The springy cake is made using Indonesian-style mee goreng (cooked from scratch and not using instant noodles like Indomie), and has been popular with customers celebrating their birthdays. According to Dian, the Indonesian version of mee goreng is sweeter than most versions found in Singapore due to the addition of more kecap manis (sweet soy sauce). It also doesn’t contain ketchup, which is often used in local versions.
“It’s a tradition for Indonesian-Chinese to eat mee goreng on their birthday as noodles symbolise longevity. I also decorate the cake with red eggs as we eat that on birthdays too,” says Dian, adding that she gets around three to five orders of the cake a week.
Her mee goreng is “on the sweeter and peppery side” and instead of yellow noodles, which is typically used in the Singaporean version, Dian uses “thinner egg noodles” similar to mee kia. She elaborates: “I don’t add any chilli in my mee goreng as I don’t want it to overpower the dish. Plus, a lot of customers want to celebrate their birthday with kids, so they request for it to be non-spicy.”
Dian tells us she doesn’t compact the noodles into a cake mould like most recipes recommend as this would “make the noodles very hard”. To hold the strands in place, a plastic cake collar is taped down to the base, but the downside of this is, you won’t be able to cut the cake.
“I want the mee to be loose and springy, like how it is when served freshly cooked. When you want to eat it, just dish the noodles out from the ‘cake’,” she explains.
The creation comes topped with ingredients like pretty omelette ‘roses’, hard-boiled eggs, fish cake and red eggs. Additional toppings like fried prawns are available at extra cost.
Her cakes come in two sizes: small and large. The small, which feeds three pax, is priced at $36, and the large, which feeds six, is $53. All cakes come with a side of spicy achar and have to be pre-ordered three days in advance.