Bánh Bò Nướng: Vietnamese Honeycomb Cake

by Gina Planas

Ingredients

• 200ml (½ can) of coconut milk
• 1 cup white sugar (I use just a bit less)
• About ⅓ of a 20mL bottle of Buko Pandan flavoring
• 2 cups tapioca flour/starch
• 2 ½ teaspoons of SINGLE ACTING baking powder^*
• 6 eggs

Instructions

1. In a sauce pan over low heat, add the ½ can of coconut milk and the 1 cup sugar. You’re basically just melting the sugar here so it will only take a few minutes. Turn the heat off then add the Buko Pandan flavoring. I usually put about ⅓ of the small bottle, but it all depends on how much flavoring you want your cake to have. To me, ⅓ – ½ is just perfect.
2. Let stand for about 10-15 minutes or whenever it totally cooled down.
   Preheat the oven at 350 degrees for about 15 minutes.
3. In a mixing bowl, whisk the 6 eggs (don’t over beat the eggs).
4. When the coconut milk/sugar mixture is completely cool, mix this to the beaten eggs along with the 2 cups of tapioca flour + 2 ½ teaspoon of single acting baking powder. Again, don’t over mix. The consistency should be watery.
5. Pour the batter in a bundt or cake pan (sprayed liberally with cooking spray) and bake for 40-45minutes.^**

Gina’s Tips

^*Substitution for SINGLE-ACTING Baking Powder :

• ¾ teaspoon baking soda
• 1 ¼ teaspoon cream of tartar
• ¾ teaspoon cornstarch

^**I guess this will depend on your oven. I followed instructions in the past to bake it 50-60min and I noticed that the ends end up being way too dry while the inside is moist and chewy. So I started to experiment and lessened baking time, making the entire cake moist and chewy with no dry ends (of course if you prefer the first, you can bake longer so it’s up to your preference).