It’s been a while since I’ve posted a recipe here I can’t supply reasons why not, only excuses. Oh well. Here’s a recipe – actually an outcome of a baking experiment lately.

I loved cassava cake since I first had it when I was 8 in that rustic school cafeteria in the Philippines. It’s chewy, sweet, delicious. And cheap. It’s cake (at least the name says so) but an affordable cake I am able to buy that satisfies my sweet tooth.

Fast forward so many years later, in Dubai, we chanced upon these Filipino ‘kakanin’ (snacks) and bought it at Lulu Hypermarket or Al Maya Supermarket but alas, like all commercial stuff, it’s either too sweet, too gluey or laden with cornstarch used an extender to the real cassava (tapioca).

I don’t like if I don’t know what is in my food.

I’ve searched the internet for a Filipino cassava cake recipe and found a few good ones (Cassava Cake from Ang Sarap blog, Cassava Cake from Jun Belen). But I’m still disagreeing on the amount of sugar. Blergh. So I experimented on making these cakes myself. Pristine loves them and now finally, she can enjoy it as often as she would like to.

It’s easy, even a 10 year old child can do it (except for the grating task – the cassava is hard and requires strength to grate!).

Ingredients:

• 500 grams cassava (tapioca, yucca root)…yielded 3 1/2 cups when grated
• 1/2 cup condensed milk
• 1 cup coconut milk
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 2 tbsp melted butter
• 2 eggs
• grated young coconut meat (optional)

Procedure:

Preheat oven to 180C.

1. Grate the raw cassava.

I used the bigger slits of the grater to make it faster. This will result in a more chewy cake, rather than gluey.

2. Melt butter and mix with the grated cassava along with the condensed milk, coconut milk, sugar, eggs and young coconut meat if you decide to put it. Mix well.

3.  Place the mixture in buttered square pan and bake for 25 minutes.

Now, there is an option to add a sweet, custard like topping – this is the norm in store-brought cassava cake and in the recipes you will find in the internet. I didn’t put toppings because (1) it was already delicious as it is (2) I am saving up on calories!

But in case you want the toppings, you need 1/2 cup of coconut milk, 1/2 cup of condensed milk and 2 egg yolks. Mix it all together, pour on top of the baked cassava cake and put back in the oven until the toppings turn a little brown.