Malaysian Honeycomb Cake

My Mum has been going on about this recipe for months, ever since she figured out how obsessed I was with baking. She insisted over and over that I had to try this recipe because it was so easy and delicious. Finally, it seems she could wait no longer for me to ask for the recipe and I had an email from my Dad which contained the recipe in a Word document that she had made my Dad type out. Hint hint, make the damn cake!

I remember eating this honeycomb cake (also known as ant nest cake or kuih sarang semut) as a child. It's different to a regular caramel sponge or mud cake, with a very firm, springy texture which is closer to the texture of a kuih than a crumbly cake. The interior is riddled with 'tunnels' and is dark and rich in flavour from the caramelised sugar.

I was nervous about making this cake for a few reasons. First of all, while I could remember eating it as a child, I couldn't remember if it was actually nice or just something full of sugar that anyone would like as a child. My Mum's instructions were a bit vague so I was worried I would end up with a flat pancake rather than a high, bubbly cake. And would other people even like eating it, with its strange, almost gelatinous texture?

Ooh yeah look at those tunnels!

Turns out I had nothing to worry about. A quick phone call to Mum to step through her instructions and it turned out perfectly. It was a little painful because I stirred my sugar a little too vigorously and splashed it on my hand a couple times, ow. But it was worth the pain, because the end result was SO much better than my faded childhood memories. The cake was dark and so moist. It was rich in flavour without being heavy, in fact it was quite light and moreish because it was so full of bubbly tunnels. And it was so exciting to cut out that first slice of the cake and to see those long tunnels running through the cake just like I had wanted. A was a big fan of this cake and so were my friends, much to my surprise. A preferred it when it was hot out of the oven with a crisp dark brown crust around the outside, whilst I preferred it a day later after leaving in a container overnight to become more moist and springy (as recommended by Mum).

Malaysian Honeycomb Cake (Kuih Sarang Semut)
(recipe from my Mum)
1 & 3/4 cups sugar
2 cups water
½ tin condensed milk (approx 200g)
170g butter, softened
2 cups plain flour
4 tsp bicarb soda
8 eggs
1 tsp Vanilla essence
Note: These measurements will either make one very large cake or two medium cakes. Feel free to halve the quantities

Place sugar in a medium saucepan and gradually heat, stirring regularly so that it caramelises but does not burn.

When all the sugar is dissolved and brown, add the 2 cups of water. Do this very carefully as it may spit when the water hits the hot sugar. At this point you might freak out because the sugar will instantly crystallise and look a bit like this:

Don't worry, it was meant to do that! Just keep stirring over the heat until the sugar dissolves back into the mixture. Take off the heat and then place aside to cool.

Preheat your oven to 180 degrees C. In a large mixing bowl use an electric mixer to beat butter and condensed milk & mix until well combined. Add eggs one at a time to butter & milk mixture, beating in well. Sift flour & soda bicarb together, then fold into mixture. Add vanilla essence and stir until combined. Add the cooled sugar syrup to above mixture and stir gently until just combined.

Pour into a greased and baking paper lined bottom, large springform tin or two 20 cm round tins. (Whatever tins you use make sure not to fill past the 3/4 level as these cakes will rise a fair bit) Bake for 45 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean.

Smaller, thinner cake which turned out darker but less gelatinous

Thicker, lighter cake with more tunnels and springy texture

In other news, thank you to the amazing Ellie from Almost Bourdain for passing on this Kreativ Blogger Award to me. It's very sweet and it totally made my day to receive it for my silly blog, which only started up at the end of March in an attempt to hold on to my favourite food memories from my trip to Malaysia and Thailand. It's quite amazing how things have changed since then! So thanks again to Ellie, and to anyone who bothers to read this random blog :)

The Kreativ Blogger award comes with some rules:

1. You must thank the person who has given you the award.
2. Copy the logo and place it on your blog.
3. Link to the person who has nominated you for the award.
4. Name 7 things about yourself that people might find interesting.
5. Nominate 7 other Kreativ Bloggers.
6. Post links to the 7 blogs you nominate.
7. Leave a comment on which of the blogs to let them know they have been nominated

So here are 7 random facts about me...no idea if they will be interesting to anyone or not!

1. I was born in Perth but have also lived in Qatar and Malaysia. The Pizza Hut in Qatar was the most popular restaurant in town when I was there (about 15 years ago), haha!
2. I've been with my boyfriend for nearly 8 years. He took me to my first formal when I was 16 and got his eyebrow pierced for it as a surprise because I had mentioned they were hot
3. I have a Master in Biomedical Engineering. I was a couple years into my degree before I totally grasped what Biomedical Engineering was. Apparently this is pretty normal though!
4. My favourite fake word is 'abortional' (I picked it up from A), which roughly translates to "a poor effort", e.g. "The Ashes have been abortional so far" or "That BOFAG was abortional".
5. I sometimes eat scones for dinner.
6. As a child I was so shy that I was scared to answer the phone.
7. I have a pet cockatiel named Doodle. He's a total bogan, when you walk past him he will wolf whistle at you and say "Hello, howya goin mate?"
   

Aaaand in no particular order (of course), I would like to pass on the Kreativ Blogger Award to these wonderful bloggers:
Leona & Lis from pigged-out
Anita from Leave Room for Dessert
Betty the Hungry Girl
Jackie from Pham Fatale
Rilsta from My Food Trail
Chris & Time from the way it crumbles
Babs from Love2Bake