Filipino · Holiday Specials

Bibingka

Filipino rice cake baked in a banana leaf over Christmas, topped with salted egg and cheese and finished with butter and grated coconut.

50 min total Serves 8 servings Medium
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Bibingka

Photograph credit: BIBINGKA rice cakes by whologwhy · CC BY 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Storing and Planning Ahead

Best within hours. Keeps 2 days refrigerated and should be reheated in a low oven, not a microwave, which turns rice flour gluey.

Bibingka: The Method

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  1. Heat the oven to 190°C / 375°F fan.

  2. Pass the banana leaves over a gas flame or hot dry pan for a few seconds each side until they turn glossy and deep green and smell grassy. Line a round tin with them.

  3. Whisk the rice flour, sugar, baking powder and salt.

  4. Beat the eggs with the coconut milk, milk and melted butter, then whisk into the dry ingredients until smooth.

  5. Pour into the lined tin and bake 20 minutes.

  6. Lay the salted egg slices and cheese over the surface and bake 10 minutes more, until set and lightly browned.

  7. Brush the hot cake with the melted butter, scatter the coconut and sugar, and serve warm in the leaf.

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Tips for Success

  • Wilt the banana leaf over a flame first. Unwilted it splits and gives nothing.
  • Do not add the toppings at the start — they sink into a wet batter and the cheese burns over 30 minutes.
  • Bibingka is eaten warm, from the leaf, standing up, after midnight mass. Cold it is merely fine.

Why the Method Is What It Is

The banana leaf is not decoration. Passed over a flame until it turns glossy and dark green, it becomes pliable and gives off a grassy smoke that goes into the cake as it bakes — bibingka made in a bare tin is a different and lesser thing. Salted duck egg on top is the other half of the argument: the cake is sweet and mild, and it needs that hit of salt to be interesting.

Good Alongside

Salabat, hot ginger tea · Puto bumbong alongside · Strong black coffee

Swaps and Variations

  • If coconut is a problem, a cooking cream (dairy or plant-based) can stand in for the coconut milk in a sauce; the dish will lose the coconut flavour and taste noticeably different.

Bibingka Nutrition

No nutrition figures are given for this recipe: they cannot be worked out reliably from its ingredient list (some ingredient lines cannot be read). Why some recipes have none.

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Compiled by Turab

Checked by script for timings, diet labels and nutrition arithmetic. How the recipes are checked. Found a mistake? Tell us.

First published ; last changed .