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.