This Honeycomb Cake (Banh Bo Nuong) recipe makes a delicious, fragrant cake infused with Pandan flavor and coconut milk. With its fresh green color, fun chewy texture and unique furrows, this sweet treat is at the top of everyone’s snack cake list. If you’re familiar with this cake, you may know that it can be a bit challenging. The mark of success is achieving the vertical striations, which when cut across, looks like a bee’s honeycomb and hence the name: Honeycomb Cake. The ingredients and directions are very specific, so please follow the Honeycomb Cake (Banh Bo Nuong) recipe exactly and avoid substitutions unless noted. Good Luck!
Notes on the Honeycomb Cake (Banh Bo Nuong) Recipe, Tips and Tricks
Be sure to use single-acting baking powder instead of double-acting baking powder. Single-acting works when wet. Double-acting works with moisture and heat. Most of the baking powders in the grocery stores (ex: Rumford, Royal, Calumet, etc.) are double-acting and will not work with this recipe. The cake rises nicely in the oven, but once removed from the oven, it falls flat (very sad!). For single-acting baking powder, I familiar with two brands: Alsa baking powder and Dr. Oetker. The Alsa brand, sold mainly at Vietnamese grocery stores, is what most people use. Alsa works just fine for this recipe. If using Alsa baking powder, use one entire envelope. I tried Dr. Oetker’s because it’s sold at a store near me. Unfortunately, it did not yield the beautiful honeycombs. Because finding single-acting baking powder can be a frustrating task, I show you how to make your own single-acting baking powder with ingredients readily available in every grocery store: baking soda and cream of tartar.
Be prepared to make this cake a few times before you are successful. Buy extra eggs and tapioca starch. The size of the eggs is important. The recipe calls for extra-large or jumbo eggs.
For richer flavor, replace the water with coconut milk. This cake is mildly sweet. Feel free to adjust the sugar to your taste.
Make sure your baking soda is not expired. We all have a container in our cupboard and have no idea how long it’s been in there. Buy a fresh box for this recipe.
After adding the single-acting baking powder, work quickly to get the cake into the oven as the baking powder is already activated.
Use a 9 inch round springform pan or tube / bundt cake pan. You can go a bit smaller if you want a thicker cake but don’t use anything larger than a 10 inch pan or the cake will be rather flat.
Watch the video for instructions.
If you enjoy this Honeycomb Cake (Banh Bo Nuong) recipe, you may also like:
Steamed Rice Cakes/Cow Cakes/Steamed Honeycomb Cakes
(Banh Bo Hap)
Cassava Cake
(Banh Khoai Mi Nuong)
Honeycomb Cake – Eggless / Vegetarian Recipe
(Banh Bo Nuong Chay)
Honeycomb Cake / Banh Bo Nuong
Ingredients
5.6 oz can coconut milk
1/4 cup water
3/4 cup sugar
2 cups tapioca starch
2 tsp rice flour
2 tsp cream of tartar
1 tsp baking soda
6 extra-large eggs, at room temperature
2 tsp canola oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp Pandan paste
non-stick cooking spray
Directions
Place the springform pan in the oven. Preheat the oven to 325 F (163 C).
In a small saucepan over Low heat, add the coconut milk, water and sugar. Stir until dissolved. Remove from the heat and let the coconut syrup cool to room temperature.
In a medium bowl, sift together the tapioca starch and rice flour.
In a small bowl, combine the cream of tartar and baking soda to make the single-acting baking powder.
In a large bowl, add the eggs, oil, and vanilla extract. Pierce the eggs yolks with a knife. Gently whisk everything together for about 1 minute. Avoid whipping or beating the eggs as this introduces air in the egg mixture.
Add the coconut syrup to the egg mixture and whisk together gently. Add half of the sifted flour mixture and mix together until mostly combined. Add the remaining flour mixture and continue whisking gently. The batter is lumpy at first but continue whisking slowly, approximately 2-3 minutes, to dissolve the lumps. Add the Pandan paste and blend well. (There should be some small lumps in the batter.)
Add the single-acting baking powder and whisk until combined, approximately 1 minute. (Note the batter becomes foamy as it reacts with the baking powder.)
Remove the hot baking pan from the oven and spray with a generous amount of non-stick cooking spray. Strain the batter into the baking pan. Use a whisk to break-down any remaining flour lumps in the strainer.
Bake the cake for 30-35 minutes. Check for doneness by inserting a toothpick into the center of the cake. If the toothpick comes out clean, the cake is done.
Remove from oven and allow to cool before serving.
Cover any remaining Honeycomb Cake and store at room temperature for 1-2 days. Store in the refrigerator for up to 1 week. Warm the cake in the microwave to enjoy again.
Yields: 8 servings
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Hi Trang I try your recipe 2x already but I just can’t get to rise and in the middle of the cake is very smushy. It’s did rise in the oven but when I take it out it went flat .
Hi Cecilia,
It sounds like the cake isn’t fully baked. Try baking for 5-10 minutes longer. Good Luck!
