Kek Lapis Sarawak is a traditional Malaysian cake famous both for its intricate kaleidoscopic appearance and the grueling process required to make it.

Inspired by the spit cakes that Dutch colonists used to enjoy, Kek Lapis Sarawak was born in Malaysia’s Sarawak state, sometime in the 1970’s. It’s basically a much more complex version of the layered Kek Lapis Betawi, which Sarawakians pretty much elevated to an art form. While its beige or brown outer layers do a good job or concealing the complicated inner cake, slicing one of these treas reveals a kaleidoscope of colors and geometrical shapes that require both logical thinking and a rich imagination to create.

Photo: Kitchen Confidente/Instagram

Making a Kek Lapis Sarawak (Sarawak Layer Cake), can take anywhere from four to eight hours, depending on both the complexity of the design and the skill of the baker. The laborious process starts with the baking of the soft, puffy layers in deep pans. Layers of colored batter are gradually added, with each layer spending about 10 minutes in the oven. But baking the colorful sponge is only half the battle, the easy half…

The real trick to a true Kek Lapis Sarawak is the cutting of the layers and their reassembly in complex patterns by gluing them together with jam or condensed milk as glue. Seasoned Kek Lapis Sarawak makers recently told Atlas Obscura that making this Malaysian delicacy can be extremely hard for the uninitiated, especially because just one mistake can throw off the design completely, leaving you with nothing to show for after hours of toiling in the kitchen.

“To me, it’s easy,” Sarawakian Jennifer Chen, who has been making Kek Lapis Sarawak since the 1980’s, said. For a learner, I don’t think they can pick it up so soon. It’s very confusing.”

It’s so confusing that even Chen, with all her experience, draws diagrams on paper when planning the design of her cakes, and even so, the designs can still turn out poorly. Luckily, she has the skill and experience to redo everything in a new pattern.

“You need to think about the pattern,” another Kek Lapis Sarawak master adds. “Let’s say you want to make kek lapis Cadbury. You need to know how to put the chocolate Cadbury in the middle, so that the cake doesn’t break. It’s very challenging. Once you make a mistake, it won’t turn out beautifully.”

Because of its complexity, the time required to make it, and the fact that everything has to be done by hand, Kek Lapis Sarawak is considered one of the most difficult cakes to make, making it a challenge even for seasoned bakers. It’s also a relatively expensive dessert in Malaysia, costing up to RM250 ($60) per cake.

“We have to do it ourselves and it’s very slow,” Jennifer Chen explained. “It’s all hand-made. We cannot do a lot.”