Cassava Cake

I never ever thought I'd be able to make cassava cake in my life.  Ever.  But here we are and we're about to talk about it.

How would I describe cassava cake to someone who has never tried it?

Starshine, all I will say about it is it's delicious.  And a breeze to make!

Actually I'll have to warn you about grating the peeled and washed cassava which may be too tedious.  It is for me.  But you may possess way more patience than I ever will and grating two-cups worth of cassava may not even be an issue.

You know what?  I take it back.  I wouldn't mind grating another bunch of this root crop just so I could have another pan..err I meant slice of this.

I'd love to expound the taste and texture and why it is much loved by mi familia but here is one link I found; and another which I hope will give you a much better understanding of this whole cassava sitch.

Let's bake some cassava bibingka!

Cassava Cake

What you'll be needing:

2 cups sweet cassava, peeled, washed and finely grated

2 large eggs

1 cup dark brown sugar

3/4 cup evaporated milk

1/4 cup sweetened condensed milk

1/2 cup coconut milk, fresh or canned

1/4 cup salted butter, melted

1 cup of the mildest cheddar cheese you can find, grated

What you'll be doing:

Preheat oven to 170ºC and generously grease a 13x9 baking pan; set aside.  

Then prepare the sweet cassava; peel, wash and grate finely using a zester.  Do not pack nor attempt to squish the grated cassava because we don't want it to produce too much liquid.  Set the grated cups of cassava aside.  In a big mixing bowl, whisk in eggs, sugar, all three kinds of milk and butter.  Lastly, whisk in the grated cassava.  Pour batter onto the prepared pan and try to make the surface even.  Bake for 30 minutes then take the pan out and sprinkle the grated cheese all over the top.  Bake for another 12 minutes.  Let cool completely before digging in!

Notes:

 - This recipe is greatly adapted from Yummy Magazine and I do not claim it to be my own.  I simply made a few changes to the original one in both the process and ingredients used.  

 - Since they didn't specify which kind of sugar to use, I opted for the dark brown variety but you most certainly can use whichever you have.  I also used salted butter and Eden cheddar cheese which is widely available in supermarkets across the country (*cough* SM *cough*).  

 - I did, however, follow Yummy Magazine's instruction regarding reserving one cup of the batter and cooking it until just thickened in consistency.  I did and was unable to spread the cooked batter because it was too thick and when the whole thing was done baking, it disappeared within the batter already in the pan.  So that's why in my instructions, I didn't bother including that bit.

 - It's crucial that you use only sweet cassava.

Now that wasn't so complicated, huh?  But I strongly suggest that you read through the ingredients list and instructions more than once before you try any new recipe.  The kitchen is a place where success and failures occur regularly and I absolutely don't want you to be disheartened if you ever encounter any difficulty.  You can do it.  You know what?  Make this cassava cake and impress your titas and lolas from both sides of the family.

Or, knowing how things go around here, just make this for yourself.  Share it if there's still any left. :)

If you have yet to sample this Filipino classic, this is a good one to start with!  And if you are very much aware of how sarap cassava bibingka is, try this one will you?  And of course, I'd love to know how it all went!

Til the next post!