Kueh Bingka Ubi Kayu (Baked Tapioca Cake)

烤木薯糕

This is one of my favourite nonya kueh. Store bought ones can be overly sweet. My recipe yields a less sweet tapioca / cassava cake which is enhanced with the addition of gula melaka and butter. Baking it in the pan lined with banana leaves also resulted in a very fragrant kueh. 

The most time-consuming part of making this kueh is peeling, removing the core and grating the tapioca. The amount of grated tapioca will determine the quantity of the rest of the ingredients. I've provided the ratio of the ingredients to the grated tapioca in my recipe below. 

Ingredients:

grated tapioca (T)

thick coconut milk (70% of T)

tapioca starch (2.6% of T)

sugar (16% of T) - I used gula melaka and granulated sugar

salt (1/4 tsp per 500g of T)

egg (lightly beaten - 1 egg per 500g of T)

butter (cold - 15g per 500g of T)

Method:

1. Peel tapioca, remove core and grate them. Weigh the grated tapioca*.

2. Add tapioca starch to grated cassava, mix well with a spatula.

3. Add in salt nd sugar, mix till sugar has dissolved. If you use gula melaka, the kueh colour will be brown.

4. Add in lightly beaten egg, mix till combined. Instead of whole egg, you can use only the yolk.

5. Add in thick coconut milk gradually, mix till combined.

6. Pour into baking pan (lined with banana leaves) and use the spatula to spread the mixture evenly. Bake on the lowest shelf of the oven @180C (top and bottom heat, with fan) for 35 minutes or until the top is light golden brown. Remove from oven and drop bits of cold butter on the top and continue to bake the kueh in the upper shelf of the oven for 15 minutes or until the top are crispy golden brown. Insert a skewer into the kueh to check whether it is ready (skewer is clean with there is no raw batter on it) before removing from oven.

7. Let the kueh cool completely before removing it from the pan. Slice and serve with tea/coffee. Leftovers must be kept in the fridge - just steam or microwave to warm it before serving. 

* came across a recipe where the grated tapioca is squeezed to extract its liquid (starch and water). The liquid is set aside for at least an hour for the starch and water to separate. Then, discard the water and replace with clean tap water. This extra process is due to the belief that white tapioca is bitter. I may try this process when I bake this kueh next time.