The cakes below may look perfect to satisfy your sweet tooth, but they’re actually not desserts at all. They’re made of instant noodles and topped with stuff like chicken gulai (curry stew), opor (coconut milk stew) and rendang (beef simmered in coconut and spices).
The people at Tot Aw (short for totally awesome) bakery in Jakarta, Indonesia have getting a lot of attention lately and it’s all due to their unusual cakes. Instead of sweet sponge and sweet cream and toppings, they are made of Indomie noodles shaped as tiered cakes and topped with all kinds of foods, like meatballs, chicken or salted cuttlefish. The squiggly creations are apparently quite popular at weddings, birthdays and other events.
The people at Tot Aw (short for totally awesome) bakery in Jakarta, Indonesia have getting a lot of attention lately and it’s all due to their unusual cakes. Instead of sweet sponge and sweet cream and toppings, they are made of Indomie noodles shaped as tiered cakes and topped with all kinds of foods, like meatballs, chicken or salted cuttlefish. The squiggly creations are apparently quite popular at weddings, birthdays and other events.
Tot Aw’s instant noodle cakes went viral after a picture of one got retweeted a few thousand times on Twitter, but the Indonesian bakery has been making them from at least 2017, when they were featured in the Jakarta Post. One of the founders of Tot Aw said that they were inspired to create the noodle cakes by the childhood memories of their mothers stuffing their lunch boxes with Indomie until it stacks up like a pressed cake mould.
Tot Aw was initially supposed to be a donut shop, but then the instant noodle idea took off and donuts were put on the back burner. However, they got back to that idea eventually, and decided to make instant noodle deep-fried donuts too. They now make them in various different flavors, all just as crazy as their cake toppings.
Erwin, one of the founders of Tot Aw, said these cakes aren’t that difficult to make, but that moulding the noodles into the appropriate cake shape does take some time. In order to create a medium-sized cake, they use between 14-17 packets of instant noodles. The jiggly “dessert” can feed between eight and 10 people.
Unfortunately, Tot Aw only operates in Indonesia, so if you find instant noodle cakes appealing, you just have to book a plane ticket to Jakarta and try them yourself.
Interestingly, the city of Jakarta is also home to LeNovelle Cake, a family-run bakery famous for making some of the most stunning wedding cakes in the world.
