Lapisa: This Bakery Chain in Batam (Indonesia) Specializes in Kek Lapis (Layer Cake) That Can Be Your Souvenir

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This article is part of the Batam Food Trip series. Check out the installments in this series: A2 Food Court | itsumō TART (Japanese-Inspired Cafe) | Joyi Bakes/Cafe (Korean-Inspired Cafe) | Kedai Kopi Harum Manis (Breakfast) | Lapisa (Kek Lapis or Layer Cake) | Love Seafood | RM Sederhana (Nasi Padang) | Sup Ikan 96 (Yam Fish Soup and Chinese Food) | Tearoom by aralee (Cafe) | Warung Guling Pak Made (Babi Guling or Balinese Roast Suckling Pig)

Literally “layer cake”, Kek Lapis is a buttery and spiced multi-layered cake. Its origins can be traced all the way back to Jakarta, Indonesia, and is influenced by Dutch spit cakes (Indonesia used to be a Dutch colony). Today, kek lapis are also sold in Malaysia and Singapore, with the Malaysian state of Sarawak innovating it with complex geometric patterns similar to a Kaleidoscope.

Kek lapis is also popular in Batam. It’s a favorite souvenir of Singaporeans because it’s so cheap. A 20cm2 cake costs as low as IDR250,000 (≈USD14) in Batam, while it can go as high as SGD80 (≈USD63) in Singapore (I based the price in Bengawan Solo, a Singaporean chain specializing in kueh or local bite-sized snacks).

In Batam, one of the stores where you can buy this sweet treat is Lapisa, a fairly new chain established only in 2022. Like with any kek lapis store, you could sample the flavors there.

We tried their sampler, which has six flavors (Original, Cheese, Chocolate, Nutella, Pandan [screwpine], and Prune). They’re all moist, buttery, and rightly dense.

I like the prune flavor the best. Its tartness contrasts well with cakes richness.

The pandan one has a nice hint of pandan flavor.

The other flavors were okay. I couldn’t taste the chocolate or Nutella distinctions.

I’m not sure if this is chocolate or Nutella

By the way, you can review Lapisa at Google or TripAdvisor to get a discount of IDR40,000:

Lapisa is one of the better stores in Batam where you can buy kek lapis (we’ve sampled other stores and we feel like they have the best one). Their kek lapis is buttery, perfect with coffee, and can be addictive, especially if you get the bite-sized ones. So if you’re returning to Singapore from Batam, you might want to grab some as souvenirs while they’re affordable. Anyway, I highly recommend it to you!

For Lapisa branches and operating hours, check out their Facebook and Instagram pages, as well as their Website.