Indonesian Cakes and Pastries: How the Main Types Differ
Indonesian cakes and pastries: how the main types differ
Indonesian cakes and pastries cover a wide family of sweets that share a kitchen but not a recipe: steamed layered cakes, sponge rolls, flaky and fried pastries, and small sweets wrapped around a bean, egg or cream filling. The quickest way to predict how one of them will taste is to ask a single question before you bite into it: was it steamed, baked, fried or assembled? That answer explains most of the texture differences between the cakes and pastries covered here.
Indonesian cake and pastry snacking is broad, and no list can hold every regional sweet. Sorting them by how they are made, with a note on where each comes from, makes it easier to choose when you have a particular texture or occasion in mind. For the wider range of snacks and sweets, start with the Indonesian snacks and sweets hub.
How the cooking method sets the texture
Steaming produces the softest and most elastic results. Kue lapis is the clearest example. The batter is built from rice flour, sago or tapioca, coconut milk and sugar, and each coloured layer is steamed before the next one goes on, so the colours stay separate. The finished slice is closer to a firm pudding than a crumb, with a bouncy, slightly chewy bite. The full build and the layer colours are covered in Kue Lapis: Indonesia’s layered steamed cake.
Baking gives a firmer, butter-rich result. Spekkoek is built one thin layer at a time, and the batter is rich in butter and flavoured with spices such as cardamom, cinnamon, clove and mace. A classic cake carries many thin layers, which is why the work is slow. Its Dutch name, which translates as bacon cake, refers to the striped look of a cut slice, and it grew out of the mixed food culture of the Dutch colonial era in the East Indies. The story and the method are set out in Spekkoek: Layered Cake of Dutch-Indonesian Heritage.
Frying is the third family. Pastel is a thin pastry crust that is deep-fried in vegetable oil. Its standard filling is carrot, potato, chicken or beef, bean thread noodles and sometimes boiled egg, and it is a snack that sits comfortably beside the sweet cakes on a market tray. Read more in Pastel Indonesia: the fried vegetable pastry snack.
Sponge cakes, rolls and the pandan flavour
In everyday Indonesian usage, bolu is the general word for a sponge-style cake. Bolu gulung is the rolled version, close in shape to a Swiss roll. The sponge is rolled around its filling while it is still warm enough to bend, and the roll is then sliced. For the rolled cake, see Bolu Gulung: Indonesia’s rolled sponge cake explained.
Bolu pandan takes the same sponge idea and flavours it with pandan leaf, which also gives the cake its green colour. Pandan is used across the region, and in Indonesia it appears in many traditional cakes, so a green bolu is usually a pandan bolu. The pandan sponge is described in Bolu Pandan: green pandan sponge cake in Indonesian kitchens.
A practical point links the sponges with the steamed cakes: bolu comes in steamed as well as baked forms, so the cooking method is not always the one you would guess from the name. If a label says bolu, ask whether the cake was steamed before you assume it will be light and springy.
Palembang cakes: maksuba and kue delapan jam
Palembang, in South Sumatra, has two cakes that are often mentioned together. Maksuba is made mainly from duck eggs, sweetened condensed milk, butter and sugar. It is a layered cake, so it sits closer to kue lapis than to a sponge. The main entry is Maksuba: Palembang’s sweet cake with egg and coconut.
The same Palembang cake also appears under other names. Kue Maksuba: what it is and where to find it and Kue Maksuba Palembang: layer cake and what to expect are both about the same dish, so if you are comparing them, expect the same cake rather than a different one.
Kue delapan jam is the other Palembang classic. Its name means eight hours, which is roughly how long it is steamed, and steaming for less time risks an undercooked centre. It is made without flour, from duck eggs, sweetened condensed milk, sugar and butter, and the result is soft and a little chewy. The cake is covered in Kue Delapan Jam: Palembang’s flourless eight-hour cake.
Filled pastries and sweet snacks
Kue sus is Indonesia’s cream puff. It is made from choux pastry, which has no raising agent. Its high moisture content turns to steam in the oven, and that steam puffs the shell. After baking, the shell is filled with cream, pastry cream, vla, custard or whipped cream. Because most of these fillings are dairy or egg-based, a cream puff is best eaten soon after it is filled. The pastry and fillings are in Kue Sus: Indonesia’s cream puff with custard filling.
