Cassava Cake (Bibingka)

Well, it's still a swelteringly hot summer day... and you'd think that that would mean that I'd stay away from anything hot and potentially sweat-inducing. However, my addiction to baking has rendered it nearly impossible for me to stay out of the kitchen and away from the heat-producing box known as my oven.
Upon opening the fridge this morning, I discovered that I had about a cup of evaporated milk left over from another dish I'd made (I can't quite recall what though, the heat is seriously melting my brain o_O) and like any normal person I thought that it'd probably be a good idea to use up the milk in another recipe, before the heat rendered it curdled, sour and just plain disgusting.

I put my thinking cap on, and thought long and hard about what I wanted to make... and then it hit me! Cassava cake! Or Bibingka. My dad makes a wicked cassava cake, and I thought I'd try my hand at making one that was as good as (if not better than) his. So, onward with the recipe...

Cassava Cake (Bibingka)
Yields 1 cake ~8-10 servings

Ingredients:
- 1 pack (454g) frozen, shredded cassava root; thawed
- 250ml evaporated milk
- 250ml coconut milk
- 2 eggs
- 1/2 cup sugar
- topping: shredded coconut + brown sugar mixed together (optional)

Method:
1. Mix all ingredients together
2. Pour into two 8-inch round glass pan (or two 8x8inch square glass pans) that have been well greased.
3. Place dishes in a water bath and bake at 350degrees for 1hour.
4. Remove bibingka from water bath and sprinkle on the topping if desired. Continue to bake for another 25-35minutes (without water bath).
5. Set oven to broil and cook for 5minutes (or until the top of the cake is nicely browned).
6. Remove from oven and allow to cool before slicing.

The heat from the oven was unbearable... but the smell that the cake gave off was simply delightful. I couldn't stay away :P And the cake itself, although I'll admit, not as good as my dad's recipe, was pretty darned good. My dad's bibingka is usually more chewy and glutinous than the recipe I made. This bibingka was more like a firm, creamy, egg and cassava pudding... not too sweet, but just sweet enough and with just enough coconut milk to not overpower the cassava taste. I'll have to ask my dad for his recipe... because there's one more pack of frozen cassava in the freezer and I definitely want to learn the secret to his chewy cassava cake recipe.

One thing that I'd probably do differently, is that I'd make the cake a bit thicker. Upon pouring the batter into the glass dish, I realized that I had much more batter than would fit into the glass dish; however, the leftover batter was not enough to make a completely whole, second cake. Perhaps if I had a larger glass dish... maybe a 9x13inch rectangle glass dish would have been just the right size. Well... there's always next time, because this recipe is so simply and easy to make! But, I'll probably wait until the heat dies down before I get back into that blazing hot kitchen.