Did you know? Kakanin is just rice transformed into a snack. Many Filipinos enjoy eating these delights until their next meal. So, you’ll be delighted to see that we compiled a Filipino kakanin list just for you.
Plus, kakanin is as consistent as rice. Fortunately, one can make many varieties of kakanin using essential components like glutinous rice, coconut milk, and sugar.
If you grew up in the Philippines, you likely heard vendors shout, “Suman! Puto!”. You also probably hear them ringing their bells while hoisting tin canisters on their shoulders. You can also easily find a list of kakanin in market booths or local supermarkets.
So, if you’re wondering what snacks to include in your kakanin list, we’ve got you covered. This post explores the delectable Filipino snacks on the only kakanin list you’ll ever need.
What Is Filipino Kakanin?
The Pinoy kakanin is traditionally cooked with rice, coconut, root vegetables, or coconut milk. The Filipino culinary experience often includes delectable kakanin.
Enticing television ads show that fast restaurant burger titans dominate the merienda space. Any native Filipino, on the other hand, would tell you otherwise. They will say ginger-haired clowns or bug-eyed happy bees have nothing on their beloved kakanin peddled by their local suki.
In addition, Filipinos crave kakanin after a hard day at work. They often stop by stalls or sidewalk vendors for a slice of biko or a few pieces of palitaw. Filipinos can’t stop themselves because kakanin runs in their blood.
Moreover, the term kakanin comes from two Tagalog words: “kain” (to eat) and “kanin” (rice). So, it’s an umbrella name for sweets produced from sticky rice and coconut milk, two ingredients abundant in tropical nations like the Philippines.
On top of that, people use these substances in one of two ways. Some recipes call for galapong. One can create this by soaking rice flour overnight, grinding it, then straining it through a cheesecloth. Other kakanin use malagkit or sticky rice grains mashed up or left whole.
People also initially made sticky rice snacks for pre-colonial gods. Kakanin also served as offerings and gifts to valued guests and visitors. Traditionally, making them involves rice sweetened with sugar, wrapped in banana leaves, and teamed on a clay stove.
While most people no longer use the clay stove, many of the original recipes and cooking methods for preparing kakanin still exist.
What Is Kakanin in English?
Kakanin refers to sticky rice cakes. Remember, the term refers to sticky and sweet rice, not steamed rice. You can also call rice cake kakanin.
But it would be best if you remembered to use the term kakanin. You will get weird glances if you ask a local vendor for rice cake.
According to several cooking and history books, the phrase comes from two Filipino words. These include kanin, which means rice, and kain, which means to eat.
In addition, the ingredients of each kakanin vary. They also differ depending on where they come from. However, common ingredients include sticky rice, sugar, and coconut milk.
Sometimes, people use condensed milk, coconut flesh, sesame seeds, and other ingredients. People also use toppings such as salted egg, shredded coconut, and cassava. Lastly, cooks steam or bake these sticky delicacies.
Kakanin List
- Puto Bumbong
- Espasol
- Kalamay
- Pichi-Pichi
- Palitaw
- Kutsinta
- Suman
- Puto
- Maja Blanca
- Biko
- Sapin-Sapin
- Bibingka
- Inutak
- Tikoy
- Nilupak
The Best Kakanin List Ever: Top 15 Filipino Kakanin
Gather around, folks! Introducing the only kakanin list you’ll ever need.
1. Puto Bumbong
The first kakanin on this list is puto bumbong. During simbang gabi or Christmas morning masses, vendors frequently sell this alongside bibingka.
Are you wondering about the violet color of the kakanin? Interestingly, the violet hue doesn’t come from ube. It comes from violet-colored rice.
The maker then pours the mixture into thin bamboo tubes. Next, they heat it.
Vendors often serve puto bumbong on banana leaves with coconut shavings and muscovado sugar. It would be best if you ate it hot, especially after mass on cold mornings. In addition, you can serve it with hot coffee or hot chocolate.
