini dari temanku yang menetap di Singapore saya merasa seperti mendaptkan durian runtuh, senang sekali karena sudah lama saya ingin membuatnya kembali. Temanku sudah recook dan hasilnya bagus serta dikatakan enak sekali. Saya menyukai segala macam roti yang menggunakan rempah2 wangi sekali. Ternyata kita mirip, belajar memasak dari mama. Aku mulai usia 9 mulai belajar dan sempat mempunyai catering bisnis. Terima kasih atas resepnya akan saya simpan dan nanti kalau sudah recook saya akan update komentar saya.
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