Bánh Bò Nướng - Vietnamese Baked Honeycomb Cake
A lighty, fluffy, and slightly chewy Vietnamese cake filled with the great aromas of pandan and coconut. Baked for extra crust, a bit of extra chew, and visual appeal!
- Prep time
- --
- Cook time
- Not listed
- Yield
- 4 servings
- Difficulty
- MEDIUM
Ingredients
Quantities are shown as originally provided.
- 240 g coconut milk
- 50 g defrosted pandan leaves
- 530 g large whole eggs
- 1 bag vanilla powder
- 360 g granulated white sugar
- 1/2 tsp granulated salt
- 250 g tapioca starch
- 20 g rice flour
- 2 bags single-acting Alsa baking powder
- 1 tbsp coconut oil (Ensure it's melted. Neutral cooking oil is ok too.)
- nonstick cooking spray
Instructions
- 1
Preheat your oven to 350 °F.
- 2
Pandan Extract
- 3
Thoroughly wash, defrost and dry the pandan leaves. Add pandan leaves and coconut milk to a high speed blender (like a Vitamix) and blend until the leaves are about the size of rice grains. If you blend it too finely, it imparts a bitter and grassier taste. Here's a photo of how small you should blend the leaves.
- 4
In your first mixing bowl, pour this pandan coconut milk blend through a fine mesh strainer to extract as much of the coconut milk as you can, while leaving behind the pandan leaf pulp.
- 5
Banh Bo Batter
- 6
In the second mixing bowl, combine all the tapioca starch, rice flour, baking powder. Whisk together to thoroughly combine and sift with mesh strainer to remove lumps.
- 7
In the third mixing bowl combine eggs, sugar, vanilla powder, salt. Using the electric hand mixer on LOW speed only, add half the flour in and mix for 30 seconds.
- 8
Add all the coconut milk and mix for 30 seconds.
- 9
Add the remaining half of flour in and mix for 40-50 seconds to thoroughly combine.
- 10
Add the cooking oil and mix for 10 seconds.
- 11
Pour all the batter through a fine mesh strainer to remove lumps. Then repeat one more time.
- 12
Spray your cake mold with cooking spray.
- 13
Pour the batter into the mold, slowly and evenly throughout the mold. Make sure the batter sits somewhere between 1/2 and 2/3 full in the mold. If it's too full it will overflow after rising.
- 14
Baking
- 15
Bake at 350 °F in preheated oven for 45 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean. Reduce the cooking time a bit if you're using a smaller mold.
- 16
After it's done, you can broil for 1 minute if needed, to brown the top. Leave the cake in the oven for 10 minutes with the door cracked open slightly before removing.
- 17
Place the cake mold on a cooling rack upside down and raised with cans or ramekens. Cool it completely to room temperature before removing the cake from the mold. I like putting a fan on it to speed this process up.
- 18
You'll need to run a knife around the edges to dislodge the bánh bò, and additionally gently pry the cake away from the mold with your fingers to fully release the cake from the mold.