When I was a kid, we only had cakes on special occasions such as Christmas or Chinese New Year, not even on our birthdays. How we would look longingly at those cylindrical ones wrapped around in red oily paper that were placed in saucers on the tables at the coffee shops! I am sure the kids today would not even cast a second glance at those, much less want to eat them.
Everytime the festive seasons were round the corner, I would be recruited to lend a helping hand in the kitchen. I had to use some kind of beater with a brass handle and a spring on one end to beat the eggs in a red flowery basin, followed by the butter and the sugar and lastly, the flour before putting the batter in the oven to bake for a plain butter cake.
Sometimes, my mother would add colouring and essences that came in little bottles with red metal caps, or grated coconut or Milo or Van Houten chocolate, chopped cherries and raisins. It would appear like there were different varieties but basically, they were all the same with some minimal, almost negligible differences and yet, how we yearned for the big day to come sooner so that we could feast on those, not only at our own house but at those of our relatives who would more or less, have the same cakes to offer.
The other day, I saw some cakes for sale at my regular stall at Bandong. There was the coconut cake that the lady described as “recipe lama” (old recipe) selling for RM5.00 but I did not buy that as I never like grated coconut in cakes or biscuits. Instead, I bought this kek masam manis (sweet and sour cake) also selling at RM5.00 a loaf…
…which had bits of san cha (preserved plum flakes) in it. We had san cha when we were young – soft moist ones that were very red and would stain your tongue so bloody red after you had eaten some making you look like a vampire of sorts. The ones these days are dry and not so red and not so nice either. But somehow, I do not recall my mother ever using those in her cakes…
A few days later, I bought another one with chocolate rice at the same price…
Like the cakes during my younger days, they tasted the same – except for those littlle bits of additions that actually did not make much of a difference.
Today, we have a multitude of different kinds of cakes at the bakeries – and those to-die-for ones at places like Secret Recipe. I am sure these “old-school cakes” would not go down too well with young people anymore these days, I’m afraid. Time passes, things change and that’s just the way it is…
...STILL CRAZY AFTER ALL THESE YEARS! 