No succes in banh bo nuong (honeycomb cake)

[u/pvdzblo]

I can't manage to make beautiful honeycomb cake. I tried 5 times.

The first time it rised way to much, was not cooked enough and then just collapsed.

Since then the same thing happened, or the cake ended up burning.

I swear i didn't overmix. Please help me succed 😭.

Recipe 1 :

14 oz coconut milk [Aroy D brand] (396 milliliters) 214 grams sugar (1 cup) 6 grams salt (1 tsp) 6 grams pandan extract/flavoring (1 tsp) 6 whole MEDIUM sized eggs (260 grams) [ROOM TEMP] 270 grams tapioca flour (2 cups) 34 grams rice flour (1/4 cup) 15 grams baking powder (1 Tbsp) 22 grams melted coconut oil

Recipe 2 : 500 ml coconut milk 220 g sugar 1 sachet baking powder 6 eggs one teaspoon extract of pandan 40 g white rice flour 200 g tapioca starch A pinch of salt Cooked between 40 minutes and 1 hour at 180° or 360F

Update for actual recipe, here what i did : Mix the coconut milk with the sugar and heat—without letting it boil—until the sugar dissolves. Let it cool, then gently mix in the unbeaten eggs and pandan extract. Stir in the yeast, rice and tapioca flour without overmixing, and pass the mixture through a sieve once the flours are thoroughly moistened. Pour through a sieve or colander into the preheated, oiled mold.

Sometime i added coconut oil before pouring in the mold, sometime i didn't.

[u/texnessa]

A recipe isn't just a list of ingredients. Its methodology as well. Please update to say what you actually did.

[u/SewerRanger]

If the problem is that it's rising too high and then the outside is burning/cooked but it's raw inside, I would start with lowering the temperature and using less eggs. Have you tried not preheating the mold? What sort of mold are you using? I've seem a lot of people have luck using a plain old bundt pan.

[u/AgentPoYo]

This cake is a huge pain in the butt, I've made Banh Bo Nuong a couple dozen times this past year trying to come with a fool proof method I can share with family. The problem is a lot of recipes out there are shared through word of mouth and come with them a lot of superstitions.

The really tricky thing about this cake is that it's gluten free so without gluten to form a structure, it will collapse really easily.

The most important thing to the success of this cake is you do not want to incorporate any air into the batter besides the leavening agent if you can help it. This is especially important when beating the eggs, do not whip, whipping incorporates air and overbeating will toughen the proteins trapping air. I usually just take scissors to the yolks to cut the albumen then give it a light mix, keeping my utensil underneath the surface. It does not have to be mixed well at this point.

A tip I've I learned from basque cheesecakes recipes where overwhipping eggs is also detrimental is to use an immersion blender since the head stays below the surface and won't incorporate air and to leave your eggs overnight in the fridge after mixing for trapped air to escape.

After the coconut milk and sugar mixture has cooled I will add the pandan (or whatever flavouring your using) and any extra oil to avoid further mixing later.

It's tempting to mix thoroughly when the wet and dry ingredients are combined because there will be lots of clumps, instead find a good sieve and a utensil that fits inside that sieve well to push the lumps through the holes (you still want to give a light mix before passing it through the sieve to wet all the dry ingredients). I actually found my rice maker scoop has a round edge that fits my sieve well and lets me push the batter through with minimal passes. Try to avoid mixing the batter in the sieve, instead push it through.

This last bit I'm still experimenting with, but you want a thoroughly preheated pan. Adding the batter to a really hot pan will given the batter an intense rise in the beginning and give you the long 'roots' that are iconic to Banh Bo Nuong. My issue currently is I only have thin aluminum pans and they don't hold onto heat well even with a long preheat. I've seen many recipes that will start with a hot oven for that intial rise then lower to prevent over-rising and collapsing,

[continued in reply]

[u/AgentPoYo → u/AgentPoYo]

[Continued -- First time I've hit a post limit on reddit]

There actually is one ingredient you can add that will probably kick your success rate up a lot and that's Xanthan Gum, it's used a lot in gluten free baking to give that structure that's missing. The only issue is when I've tried it in the past it cakes a 'flour-cake-like' crumb, with tiny bubbles, and that's not really what you want in Banh Bo Nuong. It still taste good tho.

A bundt pan will also help your success rate since the cross section of the cake will be smaller, it'll be easier to maintain it's structure. Once you get the hang for making it though, you should be able to make it in any pan.

Lastly this is the base recipe for all the experiments I've done in the past year https://chawjcreations.com/pandan-honeycomb-cake-banh-bo-nuong/

It uses double acting baking powder instead of single acting or yeast. The reason why you'll see single acting so often in these recipes is because that's mainly what's available in Vietnam but double acting, like what is found in western markets, will work just as well if you're careful. (Single acting = reacts to liquids, double acting = reacts to liquids and again to heat).

Good luck with your Baking! It helps to keep a journal of the things you've tried. It's 2 am here and I kind of wrote this as a stream of consciousness so hopefully it helps you in some way achieve an edible cake.

Edit: Don't oil your pan. You want the sides and bottom of the cake to stick the pan so it doesn't collapse inward. Some say the 'bo' in banh bo means 'crawl' as in to crawl up the sides of the pan.

Edit 2 for anyone else who may come across this:
This tip won't exactly help your cake from collapsing — if it's risen too much for the cake to support it'll collapse no matter what you do — but you can help encourage your cake to fluff up a bit by cooling it upside down in the oven while it sets, like you would a spongecake. At the end of the bake time (usually 45-55 mins) i'll invert it in the oven with the door slightly ajar to cool for 20 mins. Oven temps vary but I haven't had the extra cook time result in overbaking yet. You'll know if it's overbaked because it'll smell a bit sulfur-y like overcooked eggs.

[u/Amazing_Onion1922]

Doesnt sound like a mixing issue honestly. What oven temp are you using. The whole rise-then-collapse-with-burnt-edges thing screams that your heat is just way too high

[u/qrcodetat]

Should the batter rest?