Bika ambon or golden cake or golden kuih bingka in Singapore, is an Indonesian dessert, made from ingredients such as

tapioca Tapioca (; ) is a starch extracted from the storage roots of the cassava plant (''Manihot esculenta,'' also known as manioc), a species native to the North and Northeast regions of Brazil, but whose use is now spread throughout South America ...

flour,

egg An egg is an organic vessel grown by an animal to carry a possibly fertilized egg cell (a zygote) and to incubate from it an embryo within the egg until the embryo has become an animal fetus that can survive on its own, at which point the a ...

s, sugar, yeast and coconut milk. Bika ambon is generally sold in pandan and banana flavor, but today it is also available in other flavors like durian, cheese and

chocolate Chocolate is a food made from roasted and ground cacao seed kernels that is available as a liquid, solid, or paste, either on its own or as a flavoring agent in other foods. Cacao has been consumed in some form since at least the Olmec civ ...

. This cake is a further development of ''

kue bingka Kue bingka ( Jawi: ) is an Indonesian traditional cake ( kue basah) that is one of the typical traditional Banjar kue mostly associated with South Kalimantan province, Indonesia. Kue bingka also found in Malay cuisine. It has very sweet, fa ...

,'' a famous traditional cake in the eastern parts of Indonesia. The cake is notable for its sponge-like holes, which was formed by yeast in the cake dough that creates bubbles. This holes gives it a unique spongy texture when it is baked. Its close analogue probably is the Malay sponge cake, due to similar spongy holes, but the moists and texture is actually slightly different. Although the name contains the word "Ambon", the name of an

island An island (or isle) is an isolated piece of habitat that is surrounded by a dramatically different habitat, such as water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, skerries, cays or keys. An island ...

and its largest

city A city is a human settlement of notable size.Goodall, B. (1987) ''The Penguin Dictionary of Human Geography''. London: Penguin.Kuper, A. and Kuper, J., eds (1996) ''The Social Science Encyclopedia''. 2nd edition. London: Routledge. It can be def ...

, Bika ambon is widely known as the specialty cake of

Medan Medan (; English: ) is the capital and largest city of the Indonesian province of North Sumatra, as well as a regional hub and financial centre of Sumatra. According to the National Development Planning Agency, Medan is one of the four mai ...

in North Sumatra and is often brought as a gift by those who visited the city. The origins of bika ambon are not known; however, there is some speculation that they came to Medan through Ambonese traders, where the locals took a liking to it. Mojopahit Street, Medan Petisah is the most famous sales region of bika ambon in Medan, North Sumatra. There are at least 40 stores that sell this kind of cake. Recently, bika ambon has become popular around Central Java, thanks to a few retail shops that sell various Indonesian traditional cakes.

References

Kue {{indonesia-cuisine-stub

See also

References