Kue Cubit — Indonesian pinch cakes with a soft centre

i. Origin & history

Kue cubit is a Jakarta and Java street food, and for many Indonesians it is a taste of childhood: vendors set up their carts with a charcoal or gas burner and a heavy, dimpled iron pan outside primary schools, and children buy a few cakes for pocket change. The cakes are cooked to order, a pan at a time, and handed over hot in a paper bag.

Cubit is Indonesian for 'pinch'. The usual explanation is that the cakes are so small they are picked or 'pinched' up with the fingertips, or pinched out of the pan with a small fork or tongs. Either way, it is a descriptive street name rather than a formal one.

The method is generally thought to owe something to the Dutch poffertjes, small yeasted pancakes cooked in a similar dimpled pan, which were well known in the Dutch East Indies. Kue cubit, though, is not a poffertje: it is leavened with whisked egg and baking powder rather than yeast, it is cooked from below only rather than turned, and it has developed its own distinctly Indonesian style, with chocolate meses sprinkles and a soft, barely set centre.

That soft centre became a trend in its own right around the mid-2010s, when cafés and stalls in Jakarta began selling kue cubit setengah matang — 'half-cooked kue cubit' — with a deliberately molten middle and toppings such as matcha, Nutella, cheese, red velvet and Ovomaltine. It is now common to choose between a 'full-cooked' (matang) cake and a half-cooked one.

ii. How kue cubit stays soft in the middle

Kue cubit is cooked from the bottom only. The iron pan is heated and greased, batter fills each mould, and as it cooks the base sets into a thin, golden, lightly crisp crust while the heat works its way upward. The top is then covered with a lid for a few seconds, trapping steam that sets the surface just enough to hold the sprinkles. Take the cakes out early and the centre is still liquid and custardy; leave them a minute more and they set into tender little sponges.

The batter is a quick sponge. Eggs and sugar are whisked until thick and pale, trapping air, then flour, a little baking powder and milk are folded in. The whisked eggs provide most of the lift and give the soft, cakey crumb; baking powder, and sometimes a pinch of bicarbonate of soda, adds extra rise and helps browning on the base. Melted butter or margarine adds flavour and keeps the cakes tender.

Heat control is the main skill. The pan must be hot enough for the base to set and brown quickly, but not so hot that it burns before the top sets. Street vendors judge it by experience; at home, a medium-low heat and a test cake are the best guide. A heavy cast-iron pan holds its heat evenly; a thin aluminium takoyaki or æbleskiver pan works but needs a lower flame.

iii. Ingredients

Makes 20 servings · scroll the side panel to adjust

• 2 eggs, at room temperature
• 100 g caster sugar
• ⅛ tsp salt
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 150 g plain flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• ¼ tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 150 ml whole milk
• 50 g butter, melted and cooled
• 2 tbsp butter or margarine, for greasing
• 60 g chocolate sprinkles (meses), or other toppings

Room-temperature eggs whisk to a much greater volume than cold ones and give lighter cakes. Plain flour is standard; Indonesian recipes often specify medium-protein flour (terigu protein sedang). Many vendors use margarine in the batter and for greasing, which gives the familiar street flavour; butter tastes richer. Chocolate meses — the long, thin chocolate sprinkles of Dutch and Indonesian tradition — are the classic topping; for half-cooked kue cubit, try spreading Nutella, grated cheese or a little matcha sauce on top.

iv. Method

1. Whisk the eggs, sugar, salt and vanilla with an electric whisk for 4–5 minutes, until thick, pale and roughly tripled in volume; the mixture should leave a trail when the beaters are lifted.
2. Sift together the flour, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda. Fold into the egg mixture in three additions, alternating with the milk, until just smooth.
3. Fold in the melted butter until no streaks remain. Rest the batter for 10 minutes.
4. Heat a kue cubit, poffertjes or æbleskiver pan over medium-low heat for 3–4 minutes. Brush each mould with butter or margarine.
5. Fill each mould about three-quarters full. Cook for about 1 minute, until bubbles appear and the edges begin to set.
6. Scatter sprinkles on top and cover the pan with a lid for 30–60 seconds. For half-cooked cakes, take them out when the top is just set but the centre still wobbles; for fully cooked ones, give them another 1–2 minutes, until a skewer comes out clean.
7. Lift the cakes out with a small fork or skewer, grease the moulds again and repeat with the remaining batter. Serve hot.

v. Tips & common mistakes

• Whisk the eggs properly. They are the main leavening; under-whisked eggs give flat, dense cakes.
• Fold, do not beat. Mixing hard after adding the flour knocks out the air and develops gluten, making the cakes tough.
• Make a test cake. The first cake shows whether the heat is right: the base should be golden, not dark, by the time the top is set.
• Grease the moulds every time. Kue cubit stick quickly, especially as the pan builds up residue.
• Use a lid. Without it the top stays raw while the base overcooks; the trapped steam sets the surface gently.
• Eat half-cooked kue cubit at once. The soft centre is the point and it continues to cook and firm as it sits.

vi. Variations

Kue cubit setengah matang is the soft-centred style, often topped with Nutella, cheese, Ovomaltine or matcha. Kue cubit pandan adds pandan juice or paste to the batter for a green colour and grassy scent, and kue cubit cokelat adds cocoa. Some stalls make red velvet, green tea and taro versions. Savoury toppings such as cheese and sweetcorn are also common.

Kue cubit belongs to a large family of pan-cooked small cakes: the Dutch poffertjes, the Danish æbleskiver, the Thai coconut khanom krok and Indonesia's own serabi, a coconut-milk pancake cooked in clay pans. In Malaysia, similar soft cakes are sold as kuih cubit.

vii. Serving & storage

Serve kue cubit straight from the pan, in a paper cone or on a plate, as an afternoon snack with tea or coffee. They are best eaten within a few minutes, especially the half-cooked kind.

Fully cooked kue cubit can be kept for a day in an airtight container and reheated in a hot pan or a microwave for a few seconds, though they lose their crisp base. The batter can be made up to a day ahead and kept in the fridge; it will lose some volume, so stir in an extra ¼ tsp baking powder before cooking.

ix. More from Indonesian & Malaysian

• Serabi — coconut-milk pancakes
• Kue Apem — steamed rice cakes
• Kue Lumpur — potato coconut cakes
• Dadar Gulung — pandan crêpes
• Æbleskiver — Danish pancake balls
• Khanom Krok — Thai coconut pancakes