[Photos] The Couple Who Came Back To Ipoh, And Stayed For The 60-Year-Old Shat Kek Ma Recipe

A Kuantan-born Universiti Malaya social science graduate and his Ipoh-raised wife left stable jobs in Klang Valley to return home after the birth of their first child — not with a business plan, but with a father-in-law’s suggestion and a willingness to try.

In Brief

Lee and Mok returned to Ipoh in 2010, leaving corporate careers to start HK Confectionery after a nudge from her father.
Their signature shat kek ma follows a 60-year-old family recipe passed down from Mok's father, made fresh daily using pure maltose.

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Lee Lein Yi and Mok Wai Khuan did not plan to become bakers.

The two met while working at JRD, the largest manufacturer of automotive alloy wheels (sport rims) in Malaysia, and married without any thought of leaving the workforce or returning to Ipoh, the wife’s hometown.

They stayed in their jobs for a few years after the wedding.

Then, in 2010, their second child arrived — and Mok’s father made a suggestion: come home and start something of your own; it will be better than working for others.

It was not an easy sell; not everyone around them was supportive.

Lee, a social science graduate from Universiti Malaya, and his wife, a Business Administration graduate from the University of West London (UWL), were not immediately convinced either.

They decided to give it a try.

Fresh Daily, No Shortcuts

HK Confectionery sits in Kampung Simee, Ipoh, along the same row as the well-known Moon De Moon shredded chicken hor fun.

The shop sells egg tarts, Swiss rolls, gai soh — a flaky meat pie — and kaya puffs.

It also functions as a local souvenir stop, stocking other Ipoh staples like heong peah, white coffee, and Kampar chicken biscuits for visitors who want to bring something home.

But the item that defines the shop, and the one Lee says is the hardest thing he has ever had to learn, is shat kek ma.

It is a caramelised honeycomb cake — deep-fried pastry layers pulled together with stretched caramel, slightly crunchy on the outside, gooey when bitten into.

The recipe uses 100 per cent pure maltose.

The couple makes it fresh daily; tedious, Lee says – a lot of work.

A Recipe Older Than the Shop

The recipe did not come from a cookbook; it came from his father-in-law.

Mok Hong Fei spent over 60 years making confectionery — supplying fresh egg tarts and pastries daily to the Weng Seng Coffee Shop in Ipoh town centre, drawing a small, loyal queue most mornings — before retiring and passing the craft to his son-in-law.

When Lee, a Kuantan boy, came to learn the trade, his father-in-law was still the one waking up every morning to bake.

Help was scarce; workers were unreliable — Lee learned what he could.

When he and Mok opened HK Confectionery, the name was a deliberate nod: HK for Hong Kee, the father-in-law’s business, the source of everything they now make.

The couple’s university degrees are framed on a wall somewhere.

The shat kek ma at 134, Hala Wah Keong, Taman Mirindi, is what people queue for.