Mandioca Cake

Sitting next to potatoes and onions in many supermarkets in the U.S. you will often find Yucca..

Yucca or Cassava in English is called Mandioca in Portuguese and is a staple of the Cape Verdean diet. It is a root vegetable with thick skin which can be quite intimidating but with a good knife or a peeler it is not too difficult and when cooked right it can be delicious. Kids love to eat raw mandioca as a treat. Normally it is boiled along with other vegetables and served along fejoida or catchupa.

I have never been a big fan of mandioca, but mostly because it usually sitting next to lots of other carboydrates. Is it really necessary to eat potatoes, sweet potatoes, carrots and mandioca all in one meal? I personally do not think so!

Fried up, almost like a french fry, mandioca has potential but it is still not as good as a potato and often times can be very stingy which I do not care for.

After discussing my thoughts on why mandioca is not as great as everyone says it is, I decided to look up recipes on how to make mandioca delicious while not fried or boiled. It didn't take long to find multiple recipes for a cake which is apparently very popular in the Philippians. Most of the recipes varied slightly but all more or less looked like a custard coconut cake.

Without all the ingredients I improvised and made my own version. I was really unsure if everyone would like it (I made it for a girls night), but it was a hit and it was finished faster than it took to make it! It was not too sweet like many of the cakes we are so used to but was simply perfect and delicious.

For any dare devils, this delicious cake is worth the effort!

Ingredients:

3 cups grated mandioca (I made it with fresh mandioca but next time I am going to try with mandioca flour and see how that comes out. )

2 beaten eggs

1 can evaporated milk (12 oz.)

1 can sweetened condensed milk (14 oz)

1 cup milk

1 1/2 cups dried grated coconut

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 Degrees

2. Stir together all ingredients

3. Bake for about an hour or until the cake is brown on top.

4. Enjoy!