Some time in the late 20th century when I was like 4, we had a home help I called Kak Timah. This was in the days when such help comes from the kampung usually recommended by word of mouth, and none of the malarkey than one have to get thru to get such help nowadays. On occasions, she would make these fluffy yellow-white sponge cakes called apom telur.

Now, the term apam or apom falls into a spectrum of kuehs that can be a steamed sponge (usually rice flour) cakes sometimes covered in dessicated coconut, or appom/apong usually seen these days of the South Indian variety made of rice flour but I prefer the sweet Chinese wheat flour version which I never get to eat these days, or the apam balik, the folded pancake that has a filling that comprises sugar and chopped peanut, available in the thin n crispy version sometimes with dessicated coconut, or the thicker ‘deep pan’ version.

After Kak Timah no longer became our home help, I haven’t eaten apom telur for the longest time. I remembered a late aunt tried to make it for me but it didn’t turn out right much to my disappointment. Fast forward 15 years later, I found a chap selling it at the pasar malam in Damansara Utama but that was the last time I had it.

A few years ago, a blogger I knew posted this. I was stoked, but prolly not enough to get around to try make it. I had no real excuse as I didn’t need an oven and I had a steamer.

Until this past April when I saw this ready mix packet at our local oriental supermarket. The only extra ingredients I needed was milk and eggs. I had no excuse as 20 years had past since buying it at that DU pasar malam. And besides, if it tastes bad, I’ll not buy it again.

Add milk to the eggs.

Whisk.

Add the ready mix.

Whisk for a good 6 minutes. Ouch.

The mix should be of this consistency by then.

Pour the mix into little bowls or whatever you fancy. And place it in a steamer.

And after 25 minutes, all done.

The smell that came from the steamer reminded me of my childhood. The taste was good. It is quite heavy, as by the time I finished one I had to wait for a while before having seconds.

I guess I should return to that blog post and try out the proper recipe from scratch. And interestingly, I remembered Kak Timah adding a swig of Magnolia ice cream soda to the mix, which I found is included in some of the recipes for apom telur.