How to Make Sapin Sapin (Filipino Layered Sticky Rice Cake) (2024)

Sapin Sapin is a layered glutinous rice and coconut dessert in Philippine cuisine. It is made from rice flour, glutinous rice, coconut milk, sugar, water, and food coloring with coconut flakes sprinkled on top. Just like Purple Yam Jam, this is another traditional Filipino dessert that you would normally find in market or group gatherings.

There’s a lot of other Filipino dessert that I love that I would like to share in my blog. I think it’s about time I introduce you to my culture, after all, I maybe living in Canada now and a Canadian, but I will always be a Filipino.

I always admired how beautiful this dessert looked like, the smooth and sticky texture and the nicely colored layers. It’s beauty always intimidated me from making it, I thought it involved complicated process. I was wrong, because it was so easy! It is even easier compared to other cakes that I had done before. I should have known, not all dessert that looks beautiful is hard to make. Most of the Filipino desert uses the steaming method, so you don’t even need oven for this.

Instead of going for a traditional birthday cake, I had decided to make this as one of my birthday cake. Well, you cannot have too many cakes on your birthday, right? This will be a perfect opportunity for me to share Filipino dessert to my friends at work. A friend of mine told me someone made this for their gathering and she absolutely loved it. She requested me to make this, and so here it is. Wish granted.

You can have this on its own even without the toppings, but adding the toppings made this dessert even more delicious. It gave additional flavor to the dessert. I used a combination of toasted coconut and coconut sauce, and it was fantastic! I definitely like the strong coconut flavor and slight sweet taste that the coconut sauce gave. It is just so good! I am very excited to share this with you, and I am even more excited to share this with my friends. Welcome to Filipino cuisine! Let’s get started!

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cup glutinous flour
  
• 1/2 cup rice flour
• 1/2 cup condensed milk
• 1 can coconut milk
• 1/2 cup granulated white sugar
  
• Food coloring and flavor of your choice

Instructions:

1. Milk Mixture: Mix Coconut milk and condensed milk until fully combined and smooth.
2. Rice Mixture: Mix rice flour and glutinous flour.
3. Milk + Rice Mixture: Gradually add flours to the milk mixture. Continuously stir after each addition. Pass through the strainer to remove lumps.
4. Divide in 3 portions and add different colors to each portion.
5. Place one layer in a greased 8-inch round pan then steam it one layer at a time until your stick comes out clean when you insert it. Once it is cooked, you should noticed the cake pulling out from the side of the pan. Steaming time could vary depending on the size of the pan you are using. Adjust as necessary.
   
   • First Layer : 20 minutes
     
   • Second Layer : 25 – 28 minutes
   • Third Layer : 25 – 28 minutes
6. Let cool for 10 – 15 minutes. Flip to unmold from the pan.
7. Sprinkle with toasted coconut or pour Coconut Sauce on top.

For the Toppings:

• Toasted Coconut: 1/2 cup Desiccated coconut + 2 tbsp sugar – Toast it in a pan without oil until it becomes toasted and brown.
  
• Latik:

1. In a pan over medium heat, add 1 can coconut cream and bring to a boil. Cook, stirring occasionally, until liquid starts to thicken.
2. Lower heat and continue to cook. As oil starts to separate and solids begin to form, regularly stir and scrape sides and bottom of pan to prevent from burning. Continue to cook and stir until curds turn golden brown. Drain latik from the oil and store in a container until ready to use.

• Coconut Sauce – This and the desiccated coconut is what I used

1. In a pan over medium heat, add 1 can coconut cream and bring to a boil. Cook, stirring occasionally, until liquid starts to thicken.
2. Lower heat and continue to cook. As oil starts to separate and solids begin to form, regularly stir and scrape sides and bottom of pan to prevent from burning. Continue to cook and stir until curds turn golden brown.
3. Drain latik from the oil. Don’t throw the coconut oil, you can use this for baking or cooking.
4. Add 1/2 cup brown sugar, 1 tbsp butter, 1/4 cup coconut milk to the coconut curd.
5. Bring to a boil until the sauce starts to thicken. The sauce will becomes thicker as it cool, it would look like a Coconut Jam. Re-heat it for 5 – 10 seconds to get it flowing like a lava again.

Storage:Keep refrigerated

Makes one 8-inch round pan

Enjoy! If you make this, share and tag me in Instagram #SweetNSpicyLiving. I would like to see your creations too.

Other Filipino Purple Yam Delicacy

• Ube Crinkles
• Small Batch Ube (Purple Yam) Cupcakes
• Ube (Purple Yam) Jam (Small Batch)
• Ube Chiffon Cake

What’s New – Strawberry Jam

Strawberry season is here, so I thought its about time I updated my Homemade Strawberry Jam post. This Strawberry Jam is small batch, homemade and no preservatives added. It is simple, easy and do not require any difficult to find ingredients. Check it out HERE

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Enjoy! If you make this, share and tag me in Instagram #SweetNSpicyLiving. I would like to see your creations too.

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