By Allain Dumon Fonte
If I am to choose between “sex or chocolate”, the obvious choice is chocolate. Who would choose sex over chocolate? Everybody loves chocolate! Thanks to Dr. James Baker who discovered how to grind cocoa beans in 1764. This started the chocolate revolution. Now, chocolates have evolved from drinks to cakes.
The Baker Chocolate Company history book by author Anthony M. Sammarco
Speaking of chocolate cakes, my friends know how I love them and how picky I am with chocolate cakes. I want them smooth and silky to just slip from my lips to tongue and down to the throat. They must be sweet enough to tickle my taste buds but not too sweet to hurt my tonsils. I also like my chocolate cake to be soft and tender that they melt in my mouth. Most of all, I want my chocolate cake to be very moist.
It is quite challenging to find the perfect chocolate moist cake. In my pre-pandemic travels, The Le Don Bock in Rue Dancourt in Paris has a chocolate moist cake that brings happy thoughts in every bite. During the lockdown, I craved for Le Don Bock’s chocolate cake; until I found a chocolate moist cake in Cebu that satisfied my cravings. It has ticked every criterion in what I am looking for in a perfect chocolate cake, and it is Beanleaf Coffee and Tea’s chocolate moist cake.
Beanleaf Coffee and Tea’s staff slicing the café’s renowned chocolate moist cake.
Beanleaf Coffee and Tea’s chocolate moist cake is a must try if you are in Cebu City. From the taste to the softness, and to the silkiness, Beanleaf Coffee and Tea’s chocolate moist cake will surely raise the bar higher on chocolate cakes.
Photos by: Ephraim Basbas
A slice of Beanleaf Coffee and Tea’s chocolate moist cake
Beanleaf Coffee and Tea’s chocolate moist cake with heart designs
Beanleaf Coffee and Tea’s a-must-try cakes in different flavors: (clockwise from left: blueberry cheesecake, chocolate moist cake, mango cheesecake, chocolate moist cake, and red velvet cake)
photography Philip Lapinid IV
With her collection of cookbooks, plates and cutlery, it’s clear that Christine Pelaez is someone who loves to entertain. From intimate sit-down dinners on their long dining table to larger occasions with buffet tables and catering, she enjoys welcoming people into her home and sharing the tastes she enjoys.
Christine Pelaez
“It depends on the guests really, but if it’s foreign guests, I always serve Filipino food,” she says when asked on what’s usually on her menu. “I usually make chicken binakol (chicken in coconut broth). Foreigners love it, especially when I serve it in a coconut shell!” And like any Cebuano, Christine agrees that no celebration is quite the same without lechon—Cang’s Lechon in Lahug being her roasted pig of choice.
Her biko, though, was the star of the afternoon. “The secret is the latik,” Christine reveals with a smile. The thick and rich topping makes her version a more indulgent take on the Filipino favorite, and it’s something we can’t wait to recreate in our own kitchens.
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THE TRADITIONAL RECIPE
2 cups glutinous rice
2 cups water
2 cups brown sugar
4 cups coconut milk
1/2 teaspoon salt
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Combine the sticky rice and water in a pot, and cook. If the water dries out and the rice isn’t cooked, add small amounts of water until rice is completely cooked.
To make the latik, combine the coconut milk with brown sugar and salt in a separate pot, and cook in low heat. Stir constantly, until the texture becomes thick. Set aside part of the latik.
Combine the rice and the latik, making sure to mix them well. Scoop the biko onto a baking tray, and top with the remaining latik.
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CHRISTINE’S VERSION
Once the latik starts to thicken, set aside half of the mixture.
Mix one half with the cooked rice, and keep the other in the pot and continue to let it thicken. You can add more coconut milk, if you want to give it a richer taste. Keep cooking until the latik reaches an extra thick consistency.
Scoop the biko onto a baling tray, and top with the extra thick latik.
(This article had already been published in Zee Lifestyle’s October 2017 Entertaining Issue, “Christine Pelaez: The Ultimate Biko” on pages 26-27.)
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