Bánh Bò Nướng (Honeycomb Cake)

Bánh Bò Nướng (Honeycomb Cake)

Known in English as honeycomb cake for its interior pattern of holes stretched long like yawns, bánh bò nướng is tinted jade from pandan paste, which flavors the coconut milk batter. Glossy green pandan leaves, from which the paste is extracted, impart a scent that hovers like jasmine and vanilla with a grounding of soft herbs and toasted rice. The mix of tapioca starch and rice flour yields a texture that’s stretchy, sticky and soft. Hannah Pham’s take on this Vietnamese classic includes a crisp outer crust. She uses a Bundt pan so there’s more of the browned shell in each bite and, to make the exterior even more caramelized, cut down on the amount of butter brushed over the heated pan. For a foolproof cake, she calls for double-acting baking powder, avoids over whisking the eggs and passes the batter through a sieve. —Genevieve Ko

Yield: One Bundt cake; about 12 servings

2 cups/254 grams tapioca starch (see Tips)

¼ cup/38 grams rice flour (see Tips)

1½ teaspoons double-acting baking powder

6 large eggs

1 ⅓ cups/283 grams granulated sugar

1 (14-ounce) can/390 grams full-fat coconut milk, well-shaken

2 tablespoons canola oil

1 teaspoon kosher salt (such as Diamond Crystal) or ½ teaspoon fine salt

½ teaspoon pandan paste (see Tips)

¾ tablespoon cold unsalted butter

Arrange a rack in the center of the oven and put a 9½-inch nonstick Bundt pan on it. Heat the oven to 325 degrees.

Set a sieve over a large bowl and add the tapioca starch, rice flour and baking powder to it. Whisk the dry ingredients until they’re all sifted through.

Set the same sieve over another large bowl. Crack the eggs into it and break the yolks with a whisk, then slowly whisk the eggs clockwise until they all run through the sieve. Add the sugar, coconut milk, oil, salt and pandan paste to the sieved eggs and stir slowly with the whisk until smooth. Whisk gently throughout so as to not create too many air bubbles, which can cause the cake to sink.

Set the sieve over the dry ingredients and pour in the wet ingredients, whisking them through the sieve as needed to help the mixture pass through. Using the whisk, gently stir together the dry and wet ingredients until combined. Pour the batter through the sieve into the other bowl, whisking if needed to help it go through. Repeat the sieving two more times, going from one bowl to the other.

Pull the rack with the hot Bundt pan out of the oven and drop the butter into the pan. Use a pastry or silicone brush to spread the butter over the inside of the pan, then immediately pour in the batter. Lay a sheet of foil on top of the pan without crimping the edges.

Bake for 45 minutes, then remove the foil and bake for 45 minutes longer, or until the top is browned and a cake tester comes out clean. Cool in the pan on a rack for 10 minutes, then use a rubber spatula to nudge the edges away from the pan. Carefully flip the cake onto a rack.

Cool completely, then slice into ½-inch-thick wedges to serve. The cake tastes best when served the same day, but keeps for up to 2 days in an airtight container at room temperature.

Tips: Tapioca starch is commonly used in Asian desserts. The Erawan brand works especially well here. Other brands available outside Asian groceries will not result in a successful cake.

Rice flour comes in many different grinds and varieties. For this cake, you want very finely ground white rice flour, ideally the Erawan brand in the packaging with the red print. You should not use brands of rice flour available outside Asian groceries or glutinous rice flour, sticky rice flour or mochiko.

Pandan paste is extracted from pandan leaves, which have a floral flavor similar to vanilla with a heady aroma like jasmine. The paste is a concentrated version of the flavoring, which also provides an intense green color to this cake.

TIP: As a Vietnamese person I want to reassure everyone in the comments that pandan paste is welcome but certainly not mandatory. If you image search bánh bò you'll see that if we don't have pandan paste/extract we'll just use food coloring. We eat bánh bò primarily for the springy, chewy, fun texture; it's not as good on the 2nd or 3rd day, and it changes for the worse when refrigerated, so I'd worry more about finding enough people to eat this cake on the day it's made than finding pandan paste :)

Pandan paste is really hard to find, even in NYC, but you can try an Asian grocery store. The popular brand seems to be Koepoe Koepoe. I tried this cake and I used 1 teaspoon of vanilla and 1/2 TBLSP of matcha tea powder (to give a warm vanilla floral essence) and it came out pretty good

I tried to make this cake to impress my Vietnamese mother in law. First time it was a flop. Second time I made the following adjustments and it was a success!

1) Eggs at room temp and used a rubber spatula to push them through the sieve instead of whisk

2) Baked at 350 for 45 min

3) More baking powder - I used about 2 3/4 tsp.

4) Slightly less sugar - 1 1/4 cups

5) Mixed coconut milk, sugar, and salt in a sauce pan over the stove until sugar dissolved, then cooled it and added to sieved eggs