Baked Tapioca Cake (Kuih Bingka Ubi Kayu) Recipe

Baked Tapioca Cake, also known as Kuih Bingka Ubi Kayu, is a local delicacy and favourite in Southeast Asian Countries. You can often see this delicacy sold in Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia, with their pleasant flavour and aroma! This week, I took it upon myself to re-create this as it is one of my favourites, and also because it is getting harder to find these in local stores!

By the way, for those who are unsure what is a kuih, it is a bite-sized snack or dessert found in Southeast Asia. It’s a pretty broad term, but this Baked Tapioca Cake is indeed one of my favourite kuihs! Additionally and a bonus? This is also one of the easier kuihs to make with just a few ingredients.

However, these are steps I swear by to make the best Baked Tapioca Cake:

1. Use fresh ingredients! This includes Coconut Milk and Tapioca for the best flavours. Additionally, the use of a fresh egg also gives a nice, golden and natural hue to the finished Kuih. Furthermore, the use of fresh coconut milk gives a nice fragrance.
2. Make sure to grate the Tapioca finely. While the tapioca can become softer and chewier as it bakes, overly huge chunks of tapioca is likely to remain. As such, use a food processor or blender if need be!
3. Finally, a dash of flour goes a long way. Before baking, the batter of this kuih tends to be on the watery side. As such, I do prefer to bind mine with just a dash of flour for a nice structure to the kuih.

Otherwise, this is a pretty straightforward recipe, and I hope you will like this Baked Tapioca Cake, or Kuih Bingka Ubi Kayu!

Without further ado, the recipe.

Baked Tapioca Cake (Kuih Bingka Ubi Kayu) Recipe
by Javier Tan August-11-2024

This fragrant and flavourful Southeast Asian delight – Baked Tapioca Cake or Kuih Bingka Ubi Kayu is sure to capture your heart!

Ingredients

• Approx 400g of Fresh Tapioca (approx 500g – 600g before removing skin etc)
• 1 Large Egg, approx 60g including weigh of shell
• (Fresh if possible) 1 Cup (Remove 2 Tsps) or 230ml Coconut Milk
• 1/3 Cup + 1 Tbspn or 80g of White Sugar
• 1 Tbspn or 15 ml of Flavourless Vegetable Oil (e.g. Canola)
• 1 Tbspn or 7.5g of Flour

Instructions

1. Grate the Tapioca finely, and mash if needed, until almost paste-like. I chopped the tapioca into small cubes and used a food processor to help me in this.
2. Then, transfer the tapioca to a bowl and add in the egg, coconut milk, sugar, oil and flour. Mix together until of a single consistency, it will be slightly clumpy.
3. Next, transfer to your baking tray (7 or 8 in square, or 8 in round) lined with parchment paper and tap against the counter a few times to dislodge excess air bubbles.
4. Bake at 180C for 1h 5 mins – 1 h 10 mins or until nicely golden brown. If it is not sufficiently brown, turn it to just top heat for the final 5 – 10 minutes.
5. Set aside 30 minutes once it’s done before slicing.
6. Serve and enjoy!