Lapis Pisang

I baked another lapis cake for this raya..... This time, it's one that uses bananas for its flavour.  I've been meaning to bake this lapis for the longest time, after browsing through Asmah Laili's Goodness Gracious Absolutely Delicious. I'm glad I took the risk of baking it for the first time for hari raya.... the cake is super moist & has very good flavour, something that bananas will never fail us....

Lapis Pisang

Ingredients:
110g plain flour (I used cake flour.)
200g vanilla ice-cream powder (I replaced this with Nespray full-cream milk powder.)

1 tsp rounded baking powder (I used 1 tsp (level) double-acting baking powder.)

4 egg whites

12 egg yolks
230g castor sugar
400g butter
200g Delmonte bananas, mashed (I  used pisang berangan.) - use ripe bananas for sweeter banana flavour

a few drops of yellow colouring (optional)

1 tsp banana essence

Method:

1. Line & grease the bottom of 10x7 or 8x8-inch pan. Preheat the grill (top heat only) on medium high heat, about 180 deg C.
2. Combine flour, milk powder & baking powder & sift. Leave aside.
3. Cream butter until creamy white. Add in mashed banana & banana essence & mix until well blended. Keep aside.
4. In a clean & dry bowl, beat egg whites till soft peak, add in sugar gradually & continue to beat until sugar has dissolved. Then add in yolks one at a time till finished.
5. Reduce speed of machine to the slowest possible & slowly add flour mixture a little at a time. Stop the machine. Add butter mixture, yellow colouring & gently fold batter with a wooden spoon to combine well.
6. Pour 90g of  batter into a  lined & greased pan. Grill until cooked & the top of cake turns brown. Remove pan from the oven & press the top of cake using a lapis presser. Pour in another 90g of batter & bake. Repeat the process until finished.
7. Finally after the final layer, turn off grill & heat oven (top & bottom heat) to 150 deg C & bake the cake for 10-15 minutes. (This step is required for this lapis because the cake is very moist, so baking the whole cake after baking the last layer ensures that the cake, especially its sides, is not so wet.) *For more tips on baking lapis cake, refer to my post here.

Recipe by Azizah Mohd Ismail from Goodness Gracious Absolutely Delicious by Asmah Laili. (with some minor changes to the method)

I'm linking this post to the Little Thumbs Up August (flour) event, organised by Bake for Happy Kids & My Little Favourite DIY and hosted by Diana from Domestic Goddess Wannabe.

I'm also linking this post to the Cook-Your-Books event hosted by Joyce of Kitchen Flavours.