Bibingka, a.k.a. getting rice flour all over the kitchen counters

My friend Katie and I have been experimenting with bibingka. For those who might not know about this savory-sweet cake, it’s a hearty rice flour (or sometimes just rice) concoction that can be topped off with almost anything, including cheese, fruit, condensed milk, or even salted eggs. In this version, we covered the cake with a salty-sweet mixture of coconut and mozzarella.

Serve a slice of the rice cake on banana leaves

Ingredients (and some helpful hints of where to get the harder to find comestibles)

• banana leaves (optional, “dahon na saging” in Filipino in case the package isn’t in English) – try looking for it in the frozen section of an Asian grocery store
• 1 lb. rice flour a.k.a. mochiko – also at most Asian grocery stores and even the gluten-free or ethnic sections of mainstream super markets, they usually come in 1 lb. bags or boxes.
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 can evaporated milk (1 1/2 cups) (not to be confused with condensed milk)
• 4 eggs
• 1 can coconut milk (don’t confuse with coconut cream or coconut juice). Make sure to shake the can before opening otherwise the parts of the coconut milk will be separated.
• 2 cups of sugar (either brown, white, or half and half)
• 1 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 1 block of butter
• bag of shredded coconut
• bag of shredded mozzarella

Directions

1. Preheat the oven at 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. Butter a 9×13 pan (or you can also use two smaller circular pans – just make sure you don’t have more than an inch of batter otherwise it won’t cook all the way through in the oven). Place two layers of whole banana leaves in the pan making sure that the bottom and inner sides of the pan are covered and just enough hanging over top so you can remove the cake later. Be careful not to rip the leaves otherwise the batter with seep through. Butter the banana leaves, too. (Leaves are optional but add a wonderful banana taste to the cake.)
3. Soften the butter in the microwave. Combine with the sugar to dissolve all of the sugar.
4. Mix all the wet ingredients in a large bowl – sugar-butter mixture, evaporated milk, coconut milk,  vanilla, and eggs. Mix well with an electric mixer.
5. Combine the dry ingredients in another bowl – rice flour and baking powder. Be extremely careful when opening the mochiko – it will explode all over the place and it’s a pain to clean up. Try opening over the sink or in a plastic bag with a pair of scissors.
6. Slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet – using a blender to get out all of the lumps. You can try sifting the flour if you don’t have a mixer but mochiko is usually very fine and this makes it difficult.
7. Pour the batter into the buttered pan / banana leaves. Make sure not to let the batter go over an inch thick otherwise it won’t cook all the way. Tap the sides of the pan to allow bubbles to escape.
8. Bake in the oven for 1 hour. If you used banana leaves, it’s normal for them to turn dark brown or even black.
9. Toss the shredded coconut and mozzarella. Don’t add all of it at once – depending on the brand of the either,you may need to adjust for sweetness and saltiness so be sure to taste it. Just before the bibingka is about to finish (use a fork to check), top it with the coconut and mozzarella and return it to the oven. Broil for 5 minutes or less, just enough to melt the cheese – you don’t want to burn the coconut!
10. Let sit for 15 minutes. If no banana leaves are used, serve in the pan (it’s difficult to remove it because the cake will be crumbly). If banana leavesare used, carefully lift the bibingka out of the pan by holding on the leaves. Some of the batter will inevitably seep through the leaves and will cook at the bottom of the pan – these are the best parts!