Easy Banh Bo Nuong (Vietnamese Honeycomb Cake)

Banh Bo Nuong or Vietnamese honeycomb cake is one of the most popular cakes in Vietnamese cuisine. It is characterized by a beautiful honeycomb appearance and a yummy pandan, coconut flavor. Learn all the ins and outs of making this classic gluten-free, dairy-free Vietnamese dessert including what goes into getting the perfect honeycomb appearance.

Other than pandan cake, this Vietnamese honeycomb cake or banh bo nuong is one of the most popular cakes in Vietnamese cuisine. Characterized by a bouncy, tender center and a pandan coconut flavor, it is a staple in most Vietnamese households. Growing up, my mom never made this cake, but she bought it from bakeries and restaurants all the time. I never grew up liking banh bo nuong because I was used to the super sweet, denser American cakes, but like other things, I grew to enjoy it as I got older. I love how light it is compared to Western style cakes, and how it wasn’t too sweet. Now that I live apart from my parents, I wanted to develop my own recipe for this honeycomb cake, so I can have it whenever I want!

How I developed my banh bo nuong recipe

What I wanted to accomplish with this recipe is create a bouncy (my mom’s words) cake with the perfect balance of pandan and sweet flavors, and I feel like I did that! I also wanted to develop a recipe that had the fewest ingredients possible. First, I started with a wet batter, wetter than a typical cake batter and baked that for 45 minutes in a normal bundt pan. I really wanted to use a bundt pan because I love how the shape of the pan gives the cake this ornate shape. There were some major issues with my first test. First off, the cake just plopped right out of the pan. Typically, it’s supposed to stick to the sides of the pan which helps give it that honeycomb appearance in the center. Second, it was way too dense.

I refined the recipe from there, making the batter lighter by reducing the dry ingredients and increasing the baking powder to improve the “bounciness”. I also changed my bundt pan to a cast iron bundt pan to improve the browning on the outside of the cake and to make sure my cake stuck to the inside. In all, I did 5 tests before finally nailing the texture and flavor.

Some deets about key ingredients

• Coconut milk – Coconut flavor also pairs really well with pandan. You can also use coconut cream for this recipe which will make the cake richer.
• Pandan leaves and pandan extract – Both add pandan flavor and color to the cake. In testing, I found that both are needed to achieve a strong pandan flavor and vibrant color. That’s why I use this combination in a majority of my pandan dessert recipes like my coconut pandan jelly. If you don’t have pandan leaves, use 1 tsp of pandan extract instead of 1/2 tsp.
• Vanilla extract – Substitute with 1/2 a vanilla bean or 1/2 tsp of vanilla paste.
• Tapioca starch – This is the ingredient that is most responsible for the honeycomb appearance of the cake, so no substitutions!
• Single acting baking powder – It is really important that single acting baking powder is used for this recipe because using double acting baking powder doesn’t work. The main difference between the two is single acting baking powder only creates gas bubbles when it hits heat, but double acting creates gas bubbles when it hits heat and when it hits liquid.

Tools you will need

I don’t usually list out tools you will need since I think you should use what you have, but for this recipe, it is important.

• Blender – Used to blend together pandan leaves and coconut milk. If you don’t use pandan leaves, you don’t need this.
• Spoon or whisk – I tested this recipe with both and discovered that a whisk when was better at incorporating the ingredients together. Whisks do produce more bubbles, but I found if you whisk slowly, it’s okay.
• Spatula – I use a spatula to scrape down the bowl and to pass ingredients through the fine mesh sieve.
• Fine mesh sieve – This thing will be your secret weapon to getting the perfect batter. It’s really important to not create too many bubbles while creating the batter, so a fine mesh sieve will help you break down ingredients without mixing. Mixing more tends to create more bubbles.
• Cast iron bundt pan – I tested this with a regular bundt pan, cast iron bundt pan, and angel food cake pan, and found I like the cast iron bundt pan the best. It gave the cake the prettiest shape and helped make the outside more brown. I also found the angel food cake pan effective. It is also cheaper than a cast iron bundt pan. I would recommend using some type of cake pan with a hole in the middle because this helps distribute heat evenly throughout the cake.
• Cooling rack – I like to place my cooling rack on top of 2 bowls to give the cake enough air flow to cool.

How to make banh bo nuong

Make the pandan coconut milk

First, preheat oven to 350 degrees F (177 degrees C). Put the bundt pan in the oven to preheat. Blend together 14 oz of coconut milk and 10 pandan leaves. Strain the liquid into a large bowl. Press the leaves into a fine mesh sieve to get as much of the coconut milk out as possible.

Finish the batter and bake

Mix coconut milk with 5 eggs and 1 1/3 cup of granulated sugar slowly, preventing the formation of bubbles. I like to strain the eggs through a fine mesh sieve to help it better incorporate. Add 1/2 tsp of pandan extract and 1/2 tsp of vanilla extract to the mixture and mix until combined. Mix 1 cup of tapioca starch, 1 packet of single acting baking powder, and 1/2 tsp of salt and add into the mixture. Stir until combined. Strain the batter through a fine mesh sieve to get rid of any lumps. This helps the tapioca starch incorporate into the batter.

Retrieve the bundt pan from the oven and pour in the batter. Bake for 50-55 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean. Once done, flip pan over and let it stand for at least 60 minutes until it is completely cool. Run a knife around the edge of the cake to release it. Flip it upside down to release the cake from the pan.

Tips on how to make the perfect banh bo nuong

The fine mesh sieve is your secret weapon

I found myself constant reaching for the fine mesh sieve for a huge part of this recipe. I used it to break apart the eggs and smooth out the batter before baking. Using a sieve is an easy why to remove bubbles from the batter and to break apart ingredients so it easily incorporates into the batter.

Cool completely before removing from the pan

The cake will stick to the pan once it comes out from the oven. This is an essential part since you will invert the pan so gravity can stretch out the cake and create that honeycomb interior. As the cake cools, a brown crust will form on the outside and it will easily pull away from it. The cooler the cake, the easier it will release from the cake pan.

How do you get the honeycomb appearance?

I mentioned this a little bit throughout my blog post, but I wanted to breakdown what I learned during testing. The keys to getting the honeycomb appearance are 1) tapioca flour 2) a light batter and 3) flipping the pan upside down once it comes out of the oven. The tapioca flour gives the cake the look and texture but the light batter and the flipping of the pan ensures the cake doesn’t collapse on itself. A light batter is essential because the cake won’t stick to the pan if its too heavy (as I found out in my tests).

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