Kue bolu might be
steamed or
baked. There are wide variety of kue bolu, and most of the texture is soft and fluffy akin to sponge cake or
chiffon cake.
Kue bolu is known for its soft and fluffy texture, contributed from the foaming effect of bubbles created by
leavening agent that lightens and softens the dough mixture. Traditionally kue bolu uses
yeast as leavening agent, today however,
baking powder or baking soda is more commonly used.
Today in Indonesia, bolu is mostly refer to a bare sponge cake without any
frosting. Cakes that coated in frosting is called keik (derived from
English "cake") instead.
Etymology and history
Hundred years of colonisation in Indonesian archipelago has left its legacy in local culinary tradition. European influences upon
Indonesian cuisine is most prevalent in baking, pastry, cake and bread making technique, introduced by Portuguese and Dutch colonials. The term bolu in
Indonesian is derived from
Portuguesebolo to describe
cake,[3] or more precisely
sponge cake. This
loanword describe the historic
Portuguese influence in Indonesia.
After the
Dutch take over, the
Dutch wordtaart was also entered Indonesian vocabulary, as a similar kind of kue snack or cake,[4] thus today the term bolu and tar or tart is used interchangeably to describe cakes or tarts.
Variations
In Indonesian cuisine bolu is categorized under kue, which includes wide variety of traditional snacks, cakes, and sweets. Kue bolu or simply bolu is often used as an umbrella term to identify wide varieties of cakes and tarts in Indonesia. Variations include:
Bolu bahari
Small bolu cupcake of
Kalimantan (Indonesian Borneo).
Bolu bruder
Lit:brother's cake,
Manado (Minahasan) soft bolu sponge cake. In
Manado Malay the term bruder means Christian priest, which derived from
brother in Christianity. It is however named after a Dutch dish of the same name
broeder.
A variant of dry bolu from
Banyuwangi, East Java. The shape is elliptical resembles a small sized football or akin to
cocoa pod. It is quite similar to kue bahulu.[8]