One of my favorite Vietnamese desserts is bánh da lợn, a colorful green and yellow steamed layer cake. You can easily spot this dessert at a Vietnamese bakery by its beautiful alternating layers of yellow and green.
This cake is made up of a base mixture of rice flour, glutinous rice flour, tapioca starch, coconut milk and sugar. The mixture is then equally divided into two, and flavored with pandan for the green layer and sweetened mung bean paste for the yellow layer. It’s then steamed, layer by layer.
It’s not overly sweet like other desserts. It’s springy, chewy, and slightly sticky. It’s the perfect dessert to satisfy a sweet craving without the sugar rush. Best of all, it’s so much fun to eat. You can separate the layers of the cake and enjoy each layer one by one, which is what I love and must do every time I have this cake.
I introduced this cake to my daughter recently and she too loves it. She pulls off a layer, gives it a jiggle, then pops it in her mouth, just like mommy.
You don’t need a Vietnamese bakery to enjoy bánh da lợn. If you have the time (and a steamer basket and blender), it’s actually quite simple to make at home. Most of the time is spent waiting for each layer to finish steaming. Other than that, it’s a piece of cake. Pun intended.
There are popular tweaks to the traditional cake. Some cakes use durian instead of mung bean for the yellow layer. Some use taro for an additional purple layer. I’m sticking to the traditional cake below. Happy steaming!
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Vietnamese Steamed Layer Cake with Pandan and Mung Bean Paste (Banh Da Lon)
- Total Time: 45 minutes
- Yield: 6 1x
Description
A colorful green and yellow Vietnamese steamed layer cake that’s semi-sweet, springy, and perfectly chewy. It goes great with tea. Separate the layers one by one for some eating fun! This recipe makes a 9-inch round cake.
Ingredients
Yellow Mung Bean Batter
- 100 grams peeled and split dried mung beans
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 50 grams tapioca starch
- 30 grams rice flour
- 400 ml coconut milk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 100 grams granulated sugar
Green Pandan Batter
- 90 grams fresh pandan leaves
- 1 cup water
- 125 grams tapioca starch
- 125 grams rice flour
- 25 grams glutinous rice flour
- 100 grams granulated sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 400 ml coconut milk
- 2 drops pandan gel extract
Other Ingredients
- Vegetable oil
Instructions
Make the Yellow Mung Bean Batter
- Wash dried mung beans until water runs clear then transfer to a small pot. Add water to cover by 1½ inches. Cook until softened on medium-low heat, uncovered (about 20 minutes).
- To a blender, add cooked mung beans, salt, tapioca starch, rice flour, coconut milk, vanilla extract, and sugar. Blend until smooth. Pass the mixture through a sieve to remove clumps. The mixture will have the consistency of pancake batter.
Make the Green Pandan Batter
- Rinse the blender. Cut pandan leaves into small pieces. Add cut leaves and water. Blend until smooth. Strain liquid through a sieve to extract the liquid and set it aside. Discard the pandan pulp.
- In a large mixing bowl, mix together pandan water, tapioca starch, rice flour, glutinous rice flour, sugar, salt, coconut milk, and pandan gel extract. Pass the mixture through a sieve to remove clumps. The mixture will be much thinner in consistency than the yellow batter.
Divide the Batter and Steam the Layers
- Use a large steamer that will fit a 9-inch circular cake pan with a depth of at least 2 inches. You can also use two smaller cake pans. Get the steamer ready by filling the basin halfway with water. Bring the water to a medium simmer. Have some kitchen towels handy to wipe down the inside of the steamer lid. This will prevent water from falling onto the cake while steaming.
- Divide the green batter equally between 3 bowls. Divide the yellow batter equally between 2 bowls. The cake will have 5 layers, starting and ending with the green pandan layer.
- Brush vegetable oil on the bottom and the sides of the pan. Steam the oiled pan by itself for 5 minutes. Add the first bowl of green batter. Warning: It will be hot but you will have to pour slowly, close to the pan, to prevent bubbles. If there are bubbles, you can scoop them away with a spoon (purely for aesthetics) or leave them be. Steam for 5 minutes.
- Open up the lid and give it a quick wipe down on the inside. Add a bowl of yellow mung bean layer. Steam for 7 minutes. Continue this pattern until all batter is gone. 5 minutes for green. 7 minutes for yellow. Make sure to wipe down the inside of the lid each time a new layer is added.
- Carefully remove the cake from the steamer and allow the cake to cool completely before cutting.
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 30 minutes
- Category: dessert
- Method: Stovetop
- Cuisine: asian, vietnamese
