This post is sponsored by CakeRush, an online cake delivery service based in Klang Valley, Malaysia. Many thanks to them for sponsoring this creative cooking adventure, and for prompting me to make a cake centered around gula melaka (which, given my love/obsession with Malaysia’s national sugar, I was super stoked to create)!

I love gula melaka. Let me repeat myself. I LOVE gula melaka.

As far as my food memory goes, I remember it being my earliest ingredient infatuation. And for as long as I bake, gula melaka will always have a special place in my heart and pantry.

For the uninitiated, gula melaka is a palm sugar extracted from the flower buds of the coconut palm. It has a deep, floral richness, akin to treacle and maple syrup, but without any of the cloy. It’s bold, butterscotch-y, and when melted has the kind of sensual, slow-dripping consistency that makes you want to bathe yourself in this gula glory. If you’re not convinced of gula melaka’s appeal, here’s a quote by Robyn Eckhardt, an American food writer who’s spent a sizeable amount of time in Asia—she headed Malaysia’s prominent TimeOut Magazine at one point—and a self-proclaimed palm sugar addict:

“…I bit into an onde-onde I tasted caramel and smoke, while the pulut inti suggested butterscotch and coffee. Even after tasting three (okay, maybe four) of each, I didn’t feel the usual saccharine slickness on the back of my tongue. I had no sugar high. And I wanted more gula Melaka. More, more, more. I was smitten. So began my love affair with Malaysia’s ancient sweetener.”

That is but a typical reaction to gula melaka, and is an epiphany that many, if not all Malaysians go through in our youth. Take a look at Malaysia’s cuisine, and you’ll find gula melaka in every crevice. From drinks and shaved iced desserts, kuihs to tong sui (Chinese dessert soups), the floral caramel of gula melaka comes through. It’s even used in savoury applications, tempered into curries and stews to lend depth and a rich bittersweet-ness that commercial cane sugar could never replicate.

But despite gula melaka’s prevalence, it is little known outside of Malaysia, and can be impossible to procure, as Robyn Eckhardt found out the hard way. (She’s since taken to stocking up on gula melaka whenever she’s away from Malaysia.) And as such, it has seen little use in the pantheon of typically “Western” desserts, like pound cakes and trifles, candies and puddings. So, here’s my solution, my small contribution to making gula melaka a household sugar across the world—a gula melaka cake!

It sounds simple, and looks just like a typical bundt cake in some of the photos below—albeit a bit more burnished, a bit more brown. But that is part of the magic of gula melaka—it’s unassuming and subtle, until you smell and taste it, that’s when the epiphany happens. But in case that doesn’t convince you, I added even more pizzazz to the cake, in the form of gula melaka icing, whipped cream with streaks of gula melaka syrup, and sultry shavings of gula melaka, and had (a little too much) fun plating it all up. Plus, for some festive flair, I threw in some whisky-soaked longans too for a bit of texture and a boozy kick, that goes real well with the gula melaka!

It’s a little extra, a little indulgent, but I’m a gula melaka addict after all, so did you expect any less? In fact, I’m very very proud of this cake, and I think it’s one that I’ll be making again and again in the years to come, for as long as there’s gula melaka in my pantry (i.e. always).

A note for those who can’t easily procure gula melaka: This cake would work well with any other dark brown sugar too (though not as well as gula melaka, of course). But if you really can’t be bothered to make your own, CakeRush can deliver some gula melaka cakes to you! Check out their selection, they have a few that proudly feature gula melaka in them, like the gula melaka chocolate fudge cake, and the gula melaka cheescake.