The Kuching-born baker started her business Kitchen Confidante in 2017 after years of watching and helping her mother make kek lapis at home.
The recipe was passed down by her mum, but Chai continues to improve her technique and quality with new designs and flavours.
Making kek lapis is not for the faint-hearted. In fact, Paul Hollywood, judge of “The Great British Bake Off”, once said kek lapis is “one of the hardest cake designs to make”, and he was not wrong!
It takes Chai almost 12 hours to complete one of her geometric creations, which “involves a lot of constructing and deconstructing, even cutting slices diagonally to complete the final design”, according to her business partner, Mak Kah Kein.
“In fact, more time is spent thinking of a design and planning it than actually baking,” he laughs.
Chai, who has a background in engineering, sketches out each cake with precision, taking into consideration how each layer that constitutes the overall cake is cut to create the intended patterns.
Then there is the grilling and assembling of layer upon layer, which are glued together using an apricot jam that is not too sweet.
Among their bestsellers is the “Tulip” kek lapis, which involves coloured layers meticulously arranged to reveal the flower when cut; as well as the “Prism”, “Abstract 16” and “Abstract 8”, in reference to each cake’s complex symmetrical designs and numbers of shapes.
In addition, Kitchen Confidante offers a ketogenic version of kek lapis made of almond flour instead of wheat.
Mak shares that they even came up with chicken floss- and sambal chilli prawn-flavoured cakes last year, but admits “many were not up to trying these flavours and prefer their kek lapis on the sweet side rather than savoury”.
While Kitchen Confidante sells kek lapis year-round, Chai also creates other baked goods using her mother’s recipes. Specialities include the “kuih S”, a crispy butter cookie popular in Sarawak, as well as cream cheese sticks: crunchy, umami cookies she used to enjoy during Chinese New Year growing up.
During the mid-autumn festival, Kitchen Confidante’s mooncakes featured flavours such as cendol ice kacang, onde, longan red dates, and honey potato and pumpkin with mochi.
And with Chinese New Year just around the corner, Chai’s festive offerings include the Golden Pillow Pineapple Cake and Ong Lai Lapis, both made with pineapple jam.
As for those who can’t decide which cake to try, the “Tuan Yuan Platter” is a spread of different kek lapis flavours and designs – truly a multilayered smorgasboard that is not to be missed!
Visit Kitchen Confidante’s Instagram page to check out Chai’s beautiful creations and to place an order.