Coconut returns in the steam of brown sugar
Melt brown sugar in a pot and what rises is less sugar than a slightly smoky syrup. Add the coconut and the dry white strands turn brown all at once, and the kitchen smells like a South Asian sweet shop. Sri Lankan bibikkan (බිබික්කන් / Bibikkan) is a baked sweet whose best moment is exactly this.
In English-speaking countries it is also called pol cake or Sri Lankan coconut cake. The stars are coconut, jaggery, semolina and spices. Wikipedia's Bibikkan entry also describes it as a Sri Lankan sweet made with grated coconut, jaggery, semolina and spices, eaten at celebrations such as Christmas, the year-end and New Year holidays, and the Sinhala and Tamil New Year.
What shapes the local character is jaggery and treacle made from kithul palm sap. They are hard to find in many places, so this recipe approaches the aroma with brown sugar, dark syrup and a little molasses. It won't taste exactly the same, but what you need to keep is not "the light sweetness of white sugar" but "the weight of brown molasses holding the coconut in moist embrace."
If kiribath (in Japanese) is the white rice dish cut into pieces on a celebration morning, bibikkan is the brown sweet you set beside strong tea. After hoppers or kukul mas curry, a small slice rounds off the lingering heat.
What to keep: moisten the coconut with molasses, toast the semolina lightly to take off the floury smell, cool the molasses before adding the eggs, and let the baked cake cool completely before cutting. On days you use brown sugar the aroma leans a little toward Japanese confectionery, but if you keep the order of the steps, the moist, heavy character of bibikkan remains.
Ingredients (makes 8 pieces)
This amount is for one 18 cm (7 in) square pan or 18 cm (7 in) loaf pan. Cut into 8 equal pieces, they are small portions that go well with tea. Even if you want it sweeter in the manner of a local sweet shop, bake the first time at this sweetness and adjust only with the syrup brushed on at the end; that fails less.
Thinking about substitutes
| Local-style ingredient | Realistic substitute | Caution when substituting |
|---|---|---|
| Kithul jaggery | 180 g brown sugar and 50 g dark syrup | White sugar alone makes the aroma thin |
| Kithul treacle | 40 g dark syrup and 10 g molasses | Molasses alone tends to turn bitter |
| Fresh grated coconut | 180 g unsweetened desiccated coconut and 100 ml coconut milk | Coconut milk alone gives no shreds |
| Semolina | Finely ground durum wheat flour | Couscous grains are large and tend to stay firm in a baked sweet |
| Melon preserve | Increase the dates and raisins by equal amounts | Sweeter, but loses the candied feel of the local version |
This recipe uses wheat, eggs, dairy (or coconut oil), cashews and coconut. If you are worried about nuts, replace the cashews with an equal weight of raisins and check the product labels. If the coconut molasses is hot when the eggs go in, the eggs will set, so be sure to cool it to body temperature or below before mixing.
Shopping priorities
The ones worth looking at first are cardamom, cinnamon sticks and canned coconut milk. Brown sugar and eggs are easy to get anywhere, but if the spices and coconut are weak, it drifts into a plain brown sugar cake.
Semolina is available at import grocers and baking-supply shops; choose a package labeled "durum wheat semolina." A fine pasta-grade flour is easy to handle and, compared with using couscous grains as they are, leaves less of a hard core when baked.
Method: cool the molasses before baking
Bibikkan is not a sweet that rises on whipped air. The flow is: cook the molasses, let the coconut absorb it, bind with flour and egg, and bake slowly in a low oven. Fresh from the oven it still crumbles easily, so don't plan the steps to include cutting on the same day; allow time for cooling too.
