Sapin-sapin (Layered Rice Cake)

Sapin-sapin has always been my favorite Pinoy "kakanin." It is usually made of glutinous rice flour, coconut milk and  purple yam (ube). Though when you search for its recipe online, you'll find many variations of this colorful Filipino dessert.

I remember when I was pregnant, I was craving for sapin-sapin almost every week during my whole last trimester. I would buy one slice for $3.99, hah! I wish I tried making this recipe before. I thought making it is too complicated and would require a lot of work. I never knew it's way easier than making puto.

For this recipe, I didn't make latik. I don't think you would need it, though. It's so good that you'd forget that it goes well with latik sprinkled on top of it, haha!


Ingredients

2 cups glutinous rice flour
1 cup sugar
2 cans of  store bought coconut milk (or 4 cups coconut milk)
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup grated jackfruit (or 1/4 tsp jackfruit extract which is usually available at Asian/Filipino stores)*
1/2 cup mashed ube or purple yam (or 1/4 tsp ube extract)*
1/4 tsp pandan extract
green food color**

*You can omit the jackfruit and pandan extract and just use ube. You can just use one of the three flavor if you want, but of course it would be better if you would put all three in the mixture.
**You can actually use any color that you want. You can omit the food color too since the ube extract will already add color to the mixture.


Cooking Procedure

Mix the glutinous rice flour and sugar in a bowl. Add the coconut milk and vanilla extract until texture becomes smooth.

Divide the mixture into three parts, pour in separate bowls. For the first bowl add the ube extract and violet food color, blend well. Pour in the baking pan, fill 1/3 of the pan with the ube mixture and steam for 13-15 minutes.

Add the jackfruit extract (and food coloring if you want) to the second bowl and pour on top of the purple/violet layer. Steam for another 13-15 minutes.

Add the pandan extract and green food coloring to the remaining mixture and pour on top of the jackfruit layer. Steam for 25-30 minutes. I f you think the sapin-sapin is still runny, you can steam it for another 5-10 minutes.

Let it cool for 10 to 15 minutes. Serve and enjoy!

You can also use cupcake or muffin pan to make mini sapin sapin!

And like what I have said, it's so good you don't need latik for this recipe.