Tapioca Cake Dessert (Kuih Ubi Kayu)

I volunteered to prepared tapioca kuih for 400 persons' consumption for Kajang HHH Rotation run on Saturday (28th July 2007). It is not only volunteer job but also a fully sponsored. I can choose to purchase them (of course from my own pocket) but I decided to make it myself for two reasons. No. 1 is home made kuih always taste better because the ingredient use are of the top quality. No. 2 is of course it is cost effective. Many people will choose to buy from the local kuih market because it is quite a big task to make it yourself.

This tapioca kuih recipe is very simple but you still need to do a few test runs. My first attempt was using grated tapioca (1kg nett without juice) mixed with 800g of water and 250g of sugar and steamed for half an hour and serve with grated young coconut. Not a good idea to serve 400 persons because you have to cut and roll them on the grated young coconut (must be properly steamed otherwise it will spoil easily). Second attempt was yellow tapioca (rare species and very hard to get) mixed with brown sugar and water, not bad but need some improvement. Last attempt was white tapioca mixed with 150g white sugar and 150g Gula Melaka (brown sugar made from coconut) and instead of 800g of water replaced with 500g of coconut milk.

I needed a nett weight of 12kg tapioca. I have ordered 38 kg tapioca from Ah Leong of Broga and it only cost me RM25. The tapioca from Broga was so huge and the size is as big as our body size. After discarded the skin and those unusable. After grating, it was left with only 7kg nett weight (cheap things no good, good things no cheap). I still need another 5kg and somebody told me that I can get good tapioca from Dengkil near the river and the place happen to be next to our buddist meditation centre. I bought 15kg for RM15 and the normal price is RM1.50 per kg.

Time to make 4 trays (15" x 15") and 2 trays (11" x 11") and imagined the big steamer you need to steam such big tray. I have grated the tapioca earlier and kept in the refrigerator. I started mixing and steaming the tapioca kuih at 12 midnight and was ready at 3am. The tapioca kuih can only be cut when it is fully cool down and I am expected to serve them at around 4pm. Some of the members commented that I am 'Jill of all trade' and anyway it was successful and tasted good. Some even can't figure out what kind of kuih it was and I even sold around 70pcs bite size to a friend for RM15.
The next time I will try making spicy tapioca kuih.
Have fun and be happy! ♥