A Mouthful of Ants' Nest...

This might sound a little strange but moving out of our condo, into a HDB neighbourhood was quite exciting for me. Surprise, surprise, the the biggest perk for me was how we suddenly had so many choices at our doorstep when it came to groceries and food.

We used to live in Normanton Park - which started as a private estate for army officers before it was open for public sale. We had our own cafe, bookshop, kindergarten and family-run supermarket... but that was it. To top it off, it was a rather isolated estate - it was set at the top of a hill, along the Ayer Rajah expressway - the nearest supermarkets/hawker centres were a drive away.

So to relocate to a neighbourhood where I could WALK to a major supermarket and have access to all manner of food stalls and shops... was exciting. So much to see, so much to choose from... 

I am digressing... back to what I was getting at.

One of our early discoveries was this little Chinese bakery named (strangely enough) Nagoya. I love Chinese bakeries in Singapore. I love custard tarts, the weird fluffy, rainbow-coloured bread (perfect for ice cream sandwiches!) and also the made-to-order waffles with the filling of your choice. I also loved the savoury buns - my favourite were tuna buns and those sausage buns with the weird, panko-like texture.

Nagoya was where I discovered honey cake. And boy, did I love it. I loved the sweetness (not from honey, mind you) and the spongy/bouncy/almost-rubbery texture of this cake. Over the years, I'd come to discover that this cake was also called "Kuih Sarang Semut" - ant's nest cake. It was called Sarang Semut because a GOOD cake is one which had a cross-section which looked like the inside of an ant's nest.

I've tried making this cake before... twice actually... and both times they were dismal failures. Both of them had issues with texture while the second try was a frustrated attempt after I messed up the sugar component of the cake.

So I was a little bit hesitant to try this recipe when I first came across it. Saudade got the better of me though, so I decided to give it a whirl.

Kenneth's got two recipes - one with sugar and one with golden syrup. Even though I have a terrible track record with making caramel, I thought I would stay true to the recipe and go ahead with the sugar variation. So that's the recipe I'm sharing here... as usual... with my notes! :)

I'm so glad I gave this recipe a try... it's the first time I managed to attain the near-perfect texture!



Kuih Sarang Semut

Ingredients:

180g butter, at room temperature
1 can of condensed milk, approx 380g
2 cups of self raising flour
2 cups of caster sugar
2 cups of water
1 and a half teaspoons of baking soda
8 eggs

Method:

1.  Preheat the oven at 160 Celsius (140 Celsius, fan forced)
2. In a high-walled saucepan, heat the sugar over low-medium heat, stirring continuous. Keep stirring until all the sugar is melted. This is a very delicate process. If you're worried, err on the side of lower heat so that you don't burn your sugar.
3. Once the sugar reaches a light/golden brown, take it off the heat. 
4. Carefully and gradually add water to the sugar syrup - the super hot sugar mix might spit when it comes in contact with water. If you find the sugar hardening, simply put it back on the low heat and stir the mixture until the sugar dissolves. You should end up with a golden-brown liquid, similar to maple syrup. Put the sugar syrup aside to cool. 
5. In a mixing bowl, cream the butter.
6. Add condensed milk and beat until well combined. 
7. Put your mixer on a slow speed and add your eggs, one at a time. Mix well. 
8. Switch your mixer off. Sift your flour into the bowl then mix until well combined. 
9. While the blender is running, slowly incorporate the sugar syrup until well combined. 
10. Add the baking powder
11. Transfer the mix into a baking tin and bake for 45-60 minutes or until an inserted skewer comes out clean. 
12. Let the cake cool, then slice and eat!

Extra Notes: 

• I used a silicon baking tray, so there was no need to grease it. 
• I found the sugar work to be the most challenging process. It took a long time to melt to melt and the mixture tended to clump up. Be patient and work through it slowly, the clumps will disappear.
• In relation to the above, I actually used a lower flame so that I could have more control of the sugar. In some instances, I would increase the heat to get it going quicker but then take it off the stove and stir the sugar in over an unheated hob before putting it back on the heat.
• You might have to use warm water - I used cold-ish tap water and found that the sugar would harden. Putting the heat on helped but it might be better to put in warm or hot water so that you don't have to spend time melting it all down.
• If you want to cool the syrup down quicker, transfer it from the saucepan into a bowl. The saucepan's retained heat doesn't help with the cooling down process.
• You really need to make sure the butter is very well incorporated and that you have a smooth batter. I noticed that despite all the mixing, I had little clumps of butter. I put them in the tray anyway, thinking they'll melt into the batter but I noticed little splotches of lighter cake in the batter. I might try melting the butter next time before using it.
• This is quite a big recipe - I managed to get one 9 inch (I think) circle tray and a loaf of honeycake. That said, my nine inch tray is quite shallow, I might need to try using a higher tray next time.In the meantime, I've got lots of honey cake to get through and hubby will be bringing some to work tomorrow!