Jembrana, Bull Racing Center

Cake in Balinese Offering

The Jembrana regency in West Bali is famous for the virginity of its nature and authentic culture.
"Makepung" – the water buffalo race is only found in this regency. Jembrana is the habitat of Jegog – the giant bamboo gamelan. For those traveling for bird watching, it is suggested to visit West Bali National Park, the habitat of Bali bird (Leocopsar Rothchildi).
What else? Jembrana regency offers the specific food and meal, also cake and pie.
The Balinese cake is sometimes on the menu of your hotel’s breakfast and snack. The accommodations at Pengeragoan Beach, Pekukatan Beach, Madewi Beach, Delodberawah Beach, Rening Beach, Gilimanuk Harbor, Palasari village and the town of Negara offer a breakfast menu with coffee, tea, egg, toast, bread and boiled or fried banana. The village style accommodation in Batuagung and Sangkaragung village offer special Balinese breakfast such as black rice pudding and other Balinese cakes: laklak, apem and bendu.
The Balinese cakes are found at the coffee or food stalls, locally known as warung, throughout the villages in Jembrana regency. Keep trying to have a rest at a warung in the village and enjoy a glass of coffee or tea with Balinese cake, also enjoy the local atmosphere.
The Balinese cake is found also at the main traditional market such as Pekutatan, Melaya, Negara and Tegalcangkring. Every day, a woman of Tegalcangkring opens her temporary stall selling only boiled Balinese cakes. The bendu – made of rice powder, coconut and Balinese sugar wrapped with banana leaf is one of specialty of her cakes. Foreign tourists can buy such a cake for a gift to a friend living in Bali. Do you have time and interest to visit the cake vendor at work? She lives behind the market. She prepares all kind of cakes in the morning at her Balinese style house, a Balinese style kitchen with wood fire.
Do you have a chance to visit Jembrana in a special occasion such as wedding party, cremation, tooth filling? As an invitee, your Balinese host will offer you Balinese cake with soft drink – fanta, sprite and coca-cola (east meets west?). On the opening ceremony of the Jembrana Art Festival, town anniversary and other formal events, the guest is served with Balinese cake. The Balinese make a variety of cakes and pies for many purposes: for sacrifice, tooth filling, wedding, cremation and temple ceremony. During the main holidays such as Galungan, Kuningan, Nyepi, Saraswati, Pagewesi, they also make such cakes for ritual purposes.
The raw materials are rice, sticky rice, red rice and black rice – the powder of them. For ritual purposes, there are two kinds of cake, for offering to the God: could be consumed with the devotee after the ceremony and unconsumed ones, the latter is called jaja bunga-bunga – the cake with floral form and figure. It is accustomed to the Balinese family to have cake offering and praying to the God, they are back home with the fruit and cake offering.
Actually, the offering symbolizing the prosperity of the universe, consists of flora and fauna. The floral cake is made of rice with the basic main colors: white, red, black, and yellow. The colors are symbolizing the main divines from all directions; east, west, north, and south. From the world of flora, the cake represents the bean, the flower of durian and other foliage. They also create human figure, monkey, lizard, gecko, turtle, and snakes. (BTN/Lanus Sumatra)