Steamed Kueh Lapis

As a child I used to enjoy eating this kueh by peeling it layer by layer and saving the red part which is the top layer to the last. I wonder how many of us did that as a child.
Today my grandsons would do it the same by eating it layer by layer! Hmm.. Guess the eating style of this kueh never changes!
My mum called it "kow chang kueh" which means nine-layered cake. True to its name, there are nine layers to this kueh.

Ingredients:

540ml coconut milk from 2 grated coconuts
210g sugar
5 to 6 pandan leaves, knotted

180g tapioca flour
80g plain flour
pinch of salt
colouring

1. Add about 350ml water to the grated coconuts to extract 540ml coconut milk.

2. Gently heat coconut milk, sugar and pandan leaves till sugar is dissolved. Remove from heat to cool.

3. Mix tapioca flour and plain flour in a bowl and add coconut milk, a little at a time to mix with the flour before adding the rest. Strain mixture to remove lumps.

4. Divide mixture into 9 equal portions and add a drop of colouring to the mixture.
The colours in sequence from the bottom are: plain, pink, yellow, green, orange, plain, brown, blue and red.

5. Prepare steamer and grease and line the bottom of 7-inch or 18-cm round baking tin.

6. Heat up the baking tin and pour the plain layer and steam for 7 minutes. Repeat steaming process for the 8 layers. Steam for 10 minutes after the last layer.

7. Cool completely before cutting with a well-greased knife.

I used the colouring sparingly as I am not fond of using them.

I also omitted the brown colour and used plain for the layer before the red.