2. Espasol
Espasol, a delicious Filipino treat, comes in tube-like forms. It originated in the Philippines’ Laguna region. People often make the dessert using two distinct types of flour. It also has a thick coconut foundation.
In addition, espasol contains both sweet rice flour and glutinous rice flour. The kakanin also includes coconut milk, sugar, and shredded coconut. Sometimes, people add salt, anise seeds, or vanilla extract.
3. Kalamay
Filipinos prepare kalamay using glutinous rice flour, coconut milk, and sugar. Depending on where you stay, it has many variations, consistency, texture, and packaging.
The most popular kalamay kakanin has a dark brown color and chewy texture. It’s also finely grounded and wrapped in a banana leaf.
The most popular variations of the kalamay kakanin include kalamay pisalubung, kalamay ubi, kalamay buna, and kalamay hati. In addition, people use coconut shells and red crepe paper to pack kalamay hati. Interesting, right?
4. Pichi-Pichi
Filipinos make pichi-pichi using cassava (kamoteng kahoy) or cassava flour, water, sugar, lye, and pandan flavoring. It turns solid, transparent, and golden or light yellow when steamed.
The lye gives it a chewy texture and a yellow color. It’s often cut into bite-size pieces (or patties) and wrapped with shredded coconut.
Filipinos usually make the Cavite version with pinipig rather than cassava. Other varieties include those wrapped in cheese instead of shredded coconut (the pichi-pichi variety).
5. Palitaw
Palitaw is a flattened oval cake made from malagkit rice paste, also used to make bilo-bilo for ginataan. The kakanin gets heated in water and scraped out when it reaches the surface. It then gets dusted with sugar and covered with shredded coconut.
Palitaw tastes better when rolled in its rice paste since it tastes bland. The combination of coconut, sugar, and sesame seeds makes it delicious. Plus, palitaw serves as a good luck charm because of its name.
6. Kutsinta
Kutsinta, or cuchinta, is a steamed rice cake prepared with pulverized rice, sugar, and lye. Lye causes the kutsinta’s light brown (nearly dirty orange) hue and opaque, jelly-like texture.
The steamed rice pudding is commonly offered in packets and eaten with shredded coconut. Filipinos serve modern kutsinta with latik and jackfruit on top.
7. Suman
This kakanin is a sticky rice cake densely covered in leaves. The leaf wrapper—banana, palm, buri, and pandan—varies by location. Some can be purchased in bulk or single servings.
Filipinos have made Suman since pre-colonial times. They give it to the gods and give it as gifts to visitors. Moreover, the rice cakes made for the first time were wrapped in leaves and were formed in relatively long portions.
8. Puto
Puto is the kakanin queen. Technically, the term refers to a rice cake prepared from galapong (rice flour), slightly sweetened, and steamed. The rice gets soaked in water overnight before being “ground dry,”
This leads to its thick and porous texture. Puto with cheese comes in circular forms. However, it may be sliced into wedges when cooked in a large bilao. Filipinos often eat puto during breakfast, merienda, and around Christmas.
9. Maja Blanca
Maja Blanca is a delicate and easy delicacy prepared with coconut milk, sugar, and cornstarch.
Some cookbooks call it a coconut custard, although some call it a pudding. It’s usually white and topped with latik because of the ingredients. Others top with toasted grated coconut.
Another variation of this kakanin is maha de mais. People prepare it with maize flour or shredded corn kernels, turning it yellow. It’s possible that food coloring was used to boost the yellowness.
10. Biko
Want some kakanin with latik on top (the golden brown curdles that form after rendering oil from coconut cream)? Have some biko with latik.
People make this dessert by boiling sticky rice (sinaing) with coconut milk and panocha (or sugar) until dry. For color, some recipes include pirurutong. The biko gets sliced after cooling in a pan.
Interestingly, some Filipinos flavor biko with anise, ginger, or calamansi peel. The color is also determined by the sugar used. People use white or light brown sugar for a lighter biko and darker sugar for a darker biko.
