Bánh Bò Nướng - Vietnamese Baked Honeycomb Cake

1. Preheat your oven to 350 °F.

Pandan Extract

1. Thoroughly wash, defrost and dry the pandan leaves. Add pandan leaves and coconut milk to a high speed blender (like a Vitamix) and blend until the leaves are about the size of rice grains. If you blend it too finely, it imparts a bitter and grassier taste. Here's a photo of how small you should blend the leaves.
2. In your first mixing bowl, pour this pandan coconut milk blend through a fine mesh strainer to extract as much of the coconut milk as you can, while leaving behind the pandan leaf pulp.

Banh Bo Batter

1. In the second mixing bowl, combine all the tapioca starch, rice flour, baking powder. Whisk together to thoroughly combine and sift with mesh strainer to remove lumps.
2. In the third mixing bowl combine eggs, sugar, vanilla powder, salt. Using the electric hand mixer on LOW speed only, add half the flour in and mix for 30 seconds.
3. Add all the coconut milk and mix for 30 seconds.
4. Add the remaining half of flour in and mix for 40-50 seconds to thoroughly combine.
5. Add the cooking oil and mix for 10 seconds.
6. Pour all the batter through a fine mesh strainer to remove lumps. Then repeat one more time.
7. Spray your cake mold with cooking spray.
8. Pour the batter into the mold, slowly and evenly throughout the mold. Make sure the batter sits somewhere between 1/2 and 2/3 full in the mold. If it's too full it will overflow after rising.

Baking

1. Bake at 350 °F in preheated oven for 45 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean. Reduce the cooking time a bit if you're using a smaller mold.
2. After it's done, you can broil for 1 minute if needed, to brown the top. Leave the cake in the oven for 10 minutes with the door cracked open slightly before removing.
3. Place the cake mold on a cooling rack upside down and raised with cans or ramekens. Cool it completely to room temperature before removing the cake from the mold. I like putting a fan on it to speed this process up.
4. You'll need to run a knife around the edges to dislodge the bánh bò, and additionally gently pry the cake away from the mold with your fingers to fully release the cake from the mold.