HOME

TheInfoList



Click Here for Items Related To - Cassava Cake
OR:
Cassava Cake on:   [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Amazon]

Cassava cake is a traditional Filipino moist cake made from grated
cassava ''Manihot esculenta'', common name, commonly called cassava, manioc, or yuca (among numerous regional names), is a woody shrub of the spurge family, Euphorbiaceae, native to South America, from Brazil, Paraguay and parts of the Andes. Although ...
,
coconut milk Coconut milk is a plant milk extracted from the grated pulp of mature coconuts. The opacity and rich taste of the milky-white liquid are due to its high oil content, most of which is saturated fat. Coconut milk is a traditional food ingred ...
, and
condensed milk Condensed milk is Milk#Cow, cow's milk from which water has been removed (roughly 60% of it). It is most often found with sugar added, in the form of sweetened condensed milk, to the extent that the terms "condensed milk" and "sweetened condensed m ...
with a
custard Custard is a variety of culinary preparations based on sweetened milk, cheese, or cream cooked with Eggs as food, egg or egg yolk to thicken it, and sometimes also flour, corn starch, or gelatin. Depending on the recipe, custard may vary in con ...
layer on top. It is a very popular dish in the Philippines, where it is commonly eaten for
merienda Merienda is a light meal in southern Europe, particularly Spain (''merenda'' in Galician, ''berenar'' in Catalan), Portugal (''lanche'' or ''merenda'') and Italy (''merenda''), whence the word spread to Serbo-Croatian in, according to dictiona ...
. It is also served during gatherings and special occasions.


Origins and history

Cassava ''Manihot esculenta'', common name, commonly called cassava, manioc, or yuca (among numerous regional names), is a woody shrub of the spurge family, Euphorbiaceae, native to South America, from Brazil, Paraguay and parts of the Andes. Although ...
was one of the crops imported from
Latin America Latin America is the cultural region of the Americas where Romance languages are predominantly spoken, primarily Spanish language, Spanish and Portuguese language, Portuguese. Latin America is defined according to cultural identity, not geogr ...
through the
Manila galleon The Manila galleon (; ) refers to the Spain, Spanish trading Sailing ship, ships that linked the Philippines in the Spanish East Indies to Mexico (New Spain), across the Pacific Ocean. The ships made one or two round-trip voyages per year betwe ...
s from at least the 16th century. Cassava cake is a type of ''
bibingka ''Bibingka'' (; ) is a type of baked rice cake in Filipino cuisine that is cooked in a terracotta oven lined with banana leaves and is usually eaten for breakfast or as merienda (mid-afternoon snack), especially during the Christmas season. I ...
'' (traditional baked cakes), having its origins from adopting native recipes but using cassava instead of the traditional ''galapong'' (ground
glutinous rice Domestication syndrome refers to two sets of phenotypic traits that are common to either domesticated plants or domesticated animals. Domesticated animals tend to be smaller and less aggressive than their wild counterparts; they may also hav ...
) batter. It is also known more rarely as cassava ''bibingka'' or ''bibingkang kamoteng kahoy'', although the English name is more commonly used. In
Quezon Quezon, officially the Province of Quezon () and historically known as Tayabas, is a Provinces of the Philippines, province in the Philippines located in the Calabarzon Regions of the Philippines, region on Luzon. Lucena, a highly urbanized ci ...
, cassava cake is more commonly known as ''budin''.


