Chocolate Spekkoek (Thousand Layer Chocolate Cake) Recipe

Chocolate Spekkoek

The name of my recipe site is Easily Good Eats. I like easy recipes, and this is no exception, seriously. The chocolate spekkoek may look complicated but its not. It is quite easy to prepare, requiring little effort. And you don’t even have to bake it. Spekkoek has more of a pancake like texture, it is slightly dense. 

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. 

A spekkoek does not need to have a thousand layers, a good one should have more than 12 layers. I was quite happy with my modest 9 layers. It was close enough.

If you are Indonesian or familiar with spekkoek, you know that this is not the real thing. Spekkoek is a spiced cake, I swapped the spices for cocoa.

Since the cake is quite rich the suggestion is to serve in thin slices. This is only a suggestion, not a rule! One final comment. 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 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.


I had a slice the following day and it tasted much better. So if its possible save some for the next day, you will not be disappointed. 

Chocolate Spekkoek

Adopted from Food.

Ingredients

1 cup butter, softened

1 cup sugar

10 large eggs, separated

1 cup flour, sifted

¼ cup cocoa powder, sifted

Pinch salt

Directions

1. Cream butter and sugar together. Beat in egg yolks, one at a time.
2. In another bowl beat egg whites with salt until stiff. Fold into yolk mixture.
3. Divide the egg mixture evenly between two bowls.
4. To one bowl of egg mixture, fold in ½ cup flour and cocoa powder.
5. To the other bowl of egg mixture, fold in ½ cup flour.
6. Line the bottom of a buttered 9" round cake pan (or springform pan) with wax paper and butter the wax paper.
7. Pour about ½ cup of the chocolate batter into the pan, spreading to form a thin layer. Place pan under a preheated broiler for 2 minutes, or until the layer is firm and very lightly browned.
8. Spread ½ cup of the plain batter over the top and broil until firm. Repeat layering and broiling until all batter is used.
9. Let cake cool, then remove from pan. Sprinkle top with confectioners' sugar.

Chocolate Spekkoek

February is #chocolatelove month!

Please join in on the #chocolatelove fun by linking up any chocolate recipe from the month of February 2012. Don't forget to link back to this post, so that your readers know to come stop by the #chocolatelove event! The twitter hashtag is #chocolatelove :).

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