Hello Foodie!
Welcome to another SouthEast Asian dessert recipe! Honeycomb Cake: also known in Vietnamese as Banh Bo Nuong and Bika Ambon in Indonesia. Pandan honeycomb cake is a very popular Vietnamese dessert as well as an Indonesia dessert called Bika Ambon but made slightly different from the Vietnamese version. It has a nice honeycomb like crumb after it’s done baking. The texture is spongy but soft on the inside; chewy and slightly crispy on the outside. It’s sweet, coconutty, and has a hint of pandan flavoring. It’s quite a unique but also pleasant dessert. In Indonesia, instead of the beautiful green pandan color, it’s made with turmeric which gives it the beautiful golden yellow color. It’s also flavored with kaffir lime leaves, lemongrass, and other spices. Quite different from the pandan honeycomb cake but it still has the unique honeycomb shape in the middle.

Today, I’ll be showing you how to make the Vietnamese version, pandan honeycomb cake. Simple ingredients but it can be quite technical. If the eggs are over whipped, the cake will fall after baking. If the baking powder is not active, you will not have the honeycomb structure. If you use too much flour, the cake will be dry. If you bake it too long, the cake will be dry. There are lots of ways this cake can go wrong. I have worked on this recipe 3 times and finally found the right portions to make it to the way I like it. It has not failed me yet. Hopefully you can try out this recipe and get the results you want. Trust me, I’ve tried lots of different recipes and have failed at least 3 times. This one has been my charm. Happy baking! 🙂

TIPS for a successful cake:

1. Make sure the double acting baking powder is active/working
2. Do not over whip the eggs. And make sure the eggs are at room temp.
3. Preheat the oven with the pan in
4. Use a good quality non-stick pan
   

   ---

Main Ingredients

This recipe uses both tapioca starch and rice flour. Other ingredients include coconut milk, coconut oil, salt, sugar, eggs, baking powder and pandan extract. Now lets talk about baking powder. Most recipes calls for the Alsa brand SINGLE acting baking powder. But in my recipe, I’ll be using DOUBLE acting baking powder. What’s the difference? Single acting baking powder reacts immediately when it is mixed in with liquid. Double acting will react twice; in liquid and in heat. The reason why we’re using double acting baking powder is to create a better honeycomb crumb. Once you put the cake into the oven, the cake will rise even more with the double acting baking powder.

THE EGGS:

Do not over whip the eggs. If you do, your cake will deflate when it cools, which causes uneven air pockets and an uneven cake. Mix just to break apart the yolk and incorporated somewhat with the whites like this
Heat up the coconut milk, sugar, and salt: This helps with melting the salt and sugar crystals; giving the cake a shinier exterior
Mix in everything. There will be lumps, and thats okay. It will be put through a sieve. Bake for 40-45 minutes Using a good non stick pan will help release the cake beautifully
Cut the cake and see the results Soft, spongy, chewy, and delicious
UBE FLAVOR 🙂
BEAUTIFUL!CLOSER LOOK AT THE CRUMB Enjoy the sweet chewiness goodness 🙂

Pandan Honeycomb Cake (Bánh bò nướng)

Serves: 6-8 Prep Time: 10 minutes Cooking Time: 40-45 minutes 40-45 minutes

Nutrition facts: 200 calories 20 grams fat

Pin

Print me

Ingredients

• 2 cups tapioca flour or starch (265 grams)
• 1/4 cups rice flour (34 grams)
• 1 Tbsp double acting baking powder (NOT single acting) (15grams)
• 1 (14 fl oz) can coconut milk (I use Aroy-D brand) (400ml)
• 1 1/4 cups sugar (260grams)
• 1 tsp salt (6grams)
• 1 tsp pandan extract or more (6grams)
• 6 eggs (room temp) (300grams)
• 2 tbsp melted coconut oil (or other neutral oil of your choice) (26grams)

Instructions

1) Preheat the oven to 350' with the baking pan inside to heat up.

2) In a small pan, add in the coconut milk, sugar, and salt. Heat until the sugar is dissolve but not boiling. You should feel no grittiness on the bottom. Let it cool over ice water if needed for faster preparation. Set aside.

3) In a bowl, measure out the tapioca flour, rice flour, and double acting baking powder. Whisk well. Set aside.

4) In another bowl, crack 6 eggs. With a fork, gently poke the yolks and break it apart along with the whites but do not whisk or create any air bubbles. This will cause too much air pockets in the cake during baking time which cause the cake to deflate once it's cooled. Then add in the cooled coconut sugar mixture and add in 1 tsp of pandan extract. Add more pandan if it's too light for you. Mix gently. Then add in the dry ingredients and mix gently. There will be chunks of the starches, but that's okay. The batter will go over a strainer. You just want to mix the starch well enough into the eggs/coconut sugar mixture just so it's hydrated (again, don't create too much air pocket).

5) Then pour the chunky batter over a bowl with a strainer. Use a spatula to break apart any chunky parts. Once it's been well strained, add in the melted coconut oil. Mix gently. By this time the oven should be preheated and the pan should be nice and hot.

6) Get the pan out of the oven and spray it generously with cooking spray. Pour the batter on and stick it back to the oven. Let it cook for at least 40-45 minutes until the cake is cooked in the middle. I cooked mine for 45 minutes. Then turn off the oven heat, open the oven door slightly and let the cake rest inside for 20 minutes.

7) After 20 minutes of resting, take the cake out, flip it over on a board and cut. You can cool it longer if it's too hot to handle. Cut into your desire size and enjoy! YUM!

Notes

You can use any extract to flavor this cake: Pandan, ube, coffee, vanilla etc. If you want to do ube flavor, I suggest adding 1 tsp ube flavoring/extract instead of pandan extract. Add more if you desire a deeper dark purple color. This cake will stay soft in room temperature for 2 days. Refrigerate if not eaten in 3-4 days. Heat for 15 sec in the microwave to return to its softness if refrigerated.