Coconut Rice Cakes – Bibingka
Bibingka or Coconut Rice Cakes are a Filipino specialty, made with rice flour and coconut milk. These gluten free cakes are perfect with a cup of coffee or tea. A tasty treat for Breakfast or snack.
When my friend Abigail from Manila Spoon asked me if I would like to make a recipe from her just released Cookbook “Rice. Noodles. Yum“ I couldn’t resist.
I decided to give these Coconut Rice Cakes, or known as Bibingka in the Philippines a try.
One because we love dessert and two because they are gluten free. My eldest daughter was coming for a visit and she loves anything gluten free, so I knew they would be perfect for her.
As Abigail says in her book, these are wonderful with a cup of tea or coffee. Perfect for Breakfast. Light and not overly sweet.
What are the ingredients in Bibingka?
- Banana Leaves, these are actually optional
- Rice Flour
- Baking powder
- Salt
- Eggs
- Granulated Sugar
- Coconut Milk
- Unsalted Butter (I can’t get unsalted in Italy for I used regular salted and I cut down on the salt)
- Vanilla
Why are Banana Leaves used?
Banana leaves are optional but traditionally the cakes are baked in the softened banana leaves, they give the cakes added aroma and a subtle sweetness.
The leaves can be purchased frozen from Asian stores. They should be defrosted first, then cleaned by wiping them with moistened paper towels.
The leaves are then softened by running each leaf over a flame or an electric stovetop until the whole leaf is a deep green.
If you can’t find banana leaves (like me) then lining the tins with parchment paper works too.
How to make Bibingka
- In a medium bowl sift together the rice flour, baking powder and salt.
- In a large bowl beat the eggs, then add the sugar, coconut milk, butter and vanilla and combine well.
- Slowly add the flour mixture to the egg mixture and whisk until well combined and smooth.
- Divide the batter evenly into the prepared tins.
- Bake, serve warm or room temperature.
How to store them
The cooked bibingka should be stored in an airtight container, they will keep for 1-2 days at room temperature. Or in the fridge for 1-2 weeks.
These are a delicious treat, whether you are looking for a gluten free recipe or not. Warm from the oven with a cup of tea make the perfect Breakfast idea. Enjoy!
Bibingka – Coconut Rice Cakes
Ingredients
- 2 cups rice flour (firmly packed)
- 2 tablespoons baking powder
- 1 pinch salt
- 4 eggs (room temperature)
- 1 1/4 cups granulated sugar
- 1 can (13.5 ounces ) coconut milk
- 2 tablespoons butter* melted / cooled
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
*if using unsalted butter then add 1/2 teaspoon salt.
Instructions
- Pre-heat oven to 375F (190C). Lightly grease and flour 12 (6 large and 6 small) muffin tin or line with parchment paper.
- In a medium bowl sift together the rice flour, baking powder and salt.
- In a large bowl beat the eggs, then add the sugar, coconut milk, butter and vanilla and combine well.
- Slowly add the flour mixture to the egg mixture and whisk until well combined and smooth. Divide the batter evenly into the prepared tins. Bake, for approximately 18-23 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Leave in the pan for 10 minutes then remove to wire rack to cool completely. Serve warm or room temperature. Enjoy!
Recipe looks yummy. Never have used rice flour but I love a lot of you and your daughters recipes. The only change I will make is cutting back on the sugar. I do that in all my recipes.
Hi Phyllis, thanks so much, I hope you enjoy them. Good idea on the sugar! Take care.
Hi I always cut back to, how much did you use?
This was great! Light and not too sweet. I subbed coconut sugar for regular sugar and coconut oil for the butter and it still baked a treat. They didn’t rise as much as I expected per what was mentioned in the comments, but it might be my ingredients. It also made more than I expected, so maybe my tins are smaller than the standard American size? It made 24 “regular” sized muffins and 6 taller ones. Next time, to up the coconut flavour, I may add some dried coconut, coconut essence and maybe even swap in some coconut flour. Thank you for a great recipe!
Hi Evs, thanks so much, so glad you liked it and thank you for letting me know about the substitutions you used. Take care and have a great weekend!
You mentioned these are traditionally baked in banana leaves, and I’m interested in using them. Would appreciate any instructions on how to use the leaves (and how many) after they are warmed. Thanks!
