Manila (CNN Philippines Life) — What if the warm bibingka takes on the form of a cinnamon roll? A few days before Christmas, The Moment Group’s Research and Development chef Monica Yang shows us how to prepare an ube bibingka roll, a marriage of the traditional ingredients of the bibingka and the ubiquitous cinnamon roll, with the added delight of ube.

“We want to make something festive, and we currently have the bibingka in Manam. We wanted to do a spinoff of that dish,” says Yang. Manam’s menu currently carries an ubeng bibingka, another take on the traditional rice cake with an added ube swirl. But while the ubeng bibingka is available all year round, the ube bibingka roll is a one-off dish, one of the many to be born in The Moment Group’s Test Kitchen.

A traditional bibingka is made of rice turned into galapong, sugar, and baking powder. Other variants put in cassava, ground birdseed, shredded coconut, even cheese (as with Chef Tatung Sarthou’s bibingka). The galapong is poured into tins rimmed with banana leaves, cooked in between hot coals. But to turn the bibingka into a roll takes another technique altogether.

For the ube bibingka roll, Yang makes a yeast-risen dough and leaves it until it doubles in bulk. The dough is rolled, and flattened, upon which ube haleya, kesong puti, salted egg, and latik is spread. The ube haleya has to be prepared beforehand: fresh ube is boiled, peeled, then mixed with condensed milk and salt, then blended to thicken it a bit.

The dough, with the filling, is rolled, cut, put in a greased pan, then proofed for 30 minutes. It then goes into the oven, after which it is topped with glaze.

Watch the video below: