Recipe: Bánh Bò Nướng: Vietnamese Honeycomb Cake

I saw this online months ago and wanted to try it so bad. Remember the steamed Chinese rice cakes that you get from the manapua man? Man, those were my favorite. I’m so sad that Char Hung Sut is closed because they have it there and I would get it when I would pick up my gon lo mein (da best!) from them. I have my fingers crossed they will reopen but I don’t know…so sad. Anyway, this is a Vietnamese version and I loved that it has pandan flavor. I love pandan. I played around a bit with the flavoring, added some coconut extract to make it like a buko pandan cake. Recipe below!

Heat up 200 ML of Coconut Milk with 200g of Sugar until sugar has melted. Set aside and let cool to room temperature.

I set out 6 eggs to warm to room temperature, the original recipe doesn’t say you have to but I have made that a habit since I started baking. Gently break the yolks and stir 25 times…without the whisk ever leaving bottom of the bowl. You are merely mixing to get the yolk and whites incorporated, I followed the video’s instructions to a T!

Once mixed, add the cooled coconut milk/sugar mixture and lightly mix.

240g Tapioca Starch and 2 1/2 t of single-acting baking powder (I ordered this one from Amazon). Gradually sift the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients.

I even bought a bundt cake pan for this recipe. I am crazy, I know this. Anyway, the video instructed me to grease the pan and then set it in the 350 degree oven as it heated up. I did it as I was mixing the batter.

Once the oven has been pre-heated, take the pan out and pour the batter in through a strainer. There will be lumps in the cake so this step is crucial!

Glorious. Bake in the oven for 45 minutes in 350 degree oven. The video tells you not to open that oven door for at least 30 minutes into the cooking time. I always listen!

This picture makes the crust look a bit mealy, no worries, it wasn’t! I bought a cheap pan so I was afraid of the cake sticking. I used a small rubber spatula to scrape the sides but it came out just fine!

I am so amazed it came out so well. I saw so many comments saying they failed at it…like it wouldn’t have the honeycomb innards or that it would bake up flat. Whew…so glad it was a success! Was a success with my family too, it’s all gone already! I’m going to have to make one more batch really soon because this recipe only calls for half a can of coconut milk. Hello, what am I supposed to do with the other half can. Make another one of these I guess!

Bánh Bò Nướng: Vietnamese Honeycomb Cake

**Inspired by Helen’s Recipes, below is the recipe that was tweaked for my use.

Ingredients:
200 ml coconut milk
200 g sugar
1 t pandan flavoring
1/2 t coconut extract
6 eggs eggs, room temperature
240 g tapioca starch
2 ½ tsp single-acting baking powder (it’s about a single packet of Alsa brand)

Instructions:
Place coconut milk and sugar in a pan and heat until sugar has melted. Set aside and cool to room temperature.

Grease bundt cake pan with oil or butter and place in the oven as it preheats to 350 degrees.

Place 6 eggs in mixing bowl and gently break all 6 egg yolks. Mix gently (about 25 times) until yolks and whites are just mixed together. Add cooled coconut/sugar mixture and mix until just incorporated.

Gradually sift in tapioca starch/baking powder into the wet batter and mix. Add pandan flavoring and coconut extract and mix. The batter will look lumpy at first, just keep mixing!

Once the oven is preheated, take the pan out and pour the batter into the pan through a fine mesh strainer (there will still be lumps). Place into the oven and bake for 45 minutes.

11 responses to “Recipe: Bánh Bò Nướng: Vietnamese Honeycomb Cake

  1. kat

    looks ono! if I’m not mistaken royal kitchen also had rice cake…

    • Jenny

      So funny you brought that up cause I went Royal Kitchen on Thursday and had to get the rice cake there. Was good…but not great. Not like Char Hung Sut…but apparently there is a place in Chinatown that only makes these rice cakes. Looks like I gotta try them out…

  2. Oh that looks SO delicious!

  3. vickinags

    looks so good! I love rice cake.
    Royal Kitchen has pretty good rice cake and Sing Chong Yuen(? next on Nam Fong on Maunakea Street). They also have pretty good manapua too both steams and baked. in fact all their dimsum is good.

    • Jenny

      Oh man, I was in Chinatown on Tuesday to pick up lunch and walked over to Sing Cheong bakery and had one long line. Was bummers…I thought they were mainly busy for chinese new years but I guess it’s all the time! I wanted to try their rice cake! I agree, their food is great.

  4. Arlene

    I am very impressed with this cake! It really shows how skilled you are at baking! The texture is intriguing; it looks like it would be crispy? Good job!

    • Jenny

      Ahhh thanks so much Arlene! I’m thinking it was just pure luck and me following recipes very closely. I made a cake last week that came out tasting great but the texture was like bread pudding, I don’t know how that happened! I like recreate it to make it more cake like but the taste was so good! I don’t know where I went wrong…haha

  5. Serenity

    Hi I loved this recipe but when I bake it at 350 the top burns in about 10 minutes into the baking time? I’m not sure why this is the case. Any explanations as to how to fix this would be greatly appreciated!

Leave a Reply to kat Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.