Layer by Layer · Steamed Rice Cake

Kueh Lapis

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Traditional versions are steamed one thin layer at a time, sometimes nine or more, with each layer left to set before the next is poured on top — a single cake can take hours of steaming before it's ever sliced.

A batter of rice flour, sago, and coconut milk, tinted in alternating bands of color, is steamed in repeated thin layers to build a dense, chewy, striped cake, then cut into diamonds and sold at Peranakan kueh counters around Katong and Joo Chiat.

Why it's made this way: It traces to Dutch colonial-era Indonesia, where European layer-cake baking blended with coconut milk and local spices, and Peranakan households later read its tiers through Chinese numerology — nine layers for 'long' life — making it one of the fixed sweets on Katong and Joo Chiat's celebration spreads.