Kakanin quiz: How well do you know these 11 Filipino rice cakes?

One of the simplest, most straightforward kakanin on the list is puto: a dry, steamed rice cake (traditionally prepared with fermented rice) served as is or topped with cheese or salted egg. Though often enjoyed as merienda or dessert, puto’s relatively plain flavour and fluffy texture make it an ideal accompaniment for savoury dishes like pancit or dinuguan. Alternatively, flavours like ube and pandan are also common.

There are also endless variations of puto both sweet and savoury, from the puto pao (stuffed with pork asado) to the puto flan (with leche flan at its base) and even the puto calasiao (a smaller, sweeter, and sticky treat).

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Elongated, steamed in bamboo, and wrapped in banana leaves, puto bumbong more closely resembles suman than puto. Made with ground purple rice called pirurutong, the rice cake is most popular around the Christmas season, sold outside churches in time for Simbang Gabi—a religious Filipino tradition where Catholics hear mass at the break of dawn in the nine days leading up to the 25th of December.

While puto bumbong is just ever-so-slightly sweet, it is often topped with grated coconut and muscovado sugar. A swipe of butter and a sprinkle of sesame seeds or cheese are also common additions.

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Depending on its preparation, kutsinta may or may not be classified as a true kakanin. While some do use rice flour in its base, others forego the rice element and use tapioca flour instead, while others still use a blend of the two. Nevertheless, the brown, chewy, jelly-like steamed cake is quite a popular Filipino dessert or snack and is usually served with freshly-grated coconut or cheese.

Black kutinsta, a delectable, molasses-rich take on the classic, has also grown more common in recent years, sold with a healthy drizzle of dulce de leche and some toasted desiccated coconut to boot.

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Simple, small, and covered in coconut and sugar, palitaw is a chewy white rice cake made with glutinous rice flour and water, moulded and flattened into rough rounds before being cooked in boiling water until they float—hence the name palitaw, as litaw means float in Filipino. For a warm, nuttty, slightly savoury flavour, toasted sesame seeds are often added to the sugar-coconut coating as well.

Looking for a twist on the palitaw you know and love? Try out palitaw sa latik, where the sticky cakes are finished in saccharine coconut milk and topped with dry latik or toasted coconut curds. Alternatively, the masikoy variation ups the umami factor with the addition of sesame paste.

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Also known as sinukmani in some areas of the Philippines (though you may find slight variations in preparation from region to region, as is usually the case with Filipino cuisine), biko is a sticky, dark brown delicacy made with glutinous rice, coconut milk, and brown sugar. While most kakanin on the list are steamed or boiled, biko is especially unique because it is baked. Finished with a generous layer of latik sauce, you need nothing else but a cup of coffee to enjoy the flavoursome indulgence.

Tatler Trivia: biko and bibingkang malagkit are frequently used interchangeably, and depending on who you ask, they may well refer to the same delicacy. However, some also argue that while the former uses dark brown sugar, the latter uses either light brown or white sugar, and while biko or sinukmani is traditionally sprinkled with latik curds, bibingkang malagkit gets a coating of luscious latik sauce. 

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Another popular example of the few baked kakanin in the Philippines is bibingka or bibingka galapong, a pillowy cake wrapped in banana leaves and traditionally cooked in a terracotta oven. The mixture of rice flour, butter, sugar, eggs, and coconut milk produces a rich, buttery cake (especially when enjoyed fresh out of the oven) that dons a golden yellow top. Commonly available both plain or with salted egg and/or cheese, it is best served warm, with some butter and desiccated coconut. 

Like puto bumbong, bibingka is a mainstay during the Christmas season but is easily found throughout the rest of the year as well.

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Hailing from Cavite province, bibingkoy is a remarkably unique kakanin that bears little resemblance to others on the list. The bulk of the dish is the multiple small balls made of glutinous flour and filled with sweet red bean paste which are cooked in a traditional oven similar to that used for bibingka, resulting in a crisp top and sticky-chewy centre. Then, the sweet treat is topped with a warm blend of coconut milk, sugar, tapioca—and in some cases, jackfruit.

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Easily distinguishable by its multi-chromatic hue, sapin-sapin boasts vibrant layers of varying colours and flavours: purple for ube, white for coconut, yellow for jackfruit, and green for pandan, through the last of the four is least common. The sweet, chewy dessert starts with sugar, coconut milk, and glutinous rice flour and is later divided into three or four to be coloured and flavoured accordingly. Once reassembled, it is then topped with latik curds and sliced into individual portions.

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Similar in shape to suman and puto bumbong, espasol is an elongated, cylindrical kakanin. However, these soft, chewy treats from the province of Laguna are made with toasted glutinous rice flour cooked in coconut milk and strips of coconut, then tossed in more toasted rice flour for a powdery finish that prevents them from sticking to one another.

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Perhaps the stickiest and sweetest of the bunch, kalamay is a simple blend of rice flour, coconut milk and/or cream, and muscovado sugar. When enjoyed warm (or even hot), it is notably viscous, almost like a thick latik syrup. Alternatively, it can be sliced into individual portions like a cake when allowed to cool. 

Flavoured with shredded gabi or taro, kalamay gabi is a striking white in comparison, sweetened with white sugar instead of muscovado to retain its colour, while kalamay ube is flavoured with grated ube and also uses white sugar to encourage a vibrant purple colour.

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