Coconut banana and sago cake

It's been days since I last baked. I couldn't stand it. I had to do something. Baking and cooking are like oxygen to me. I need it to live.

My mum made che chuoi chung the other day. It's a Vietnamese dessert consisting of bananas, coconut milk/cream, sugar and sago/tapioca pearls. It's pretty simple to make if you think about it. You basically just simmer everything in a cooking pot (with some slight specifications such as soaking pearls or cooking bananas first). I don't have a recipe or the correct ingredient proportions for it. Mum doesn't use measuring tools or specific amounts, so it's hard for me to translate that into a recipe right now. I'll make up a recipe for it one day.. but if you're interested right now, just google up "che chuoi chung" and you can probably find a recipe out there on the internet somewhere.

Seeing as there was plenty of the dessert left, I decided to bake a cake out of it. Today's theme of baking is 'leftovers'. Haha. :P


Coconut banana and sago cake
Makes a large round cake

1 1/3 cup self raising flour
1/3 cup corn flour
1 tsp baking soda
4 tbsp sugar (add more sugar if you like things sweet)

1 egg, lightly beaten
3/4 cup milk
2 cups sago/coconut/banana Vietnamese dessert (che chuoi chung)

Sift and mix flours, baking soda and sugar.

In another bowl, mix egg, milk and sago mixture.

Add the wet mixture into the dry mixture and mix until well combined.

Line or grease a baking tin and then pour mixture in. (I used a large springform cake tin. I lined the bottom with baking paper and greased the sides with margarine)

Bake at 165C for 50mins or until golden brown/cooked.
Remove onto cooling rack and allow to cool before serving.


The cake is moist and not too sweet (which suits my tastes, but might not suit those with a sweet tooth). It has a nice banana fragrance and you can see the sago/tapioca pearls (mostly at the bottom as they had sunk)~ :D The purple bits in the cake are the banana. I'm not sure what reaction it underwent to become like that.. but it happens in other Vietnamese recipes too. (For eg. The one with the banana in the centre of glutinous rice, rolled and wrapped up in banana leaves and steamed. I'm not sure what it's called, but the banana turns out purple too!)