Cassava is pronounced ka-saw-va. If you love sweet tamales, the tapioca-and-manha dessert wrapped in foil, you'll love cassava cake too. This treat is more decadent than sweet tamales with the addition of butter, milk and eggs, but it is easier and faster to make.
The cassava cake recipe in A Taste of Guam is from my auntie Daling Quinene. She always makes cassava cake in a huge, 16 or 18-inch square cake pan, the ones for wedding cakes. You can easily halve the recipe. Use two, 8 x 8 inch glass baking dishes for a cassava cake that cooks quickly without too much browning on the top. If you use one, 9 x 13 glass baking dish, it will brown more than the cake in the picture above; it will take longer for the center to cook. Baking cassava cake in any metal pan will make it brown more on the bottom as well.
Leftovers freeze well. Remove from baking pan. Cover with plastic wrap then place in a freezer bag. Thaw completely in fridge. Cut the desired size then reheat entirely in the microwave; cassava cake will not be as chewy/gummy as when freshly baked, but it will still be delish.
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Effective March 2021, PaulaQ will begin replacing Canola and vegetable/seed oils in recipes with pure lard from Reverence Farm, coconut oil, and avocado oil.
