Champa and Khmer Ginger Cake (“Ginrong Laya”)
The combination of culture and history are exponentially enhanced when we add food to the mix. During our visit to My Son Sanctuary near Hoi An, Vietnam, our guide, Nguyen brought along a surprise treat for us to enjoy. Shaped like ginger, this “ginger cake” is a similar to a cake-style donut with a hint of ginger. It’s a celebration food included in nearly all traditional festivals and ceremonies of the Cham people. It symbolizes love and loyalty. You can learn more about My Son and watch us sample ginger cake here.
Threatened by the Dai Viet, many of the Cham people escaped to Cambodia and formed their own community there. So now both the Khmer people and the Cham make this dessert for special events.
So what’s the history behind this sweet treat? It depends on who you ask. Some say that a woman’s husband was called to serve in the military and she ate this cake while sitting on a stone faithfully awaiting his return, until she died. In another legend the princess of a prosperous and peaceful kingdom of the Cham people fell in love with a talented and brave commoner. Despite their deep love for each other, the king, the princess’s father, opposed their love because the young man was not of noble origin. The couple decided to elope, but the king’s soldiers found them. Desperate not to be separated, the couple jumped into a fiery volcano together, preferring death together over a life apart. Moved by their tragic love story, the gods transformed the couple into a duo of ginger plants so that they could be together forever. Every year, when these ginger plants bloomed, the villagers would make ginger cakes to commemorate the couple's undying love for each other.
Below is the recipe that one of Nguyen’s Cham friends gave to him so that you can make it, too. Or book a tour with Nguyen, and he’ll make it for you himself (well, actually, his wife Tien is likely the baker in the family).
Champa Ginger Cake Recipe
Ginrong laya cake. In the Cham language, ginrong means ‘more’, laya is ‘ginger’.
Ingredients:
2 eggs
100g glutinous rice flour
Dash of alcohol yeast (or 1 tsp. baking powder)
For Ginger Sugar Coating:
20g ginger, with skin, finely sliced
30g water
50g sugar
Instructions:
Crack 2 eggs into a bowl and whisk until smooth.
Slowly add the whisked eggs to the glutinous rice flour along with the alcohol yeast (or baking powder). Mix well to form a smooth batter.
Pound the mixture to ensure all ingredients are well mixed.
Take a small portion of the dough and shape it into ginger roots and put them on a lightly greased cookie sheet or one lined with parchment paper. This is the most time-consuming step.
Deep-fry the shaped dough for about five minutes or until it turns golden brown. Once fried, transfer them onto a drying tray to allow them to cool and harden.
For the ginger sugar coating, combine the sliced ginger, water, and sugar in a pan. Heat until the sugar dissolves and the ginger infuses the liquid.
Dip the fried ginger cakes into the sugar/ginger liquid. Allow them to dry completely before eating.
