Mama’s Kue Wajik
This is a traditional kue wajik, a sweet sticky rice cake commonly found in Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei. Kue wajik means diamond cake. It earned its moniker because the cake is cut into diamond shapes before serving.
Servings: 24 pieces
Equipment
- 1 13x9 baking dish If you prefer thicker pieces, you can use a 9x9 baking dish instead.
- 1 rice cooker or large pot for cooking the rice
- 1 2-quart pot
Ingredients
- 1 kg glutinous rice beras ketan
- 200 grams granulated sugar 1 cup
- 200 grams brown sugar gula lempeng; comes as a sugar block
- 100 ml of water 3.5 oz
- 325 ml coconut milk 11 oz
- 2 pandan leaves, knotted optional
Instructions
- Wash glutinous rice, soak overnight (about 12 hours), drain and wash until clean. Drain and discard water.
- Add pandan leaves if desired, then steam or cook the rice for approximately 45-50 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes with a spoon until it is cooked.
- Remove the pandan leaves (if used) and transfer the rice to a big wok pan.
- While the rice is cooking, place granulated sugar, brown sugar, and water into a pot. Stir over low heat until sugar is dissolved and everything is evenly mixed.
- Add coconut milk, bring to a boil and stir until slightly thickened. Adjust sugar to taste.
- Add mixture to glutinous rice and stir until everything is evenly mixed.
- Pour mixture into the pan. Cover with plastic and hand-press gently to keep things uniform and dense in the pan.
- Cut into diamond-shaped pieces. Cake is ready to be served.
Notes
You can steam rice without using a rice cooker by using a vegetable steamer pot.
The pandan leaves are optional. We usually make it plain and it is just as delicious.
We don’t grease the pan and so far it’s not sticky.
We use regular plastic, not plastic wrap. I think plastic wrap is very easy to wrinkle so it’s easy with regular plastic.
If it dries out, you can heat it up in a steamer pot for about 2-3 minutes before eating.
Kudos and mega-thanks to Vonce (my friend and her daughter), who typed up Mama’s recipe after she translated the entire thing from Indonesian. I’m sure that was a challenge.