Baked Cassava Cake

I don't love you that much!  This recipe is one of my husband’s favorite because it brings back memories of his childhood in Malaysia and Singapore.  Anyone who loves to do everything from scratch, by grating a cassava root and squeezing out the excess liquid, is most definitely welcome to do this.  In fact 30 years ago I did manually grate cassava to make this cake.  It also explains why I made this once and never made it again.  My husband said it was because I didn't love him enough.  I told him if he were willing to grate it, I would make it.  That was the end of that discussion!

Fast forward to today...One of my favorite pastimes is to slowly walk the aisles of a grocery store.  In my opinion, this pastime is more fun than going shopping for clothes!  There are so many interesting ingredients I have never used and would love to one day.  Eureka!!!  Frozen grated cassava is now readily available in most Asian grocers.  There are so many convenient items that can be found in the different aisles these days.  Those items will be future blog posts!

Before using the frozen cassava in this recipe, you will need to first thaw and drain the frozen cassava in a strainer, placed over a bowl, for a couple of hours.  Discard any liquid but keep and use the settled starch at the bottom of the bowl.  You should also pick out any long and/or hard cassava strands to avoid having to pick them out when eating the baked cake.  Once the ingredients for the recipe have been gathered just throw everything into the same bowl with the settled starches and whisk together.  Pour into a greased pan (I prefer buttered) and bake.  If you prefer a more solid texture, the cake may need to be baked longer.

Let's go!!!

Ingredients:

1 454g pkg of frozen grated cassava.  Thawed, well drained.and picked through of any hard strands.

70g – 100g sugar

40g condensed milk

1 egg

140g coconut milk

½ tsp vanilla

1 Tbsp melted butter (optional for basting halfway through cooking)

Method:

• Mix all ingredients, except butter, in a bowl.
• Pour mixture into a greased square 7” baking pan or dish
• Bake @350F for 40 minutes.  Remove from oven and brush top of cake with melted butter.
• Bake for another 15 to 30 minutes until the edges are golden brown.

Let's get started AGAIN

Hello Family!!!

We are right in the middle of the COVID-19 quarantine!  Stay home and save lives! 

Stay Home.  Save Lives

I probably drive some people crazy because I like to look at the bright side of everything and look for opportunities to learn and do things I enjoy every day.   Better to bake and write than sit and feel my derriere get bigger watching Youtube every day!  The silver lining of the 2020 quarantine has given me another opportunity to get back to what I love; eating, baking and trying new recipes.  I won’t have easy access to my guinea pigs but I’m sure I can find some in my neighbours or I do some deliveries and leave the goods on doorsteps.

At this point, I have decided to use this blogspot more as a family recipe book.  I doubt I will ever figure out the whole video editing stuff.  I would rather spend the time to make sure I document all the dishes, either recent or from our childhood, that I and the family have fallen in love with because they bring back some great memories.  If any of you have a dish that you recall and love, let me know to see if I can make it and bring back those great memories.  I am more committed, as well, to add a recipe each week or month than after 3 years!!

OK…Let’s get started…Again!!!

Honey Pecan Squares

I first tried one of these squares at work when a former colleague brought them in for the weekly Friday breakfast.  I instantly fell in love with them.  After one taste, I had to get the recipe for these squares and make them myself.  When I made these for my family, my daughter referred to them as “drops of heaven”.  They are most certainly heavenly!

These squares actually restarted my baking craze.  When my kids were toddlers I used to bake a lot but stopped when I figured out we were limited to 24 hours in a day.  I don’t think I was a tiger mom, but looking back, I may have overdone it with the activities my kids were in.  Not only did they have the usual school and homework but they also participated in piano classes (and practice), Chinese school (and homework), Kumon math (and homework), swimming lessons, soccer playing, Kung fu lessons, skating lessons and also helped out in the family business.  I was just keeping them so busy that they didn’t have a chance to get into trouble.  Our nights and weekends were filled.  Fast forward 10 years when the kids were able to figure out what I was doing and demanded their independence from some of the activities.  No more were the weekends filled with chauffeuring the kids around and there was again some time to bake.

Ingredients:

Crust:

    ½ cup + 2 Tbsp softened butter divided (no substitute)

    ½ cup packed brown sugar (loosely if you want less sweet)

    1 egg yolk

    1 ½ cup all-purpose flour

Topping:

    1 cup packed brown sugar (loosely if you want less sweet)

    ½ cup butter

    ¼ cup honey

    ½ cup whipping cream

    4 cups (400g) chopped pecans

Method:

• Preheat oven to 350F

Making the crust:

• Line a 13”x9”x2” baking pan with aluminum foil.  Butter the foil with the 2 Tbsp of butter.
• In a mixing bowl, cream remaining butter with brown sugar.  Add egg yolk; mix well.  Gradually add flour.  Texture should resemble coarse crumbs.  Pour into prepared pan; spread evenly and press/pack down crumbs with back of spoon.  Bake at 350F for 13 minutes or until golden brown.

Making the topping:

• While the crust is baking, in a sauce pan, combine brown sugar, butter, and honey.  Bring to a boil over medium heat; cook and stir for 3 minutes.  Remove from heat; stir in pecans and whipping cream.  Pour mixture over crust; spread evenly (I like to flatten the topping with a spatula) and bake at 350F for 15-20 minutes or until hot and bubbly.  Cool completely on a wire rack.
• Use the foil to lift the bars out of the pan.  Remove foil; on a cutting board, cut into squares (approx. 1.5”x1.5”)

Mama Lu's Notes: When making the crust and adding the flour to the creamed butter and sugar, be careful when using a stand mixer, with the paddle attachment.  The stand mixer/paddle attachment caused a lump of dough to form that was very difficult to spread out in the pan.  You can use a hand mixer to mix in the flour.  In the end, the texture should resemble coarse crumbs.