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| Chocolate Spekkoek |
Food Diary (February 12, 2012)
Breakfast: Sourdough with ham and cheese
Lunch: Curried tuna with rice
Dinner: Pasta with spinach lentil sauce
The name of my recipe site is Easily Good Eats. I like easy recipes, and this chocolate spekkoek is no exception, seriously. It may look complicated but its not. Chocolate spekkoek is a Dutch-Indonesian layered cake developed during colonial times in the Dutch East Indies. Spekkoek means bacon cake because it looks like bacon with the dark and light stripes. Spekkoek is also called lapis legit in Indonesia. Lapis legit means (very) rich layer-cake. If you see the list of ingredients, you will understand why.
If you are Indonesian or familiar with spekkoek, you know that the chocolate spekkoek is not the real deal. Spekkoek is a spiced cake, I swapped the spices for cocoa.
There are some cakes which don't look that great but taste delicious, its the taste that counts. And there are cakes which look great but perhaps fall slightly short in the taste department. With much hesitation I would put chocolate spekkoek in the latter category. It is still a very delicious cake, though I had different expectations. However I do like the unique technique for preparing this cake. The recipe is available here, if you are still interested!
Today's Favourite Photo
Sapporo Classic Beer with Dry Scallop
Today’s Favourite Blog
You no doubt are familiar with horsepower. Now comes cockroach power. The difference between horsepower and cockroach power is that the latter is really powered by cockroaches.
Researchers at Case Western Reserve University have figured out how to make cockroaches into batteries.
The cockroach-powered biofuel cells run on hemolymph, the stuff roaches have instead of blood. They combine sugar from the hemolymph with oxygen from the air to make electricity. The only byproduct is water.
Research is at an early stage, lot more work needs to be done. In the meantime continue spraying those cockroaches, that is if you don't like them that.
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Wow. That spekkoek looks very impressive.
ReplyDeleteThe cake looks fantastic!
ReplyDeleteKind of neat that they actually found a good use for cockroaches. But it still gives me the creeps.
Thank you. Yes, finally we may find some good use of those roaches!
DeleteWhere do they come up with ideas like cockroach power?! That's so crazy it might just work.
ReplyDeleteAmazing what scientists do all day
DeleteOooo, your layer cake is impressive! I've never attempted this recipe as I always get given a big chunk each Chinese New Year and by the time I'm done eating it, I don't want anymore for the rest of the year .... yup, you said it, reeaaaallly rich!
ReplyDeleteNo comments about that horrible creature except that I scream the house down when I see one. Eeewwww!!!!
PS: almost couldn't click on the post. Just the word "c..." gives me the heebie jeebies :(
DeleteThank you.
DeleteI understand taking a year long break after having a big chunk of it. Thankfully I didn't eat that much but I will be taking a long break:)
Sorry about mentioning those c's - at least now when you look at them you can see them as potential source of energy and maybe become friendly:)?
That cake is AMAZING! It looks like it's straight out of a bakery!
ReplyDeleteThank you for the kind words
DeleteSpekkoek looks extremely impressive nd beautiful. I cannot believe it's easy to make... I remember the only thin-layered cake I have made (it was a Hungarian one) and it was difficult. I love the "bacon" in the name :-) It's funny because "speck" is an Italian product used by some people instead of bacon... I wonder if the origin of the word is common or pure accident.
ReplyDeleteIt's good news they have finally found something positive about cockroaches.
Thank you so much. I've heard about the Hungarian one, I think some other European countries also have layer cakes but spekkoek is easier to prepare.
DeleteI just checked - spek in Dutch means bacon so I guess the word has similar origins
Thank you for checking!
DeleteLoved learning about he Chocolate spekkoek, too bad it does not taste quite as good as it looks. You know at first I read cockroach POWDER...ewww!
ReplyDeleteCockroach powder??? You mean as a seasoning or protein supplement:)
DeleteWow, that chocolate spekkoek looks amazing! And just for the record, in my opinion, cockroach should be forbidden on a food blog. ;) Ack. I read powder too! Have an awesome rest of the day!
ReplyDeleteThank you.
DeletePoint taken, loud and clear:)
Love the look of the spekkoek - as for cockroach powder - wow - or actually ughhhhhhhh!
ReplyDeletemary x
Its cockroach power, not powder, still ughhhhhhhh I guess.
DeleteYour chocolate spekkoek look beautiful! Layering always make me paranoid about making it nicely. Your side views look amazing. Absolutely flawless!
ReplyDeleteThank you, it was luck in this instance:)
Delete