🍰 DESSERT
Foni Boakibaa
A dense baked pudding-cake of rice, coconut, and rosewater, a sweet Maldivian favorite for Ramadan and celebrations.
Maldivian · easy · serves 10
prep 20 min · cook 50 min
~265 cal · 4g protein · 35g carbs · 13g fat · 2g fiber · 22g sugars · 11g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
↓ Jump to Recipe
AI-generated illustration
Foni boakibaa, sweet boakibaa, is a beloved Maldivian dessert, a dense, moist baked cake made especially during Ramadan and for special occasions. It is the sweet counterpart to the savoury fish boakibaa eaten across the islands.
Cooked rice or rice flour is combined with plenty of freshly grated coconut, sweetened with sugar, and perfumed with , , cinnamon, and fragrant pandan (raanbaa), then baked slowly until the top sets golden and the inside stays soft and chewy. Rich with coconut, the staple of the islands, and delicately fragrant, it is cut into diamonds and served as an afternoon or after-iftar treat.
Saved recipes and passport stamps are kept on this device. Sign in to keep them across your devices and leave reviews.
Make it yours
✓ Naturally vegetarian and gluten-, dairy- 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
- 1 cup rice flour (or soaked rice, finely ground)
- 2 cups grated coconut
- 1 cup
- 3 eggs
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 pandan (raanbaa) leaf
- 1 tbsp , , and cinnamon
Instructions
- 1Warm the coconut milk with a knotted pandan leaf to infuse it, discard the leaf, then whisk in the rice flour until completely smooth and free of lumps.✎ Chef’s noteGrind the rice as finely as you can if you are grinding it yourself. A gritty grind gives the boakibaa the wrong texture entirely.
- 2Mix in the grated coconut, eggs, sugar, rosewater, cardamom, and cinnamon into a thick batter.
- 3Pour into a greased tin and bake at 350F (180C) until set and golden on top, about 45 minutes.✎ Chef’s noteBake until the top is set and golden but the centre stays a little soft; foni boakibaa is meant to be dense and moist, not dry.
- 4Cool fully before cutting into diamonds.
Maldivian Ramadan tradition.
Ratings & reviews
Cooked it? Rate this dish:
No account needed. Sign in to leave a full review with a comment.
Cooked it?
Kept on this device, no account needed. Sign in to leave a review and keep your passport across your devices.
No reviews yet, be the first to cook it.
🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Malé. Male is a dense atoll capital that starts the day with mas huni, smoked tuna shredded with coconut, onion, and chili, eaten with flatbread. Maldivian cooking is tuna, coconut, and starch in endless variation, from the clear tuna broth garudhiya, the national dish, to coconut-milk curries like mas riha.
🗺️
Maldives. Maldivian food is built on the sea and the coconut, tuna in every form, coconut, and fiery chili, epitomized by mas huni eaten at breakfast. Fresh, simple, and fish-forward, it's the taste of twenty-six atolls and some twelve hundred coral islands.
🌍
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 Maldives
Mas HuniShredded smoked tuna tossed with grated coconut, onion, chili, and lime, the Maldivian breakfast, with roshi flatbread.
Mas RihaA Maldivian tuna curry in a fragrant coconut sauce with curry leaves, pandan, and dried chili.
GarudhiyaA clear, fragrant tuna broth served over rice with lime, chili, and onion, the everyday heart of the Maldivian table.
Browse all Maldives recipes →
Good to know
You’ll need: Oven, Mould or tin, Whisk.
Storing it: Keeps 3 to 4 days refrigerated and reheats covered in the oven. Most bakes can be assembled a day ahead and baked when needed.
Make it a Maldives meal
Kukulhu RihaDinner
Karaa Fani (Maldivian Watermelon Drink)Drink
Similar dishes from around the world
Pawpaw PokeCook Islands
Akwadu (Baked Bananas with Coconut)Equatorial Guinea
VakaloloFiji
Buatoro (Pumpkin Coconut Cake)Kiribati
Solomon Islands Cassava PuddingSolomon Islands
Sweet Banana LaplapVanuatu
Cuisine
Diet
Frequently asked questions
What is Foni Boakibaa?
A dense baked pudding-cake of rice, coconut, and rosewater, a sweet Maldivian favorite for Ramadan and celebrations.
Where does Foni Boakibaa come from?
Foni Boakibaa is a Maldivian dish from Malé, Maldives.
Can Foni Boakibaa be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Foni Boakibaa recipe includes substitution suggestions for vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, egg-free, and pork-free versions. It cannot be made nut-free without changing what the dish is, so the recipe does not offer that version. Treat the substitutions as a starting guide rather than a guarantee, and see the allergen note below.
Is Foni Boakibaa 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 still count coconut as a tree nut to be cautious, although the FDA stopped listing it as one in 2025), 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 Foni Boakibaa take to make?
About 70 minutes total (20 minutes prep, 50 minutes cooking), serving 10.
Get the Sunday Spin
One dish from somewhere in the world, in your inbox every Sunday. No spam, just dinner inspiration you can cook that day.