Bika Ambon

The Bika Ambon cake is an Indonesian dessert made primarily of tapioca flour (extracted from cassava roots), yeast, coconut milk, eggs, and sugar, typically flavored with pandan, lemongrass and keffir lime leaves (which also make the cake quite fragrant). When baked, bubbles created by the yeast creates the spongy/honeycomb texture throughout the cake. There are similarities to several other cassava-based cakes in the Southeast Asian region: the Bika Ubi cake (more popular in Malaysia), and the Vietnamese Pandan Honeycomb cake (Banh Bo Nuong). Similarities could even extend to the Brazilian cassava cake - which makes sense, since the cassava plant originated from South America, and some say that the Portuguese introduced the cassava (the plant from which the tapioca flour is made) to Asia.

The honeycomb structure itself could actually be inspired by the Chinese "White Sugar Sponge Cake" or "Bai Tang Gao / Pak Thong Koh / Bak Tong Gou", which is made from rice & rice starch and leaven by the yeast created by the fermentation of the rice. Indeed, the Bika Ambon cake in the past was leavened by "tuak nira/enau" or fermented palm wine/rice wine yeast (wine is soaked into batter overnight, as wine further ferments to create the yeast, I suppose).

An interesting trivia about Bika Ambon: The cake supposedly originated in the city of Medan, in North Sumatera (which is the North-Western-most part of Indonesia), or at the very least it was originally popularized there among the Chinese communities in the city. Yet the word "Ambon" refers to the name of another Indonesian island located in the Eastern part of Indonesia, far away from Medan, where the cake is not at all popular).

Sweet Martabak (Martabak Manis)

The sweet martabak (or martabak manis) is a popular late night street dessert snack in many major cities in Indonesia. It is a thick turnover pancake/crepe hybrid, typically filled with a decadent mix of condensed milk, peanut, cheese, chocolate sprinkles (nowadays they even have options with Nutella or Toblerone fillings!!). Aside from the filling, its most distinct characteristics of the dessert are its yellow-colored honeycomb-like inner structure and its dark golden /crispy-ish crust. In addition, the street vendors typically slather a decadent amount of butter on the both inner and outer surfaces.

The dessert apparently originated from Bangka island (Western part of Indonesia), among the Chinese community, and was originally called "Terang Bulan" cake or "Bright Moon" cake, probably owing to its round shape and yellow/golden color. According to this website, the dessert was typically made to celebrate the Lunar Festival (full moon festivities). Indeed, the Indonesian Sweet Martabak or Terang Bulan, seems to be an iteration of the Cantonese/Fujianese Chin Loong Pau or Ban Jian Kuih (or as they refer to it in Malaysia/Singapore as Apam Balik cake), or even the Japanese Dorayaki. I also recently realized there are similarities to the British Crumpet or the Beghrir (Moroccan Thousand Holes Pancake), in particular, with regards to the holey texture. The term "Martabak" itself is probably adopted from the Indian/Arabic savory stuffed pancake/bread (similar to Prata), indeed, in Indonesia, the savory Martabak is often sold together with the sweet Martabak.