Hi Jessica, she mentions this is the way to use the banana leaves. The Bibingka may also be baked in two pie pans or in muffin tins lined with banana leaves or parchment paper. If baking this muffin-style or cupcake style, do not overfill your muffin pans because these cakes expand a lot so do not go over 2/3s full. If using shallow muffin tins, better to divide the batter between 16-18 muffins than 12 because the batter may overflow. Banana leaves can be purchased frozen from Asian stores. Defrost first then clean the banana leaves by wiping them with moistened paper towels. To soften the banana leaves, simply run each leaf over a flame or over an electric stovetop. Heat until the leaves are deep green all over. Hope that helps. 🙂
Hi, your recipe box gives the option to scale it up 2x or 3x. However, while the first numbers (the cups) change the numbers in the brackets (the grams) do not change. Wanted to let you know as someone who is scaling up may get the wrong recipe. I do not work with cups, I always measure in grams. So are the 2 cups of rice flour really 230 grams?
Hi Gerry, thanks it now works. I am trying to update old recipes so that the metric is also in the recipe card and not in brackets. The 230 grams for the rice flour is correct as far as I know, that’s what her books says. Why? Do you think it isn’t?
SUPER recipe! A pleasure to make and a delight to eat 😍 Thanks for an amazing recipe
Hi Christine, thanks so much, so glad you like the recipe. Take care!
Thanks for this awesome recipe. I only made half of this in a square pan like a cake. Replaced sugar with cane sugar and butter with ghee to make it casein free for my special needs son. Everyone loved it. Next time will make the full recipe. We make a cake called bibikkan with caramalized coconut in Sri Lanka 🙂 initially I thought they were same because of the name but this is different.
This turned out to be the best gluten free, refined sugar free and casein free cake I’ve ever made with the substitutions. Thanks again
Love from Canada
Hi Marita, thanks so much, so glad you enjoyed it. I love how you made it! Thanks take care and keep warm!
I just realized that I have used a couple of your recipes, just left a comment on one about homemade bread that was fantastic lol but when I saw that I already had this one saved I just had to make sure that I let you know how great these turned out too! I made these for my brother and his wife’s rehearsal dinner using this recipe and I got so many compliments that night! Still now anytime I see one of my brother in laws he refers to me as babinka lol bc no one there had ever heard of these. I honestly only looked up a recipe after hearing them talk about these in the deuce bigalow movie lol but yes these are amazing and once again thank you for sharing!!!
Hi Natdacake, thanks so much, glad you liked the recipe. I will have to check out that movie and I like your new name! Take care!
How delightful, light and fluffy these Bibingkas are! And easy to make too. I made no substitutions, followed the recipe to the T and they turned out just perfectly. Ate them straight from the oven 😋 😍. As a bonus my batch yielded 10 medium and 6 large cupcakes. Thanks for an amazing recipe, Rosemary!
Greetings from South Africa 🇿🇦
Hi Nawassls, hello to you and thanks so much, so glad you enjoyed the recipe. Take care!
I absolutely love this recipe. I’ve been making this for maybe a year and a 1/2 now and it varies each time I make it but my last two or three batches have had huge dips in the middle and I can’t figure out why. Does anyone happen to know why my cupcake look like someone ate the middle out of all of them?? I thought maybe it has to much baking powder or the oven was too hot but I’ve made this exact recipe for a while and they have never done this till now.
Hi Bethers, I am thinking it could be your oven, I am having a lot of problems with my oven these days. Have you checked the temperature? Let me know.
Came out with an extremely bitter aftertaste. I think the 2Tbsp of baking soda was a mistake. Threw out the whole batch, such a waste of ingredients. I think this recipe would be amazing if baking soda was adjusted.
Hi Gia, I have checked and that is the way it was made. 🙂
You commented baking soda but the recipe calls for baking powder. Maybe that’s what went wrong?
Hi Alina, no it was my mistake, it should be baking powder (baking soda is a lot more active than baking powder so that would not work).
Could I use coconut sugar in place of white?
Hi Tiarah, yes you can substitute with coconut sugar it is a one for one substitution. I hope you enjoy it.
Will the amount of sugar change if using mochiko sweet rice flour?
Hi Cece, unfortunately you cannot use mochiko sweet rice flour because that is glutinous (sticky) and the coconut rice cake use a regular rice flour. If mochiko has a regular rice flour (not glutinous – the word sweet there doesn’t mean the flour is sweet) – they use that to indicate it’s a sticky rice flour as opposed to regular. If mochiko has regular rice flour then the recipe should be followed as is. Hope that helps.