The cake is a sublime art form, involving numerous colours and flavours commingling into an oh-so-soft and delicious cake that hides a kaleidoscope of intricate geometric patterns.

这种蛋糕称得上是一种崇高的艺术形式，它融了多种色彩和味觉感受，这样一款柔软美味的蛋糕中又隐藏着错综复杂的几何图案。

The rich, buttery aroma of kek lapis (layer cake) greets me when I walk into Seri's (short for Sharifah Zainon) small baking studio at her home near Kuala Lumpur. The alluring aroma is not surprising, given that Malaysia is gearing up to celebrate Raya, the local name for Ramadan, and kek lapis is an integral part of these festivities.

当我走进Seri（Sharifah Zainon的缩写）位于吉隆坡附近家中的小烘焙工作室时，Kek lapis（千层蛋糕）浓郁的黄油香气霎时扑面而来。我并没有感到意外，因为马来西亚正准备庆祝当地斋月，他们也将斋月成为Raya，而这种千层蛋糕是庆祝活动不可或缺的一部分。

Seri puts her academic training as an engineer to good use in her current career as a baker. Watching her hands spreading the batter evenly on the pan, I think that baking a kek lapis is a bit like conducting a scientific experiment. Preparing this multi-layered Malaysian cake with colourful and complex patterns not only requires knowledge and skill, but also oodles of patience, an eye for precision and a steady hand.

Seri在她目前的面包师生涯中灵活运用了之前学校中学到的工程师相关的技能。看着她的手把面糊均匀的摊到锅上准备制作Kek lapis，就好像是在进行一项科学实验。制作这种图案丰富多彩且复杂的马来蛋糕不仅需要知识和熟练度，还需要耐心、精准的眼光和稳健的双手。

This layer cake first came to Malaysia from neighbouring Indonesia through the state of Sarawak on the island of Borneo. In the mid-19th Century, Dutch colonisers introduced the plain European spit cake – made with layers of dough deposited one by one onto a cylindrical rotating spit – to the nation then known as Batavia (now Jakarta). Indonesians added local spices such as cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg and turned it into the lapis legit, often known as the thousand-layer cake.

这种千层蛋糕最初是从邻国印度尼西亚通过婆罗洲岛上的砂拉越州传到马来西亚的。19世纪中期，荷兰殖民者向当时被称为Batavia（现在的雅加达）的国家引入了普通款式的欧洲吐司蛋糕。这种蛋糕是由一层一层的面团制成的。印尼人又往最初的配方中加入了当地特色的香料，如肉桂、丁香和肉豆蔻，并将其制成了最初版本的lapis蛋糕，也被成为千层蛋糕。

Upon its arrival in neighbouring Malaysia in the 1970s, Sarawakians elevated the cake to a sublime art form, involving multiple layers and numerous colours and flavours commingling into the oh-so-soft and delicious kek lapis. While the classic kek lapis often looks like a plain loaf on the outside, cutting it reveals a kaleidoscope of intricate geometric patterns.

20世纪70年代，当邻国马来西亚接触到这种蛋糕后，砂拉越人又将这种蛋糕的形式上升到了艺术的境界，他们将多层、多种颜色和味道融合在了柔软美味的Kek Lapis中。虽然经典款的Kek Lapis从外表上看知识一个普通面包，但一旦切开，就好像是打开了一个拥有复杂几何图案的万花筒。

Also called the Sarawak layer cake, kek lapis typically has a minimum of 12 layers. The cake is created by carefully adding one thin layer of batter after another onto a baking pan every few minutes, broiling (or grilling) each layer in the oven to ensure the lower layers are never burnt. The plain version alternates light and dark strips of cake batter, whereas the coloured cakes have geometric patterns that, depending on the final pattern, can involve 20 or more layers.

Kek Lapis也被称为砂拉越千层饼，通常至少有12层。制作这种蛋糕的方法是每隔几分钟在烤盘上小心地加入一层又一层薄薄的面糊，在烤箱中分别烤制每一层，以确保每一层都不会被烧焦。普通的版本将蛋糕面糊粗分为浅色和深色，而彩色版本的蛋糕则有几何图案，根据最终图案的不同，可能会有多达20甚至更多的层数。

The final cake is cooled and then cut into strips, with different pieces reassembled using thick jam or condensed milk as adhesive. Often, multiple cakes have to be baked, and pieces from each of them are assembled to create a complex pattern. This is then wrapped up in a thin cake layer of a single colour, or arranged between two sets of plain (ie, with no colours or patterns) multi-layered cakes.

等待蛋糕冷却完成后，它会被切成条状，用厚厚的果酱或炼乳作为粘合剂来重新组装不同的蛋糕块。通常来说想要组成复杂图案的蛋糕的话必须分开进行多次烘焙和组装。然后将其包裹在一层单一颜色的薄蛋糕皮中，或排列在两组普通的（即没有颜色或图案）的多层蛋糕中。

If all this sounds confusing, then imagine what it is like for the baker. Even the most experienced of them first draws these patterns on paper, clearly marking out sizes and colours, after which they get to work with the batter. A complex design can take up to eight hours to complete, with several chances for error at every step in the assembly process.

如果你觉得这听起来很复杂，再想一下面包师们实际操作时的感受吧。即使最有经验的蛋糕师也会先在纸上画出想要的图案，并清楚地标注好尺寸和颜色，然后再去制作面团。复杂的设计可能需要长达8小时才能完成，制作蛋糕的每一步都有可能出错。