Very nice recipe Trang just a minor problem with my cake: it rose unevenly (looks a bit crooked) and has some cracks on top. do you have any suggestions for this?
thanks, Cindy
Hi Cindy,
The cracks on top are typically due to too much heat or the cake being too close to the heating element. Reduce the heat a bit or move the cake farther away from the heating element. A lopsided cake is because of uneven heating in the oven. Rotate the cake halfway through baking and this should help. Good Luck!
Just following your recipe, turn out the cake so beautiful, with a lot of honeycomb, but I have to turn my oven down to 315 Fahrenheit. Thank you so much.
Hi Kim,
Sorry I missed this comment…I am so glad to hear you were successful with making Honeycomb Cake. It’s good to know you had to adjust your oven temperature. What makes this recipe a bit tricky is oven temperatures aren’t always precise and so adjustments may be needed. Thanks for stopping by to share your results!
Hi Trang, I followed your recipe word for word and my cake could not be any more perfect. I did however have to bake mine 10 minutes longer than your instruction, but the cake is simply perfect. Thank you.
Hi Lien,
I am glad to hear you were successful with making this cake! It’s not the easiest to make. Awesome job and thank you for sharing your results 🙂
Hi Trang,
Is it normal for the cake to fall flat when you take it out of the oven? My cakes never have that honeycomb texture. Is there any secret to it? Also, to confirm, you are using glutinous rice flour correct? I’ve never used that flour with it, and perhaps that’s why my cake turns out weird.
Thank you!
Oanh
Hi Oanh,
The cake should not fall flat when removed from the oven. That usually means the walls of the cake aren’t solid enough to support the weight of the cake. Try baking your cake for 10-15 minutes longer to make sure the walls are solid and this should help it not collapse. Please use rice flour and not glutinous rice flour. The rice flour is added to tone-down the chewiness of the tapioca starch. This is a tricky cake to make but don’t give up. Good Luck!
Hello Trang, mine’s also Trang. Made the cake using 9″ springform pan. I had my reservation about using a 2-piece pan since liquidy batter tends to leak through these pans. Did it anyway since you said you used one. Well, about 1/3 of the batter leaked through during baking (good thing I put the pan inside a baking pan) and I ended up with 2/3 of the cake in the springform pan and 1/3 on the bottom inside the baking pan. It did have some of the vertical striations, but not much. Cake was still good and soft.
I’ll be using a 1-piece pan next time. Any ideas how to incorporate fresh pandan juice into this cake? I’m thinking replacing the 1/4 c water with fresh-squeezed pandan juice in the first step.
Hi Trang,
I would suggest using a regular cake pan if your springform pan leaks. The springform makes it easier to remove the cake but I’ve made the cake many times using a round and bundt cake pans. Yes, you can definitely replace the water with fresh pandan juice–it’ll be so fragrant! Good luck the next time around and please stop back to share your comments. 🙂
Hi I’m confused on the single acting baking powder. In your notes section it states I could use the alsa brand and use the whole packet for the recipe but in the ingredient section it says to use 1tbs. Could you clearify how must single acting baking powder I would use if I use the Alsa brand.
Thanks
Hi Lisa,
If you use the Alsa brand, you will use the whole packet. If you don’t have the Alsa brand, you will use my recipe to make 1 Tbsp of single-acting powder by combining 2 tsp cream of tartar + 1 tsp baking soda. I hope that clears it up. Let me know if you have more questions.
She probably bought the glutinous rice flour instead of just rice flour. That’s what I did and it was a sticky mess.
Hi Lisa,
Yes, it’s so easy to mix-up the two. Thanks for sharing!
Hi,
What kind of oven do you use? Top and bottom heat or fan based?
I have tried to make this cake, but it failed unfortunately. I don’t see any reaction with the baking powder and my batter is really runny. But i’ll will try it again for sure!
Thank you so much for your nice recipes!
Hi Syt,
I am sorry to hear the cake didn’t turn out for you. If the baking powder didn’t react with the batter, it may not be fresh. Also the batter should not be runny but should have a consistency similar to what I showed in the video. Please double check the measurements or perhaps cut back on 1 egg. I use a conventional oven with heating elements on top and bottom of the oven. This is a tough cake to make successfully. Please don’t give it. It does take multiple tries. Good Luck and let me know if I can help.
How can I find single-acting baking powder ?
Thank you
Nga
Hi Nga,
You don’t have to buy it. I show you how to make it in this recipe. 1 Tbsp single-acting baking powder = 2 tsp cream of tartar + 1 tsp baking soda (You can find these ingredients in all American grocery stores in the baking/spices section.) If you have a Viet grocery store, you can buy the brand Alsa (comes in a pink envelope, Google “alsa baking powder” for a picture). It’s single-acting baking powder and you can use that if it’s more convenient. Please follow the directions closely. The technique is important and the recipe can be tricky. Good Luck and let me know if you have any questions!