Where it goes wrong
Failures with bibikkan fall into one of these: too sweet, hard, crumbly, set eggs, or burning. The causes are mostly the temperature and moisture of the molasses.
| What happened | Cause | How to fix it next time |
|---|---|---|
| Crumbly | Coconut stayed dry, or overbaked | Rehydrate the coconut with the milk and stop where the skewer has damp crumbs |
| Bits of egg visible | Eggs went into hot molasses | Cool to 40°C (104°F) or below and add the egg in 2 additions |
| Only the surface burns | Strong top heat in the oven | Lay on aluminum foil after 30 minutes and bake on the middle rack |
| Center sinks | Batter too loose, underbaked | Make the batter thick enough to hold its shape 3 seconds, and bake 5 minutes more at a time |
| Turns out like a brown sugar steamed cake | Spices and coconut too weak | Crack whole cardamom and use enough unsweetened coconut |
In Sri Lankan recipes there is also a way of brushing treacle on after baking to make it more moist. In this home version a small amount of dark syrup is already in the batter, so the first time I don't brush more syrup on. To make it sweeter, right after baking dilute 2 tsp dark syrup with 1 tsp water and brush it thinly only over the surface.
How it is eaten locally, and linking it to a menu
Bibikkan is a sweet to eat after it has cooled. Cut big when fresh from the oven, the aroma is strong but the crumb falls apart and the grain of the semolina comes loose. Cut small and served with strong unsweetened Ceylon tea or milk tea, the weight of the brown sugar and coconut is just right.
For after a curry, it suits a meal following the strongly spiced kukul mas curry or the griddle-fried kottu. Thinking of a celebration breakfast table, it is natural to serve kiribath (in Japanese) with lunu miris and set a thin slice of bibikkan as a sweet close.
Compared with a sweet that lightly steams the scent of coconut, like Thailand's khanom tan (in Japanese), bibikkan is much richer, and the syrup spreads through it the longer it is kept. Many South Asian sweets are not only "eaten fluffy and fresh" but ones whose sweetness and aroma settle the next day, so baking the evening before the day you will eat it is also a good approach.
Storage and making ahead
Once it has cooled completely, cut into squares of about 4 cm (1 1/2 in) and loosely wrap each piece in parchment. In an airtight container, plan on up to the next day in a cool place at room temperature, or 3 days in the refrigerator. Refrigeration firms the fat and makes it hard, so bring it back to room temperature 20 minutes before eating.
To freeze, wrap each piece, put them in a storage bag and plan on 2 weeks. Thaw in the refrigerator for half a day and bring to room temperature before eating. Warming in a microwave brings up the aroma, but the coconut oil seeps out and the texture tends to break down, so limit it to 10 seconds at 600 W.
FAQ
Can I make it without kithul jaggery?
Yes. With 180 g brown sugar and 50 g dark syrup the direction of the aroma gets quite close. You won't get kithul's slightly floral scent, but if you don't weaken the coconut and cardamom, it doesn't become a white sugar cake.
Can I use long-thread coconut instead of desiccated coconut?
You can, but chop it and rehydrate it. Left long, the cut face shows long fibers and it doesn't hold together when eaten. Chop it with a knife to 5 mm (1/4 in) or smaller, rehydrate with coconut milk, then toast.
What if I can't find semolina?
The first candidate is durum wheat flour or finely ground semolina. It will bake with cake flour alone, but the grain and weight weaken and it comes closer to an ordinary brown sugar coconut cake. Couscous has large grains and tends to stay firm in a short bake, so this recipe doesn't use it.
Can I make it without eggs?
Without eggs the binding is weak and it crumbles when cut. If you try, instead of 2 eggs use 70 g unsweetened yogurt and 50 g drained silken tofu blended smooth, and increase the cake flour by 20 g. But this is a home adjustment, and the texture will differ from the usual local blend.
How sweet is it?
Heavier than pound cake, and lighter in sweetness than a brown sugar yokan. It is made on the assumption that you cut it thin and small and have it with unsweetened tea. To lessen the sweetness you can reduce the brown sugar to 150 g, but go lower and the coconut doesn't come together moistly.
Is it better on the day it's baked or the next day?
The next day is better, when the syrup has returned into the crumb and it is moist. On the day the spice aroma rises; the next day the sweetness is rounded. For guests, bake the evening before and cut it the next morning, which is easier to handle.
