Bingka Ubi (Baked Cassava Cake)

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I first made baked tapioca/cassava cake way back during uni days, and I’ve forgotten that I did, until recently Kin Thong’s mom reminded me of how good my tapioca cake was. I was surprised, did I make that before???

I tried to think back, yeah, I did make tapioca cake before. A few times in fact! Many, many years back.
My mom loved it so much and she asked me to make her one to bring to a church outing, and she got her friends to like it as well, and that included Kin Thong’s mom. It just feels funny when things that I made, I’ve forgotten about it, while others were still reminiscing about it.

Where did I learn to make this? My uni friend, Saik Yann’s dad, Mr Cheng. Actually I never tasted her dad’s tapioca cake, but another uni friend of mine did, Yen Cher. She told me how good Mr Cheng’s tapioca cake was. So, I called Saik Yann up and asked her how to do it. There were no exact measurements (her dad made it by feel), but she could only tell me the type of ingredients in it, So, I had to experiment. And it came out well.

My MIL bought 1.2kg of yellow cassava, and asked me what can I do with this. I suddenly thought of the tapioca cake I used to make. I checked out Rohani Jelani’s kuih recipe book, and checked the amount of liquid, and adapted it to Mr Cheng’s tapioca cake composition. Actually his had cheddar cheese topping, I omitted it this time. Feel free to add it if u want.

1.2kg Cassava /Tapioca/ Ubi kayu (When peeled and grated, 900gm)
200gm sugar
200ml thick coconut milk
250ml water
2 eggs
40gm butter

1.Peel and grate cassava. Leave at room temperature. I used yellow cassava. If u’re using yellow ones, ignore the further instructions in (1). If using white cassava, which could be slightly bitter, press out juices into a container and let the juice sit until the starch settles on the bottom. Pour the juice into a measuring cup to separate the water from the starch. Measure the cassava water and discard. Substitute the discarded amount with clean water. Combine the clean water, starch and grated cassava. Add some yellow colouring if desired.
2.Combine coconut milk with eggs.
3.Boil water and sugar. Melt in butter. Pour this hot solution over (1) and stir to combine. It should thicken slightly.
4.Pour (2) into (3). Stir.
5.Pour batter into a lined 7 inch square baking pan. Bake in a preheated oven at 170/180C for 1 hour or until golden brown.