How Many Calories in Kuih Kapit (Love Letters)?

Kuih Kapit is a thin, crispy folded wafer made from egg, coconut milk and sugar, pressed in a hot iron mould and eaten by the stack during Chinese New Year and beyond.

120kcal / 3 pieces

3 pieces of Kuih Kapit (about 25g) comes in at roughly 120 calories, with 18g carbs, 4g fat and 2g protein. Fair warning though, these numbers are a ballpark estimate since detailed lab data for this snack is pretty thin. What is not a ballpark is how fast you go through half a tin without realising it.

Nutrition facts

Per 3 pieces (25g)	Amount	Per 100g
Calories	120 kcal	480 kcal
Protein	2 g	8 g
Carbs	18 g	72 g
Fat	4 g	16 g

Where the calories come from

Rice flour (batter base)10g

38 kcal

Sugar7g

27 kcal

Coconut milk (thick)5g

33 kcal

Egg3g

22 kcal

The real talk

Kuih Kapit, also called Love Letters or kuih sepit, is that thin crispy folded wafer your aunty makes in bulk for Chinese New Year using a special hinged iron mould pressed over a flame. The batter is simple: rice flour, egg, coconut milk and sugar. Each piece is light, maybe 8g, and at 40 calories a wafer it sounds harmless. The problem is nobody eats just 3. You sit in front of the tin while watching TV and suddenly you have eaten 15 pieces, which is 600 calories of snack you barely registered. The calories come mainly from the carbs (flour and sugar) plus the fat from coconut milk. It is genuinely delicious and there is nothing wrong with it, just know what you are working with.

The maths change fast with quantity. Stick to 3 pieces (25g, 120 calories) as an actual conscious serving rather than a background snack and it is totally fine as a treat. The sesame seed variant nudges up to about 135 calories for the same 3 pieces because of the added fat from the seeds. If you are making these at home, the coconut milk is the biggest lever: swapping thick coconut milk for a lighter version can shave 10 to 15 calories per serving without killing the texture. The honest answer on all these numbers though is treat them as a reasonable estimate, not gospel, because hard nutritional data for traditional kuih like this is scarce and recipes vary quite a bit between households and commercial makers.

Kuih Kapit (Love Letters) variants, ranked by calories

Variant	Calories	Notes
Plain (original)	120 kcal	Standard egg, coconut milk, sugar batter; 3 pieces ~25g
Pandan flavoured	120 kcal	Same base batter with pandan extract; negligible calorie difference
Sesame seed variant	135 kcal	Added sesame seeds on surface add a small amount of fat and calories

How to eat it lighter

Portion it out before you sit down. Put 3 to 5 pieces in a small bowl and put the tin away. Eating straight from the tin is how you accidentally finish 300 calories.
If you are making it at home, use a slightly thinner batter and less sugar. You can cut sugar by 20% and most people cannot tell the difference once the wafer is crispy.
Pair it with unsweetened tea or plain coffee so you are not doubling up on sugar from the drink side.
Go for plain original over pandan or sesame variants. The difference is small but plain keeps you at 120 calories per 3 pieces instead of the 135 calories for sesame.
Treat it as a proper dessert moment, not background snacking. Eat it slowly, actually taste it. You will eat fewer pieces and enjoy it more.

Common questions

How many calories in Kuih Kapit (Love Letters)?

About 120 calories per 3 pieces (25g). That works out to roughly 40 calories per individual wafer. These are estimates as hard nutritional data for traditional kuih is limited, but this is a reasonable ballpark for the standard egg, coconut milk and sugar batter.

What exactly is Kuih Kapit?

Kuih Kapit is a thin, crispy wafer made by pressing a batter of rice flour, egg, coconut milk and sugar between a hot hinged iron mould. The result is a delicate folded or rolled wafer. It is a Chinese New Year staple in Malaysia and Singapore, though you can find it year-round in snack shops. Also known as kuih sepit or Love Letters.

Is Kuih Kapit healthy?

It is a sugary, starchy snack so it is not something you build meals around, but a few pieces as a treat is perfectly fine. The issue is it is very easy to mindlessly eat a lot of them because each piece feels so light. If you are tracking calories, count your pieces before you start eating, not after.

Calorie and macro figures are estimates for a typical hawker or kopitiam serving. Actual numbers vary by stall, recipe and portion size. Use them as a guide, not gospel.

New to all this? Read how I went from 128kg to 86kg without cutting rice →