Entering February and March of the lunar calendar every year, many gourmet city housewives hunt down and order ant egg cakes (Cao Bang specialty) to enjoy.
These days on the internet market, in addition to the wormwood cakes, cassava cakes, … some small traders in the highlands of Cao Bang and Bac Kan sell strange and fancy cakes, attracting a lot of housewives to order. That is the ant egg cake.
Ms. Thuy in Hoang Mai, Hanoi – a small trader selling ant eggs on her personal facebook-said: “Every day in addition to all kinds of worm cake, cassava cakes in the highlands, I also sell about 300 more interesting egg tarts. called as muffin cake. These are the cakes made by their parents and children in Cao Bang. Therefore, the cake is very delicious and typical of the Cao Bang people ”. This trader said that the ants egg cake is not available for sale all year round, although it is very expensive. 
Ant eggs are usually available in the 2-3 months of lunar month every year This special cake is considered the specialty of the Tay people in Cao Bang, Bac Kan. The main ingredient of the cake is the ant eggs. Because of this dependence on this special ingredient, it is only possible to make cakes from the beginning of April to the end of May of the solar calendar year, equivalent to from the end of February to the end of the third lunar month. This is the period of strongest growth of the forest black ants. Ms. Thuy revealed, as the name of the cake, the main ingredient to make the ant’s egg cake is the young egg of the ant. The cake is made of glutinous rice flour, filled with ant eggs, wrapped with young leaves of the fig tree. In addition to simple ingredients, the process of making ant eggs is not too fussy. Young ant eggs are the size of rice grains, milky white from the forest and will be washed, non-fragrant with dried onions. “Many families add some minced pork, crushed roasted peanuts and a few small palanquin leaves mixed with ant eggs and onions. But our family only filled ant eggs with palanquin leaves, did not mix with pork or other ingredients, ensuring delicious cake, traditional Cao Bang ant egg cake “, Ms. Thuy said. 
So the ant egg cake is only available for 1-2 months The cake crust is wrapped from glutinous rice flour that has been kneaded and thinned. Then, put that piece of glutinous rice powder into a fig leaf, sprinkle the filling on the cake dough, finally put the next piece of fig leaf on the surface of the cake. The cake is steamed for about 45 to 50 minutes in a water bath. When eating ant eggs, people peel the fig leaves (honey-leaf leaves) wrapped outside if the cake has 2 layers of leaves. If the cake has a layer of leaves, you can always eat this leaf. Buying cakes just need to preserve the refrigerator, when eating and steaming, there are instant cakes. “This type of cake can be eaten hot or cold depending on the taste because you can feel its own delicious taste every way. In addition to the soft taste of sticky rice, the soft taste of fig leaves, diners also feel the fatty taste of the cake made from ant eggs “, Thuy shared. The typical ethnic cake in Bac Kan and Cao Bang is being sold by Ms. Thuy for 60,000 VND / 5 cakes, 120,000 VND / 10 cakes. 
Packed with young fig leaves, when eaten can eat the whole leaf wrapped cake “Customers who order egg ants are mainly from the city because of their exotic and delicious cakes. If they eat less, they deposit 10 to try them. Eat more, they buy a few stakes to eat gradually. Sales but I still recommend, women who are allergic to pupae, bees should consider before eating this kind of cake ”, Ms. Thuy noted. As a person who has been to Bac Kan many times in May of solar calendar, Mrs. Thu Hoa in La Khe, Ha Dong, Hanoi many times has enjoyed this interesting ant egg cake. This year, because she could not go to Bac Kan, Hoa saw a small trader selling this kind of cake online immediately ordered 3 piles of cakes (10 each) to the whole restaurant. “I eat this kind of cake a lot so I know well, not all ant eggs are selected for baking. Bac Kan people only find big black ants to nest on branches and high cliffs because eggs are usually delicious and clean. Our whole family is addicted to eating this kind of cake, “said Hoa.
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