Baked Red Bean Coconut Cake (Chinese New Year)

The texture of this red bean coconut cake is a bit chewy, yet soft and smooth enough for easily digesting. The taste is so delicious. I especially love the crispy edges. This coconut cake is best served warm or hot out of the oven. 

During the busy Chinese New Year’s celebration week, we have lots of different cakes (gao 糕). Yes, we can’t celebrate without all the traditional cakes, radish cake, taro cake (aka yum cake), sticky rice cake and water chestnut cake.

Except for all these must-have cakes, I pretty like this baked coconut cake.

To make this snack, you simply mix all ingredients together. Then bake in an oven. The batter is not tricky. You won't go wrong.

By adding some home-made red beans, just cooked to near-but-not-yet breaking apart level of keeping their whole shapes, the cake turned out perfectly for my family.

Any leftovers can be stored in a fridge for a few days in an air-tight container. Simply reheat it in a low-temperature oven for 10 minutes or so. It tastes equally good.

I served the reheated cake for my daughter the other day as a treat, garnished with ice-cream and fruit salad. Got thumbs up!

Baked Red Bean Coconut Cake Recipe

(Printable recipe)
By Christine’s Recipes
Course: Dessert, Snack
Cuisine: Chinese
Prep time: 10 mins
Cook time: 45 mins
Yield: One 28cm x 18cm x 4.5cm （11 in x 7 in x 2 in）baking tray

Ingredients:

• 5 eggs
• 300 gm raw sugar
• 400 ml coconut milk
• 100 ml milk
• 300 gm glutinous rice flour
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 180 gm cooked red beans, sweetened

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180C / 356F. Line the tray with baking paper.
2. Beat the eggs with sugar. It’s no need to beat too long. Just combine and make sure the sugar is dissolved.
3. Add coconut milk and milk.
4. Mix in glutinous rice flour, one or two tablespoons at a time until the mixture is smooth. Add vanilla extract. Mix in the cooked red beans. Pour the batter into the lined baking tray. Bake in the preheated oven, on the middle rack, for about 45 to 50 minutes. If an inserted needle or skewer comes out clean, it’s cooked through. Let it cool on a wire rack for 5 minutes. Serve hot or warm.

Notes：

• Add the red beans in the very last step. Then don’t over mix them. Otherwise the red beans will break apart and make the batter become red in colour. The red beans are heavier as a result that they might sink to the bottom.
• I used fresh milk. You can substitute with PTU milk, or rice milk if your family member is allergic to milk.
• To get the best results, try to get raw sugar because of its natural golden colour and aroma are the best. You can use white sugar instead anyway.
• Use a large shallow pan / tray to bake this cake because you don’t want to bake for ages if the batter is too thick.
• You might use the store-bought sweetened red beans, available at Asian grocers.