BAC NINH – Spouse Cake is said to have been named by King Ly Anh Tong, a symbol of fidelity and love between husband and wife.
Dinh Bang Ward, Tu Son City (Bac Ninh) is considered the birthplace of the Ly Dynasty (1009 – 1225). Visit Do Temple, a place of worship for 8 Ly Dynasty kings, visitors will be invited to enjoy a traditional specialty that has been passed down by people for hundreds of years, which is husband and wife cake.
Legend has it that when King Ly Anh Tong went to war, his wife at home went into the kitchen to make this cake and sent it to the border for her husband. The king, thinking of the love between husband and wife, named the cake “husband and wife”, symbolizing fidelity. Therefore, it is said that the profession of making husband and wife cakes in Dinh Bang ward has existed since the Ly Dynasty until now.
Representative of Dinh Bang Ward People’s Committee said that currently in the ward there are about 50 households specializing in making husband and wife cakes. Households are concentrated in the Upper Quarter, along the road to the historic Temple Do site.
The family of Mr. Nguyen Dinh Minh (65 years old) and Mrs. Nguyen Thi Thu (63 years old) is one of the families making husband and wife cakes with more than 30 years of experience. Mr. Minh won a gold medal in the folk cake contest held in Can Tho in 2022. His family’s husband and wife cake product was recognized as an OCOP product (typical agricultural product of Bac Ninh province), approved by the Ward People’s Committee. Dinh Bang grants a certificate of rights to use the Dinh Bang Spouse Cake brand.
Mr. Minh’s family has 5 generations of making husband and wife cakes. Both grandparents knew the profession from a young age because it was passed down from previous generations. In 1990, they opened a restaurant at No. 6 Thuong Street, Dinh Bang Ward, opposite the Do Temple historical relic gate and have maintained it to this day.
During the subsidy period, spousal cake was only popular in Dinh Bang ward, families mainly made it as gifts for relatives and friends during holidays and Tet. After 2000, the cake for husband and wife became known to many people, and grandparents started making more to sell. By 2010, banh phu te had a reputation in the market, and customers from all over bought more, Mr. Minh said.
Ingredients for making Phu Hua cake include glutinous rice flour, green beans, green papaya… The cake crust is made from yellow flower sticky rice, ground into fine powder and then carefully filtered to get the starch. One kilogram of yellow flower sticky rice after filtering yields 400 grams of starch. The flour must be dried or left for 15 days before being used to make cakes. If done immediately, the cakes will fall apart.
According to Ms. Thu, yellow flower sticky rice is carefully selected so that the starch produced is white, smooth, flexible and fragrant. Made with sticky rice, the crust is easily hard. Even if you make the right kind of dough, if you do not have experience, the cake will be pasty, not firm enough to form, and not delicious to eat.
The dough is mixed with green papaya fiber, white diameter and gardenia juice, and let it sit for about 30 minutes before starting to wrap the filling.
Banh Phu and is naturally colored from the dried gardenia fruit juice secreted when boiled. “Spense juice must also be added in proportion to get the right bright yellow color, neither too light nor too dark, making the cake dull,” said Ms. Thu.
The filling of the cake is green beans that are thoroughly soaked, peeled off, steamed, and finely ground. Add sugar and grated coconut, mix well and pour into each rectangular mold to cool. The bottom of each mold is divided into squares, each box is the volume of a cake. After the filling has cooled, the wrapping process begins.
The crust is weighed so that the total weight of the crust and filling is 250 grams. Mr. Minh used his hands to flatten the shell, add lotus seeds and green bean paste, wrap it tightly by rolling it into a ball, then forming it into a square shape and placing it on a tray for wrapping.
The first layer of leaves is banana leaves. In the process of molding and wrapping the cake, Mr. Minh uses cooking oil to avoid the dough from sticking to his hands or leaves.
After wrapping, the cake is steamed for 40 to 60 minutes, then taken out to cool before wrapping the second time.
Mr. and Mrs. Minh Thu used green dong leaves with the stem removed to make the leaves soft, easy to pack and not broken or torn. The cake is wrapped into a square about 20×20 cm in size, tied with pink and red strings.
Cakes are sold in pairs because the ancients thought that the wife cake symbolizes the couple, husband and wife. “The green color of the wrapping leaves symbolizes fidelity, the pink lanyard represents the charming pink thread, the yellow color of the cake represents the love of the couple,” Thu said. However, many establishments now replace the laces with elastic bands.
Many people confuse Dinh Bang’s wife cake with banh xeo (or suse). In fact, these are two different cakes. According to Mrs. Thu, the special feature of Dinh Bang’s wife cake is that it is always packed in pairs, only yellow in color and larger in size than banh xeo.
The crust is bright yellow and looks clear like jelly at first glance. When peeling off each outer layer of banana leaves, the cake slowly falls apart and returns to its original state, without deformation.
In contrast to the elasticity and toughness of the crust, the green bean filling inside is lighter in color, crumbly, and sweet. The papaya fibers and grated coconut are crunchy in the mouth when chewed.
Nguyen Thuy Linh (25 years old, Thanh Hoa) after enjoying the cake said that the cake was easy to eat, fragrant, and delicious. However, the cake has quite a lot of sugar. Even though oil has been spread around, the skin is still sticky after being cooked.
Because no preservatives are used, banh phu and can only be kept outside for about 3 days and in the refrigerator for 7 days.
Every day, Minh Thu husband and wife cake factory produces 300 – 500 pairs of cakes, each pair costs from 40,000 to 50,000 VND depending on the type.
Ms. Thu said that every year, on the occasion of the Lunar New Year and the Do Temple Festival (March 14 – 16 of the lunar calendar), cakes are mainly sold at retail. In addition to the four main workers, the family had to hire more people to speed up the baking process.
On the holidays of April 30 and September 2, agencies and organizations often order large quantities of cakes as gifts. On the occasion of September 2 this year, the family’s largest order was 100 pairs of bridesmaid cakes from a local organization, in addition to other small orders.
With the meaning of the symbol of husband and wife and traditional delicious taste, the wedding cake is an indispensable dish in weddings and requests of local people. This is also a gift to show the hearts of the people of Bac Ninh to the distinguished guests of the family.
($1=24,000 VND)
Photo,Video: Internet (Vinlove.net)