11. Sapin-Sapin
Sapin-sapin is a vibrantly colored tiered rice cake. People prepare it with glutinous rice flour, coconut milk, and sugar.
The best sapin-sapin has a delicate texture that glides and tastes milky. Its colors-violet, yellow, and white-add to its allure. Moreover, its top gets dusted with latik or grated coconut.
12. Bibingka
Customarily served during Christmas dinner, bibingka serves as a Christmas symbol in the country.
Vendors sell puto bumbong together with bibingka. It is a circular glutinous rice cake prepared with sugar and coconut milk.
Makers make it using a clay oven with embers below and on a banana leaf-lined pan. Bibingka is smeared with butter and topped with salted duck eggs, kesong puti, and sugar.
13. Inutak
Inutak is a decadent Filipino treat comprised of glutinous rice, coconut milk, evaporated milk, and sugar. The cook then blends and simmers the ingredients until thickened.
People then cover it with coconut cream and broil it until the top becomes browned or scorched. Why the name Inutak, you ask? Simple: Its toppings resemble a fried brain.
14. Tikoy
Tikoy, known as Nian Gao in Chinese, is a classic sweet rice cake treat made from glutinous rice flour. It is accessible all year. However, people commonly make or give it as a gift around the Chinese New Year.
It represents good fortune and wealth to people who consume it. Eating tikoy also indicates you’ll have a better year the following year.
15. Nilupak
Nilupak is a traditional Filipino dish prepared from boiling cassava, butter or margarine, and condensed milk or sugar. It serves as a midday snack or after-meal dessert.
As the name implies, people traditionally make this by mashing cassava with a lusong (mortar) until it becomes lumps-free. Then, they blend it with butter or margarine and condensed milk or sugar to produce a smooth and creamy sauce.
Makers mold the kakanin into different shapes. Then, Filipinos serve them on banana leaves with toppings like grated coconut or shredded cheese.
Kakanin sa Bilao: What Is It and Why It’s So Popular
Want some colorful delights for an event? Try kakanin sa bilao. Filled with your favorite Filipino kakanin and other treats, you mustn’t miss it.
The kakanin sa bilao may have any kakanin you want. Of course, you may pick what you want to put on it. You can also base things on your budget.
The options include all-time favorite kakanin, pastries, and specialty bread.
You can have native delicacies/Filipino Kakanin such as bibingka, sapin-sapin, puto, cuchinta, and more. In addition, you can put famous pastries like brownies, butterscotch, macaroons, and more.
Frequently Asked Questions
Kakanin came from the term kanin or rice. They are local Filipino treats with rice flour, sticky rice, and coconut milk.
Puto is an example of kakanin. This steamed rice cake has a white color. But it can also be tinted green or purple to signify that it has been flavored with pandan or ube. Moreover, puto is sometimes eaten alongside savory viands, most notably the dinuguan. So, it works like a sweet version of the French baguette.
The best kakanin in the Philippines is cassava cake.
If you like cassava or tapioca, this is the kakanin for you. Aside from its distinct flavor, cassava cake is a labor of love.
Native Filipino delicacies are known locally as “kakanin.” Filipino native delicacies often come from glutinous rice (sticky rice and malagkit na bigas), coconut milk, sugar, cassava, and young coconut meat.
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Conclusion
Which one is your favorite kakanin? Let us know in the comment section below!
Tip: if you plan to eat everything in our kakanin list, don’t eat them all at once. Unless you want a sugar rush, of course. But then again, don’t do it.
Health warning aside, enjoy your kakanin!
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Lysias (Lysh for short) is a Social Work graduate from the University of the Philippines Diliman. She has over seven years of experience in content marketing.
With a sweet tooth and thirst for mind-blowing content, she is the resident SEO content strategist for HICAPS. Lysias is also the founder of a digital marketing agency called Digifolia. When she’s not in front of the computer, Lysias bakes melt-in-your-mouth donuts and plays with her sweet, adorable dogs.
