It’s taken me quite some time to write up this post because of a prolonged foray into the meaning of ‘soogee’ and the origins of this dish.
In Singapore and Malaysia today, it’s usually spelt ‘sugee’ but I quickly discovered that there are alternative spellings – ‘sugi’, ‘suji’, ‘sooji’, ‘soojee’ – which are used in India. However, suji is the Hindi term used in North India, whereas in South India, it goes by the name ‘rava’, ‘ravva’, ‘rawa’ (wonder if someone can help me – is this in Telugu?). You might like to refer to glossaries of Indian cooking here, here, here and here.
Now this strong Indian connection intrigued me because Sugee Cake is firmly entrenched in Singapore & Malaysian as a distinctly Eurasian dish, as you can see here and here, while Mary Gomes‘ Eurasian Cookbook describes it as the ‘typical Eurasian wedding cake’ and at the restaurant at the Singapore Eurasian Association, Quentin’s, ‘the sugee cake made by his mother is always a hot favourite’. The status of Sugee Cake as a perennial local favourites is reflected by its inclusion in Singapore secondary school home economics textbooks :)!
Although categorised as a single ethnic community, Eurasians in Singapore and Malaysia have a diverse range of origins (Portuguese, Dutch, British – in chronological order of the appearance of colonial powers in Malaya, mixed with different Asian ethnicities, usually Indian or Chinese). However, what is usually presented as Eurasian culture in Singapore is the colourful Portuguese variety, which traces its roots back to the community in Malacca, a town conquered by the Portuguese in 1511. The Portuguese had also landed in Goa, on the west coast of India, in 1510, and established a colony there. Portuguese-Indian Eurasians from Goa soon migrated to Malacca in the following century or so, before the Portuguese lost Malacca to the Dutch in 1641.
It therefore seems most likely that Sugee Cake originated on the Indian subcontinent, an offshoot of Indian sweets made with sugee, such as halwa and kesari (this recipe being the version from a Singaporean with roots in Kerala, a state also on the southwest coast of India not far from Goa). Halwa and kesari, like many Asian sweets, are both cooked on the stove top, whereas Sugee Cake is baked in an oven, like a European cake, which represents the Eurasian element in this recipe.
But what is sugee/soogee/suji/sooji? It’s semolina, which is in fact a product made from durum wheat (what Italian pasta is made from). The Penguin Companion to Food tells us that durum wheat is a very hard variety of wheat and ‘when coarsely milled, the brittle grains fracture into sharp chips, and it is these which constitute ordinary semolina’. Semolina is found in cuisines all round the world, from British semolina pudding, to German rote Grütze, to Russian gurieveskaya kasha, to Greek ravaní (related to South Indian rava?), to Middle Eastern halva (clearly connected to Indian halwa).
Semolina, like other flours, can be milled in different ways and ground into different textures. According to this document about the wheat industry in India, suji is ‘coarse semolina’ and rava is ‘fine semolina’. Most recipes don’t make a distinction between suji, rava and semolina, so perhaps it depends on how fussy you are.
Besides Indian sweets and Sugee Cake, semolina is used in other Singaporean/Malaysian ethnic cuisines, such as the Malay Kueh Bingka Suji (N.B. there are other types of kueh bingka made with tapioca, also a popular nonya dish) as well Sugee Cookies, which are a mainstay of Chinese New Year snacking (see recipe here) as well as popular for Malay Hari Raya (see photos here). Most home bakers would probably pick up the most commonly available semolina flour by local flour mill, Prima Flour, which is found every supermarket.
Grandmother’s recipe below doesn’t include baking instructions, so you might want to cross-reference with other Sugee Cake recipes, such as this one from Rose’s Kitchen or this one by Amy Beh, the well-known Malaysian food writer. However, both use the creaming method which doesn’t feature in grandma’s recipe at all, and the length of time one is instructed to soak the semolina varies from 1 1/2 hrs (Amy Beh), to 3 hrs (grandma) to 8 hrs (Rose’s Kitchen). All the recipes use a heart attack-inducing number of eggs though! Reminds me of grandma’s Marmer/Marble Cake recipe :).
I think you done a great Job!
Thanks, Nicole!
Sujee Cake definitely has its origins in India as my mum always made this cake round the year, and each aunt from around Bombay, India had their own version which was compared to during Christmas time when sweets were exchanged to see whose version was the best. We use a similar recipe and I can distinctly remember my mum’s scribble in this same format as yours.
