What is this DELICIOUS cake?

March 7, 2007 9:24 PM

Help my friend figure out what kind of cake she ate on Malaysia Airlines!

Characteristics of the cake:
*It looked like cornbread.
*It was soft and smooth, sort of but not quite like cheesecake.
*It had a vanilla-ish taste.

So what kind of cake was it? I can pass along any questions, of course.

I tried googling "Malaysia Airlines" + cake + menu, but nothing helpful came up.

posted by sleeplessunderwater to food & drink (11 comments total)

Sounds like it could be pound cake? I'm thinking one of those frozen Little Debbie loaves. Probably not, though.
posted by rossination at 9:29 PM on March 7, 2007

I'm not sure why it would be on Malaysia Airlines, but could it be torta tres leches (3 milk cake)? I've had it at my local Cuban restaurant, but I'm not sure of its national origin. It is a very moist cake that uses condensed milk, evaporated milk, and cream. I don't know about the vanilla taste, but it is definitely sweet.
posted by booksherpa at 9:33 PM on March 7, 2007

hmmm. I'm thinking about malay desserts & am not sure. Could it be some kind of kueh baulu?
posted by miss lynnster at 9:48 PM on March 7, 2007

Not that I have any idea about Malaysian desserts, but from your description the first thing that springs to mind is a friand. They always remind me of cheesecake because they're rich, smooth, moist and contain almond meal which gives them a different texture to normal cupcakes or muffins. They don't usually look like cornbread as far as I know, but they could be differently shaped for convenience and transportation purposes.
posted by andraste at 10:02 PM on March 7, 2007

You might try poking around Airline Meals since there seems to be a community dedicated to in depth views and reviews of airline food.
posted by Ookseer at 10:13 PM on March 7, 2007

Here's one listing of Asian desserts that might be helpful if nobody else has a clue. None of these seem like a perfect fit, though.

Here are two more sites describing Malaysian desserts specifically. The third link has some pictures. Possibly some form of kuih, or nyonya kuih, as described in the second link ("keuh" in the third link)?

- on preview, as miss lynnster says.
posted by LobsterMitten at 10:23 PM on March 7, 2007

Oooo, the kueh baulu or mini baulu look pretty likely! And so does the friand (at least, the picture on wikipedia looks sufficiently cornbread-like to me).

Oh, thanks for the airline meals and Asian desserts links! Hopefully she'll be able to find it on one of those if it's not baulu or friand.
posted by sleeplessunderwater at 10:34 PM on March 7, 2007

Here's another good link to show baulu to her...
posted by miss lynnster at 11:09 PM on March 7, 2007

Hey sleeplessunderwater,

I think the cake that you had was not kueh baulu. Kueh baulu does look cornbread-ish, but it's a very dry, crumbly cake, not soft and smooth.

Instead, I think you had kueh (or kuih) bengkang (or bingka). Here are a few photos of kueh bengkang for you to check out.

The different pronunciations/spellings are dependent on which region of Malaysia you're from.

Kueh Bengkang is a sweet, dense cake, which can look like pound cake, but has a slightly creamy consistency from the tapioca and coconut cream used to bake it. It's a little sticky and sweet. The consistency is kind of like if rich English pound cake and lemon curd had a bastard love child.

There's a recipe here for kueh bengkang that looks good.

Let me know if this helps!
posted by Samantha at 11:34 PM on March 7, 2007

Was it 馬拉糕? (ma la gao)

It's spongy yellow cake, usually extremely soft because it is steamed

Heres a pic from searching google images for "ma la gao"
posted by mphuie at 12:45 AM on March 8, 2007

Still not sure, but she said the kueh bengkang sounds close, too. Thanks, everyone!
posted by sleeplessunderwater at 8:00 PM on March 12, 2007