Steamed Layered Cake/Kueh Lapis

This steamed layered rice cake is a favorite hawker food in Malaysia and it's one of my favorite. I remembered fondly how I would gingerly peel each layer off and eating it with small bites. I've tried several attempts making this over the years and the cake ended up in the trash. My friends told me that it requires some skills in adjusting the batter mixture and steaming each layers. I am not going to give up without another try at it. I stumbled upon Madam Kwong's recipe and it seems to work. I made some adjustment to the recipe and it turns out quite beautiful--but not quite as perfect to the ones back home.

Ingredients: (adapted from Mdm. Kwong's)
450 gm rice flour

150 gm tapioca flour
3 cups sugar
1 can (400ml) coconut milk
½ tsp. salt
2½ cups water
2 screwpine leaves (pandan)
A 9-inch round pan (greased thinly with cooking oil)
Steamer with rack and lid
food coloring (red, green)
¼ tsp. pandan paste
Method:
1.Combine water, pandan leaves and sugar in a saucepan and bring to boil over medium heat. Stir until sugar dissolved completely. Remove from heat and allow to cool. Discard the pandan leaves.
2. Mix the the 2 types of flours, salt and coconut together. Beat or mix until the mixture is free from lumps. Then stir in the sugar mixture whisk well to mix. The mixture should not be too thick and runny, but just enough to coat the back of the ladle or spoon. Add and adjust water if necessary to make a total of mixture to measure about 4 cups. Strain through a sieve and allow mixture to sit for about 15 minutes.

3. Divide the mixture into 3 portions: ½ cup for red coloring; 1½ cups for green coloring and a tsp. of pandan paste; 2¼ cups, no coloring
4. Add enough water to the bottom tray of the steamer and bring to a boil. Put the baking pan in the top layer and allow to heat up the pan.
5. Measure ½ cup of the white mixture and pour into the pan and cover lid to steam for 3 minutes. When the first layer begins to thicken and set on top, remove lid and pour in ½ cup of the green layer. Cover lid and steam for 3 minutes. When the third layer begins to thicken and set on top, add ½ cup of mixture with no coloring. Repeat the steps and procedure, alternating green and white mixture until all the batter is used up. The final and the last layer is red.
6. After the final layer is set, steam further for another 15 minutes. Remove the lid and wipe excess moisture and cover again to finish steaming.
7. Remove from heat and allow to cool completely before cutting into squares or diamond-shaped pieces.
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