04 September 2011

The mini series: banh khoai mi (cassava cake)

I’ve been missing my mini series. It’s been a while since my last one and I although I wasn’t planning on I had time to do it. In between making my easy dinner and pho for tomorrow’s dinner party I squeezed in these cassava cakes. Mainly because I wanted to snack on something and partly because I wanted to test out the recipe before I make it for our next family gathering. I just heard that the next family gather is on 1 October, so that day is booked.

My mom use to make this cake and it is a popular dish to bring to family dinners. We all seem to like this cake and it's quite easy to make.

This is what I used for 78 mini cakes:
* 1 package of frozen grated cassava (1 kilo)
* 1 egg
* 12 tablespoons of sugar (14 tabelspoons)
* 2 package of vanilla sugar
* 1 can of coconut milk (2 cans)
Have you ever tried to make cheese at home? Well I haven’t either. These may look like cheese balls but are in fact the grated cassava which I put in a tea towel to squeeze all the water out.
I used a fork to break the balls apart and added the egg, the vanilla and the sugar. After everything is mixed, I added the whole can of coconut milk. I gave it a good stir and let it sit for a couple of minutes so I could eat dinner. I didn’t know if it was sweet enough so I had a little taste. When I taste something raw I always either heat it up (with meat mixtures) or spit it out and rinse my mouth afterwards.
After dinner I preheated my oven on 180C degrees and while waiting I filled my mini cupcake molds by using my ice scooper. One scoop was enough to fill the cup.
I thought 20 minutes would do the trick, but they were still pale. They ended up in the oven for 40 minutes and came out golden brown.
They tasted just like moms!
I would love to describe the taste but this is something you’ll have to try yourself. You’ll either love it and eat the whole batch or hate it (then you can send it over to me).

I love the chewy outsides and these are just perfect. Lots of chewy outsides!




Ps: The next day the cakes weren’t as good as straight out of the oven, so next time I make it, I would half the recipe. That would be enough to satisfy my craving. For big parties I would double the recipe.

Ps2:
My mom said she always used 2 cans of coconut milk. I thought 2 cans would be a bit too much, but mom knows best so no second guessing. Today I actually made another batch using 2 cans and she was right! It turned out great!! Softer and chewier. I did add 2 more tablespoons of sugar and that was perfect. I adapted the recipe above with the changes in blue.

13 comments:

  1. YUM! I love cassava cakes! I've only ever had the Caymanian ones which use the brown sugar but these sound even better with the lighter, vanilla flavor :)

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  2. Your cassava cakes look gorgeous! But I've never tried one before, I hope I will like it as I won't be able to afford to mail you a whole batch if I don't like them. LOL!

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  3. They look delicious! I've had cassava cakes before and they are very tasty! Thanks for sharing...I'm glad you had time and I'm sure everyone at the party will love them!

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  4. I LOOOOOOVE Cassava cake and your mini cassava cake idea is a great idea (so that I don't feel guilty as eating a whole chunk, but you know that I'll probably pop 3-4 pieces every time I swing by in the kitchen)... =P

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  5. 78 cakes?! Whoa that's a lot of snacking! But they look so good, so I don't blame you for making so many =)

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  6. Never heard about this cake, looks very delicious. Bookmarking this one.

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  7. These look sooooo good! I love cassava but I have never cooked with it! These cakes look so deliciously chewy!!!

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  8. Thank you for visiting and leaving your sweet comments, happy to follow your lovely blog :)

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  9. Lilly, thanks for the introduction to yet another new dish. I love your mini-series so glad to see it back!

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  10. I've never tried one but now I'm really curious.
    Looks good.

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  11. I've never even heard of cassava cakes but you're making me want one! It looks delicious, especially the cross section. Many thanks for sharing.

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  12. I've never tried cassava cake! I totally want to try this, it looks so tasty. Love the mini sized ones too!

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  13. I have never seen it here in Holland either. Whenever we crave this, we just need to make it ourselves. And it is so easy. But next time I won’t make that much. Although I love the minis, I couldn’t eat all 78!

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