All about cake

Since the beginning of this year, I became addicted to cake baking. During Chinese New Year, instead of making those traditional cookies like "kuih-kapit", green pea cookies, pineapple tarts ... etc, I made Sugee Cake as Chinese New Year "cookies" to give people.

After presenting the Sugee Cake to various people, only I learned that not many "new-age" people know how to appreciate this cake.

I presented it to a 20-ish young man, he asked me why was the cake so crunchy and not moist like the usual cake that he has been eating.

I presented it to another female friend, she didn't know what is "Sugee" cake. Her boyfriend is an Italian and good in cooking. He bit just one mouth, and he could tell it's "Sugee". From there he told me about how to judge a good Sugee Cake. I was so excited and happy that finally someone could tell me more about "Sugee" cake.

It has another name called "Semolina Butter Cake". It should be crunchy, because one of the ingredients is almond. You will be biting the almond with the aromatic butter and Sugee smell spreading in your mouth... Woah, heaven! And it should be bake without using any flour, just "sugee" powder.

That was exactly how I baked it.

Of course many other people love my Sugee Cake, especially children. It is appetizing to me and one will really get addicted to it after a few bites.

So far I knew two persons who are really crazy over Sugee Cake. One of them is my cousin-in-law..... She never expected me to bake her Sugee Cake for Chinese New Year this year. She ordered one from somebody else by paying RM300!!!

Another friend loves Sugee Cake very much and he used to eat the cake baked by his mother. Now that his mother has gone and he really missed the cake. He ordered the cake from somebody else too, and he threw away the whole cake after one bit. Until he tasted my Sugee Cake, he raised his thumb and said my Sugee Cake was the right and yummy one... (hehe... self-shiok for a while).

I must thank my mother-in-law for sharing her secret recipe with me, otherwise, I won't be able to retain the original recipe and bake such a yummy cake.

Anyway, what I am trying to say is, the traditional good quality cakes are fading away...

People started to eat fancy cakes: cake with lots of cream, baked by using flour, by using different fruits, and different chemical ingredients. It is good as we need to evolve all the time...... But good values should be retained too.

My knowledgeable hubby told me that during the 70's, Sugee Cake was being used as wedding cake. People would bake two to three tiers of Sugee Cake for the cake-cutting ceremony. After that it was being replaced with fruit cake... and now, it was just a dummy cake on the stage for "show" purpose.

My hubby told me about another traditional cake, which one can hardly see in the market - Zebra Cake:

It looks like marble cake, but they are two different types of cake, different way of baking too.

Personally I love Carrot Cake and Tiramisu Cake (only Su-Chan version and not any other version). After knowing my husband, I fell in love with Sugee Cake. I went to attend baking class to improve my baking skills. There are so many subtle skills which you can never find in any cook book.

I joined the baking class taught by a young lady, who really share all the skills with the students. I was happy with the class and learned a few types of cake, including moist chocolate cake, carrot cake, green tea cake ... and the most shocking one is red velvet cake.

Why I was shocked? Because it is just a colouring cake!! I was so disappointed... I first tasted it in my friend's Chinese New Year open house, and since then I had been admiring the cake... and now, it is just a cake that one putting red dye to the batter to me.

Last Saturday I went around to look for "purple" cake from various well-known cake shops, but couldn't get any. And if I were to order a custom-made version, I could only collect it on Wednesday... But I need the cake on Monday, for a terminally-ill patient's birthday.

In the end I baked it together with my husband, and decorated the cake with our own style.

You must be laughing at our decoration now, I myself find the design was so amateur too ... Well, we are on our way to improve our cake decoration skills... wait for us!

The patient loved the cake very much and had a really happy birthday celebration... This has motivated me so much until I have decided to sponsor and personally bake birthday cake for Hospis Malaysia's patients, cause I really enjoy doing it and find it meditative...

I found another old recipe from my mother-in-law's recipe book.... Have you heard of KEK NASIB BAIK?!!

I was laughing away with the name and I am going to bake and see how lucky is the cake... haha!

Do you have any cake history story to tell me? I like to hear them and has been begging my husband to tell me more about his cake experiences from small... ...