Cassava Cooking: Cake

Cassava is a tuberous starchy root that is cultivated in either tropical and subtropical countries. It is also a nutritious food even its leaves are edible, cooked as vegetable. More details and its nutrients can be read in my posted article Padpadli: Cassava.

In this article, I wrote about one of the ways a cassava is being cooked-cake. Whenever I go to town and has an extra from the budget, I buy some slices together with other kakanin because for one reason, cassava is not always available in our locality. The one I made actually is a trial and error because I never tried cooking it before... Through this recipe, I was able to get the perfect texture and taste just the way I expected.

In country sides where cassava is plenty and can be bought fresh, it is usually cleaned, peeled off from its bark-like skin first and grated. However, in foreign advanced countries they buy it in Asian markets. It is frozen but already grated and being thawed first before it is being used in cakes and other delicacies.

Cassava has 2 varieties, sweet and bitter. The sweet one was what is usually the variety being cooked while the bitter with a higher content of cyanide is made into tapioca pearls, the one which is added on your favorite milk teas.

When fresh cassava is used for cake, be sure to extract the sap first after grating it. Squeeze it with your bare hands or use a cheesecloth to remove the juice. But because we have the sweet one, I dod not mind squeezing it out. When using the store bought, frozen cassava you may not squeeze it.

Preparing is as easy as 1-2-3 though the baking may take an hour. And mind you, the grating of the cassava is the most work you will have in this especially when you have little kids that needs your attention every minute. What I did was to grate it while my babe's asleep and proceed on the prepping. If you prefer, do the grating at night and have it refrigerated for next day's baking or on the freezer if will be used the following week.

The basic form of the cake is a batter of grated cassava, coconut milk and sugar. It is topped with just a simple sprinkle of cheddar cheese or quick melt while others prefer it with custard toppings of egg, coconut milk or evaporated milk, and condensed milk then put back to to the oven for a second bake.

The recipe which I did was actually a combination of 3 different recipes. It has the creamy, cheesy, soft and moist texture. So here it is.

Ingredients:

• 1kg of grated cassava or 5 cups from my estimation

• 1 cup coconut milk

• 370 ml evaporated milk,

• 240 ml can condensed milk, reserve half for the topping

• 2 eggs beaten

• ½ c butter, melted

• ½ cup cheddar cheese

• ½ cup brown sugar

• ½ tsp salt

topping:

• 2 cups coconut milk

• ⅓ c condense milk

• 2 tbs flour

• 2 eggs, beaten

• cheese

preparation:

1. Preheat oven at 185°c, then grease baking tray. I used two 13" round pan, one is a spring form and the other is a pie pan. You can also line banana leaves. It adds aroma to the cake while baking and won't stick to the pan.

2. Prepare large bowl to make the batter, just add all the ingredients and mix until consistency is even.

3. Pour batter in a prepared greased pan and bake for 45 minutes.

4. In a sauce pan, prepare the topping while the batter is being bake. Mix together all ingredients. Make sure there's no lumps. Cook in a low heat and stirring constantly as not to burn the bottom part. Remove from heat when it thickens.

5. Remove cassava cake from oven and spread topping evenly. Grate cheese on top and place back to the oven to bake. Set the oven to broil at 200 for 15 min or until top turns golden brown.

This is best served when completely cooled.

Some add macapuno on top of the batter before baking. And others also add canned/bottled nata de coco while some would add young coconut meat or buko meat to the batter. If any of these were only available in our area, I would surely go for the buko meat.

The secret for a more tastier cake is to use freshly squeezed milk from a coconut. As it is not available, I used the powdered coconut milk and dilute it in I cup of lukewarm water.

Fine grater is best to use in grating cassava. But it is an arduous task. That's why I used the side of the grater with bigger holes. The result is very course, so I took out the food processor and pulse it. The aftermath of the cake is very smooth.

Pls also note that the batter should be an inch thick. I don't know if it was made thicker, maybe it will need more time to bake also.

There were actually left overs from the ingredients that's why pinagbigyan q n lng ang makulit kong anak na gumawa ulit pra d na din masayang ang toppings na natira. I have to peel and grate the cassava again. There was not enough butter, cheese and coconut milk powder but I have to come up with the same amount of liquid for a soft cake. I just added water. The result was not as creamier and has a lesser color. I also use another grater which is not too fine and not too course and I did not pulse it in the food processor. It ended to a rougher and chewy texture. Some prefer the chewy one so use the medium holed grater.

It is a perfect snack or for parties or a pasalubong maybe. You might like to make it yourself and add some twist.

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