Consuming Trang: A Tasty Bake
The famous sweet cake from Trang is a Thai nationwide sensation. Guest blogger and award-winning travel writer and photographer, Roderick Eime samples this delightful treat.
When Kuhn Yee Keng was just 19, he started baking cakes in the family kitchen in Trang. In 1956, the busy kitchen turned out just 20 cakes a day using tough manual processes. Now 60 years later, his tasty fruit cakes are sought after all over Thailand, not just in his home province of Trang.
Kuhn Yee now operates five stores across Trang, producing up to 800 cakes on a busy day and helped by family members who must often ferry finished cakes from one store to another during busy periods.
“Because we do not preserve in rum like many traditional fruit cakes,” Kuhn Yee tells me via my guide Suree, “they are best eaten within three days, but can stay fresh for up to a week.”
This alcohol-free process also makes the cake attractive amongst the sizeable Muslim population who live predominantly in the south of the country.
While the recipe was once a closely guarded secret, Kuhn Yee is now happy to share his famous recipe on one of his many TV segments on Thai television.
Main ingredients include eggs, sugar, butter and blended fruits such as mango, tomato, plum, raisins, banana and nuts like cashews.
These famous ‘tasty bake’ cakes can be enjoyed any time of the year, but are an ideal complement to tea or coffee.
