sapin-sapin

Sapin-sapin is a Filipino layered dessert with three colours and flavours. Vanjo Merano’s selected cake has a glutinous-rice-flour base, with purple yam in one portion, jackfruit in another and a third portion left plain.

Glutinous rice flour and granulated white sugar are mixed first. Coconut milk, condensed milk and vanilla extract make a smooth base that is divided into three portions.

Mashed purple yam, ube extract and violet colouring enter the first portion. Shredded, deseeded ripe jackfruit and yellow colouring enter the second. The violet portion steams first in a greased pan, followed by the white portion and then the yellow portion.

Cheesecloth covers the pan during steaming and is squeezed between layers. The finished cake is inverted onto an oiled banana-leaf-lined plate, leaving the violet layer on top, the white layer in the middle and the yellow layer underneath.

Oil is brushed over the violet surface and latik is arranged on it before dessert service. Merano credits his wife and daughter with making this three-layer cake, combining the separate yam and jackfruit portions with its plain middle layer.