Recipe
🍰 DESSERT
Sanwin Makin
A dense semolina and coconut cake topped with poppy seeds, a much-loved Burmese teatime sweet.
Burmese · easy · serves 10
prep 15 min · cook 50 min
~483 cal · 8g protein · 47g carbs · 31g fat · 3g fiber · 24g sugars · 25g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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Sanwin makin is one of Myanmar's most cherished traditional cakes, a dense, moist cake enriched with coconut. Often served at celebrations, religious donations, and with afternoon tea, it is the kind of homely sweet found at markets and tea houses across the country.
is toasted, then cooked with , eggs, and sugar until thick, poured into a tray, and baked until the top turns golden and slightly crisp while the inside stays moist and chewy. A scatter of poppy seeds or toasted sesame on top is traditional. Rich with coconut and gently sweet, it is cut into diamonds and eaten by the piece.
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Make it yours
✓ Naturally vegetarian and pork-free. No swaps needed.
Toggle a diet and the ingredients rewrite themselves with regional substitutes.
🥕 Vegetarian
🌱 Vegan
🌾 Gluten-Free
🥛 Dairy-Free
🥜 Nut-Free
🥚 Egg-Free
🐖 Pork-Free
Dietary labels are a cooking guide, not allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish; we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, read the label on every product you use, and note that a kitchen can cross-contaminate in ways a recipe cannot control.
Ingredients
US
Metric
Serves 10
2 cups
3 cups
3 eggs
1/4 cup butter or
1 cup sugar
1/2 tsp ground
a pinch salt
2 tbsp poppy seeds, to top
Instructions
1
Toast the semolina in a dry pan until fragrant.
2
Cook the semolina with the coconut cream and sugar, stirring, until it is thick enough to pull away from the sides of the pan, then beat in the melted butter, the cardamom, and the salt. Off the heat beat in the egg yolks, then whisk the whites to stiff peaks and fold them through.
✎ Chef’s note
Cook the semolina base until it is genuinely thick and pulls from the pan before it goes in the oven, so the finished cake is dense and chewy, not wet.
3
Pour into a greased tray and scatter with poppy seeds.
4
Bake at 350F (180C) until set and golden on top, about 40 minutes, then cool and cut into diamonds.
Burmese teatime tradition.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Yangon. Mohinga is not one soup. The Yangon version builds its broth on catfish with chickpeas and peanuts, and the body comes from toasted rice flour or gram flour rather than anything creamy. There are a dozen regional versions using different thickeners and different fish.
🗺️
Myanmar. Lahpet is one of very few things in the world where tea is eaten rather than drunk. The leaves are steamed and packed to ferment, then tossed with fried garlic, split peas, peanuts, sesame, dried shrimp, tomato and green chilli into a salad that is simultaneously bitter, sour, salty and crunchy, and it is offered to guests and at ceremonies.
🌍
Asia. A grain line runs across the continent. Rice dominates the wet south and east, wheat the drier north and west, and the tools follow it: the wok and the steamer where rice is milled, the tandoor and the griddle where wheat is ground. Tea travels the other way, drunk green, black, salted, buttered or with milk depending how far it got from China.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
More from Myanmar
MohingaMyanmar’s national breakfast: rice noodles in a lemongrass-catfish broth thickened with toasted chickpea flour.
Burmese Chicken CurryChicken slow-cooked in an oil-rich onion, garlic, ginger, and turmeric masala until deeply savory.
Lahpet ThokeA tea-leaf salad of fermented tea, crunchy fried beans, nuts, and seeds tossed with cabbage and lime, Myanmar's national treasure.
Browse all Myanmar recipes →
Good to know
You’ll need: Oven, Whisk.
Storing it: Store in an airtight container. Most keep 2 to 3 days at room temperature, and longer refrigerated.
Make it a Myanmar meal
Burmese Chicken CurryDinner
Burmese Milk Tea (Lahpet Yay No Hsat)Drink
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Frequently asked questions
What is Sanwin Makin?
A dense semolina and coconut cake topped with poppy seeds, a much-loved Burmese teatime sweet.
Where does Sanwin Makin come from?
Sanwin Makin is a Burmese dish from Yangon, Myanmar.
Can Sanwin Makin be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Sanwin Makin recipe includes substitution suggestions for vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, egg-free, and pork-free versions, including several at once such as gluten-free and dairy-free together. Treat them as a starting guide rather than a guarantee, and see the allergen note below.
Is Sanwin Makin safe for people with food allergies?
Our dietary labels and substitutions are a cooking guide, not medical or allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish, but we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, always read the label on every product you use, and remember a home or commercial kitchen can cross-contaminate ingredients in ways a recipe cannot control.
How long does Sanwin Makin take to make?
About 65 minutes total (15 minutes prep, 50 minutes cooking), serving 10.
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