Lapis Betawi (Legit)

I had to test my oven's top double grill function after I had it fixed a couple of months back, after sifting through all the lapis cake (aka thousand layer or speckok) recipes I have. I decided to try this one simply because it uses less eggs, 8 eggs to be precise (as compared to those over 10 or 20 egg yolks) and it is relatively easy. The recipe is taken from an old malay recipe book which my aunty passed to me. I really have to thank her because I love all the recipes featured in the book. Some are pretty alien to me because I never had them before whereas some bring back memories of my childhood 8-) But one of the main reason why I love old recipes is because there is hardly any form of stabiliser used. If you look at the current lapis recipes, you will notice that lots of them has stabiliser/ovalette as part of the ingredient. For me personally, I prefer the old traditional way as much as I possibly can *LOL* Enough of my ramblings, this is the end product.

It looks a little dry because I cut it like 1 hour after baking it. This cake keeps pretty well and it will get moist overtime. The layers are supposed to be thinner but I could not find my medium size laddle *bummer* but taste wise, it's pretty good for a lapis that uses less than 10 eggs *LOL*

This is my treasured book. I don't think it's in print anymore. It has some pretty cool recipes, some are a bit tedious to make but majority are pretty easy to handle.

Ingredients
8 eggs, separated
350g butter (original 340g)
225g cake flour (original uses plain flour)
280g sugar
2 Tbsp condensed milk
1 Tbsp lapis spice (original uses 2 Tbsp, if your spice is mild, use 2 Tbsp)
1 tsp baking powder

Method
1. Sift plain flour, spice and baking and put aside
2. Cream butter and condensed milk till pale, put aside
3. Beat egg whites till frothy, add sugar and continue beating till stiff peaks formed
4. Add yolks and continue mixing
5. Add butter+milk mixture and slowly mix till well blended
6. Using a spatula, slowly fold in the flour mixture into the egg mixture
7. Preheat oven to 180C and grease and line a 7x7inch baking tin
8. Pour 1 laddle of the batter into the baking tin, use a spoon and level it and bake till it is cooked
9. Switch oven to top grill (adjust to 200C if your oven's temperature needs to be adjusted)
10.Level first layer and pour another laddle of the batter and level it using a spoon, bake for 7 min or till the top is browned
11.Take the tin out, use a glass with a flat bottom, level the cake to let any excess air out
12. Pour 1 laddle of the batter into the tin and level it, bake till top is browned
13. Repeat 11-12 till all the batter is used
14. After the last layer is browned, bring the baking tin to a lower rack and switch oven to top and bottom grill and bake for about 10-15 mins
15. Cool the cake on a rack and store in air tight container once cooled. You can either cut and eat (but will be a little dry) or leave it overnight for a more moist cake

Enjoy!