Bakpia from Yogyakarta is a small, round sweet roll. The traditional filling is mung bean paste sweetened with sugar. It is thought to have arrived in Yogyakarta with a Chinese merchant in the 1940s, and it is tied to the Pathuk area, where makers named their shops by house number so that buyers could tell them apart. Newer fillings include chocolate and cheese. The full history is in Bakpia: Yogyakarta’s mung bean pastry.
Onde-onde is a sweet with the same bean filling. It is a glutinous rice ball coated in sesame seeds, with sweetened mung bean paste in the centre, and it is usually eaten as a snack. The entry is at Onde-Onde: sesame balls filled with sweet bean.
Pisang molen is a banana pastry. It is a banana wrapped in a layered dough that turns crisp when fried or baked. Pisang molen has its own page at Pisang Molen: crispy banana pastry snack from Indonesia, and the crisp layers are the point of the snack.
Moon cakes, martabak and the sweet pancake family
Kue bulan is the Indonesian name for the Chinese mooncake, eaten around the Mid-Autumn Festival. Indonesians usually know it by its Hokkien names, gwee pia or tiong chiu pia. The fillings include red bean paste, egg yolk, mung bean and lotus seed, and the cake is a festival food rather than an everyday snack. The Indonesian version is covered in Kue Bulan: the mooncake of Indonesia’s Chinese festivals.
Terang bulan is the thick, spongy sweet martabak. The batter is poured into a hot, thick pan and cooked until it forms the characteristic holes. It is then spread with butter or margarine, filled, folded and cut into pieces. Classic fillings are crushed peanuts, sugar, chocolate sprinkles and condensed milk. The same snack is also called martabak manis. It is covered in Terang Bulan: thick sweet martabak pancake explained.
The name martabak itself comes from an Arabic word meaning folded, and the family includes savoury versions as well as the sweet pancake. Martabak Aceh is a stuffed savoury take on the name, so check which style you are ordering before you choose. The Aceh version is described in Martabak Aceh: stuffed pancake.
Other cakes and snacks in this family
Kue lumpur is a soft, moist snack rather than a dry biscuit. The batter uses wheat flour, butter or margarine, eggs and coconut milk, with a steamed root such as potato, pumpkin, cassava or banana in some versions. It is poured into a mould and cooked until set. It is covered in Kue Lumpur: Jakarta’s soft spiced cookie explained. Kue ganjel rel is a different texture again. It is a dense bread sweetened with palm sugar and topped with sesame seeds, and it is linked to Semarang. Its name means railway sleeper, which is a nod to its shape. It is explained in Kue Ganjel Rel: dense palm sugar bread from Java.
How to choose between them
Start with the texture you want. If you want a soft, springy cake with a chewy finish, choose a steamed layered cake such as kue lapis. If you want something firmer, buttery and spiced, choose spekkoek. For a light, soft roll, choose bolu gulung, and for a green, fragrant sponge choose bolu pandan. If you want something crisp and filled, choose pastel for a savoury bite or kue sus for a cream-filled one. Bakpia and onde-onde are the sweet, bean-filled choices.
Next, think about the occasion. Maksuba and kue delapan jam are both Palembang cakes often bought as gifts, while terang bulan is the everyday pancake sold for snacking. Kue bulan is a festival food. If you are buying a cake to bring to a gathering, a whole layered cake travels more easily than a cream-filled pastry.
Finally, check the name before you commit. Several of the names here overlap. Terang bulan and martabak manis describe one sweet pancake. The three maksuba names describe one Palembang cake. The word bolu covers sponge cakes of many shapes. A look at the texture and the filling will tell you more than the name alone.
Practical notes for trying them
When you buy from a market stall, look at the cut surface. A layered cake should show distinct, separate colours. A sponge roll should have an even spiral. A cream puff should feel light when you lift it. These are simple checks, and they tell you more about freshness than a label does.
If you are learning to make one of these at home, begin with the method, not the flavour. Steaming needs steady heat, and layered baking needs patience, because each layer must set before the next is added. Once you have the method, the flavours of pandan, palm sugar, coconut and mung bean are easy to adjust.
The group is wide, but the choice is simple once you ask how the cake was made. Pick the link that suits your taste to go deeper, and return to the snacks hub to compare more.