What a nice reminder from the past and I can definitely vouch that your fudge recipe is the most original one as we all make this version here in India – now that its Christmas time all the house will be buzzing around with fudge making in the same manner you describe.
Good site for memories
Dear Carol,
Thank you so much for that information and confirming my hypothesis. Isn’t it wonderful how food traditions and food brands in history have travelled across Asia following imperialism and the migration of peoples :).
Wishing you all the best for the Christmas season!
I am so very glad to have found this site and this particular recipe. Bit of a passion of mine. One question. Would you happen to know the cake tin size? Did it make one or several cakes? Gearing up for Christmas and would dearly love to make this cake. Would endure me to many older folk. :-)
Dear Katherine,
Thanks for your message. I’m sorry I have no idea about the size of cake tin or how many cakes this recipe makes. Good luck for the Christmas baking!
hi niceties!
chanced upon your lovely site when searching for suji cake recipes.
a family friend used to give us this deliciously rich suji cake for CNY every year when i was young. sadly he passed away so we have been missing his suji cakes for years.
recently i decided to go on a suji cake recipe hunt and have tried 2 recipes so far (which were tasty but just not the same as the one we had). your grandma’s recipe looks like a winner. can’t wait to try it this weekend!
thank you for such a wonderful nostalgic site. reminds me of my late grandma who was a great cook, but sadly didn’t leave any cook books behind.
What is the temperature for baking, and for how long? If anyone knows, please share. Thanks.
What is the baking temp and for how long?
Thank you.
Hi Niceties
Thanks on your sharing.
Lovely write up.
i have alway love suji cake.
Tried to makethem but ….the last i tried did not turnout well.
Will want to try yours
Hi, this is an informative post and I’m going to link it to my blog post on a sugee cake I’m baking. The link to Amy Beh’s recipe is broken though.
Thanks for your kind response and I’ve fixed the Amy Beh link now.
Thanks for this history of the sugee cake! Sugee cake is one of my favourites and being of Sri Lankan origin, I wanted to add a certain angle to the Indian subcontinental history. Did you know that Sri Lankan Eurasians (Burghers–who have Sinhalese and European origins) have a recipe called Love Cake, which is made of semolina, flour, ground cashew nuts, honey, nutmeg, cinnamon, rose water, and candied fruit such as winter melon, pumpkin? It is considered to be a national favourite with a long tradition. Sri Lanka, like Goa, too had a 16th century history of Portuguese colonialism. The similarity of the Sri Lankan Love Cake to Amy Beh’s recipe is uncanny. By contrast, the closest resemblance to our Singapore/Malaysian sugee cake in Goa or Bombay is Batke, which is not rich in eggs, doesn’t use ground nuts, and uses dessicated coconut heavily. Goans don’t seem to use rose water either. Goan deserts don’t otherwise seem to have European influences and they’re not strong on cakes. Sri Lanka’s Burgher cuisine however is very well-developed in terms of cakes that have European origins, such as bol fiado (layered cake), as well as the Sri Lankan Christmas cake and Breudher. I’m inclined to think that the Burgher Love Cake travelled to Singapore and Malaysia in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and became our sugee cake.
Dear Matty,
Thank you so much for this fantastic information! I will certainly try to learn more about the various cakes and recipes you have mentioned. Thank you!
My wife is from Singapore (37 years a go) She asked the last time we went back for the recipe, for some reason only known to them selves they were reluctant to pass on the recipe, so you can imagin how excited she was when I came accross your website, I guess now if, successful, we will have soogee cake comming out our ears.
Thank you for publishing your grandmother recipe.
Robin
I had looked for this recipe for quite a while and found yours today. Thank you for publishing this much loved recipe….one friend I asked was not willing to part with her recipe passed on to her by her grandmother! People are so protective! I do hope to try this soon and report back with the results. The handwriting in the notebook was quite reminiscent of my mothers back in the day…..thanks once again.
I visited several sites looking for recipes….. last one said i saw was from little teochew…. and i kept looking ……..was about to give up and then I stumbled upon ur blog! Thank you for sharing your family recipes! Your blogs’ the best i have come across!
very informative and I agreed with matty for the recipe I have happens to be of sri Lankan ‘s. btw german Rote Gruetze has no flour = no semolina. it is a popular dessert enjoyed in summer or winter. it is basically just berries cooked down to jam consistency. pretty sour I must say due to the black/red currents (johannisberren in german). it is usually served accompanied by vanilla soesse
= vanilla sauce/cream.