Description

Cassava cake is made from grated cassava mixed with ''gata'' (
coconut milk Coconut milk is a plant milk extracted from the grated pulp of mature coconuts. The opacity and rich taste of the milky-white liquid are due to its high oil content, most of which is saturated fat. Coconut milk is a traditional food ingred ...
),
condensed milk Condensed milk is Milk#Cow, cow's milk from which water has been removed (roughly 60% of it). It is most often found with sugar added, in the form of sweetened condensed milk, to the extent that the terms "condensed milk" and "sweetened condensed m ...
, and
egg An egg is an organic vessel grown by an animal to carry a possibly fertilized egg cell (a zygote) and to incubate from it an embryo within the egg until the embryo has become an animal fetus that can survive on its own, at which point the ...
whites. Some recipes also add
butter Butter is a dairy product made from the fat and protein components of Churning (butter), churned cream. It is a semi-solid emulsion at room temperature, consisting of approximately 81% butterfat. It is used at room temperature as a spread (food ...
(or
margarine Margarine (, also , ) is a Spread (food), spread used for flavoring, baking, and cooking. It is most often used as a substitute for butter. Although originally made from animal fats, most margarine consumed today is made from vegetable oil. The ...
),
vanilla Vanilla is a spice derived from orchids of the genus ''Vanilla (genus), Vanilla'', primarily obtained from pods of the flat-leaved vanilla (''Vanilla planifolia, V. planifolia''). ''Vanilla'' is not Autogamy, autogamous, so pollination ...
,
evaporated milk Evaporated milk, known in some countries as "unsweetened condensed milk", is a shelf-stable canned cow’s milk product for which approximately 60% of the water has been removed from fresh milk. French inventor, Nicolas Appert, the "father of ...
, and additional
sugar Sugar is the generic name for sweet-tasting, soluble carbohydrates, many of which are used in food. Simple sugars, also called monosaccharides, include glucose Glucose is a sugar with the Chemical formula#Molecular formula, molecul ...
. These are poured into a flat-bottomed pan lined with
banana leaves The banana leaf is the leaf of the banana plant, which may produce up to 40 leaves in a growing cycle. The leaves have a wide range of applications because they are large, flexible, waterproof and decorative. They are used for cooking, wrappin ...
or greased. It is baked until it has an even firm consistency and is a light brown color. The texture of the cake can be adjusted by varying the amount of grated cassava used. Cakes with less cassava content tend to be softer and moister, while cakes with more cassava content is firmer and chewy. The topping is cooked separately. It is traditionally coconut-based
custard Custard is a variety of culinary preparations based on sweetened milk, cheese, or cream cooked with Eggs as food, egg or egg yolk to thicken it, and sometimes also flour, corn starch, or gelatin. Depending on the recipe, custard may vary in con ...
, made with the
egg yolk Among animals which produce eggs, the yolk (; also known as the vitellus) is the nutrient-bearing portion of the egg whose primary function is to supply food for the development of the embryo. Some types of egg contain no yolk, for example bec ...
s mixed with
condensed milk Condensed milk is Milk#Cow, cow's milk from which water has been removed (roughly 60% of it). It is most often found with sugar added, in the form of sweetened condensed milk, to the extent that the terms "condensed milk" and "sweetened condensed m ...
, sugar, and ''kakang gata'' (
coconut cream Coconut milk is a plant milk extracted from the grated pulp of mature coconuts. The opacity and rich taste of the milky-white liquid are due to its high oil content, most of which is saturated fat. Coconut milk is a traditional food ingredient ...
). It is poured on top of the cake and baked again for an additional few minutes until the top layer solidifies. The amount varies, with some versions having a very thin custard layer, while in other versions, the custard layer is as thick as the cake. Some modern versions also use milk-based custard toppings when coconut cream isn't available, or don't bake in a top layer at all. Additional toppings may be added before the second baking, like
cheddar cheese Cheddar cheese (or simply cheddar) is a natural cheese that is relatively hard, off-white (or orange if colourings such as annatto are added), and sometimes sharp-tasting. It originates from the English village of Cheddar, Somerset, Cheddar in ...
, ''
macapuno Macapuno, also called coconut sport, is a naturally occurring coconut cultivar that has an abnormal development of the endosperm. The result of this abnormal development is a soft translucent jelly-like flesh that fills almost the entire central ...
'' strings, or grated coconut, among others. It is further garnished with additional toppings like more grated cheese or ''
latik ''Latík'' () refers to two different coconut-based ingredients in Filipino cuisine. In the Visayan region it refers to a syrupy caramelized coconut cream (coconut caramel) used as a dessert sauce. In the northern Philippines, it refers to ...
''. They are allowed to cool and served sliced into squares. Cassava (known as ''kamoteng kahoy'' and ''balinghoy'' in Tagalog and ''balanghoy'' in
Visayan Visayans ( Cebuano: ''mga Bisayà'' ) are a Philippine ethnolinguistic family group or metaethnicity native to the Visayas, to the southernmost islands south of Luzon, and to a significant portion of Mindanao. They are composed of numerous di ...
) is poisonous when eaten raw due to its cyanogenic glucoside content. Most cassava variants in the Philippines are of the sweet variety, which has lower cyanogenic glucoside content. But care should still be taken that the cassava is properly prepared before cooking.


Variants

Cassava cake can be modified to add additional ingredients. The most common variants are "cassava ''buko bibingka''" which adds young coconut (''buko''), and "pineapple cassava ''bibingka''" which adds crushed pineapple chunks. In Vigan, Ilocos Sur, a local variant of cassava cake is known as "royal ''bibingka''". It is shaped like cupcakes with a cheese and margarine topping.


Similar dishes

Cassava cake is very similar to the
Vietnamese Vietnamese may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Vietnam, a country in Southeast Asia * Vietnamese people, or Kinh people, a Southeast Asian ethnic group native to Vietnam ** Overseas Vietnamese, Vietnamese people living outside Vietna ...
'' bánh khoai mì'', which is sometimes also anglicized as "cassava cake", but the latter does not use milk and does not have a custard topping. Cassava cake also resembles the
Caribbean The Caribbean ( , ; ; ; ) is a region in the middle of the Americas centered around the Caribbean Sea in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, mostly overlapping with the West Indies. Bordered by North America to the north, Central America ...
and African cassava pone (also called yuca cake), but the latter is denser and dryer in texture.


See also

*
List of cakes A list is a set of discrete items of information collected and set forth in some format for utility, entertainment, or other purposes. A list may be memorialized in any number of ways, including existing only in the mind of the list-maker, but ...
* Suman * Pitsi-pitsi


References

{{Philippine cuisine
Cake Cake is a flour confection usually made from flour, sugar, and other ingredients and is usually baked. In their oldest forms, cakes were modifications of bread, but cakes now cover a wide range of preparations that can be simple or elabor ...
Philippine cakes