Bibingkang Pasko / Christmas Rice Cake

I remember when we were young; my family would go Christmas shopping at Cubao COD mall. It was a nice place to visit during the holiday season because of their yearly Christmas play that uses animatronics. It showcases different themes and Christmas stories every year. They started to stage the Christmas shows in COD Avenida, Manila on December of 1957. But when they closed the Avenida branch, they transferred the show to COD Cubao, Quezon City.

I clearly remember that I sometimes sat on my Dad's shoulders while watching the play and I would be so amazed by it. The robots were so cool and the show was so colourful using neon lights (yes, it was the 80s). Then by the end of the show, Santa or a Pinoy hero of the story would come out and yell "Merry Christmas" or "Maligayang Pasko" and we would all greet him back.  By the time COD Cubao closed down, we started going to Greenhills shopping centre because they adapted the same Christmas animatronics show, which fortunately the mall still runs up to now. It's much bigger and I think the show period ran much longer.  To learn more about their history click here.

Anyway, the best part of the shopping trip was at the end of the day we'd eat dinner at the temporary stalls set up beside the Greenhills Christmas bazaars and we would all share our finds with each other while eating. Then to top of the night, we would always have Ferino's bibingka for dessert. That started my association with that kind of rice cake to Christmas. My siblings and I fondly nicknamed it “bibingkang Pasko"or Christmas Rice Cakes because we only get to eat it during Christmas. To date, we still refer to it as bibingkang Pasko. The hot, buttery, sweet and salty cake is always a delight to eat since it invokes Christmas memories. 

Since we won't be going home this Christmas, I made it at home from scratch. I used this and this as a guide to make them. I didn't have any banana leaves so I opted to make it as a cupcake instead. End result was yummy! Even Toddler liked it along with the coconut garnish which he called "nuts". Though next time, I will add a tad bit more sugar as I used less for this batch.  I’ll also bake them into thin round cakes instead of cupcakes and make sure I have banana leaves to make it more original.

Bibingka Rice Cake / Bibingkang Pasko

recipe adapted from Panlasangpinoy and Marketmanila

• 297g plain flour
• 34g rice flour
• 18g baking powder
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 45g melted butter
• 200g granulated sugar
• 112g brown sugar
• 3g pandan flavoring
• 472g coconut milk
• 3 eggs
• 3 cooked salted eggs

For garnish:

• melted butter
• sugar
• grated coconut

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 200 degrees Celsius.
2. Combine rice flour, baking powder, and salt then mix well. Set aside.
3. Combine coconut milk and fresh milk and mix. Then add pandan flavouring. Set aside
4. Cream butter then gradually put-in white and brown sugar while whisking.
5. Add the eggs then whisk until every ingredient is well incorporated.
6. Gradually add the rice flour mixture then continue mixing.
7. Then mix the coconut milk mixture untuil well combined.
8. Pour the mixture on the muffin pan lined with cupcake liners.
9. Put a slice of cooked salted egg in each cupcake batter.
10. Bake for 20 minutes or until the top turn medium brown and a skewer inserted comes clean.
11. Switch off oven, remove the cupcake tray and brush the top with melted butter and sprinkle small amount of sugar and put back in the oven. Let it sit for 2-3 minutes.
12. Remove from the oven and let it cool.
13. You can also top this with grated coconut.