Kuih Bengka
Kuih Bengka is a Nyonya kuih in Malaysia.
Kuih means sweet cakes in local Malay language. In Malaysia, we serve kuih as breakfast, tea and during special ceremonial occasions such as weddings, ancestor’s prayers, etc.
Tapioca or Cassava Cake
In the past where there was no electricity, Nyonyas used charcoal to bake Kuih Bengka (assava).
The top of the kuih would become dark brown.
These days, you can still get the same top crusty effect in a fan forced oven during the baking process.
The kuih is light yellow in color and has a sweetly scented coconut flavor. You can even bite into the grated coconut.
Traditional Ways of Making Kuih Bengka
In the old days, a wooden coconut grater is used to grate the coconut in this recipe.
Nowadays, you can buy frozen grated coconut from the frozen aisle in Asian grocery stores.
How Many Calories per Serving?
This recipe is only 511 calories per serving.
What to Serve with This Recipe?
There are many types of kuih in Malaysia. If you wish to try making kuih at home, I recommend the following recipes.
5 Secrets to 20 Min Dinners
Get tricks for quick & easy meals!
Kuih Bengka (Tapioca or Cassava Cake)
Kuih Bengka is a sweet, traditional Malaysian-Nyonya kuih. Kuih Bengka is made of cassava (tapioca), coconut milk, sugar and water. This is an authentic and easy recipe that anyone can try at home!
Ingredients
- 1 kg (35 oz.) finely grated cassava or tapioca
- 4 cups sugar
- 1 can (400 ml/13 oz.) coconut milk
- 1 can (600 ml/20 oz.) water
- 3 tablespoons plain or all purpose flour
- 250 g (8 oz.) freshly grated coconut
Instructions
- Mix the grated cassava, grated coconut and flour in a large mixing bowl.
- Heat up the coconut milk together with sugar. When the sugar starts to melt, add this mixture into the combined cassava mix. Use a balloon whisk to stir thoroughly.
- Lastly pour into a 8”X 8”X 3” tin, either lined with grease proof paper (baking paper) or banana leaves.
- Bake in the oven at 180°C (356°F) for 2 hours.
Nutrition Information
Yield
4Serving Size
4 peopleAmount Per Serving Calories 511Total Fat 21gSaturated Fat 19gUnsaturated Fat 0gSodium 17mgCarbohydrates 436gFiber 8gSugar 212gProtein 3g
wern
Hi there,
Can I replace plain flour with any other type of flour instead? :) thanks!
Rasa Malaysia
No.
Ann Ang
Normal measuring cup, n the liquid measurement is too much too, I refer to others recipes, only 300+-sugar, n coconut milk only 2 cup, how the cake form if there’re too much liquid? But I must say the kueh is nice, besides too sweet, n kueh became bran curd. I follow your recipe, n I actually already cut down 1/3 of the sugar,
any way thanks for sharing.
Rasa Malaysia
I had tried this recipe before a few years ago and had no problem. I am not sure what went wrong and I don’t remember it being too sweet and it was not wet for sure. I am sorry but I am not sure what went wrong.
Ann Ang
This is my 1st experience of failing using recipe on line, all my efforts n money were wasted.
1 kg of tapioca with 4 cups of sugar were soooo sweet n l litre of liquid were too much, the kuih just can’t form, was very disappointed with the recipe, people who wants to use this recipe please think twice.
Rasa Malaysia
Hi Ann, I am not sure what happened. This recipe works as I have personally tried it with success. What kinds of cups are you using?
susan clarke
In Barbados & Caribbean we call.this pone,..we.add.raisins.and leave out the coconut milk and flour. I guess you can also use cassava.flour as it is gluten free.
We also finely.grate.the cassava, squeeze out excess.liquid allow to dry add sugar and make bakes (pancakes).
Grace
how sweet is this recipe? 4 cups of sugar just sounds a lot. That is like 1kg of sugar, right?
Grace
Also do you have the fan on for baking at 180 degrees for 2 hours? Look forward to your advice. :)
Rasa Malaysia
The recipe is correct, it’s supposed to be sweet but you can cut down. I am not sure about fan my oven has no fan and I don’t have to turn the fan on or off.
Grace
Thanks for the reply. I cut down on the sugar and because my oven is fan forced, I had it at 170 degrees and the cake was already golden brown after 1hr. I monitored it for another 30min before taking it out of the oven. Thanks for sharing your recipe. :)
alexnut
Hello! May I use tapioca flour instead of grated tapioca?
Otherwise, are there other uses of tapioca flour, apart from the brazilian cheeseballs?
THANK YOU!!!
Rasa Malaysia
Sorry you can’t. Just keep making the Brazilian cheeseballs.
Yen
I had a recipy years ago that has butter in it and it very tasty but I forgot the whole recipy. Try to search few of recipy similar but no luck. Do you have the one with butter in it?
Monica
Hi,
Thanks for the recipe.
I am just wonder how come you dont added eggs and water ?
Rasa Malaysia
No egg in the recipe. Water is added to coconut milk.
andrea70
Hi,
1 tin coconut =how many ml..how u grated de cassava..
Thanks
Rasa Malaysia
400 ml coconut milk.
Rasa Malaysia
I bought frozen grated cassava.
cristine
hi :), where to buy frozen cassava here malaysia. thank you
Rasa Malaysia
Buy fresh cassava instead.
Rebecca
Hi Bee, I have a few plants of Tapioca in my garden, so I often make Kuih Bengka. I never line the tin, in fact at the end of baking, I will place it onto the bottom so that the heat will brown the base too. We don’t add colouring — the stall one, they added yellow colouring. So I add in 1/2 brown sugar, 1/2 sugar if the brown sugar is not sold in packet, I will boil it up with the 2nd squeeze of coconut milk and pandan leaves then sieve it in case it has some sugar cane fibre in it. I will add in all ingredients and cook in the wok to thick then pour into a greased tin, smooth the top with some oil and bake. I never add in freshly grated coconut, may be I will try the next time.
Rasa Malaysia
Thanks for your tips Rebecca!