A delicious, rich, spiced cake that is beautiful as well.
by Ena Scheerstra
Spekkoek (also called spekuk, spiku or lapis legit) is a Dutch-Indonesian layered cake, consisting of cream coloured plain/vanilla layers and brown spiced layers. You can also find spekkoek in which the cream coloured layer is flavoured, for example with pandan, coffee, rum, or chocolate. The origin is not completely known, it may have been based on Dutch recipes made with Indonesian products, but could also be inspired on another European layer cake, Baumkuchen. It is a very rich and dense cake, containing lots of eggs, butter and sugar. That is why this cake is usually served in small slices, in the Netherlands often as a dessert (with coffee) after a rijsttafel. Sometimes slices of spekkoek are served with whipped cream. 
Making spekkoek is quite labour intensive and costs time, which also makes it costly. A good spekkoek consists of at least 18 layers and the cake is build layer for layer, baking each one in the oven before another layer of batter is spread on top. This is a job in which patience is very important, if you hurry the layers will blend together, ruining the typical spekkoek look. Spekkoek literally means bacon cake, this is because the stripes of the cake resemble bacon.
Of course it is easy to buy a spekkoek, but I love to be able to prepare classics like this myself. Unfortunately, I have to gather some more patience before I bake another spekkoek…. mine had the looks of a zebra cake, but it was still very delicous!
For more information on the Dutch East Indies and the relation between the Netherlands and Indonesia, check my post about nasi goreng.
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Spekkoek
- Total Time: 1 hour
- Yield: 20 1x
Description
Rich and spicy cake with a beautiful striped look.
Ingredients
- 650 g butter, room temperature
- 18 egg yolks
- 9 egg whites
- 600 g sugar
- 2 bags of vanilla sugar (or 2 tsp vanilla extract)
- 300 g flour
- 6 tsp cardamom powder
- 5 tsp cinnamon powder
- 2 tsp mace powder
- 2 tsp nutmeg powder
- butter and flour for the form
- butter for brushing
Instructions
- Cream the butter until light and fluffy.
- Whisk the egg yolks and whites together with the sugar and vanilla sugar.
- Add the flour, fold through gently.
- Add the creamed butter, mix.
- Divide the batter over two bowls. Add the spices to one, mix.
- Preheat the oven to 150C.
- Prepare a spring form with butter and flour.
- Spoon 1/2 cup of the unspiced batter into the form and let it spread.
- Bake 10 minutes in the preheated oven.
- Spoon 1/2 cup of the spiced batter on top of the first layer and let it spread.
- Bake 10 minutes.
- Place after every 4 layers a piece of baking paper on top and use the round side of a spoon to rub the cake firmly. Remove the baking paper and brush the cake with a little butter.
- Repeat this until both the batters are finished.
- Leave to cool in the form. Spekkoek can be stored at least a week when wrapped securely. To serve, cut thin slices and serve with coffee, or with some whipped cream as a dessert.
- Prep Time: 20 mins
- Cook Time: 40 mins
- Category: Baking
yummy… nailed it on my first try,i reduced the sugar mesuarement and its superb ^^ (i would like to share photie of my cake,but dont know how to ha ha) thank you for sharing this recipe ^^
I’m not good with changing metric weight with American wait can you send me this recipe I would appreciate it thank you
I use to make this cake years back. I thought you separate the egg whites from the yokes and beat it seperately. Can you reply to this.
Do you know of anyone that make Speckkook ? Sells it and ship it. I reside in Kentucky. I used to purchased this from an lady in Nevada,but she has retired. I would appreciate your comment. My e-mail is:
opaof99@yahoo.com
Thank you very much.
We used to do about 1/8 of a cup per layer and use the broiler to “bake” with butter between every layer. This would certainly be faster! I’ll have to give it a go.
My father-in-law is an Indonesian immigrant and this is his favorite and my husband’s, so I have made this MANY times. This recipe is not correct. It is missing ginger and ground anise, you use about 1/4 c batter per layer, and each layer is broiled, not baked. Line the cake pan with parchment paper and grease it, and a major error is the eggs. 12 eggs, separated. Whisk the egg whites into a meringue SEPARATELY then fold into the batter without deflating the egg whites. I have also never done step 12. These corrections are based off of DH’s Oma’s recipe (my father-in-law’s mother). Spekkoek should have at least 12 layers, I usually get around 16.
My brother in law is Dutch Indonesian. The spices in the Spekoek depend on the region and availability of said spices. If you look at differen recipes they vary on spices and eggs used.
Ena, thank you so much for this recipe. My sister in law (she’s Dutch) made it for a family gathering earlier in the year and the entire party was struck dumb by how good it was. It’s definitely a show-off cake!
I made it earlier this year and it was superb. Am now making it again. I’d be interested to see what the variations are like that @Lisa (above) suggested (although too late for this current attempt).
Anyway, as I say, thank you so very much for posting this on your site. I am very grateful, as are all of the people who have tasted it!
Hi
How much does the bag of sugar weigh?