I tried to make this sweet stuff, which has the Vietnamese name, banh xu xe. The idea of making one has stuck in my mind since I tasted one small piece at the Vietnamese New Year fair in Ottawa last month. One more reason is that I always associate this gentle and subtle favor of it with my grandmother even though I don't remember how she made it. I found several recipes in the internet and combined them to create a new one.
The shell of the cake was made out of tapioca flour, scented with fragrance of grapefruit flowers and sprinkled with sesame seeds on top. The interior was a thick paste of cooked ground mung bean, shredded coconut and sugar.
Does this special sweet stuff sound exotic? It tastes wonderfully with a cup of green tea especially in this dry weather of Canadian winter.