Longest-ever Tet cake made

The Yakasa-Saigon-Nha Trang Hotel in Nha Trang city, the central coastal province of Khanh Hoa, has set a new record for its giant-sized traditional Tet cake, which is 40 metres in length, as part of the activities to celebrate the Lunar New Year.

This is the 12th consecutive year the hotel has made the record-size cake on the occasion of Tet holiday, said Nguyen Thi Bich Ngoc, Vice General Director of the hotel.

In 2004, the hotel introduced its first 29m-long Tet cake.

This year, tens of chefs made the 875-kg cake, filling it with various ingredients including green and black beans, pork, bananas and peanuts as typical flavour of localities nationwide.

Later the day, the cake was cut and sold to local residents and tourists. Money from selling cake will go to charity.

Banh Tet (round glutinous rice cake) is a traditional cake enjoyed by southern Vietnamese people on the occasion of the lunar New Year. It is considered a variant of Banh Chung (square glutinous rice cake), which is more popular in the northern region.

Tet cake is served with pickled scallions, vegetable pickles and fish sauce. After cooking, the banana leaves are removed and the cake is sliced into wheel-shaped servings. The cake may also be sliced and fried to a delicious chewy crispness.

To prevent the banana leaf from coming apart during cooking, Tet cake is usually wrapped again several times with a length of plastic ribbon before steaming.

Presently, Tet cakes have become popular with people in other regions as they are sold on the market shelves in many localities across the country.