An Giang•23/11/2025
Traditional cakes and sweet soups are delicious and visually appealing.
Traditional cakes are commonly found in rural households. People use readily available, characteristic ingredients to create many types of cakes to meet their family's culinary needs. Today, traditional cakes are creatively designed in terms of color and shape to satisfy the tastes of diners.
Colorful steamed rice cakes.
Ms. Bong continues the family tradition of making traditional Vietnamese cakes.
With the desire to preserve her family's craft, in 2015, Ms. Vo Thi Bong, residing in Rach Gia ward, started her business making traditional cakes. Initially, her products were sold at Rach Soi market, and many customers who tried them liked them and ordered them for parties and events. To date, Ut Che's cake shop has been in business for over 10 years.
“On average, my family sells hundreds of cakes of various kinds, as well as sticky rice and sweet soups, every day; earning about 3-4 million VND per day. Besides selling at Rach Soi market, I also promote the cakes on social media, through which I can advise customers and directly receive feedback to better develop my products,” Ms. Bong said.
The Bay Nui region is famous for many delicious dishes made from the palm tree, such as sugar and sweet soup; among them, palm sugar rice cake is a favorite among many diners.
Besides the main ingredients like rice flour and coconut milk, palm sugar rice cakes are also made from sugar and the powder of ripe palm fruit, creating cakes with the rich flavor of coconut milk blended with the delicate sweetness of palm sugar.
"Making a delicious cake requires many steps, the most important being selecting the ingredients. The rice must be good, the palm sugar pure, and in addition, fermented rice and coconut milk are necessary to give the cake its characteristic rich and fragrant flavor," said Ms. Chau Kim Sinh, a resident of Tri Ton commune.
Ka tum cakes are sold in large quantities at O Thum Lake, O Lam commune.
Kà tum is a type of sticky rice cake wrapped in palm leaves, a long-standing and distinctive cake of the Khmer people. According to many kà tum cake makers in the Bay Nui region, the ingredients include sticky rice, white beans, grated coconut, sugar, salt, etc. The sticky rice is soaked overnight after purchase, then drained. Next, white beans, coconut milk, a little salt, and sugar are mixed well, allowing the flavors to infuse before wrapping.
The most difficult and time-consuming step is making the wrapper. Mothers and grandmothers usually use young, pliable, and durable palm leaves. Before wrapping, the palm leaves are cleaned, separated into small, equal-sized pieces, and then woven into squares to create the wrapper. The top of the cake is skillfully tied to resemble a blooming flower.
Ka tum cake.
“A beautiful kà tum cake requires the crust to be perfectly square, and the palm leaves to be tightly woven so that the filling doesn't leak out. Even though I'm skilled at making this cake, because of the elaborate steps, I can only make about 100 cakes a day to sell,” said Ms. Chau Ngoc, a resident of O Lam commune.
Rice cakes, kà tum cakes, or any other type of cake – all are favorite treats of people in the Mekong Delta in general, and An Giang in particular. When mentioning these cakes, many people immediately recall their rustic flavors, memories of family gatherings making cakes together, or mornings strolling through the countryside market to choose delicious, colorful cakes.
THUY THAN
Source: https://baoangiang.com.vn/dam-da-huong-vi-banh-dan-gian-a468016.html
