History of Putu Cake
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Putu Cake, or Putu Bamboo, is one of the most traditional cakes from java. This cake was made around 1200 years ago, during the Ming Dynasty. We can find this Javanese cake at the China Silk Museum.
Previously, this cake was called Xian Roe Xiao Long, which is a rice flour cake filled with soft green beans cooked in a bamboo mould. The dessert is called putu because, in the Serat Centhini, an old literary text written in 1814 during the Mataram kingdom, the name puthu appeared.
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As time goes on, putu cake changed its contents from green beans to brown sugar. In the past, puthu was served in the morning, but nowadays, putu cake is usually sold by street vendors. This steamed cake is prepared with glutinous rice flour flavoured and coloured with pandan leaves. The mixture is traditionally steamed in bamboo tubes, while the center of the cake is filled with palm sugar.
When steamed, the cake is usually dusted with freshly grated coconut. Putu cake and similar varieties of these convenient green-coloured snacks are also found in Malaysia and the Philippines. Some believe that they might have been inspired by puttu—a similar snack of Indian origin.
References:
https://www.intipseleb.com/lokal/32066-kue-putu
https://come2indonesia.com/traditional-indonesian-dessert-kue-putu/
https://www.tasteatlas.com/kue-putu
Image Sources:
https://assets.pikiran-rakyat.com/crop/0x0:0x0/x/photo/2021/09/21/546950775.png
