Recipe
🍰 DESSERT
Fa'ausi
Warm squares of grated-taro cake folded through a dark, salty-sweet coconut caramel, a Samoan Sunday favorite.
Samoan · easy · serves 6
prep 15 min · cook 45 min
~530 cal · 5g protein · 72g carbs · 27g fat · 7g fiber · 38g sugars · 24g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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Fa'ausi takes its name from the coconut caramel at the heart of one of Samoa's best-loved sweets. Grated is baked into a soft cake, cut into pieces, and then folded through the fa'ausi, cooked with sugar down to a dark caramel.
It is a fixture of the to'ona'i, the big family meal that follows church on Sunday, when the umu earth oven has already done the heavy work of the savory dishes. The sweet is quick to finish on the stove while everyone gathers.
The detail that surprises first-timers is the salt. A proper fa'ausi is pointedly salty-sweet, and that seasoning is what keeps the thick coconut caramel from turning cloying over a whole plate of it.
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Make it yours
✓ Naturally vegetarian, vegan and gluten-, dairy-, egg- 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 6
3 cups grated
2 cups
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp salt
Instructions
1
Squeeze the grated taro dry in a clean cloth, then mix it with 1/2 cup of the coconut cream and a pinch of the salt, press into a greased tin, and bake at 350F (180C) until firm, about 30 minutes.
✎ Chef’s note
Squeeze it properly, in a cloth, until your hands ache. Wet starch is the single commonest reason fa'ausi comes out mushy in the middle. Use full-fat coconut cream throughout; light cream has not enough fat to caramelise.
2
Cut the baked taro into 1-inch squares.
3
Make the caramel: dissolve the sugar in a splash of water, boil it without stirring for about 6 minutes until deep golden, then take it off the heat and pour the coconut cream in slowly, standing back because it will spit. Return it to the heat with the rest of the salt and stir until smooth.
✎ Chef’s note
Caramelise the sugar on its own first and add the cream after. Simmering sugar and coconut cream together from cold never reaches a real caramel; in Samoa the sugar is traditionally caramelised over hot stones.
4
Pour the caramel over the taro squares and leave them an hour, turning now and then, until they have drunk it up, then scatter with coconut flakes.
✎ Chef’s note
Give it the hour. The point of the cubes is that they hold their shape while soaking up caramel, and eaten straight away they are merely sauced rather than saturated. Do not skip the salt either; a good fa'ausi is properly salty-sweet, and that is what stops the caramel being sickly. The same name covers a second Samoan version made by baking finely grated cassava with coconut cream and brown sugar into one dense chewy slab, and fa'apapa, the hard coconut bread, is used in place of taro just as often.
Samoan Sunday to'ona'i tradition.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Upolu. Samoa's Upolu island cooks the umu earth oven each Sunday, taro, breadfruit, and palusami baked in coconut cream. Fresh fish and root crops define its Polynesian table.
🗺️
Samoa. Coconut runs through the kitchen in three forms: the water, the grated flesh, and the cream squeezed out of it, which is poured over young taro leaves for palusami and over raw fish for oka. Taro and breadfruit supply the bulk, and cooking is organised around the aiga, the extended family, rather than around single households.
🌍
Oceania. The staple crops here were carried on purpose. Lapita voyagers moving east from roughly three thousand years ago brought taro, yam, banana, breadfruit and coconut with them along with pigs and chickens, because most of the islands they settled had almost nothing edible growing on them. The earth oven travelled too, as umu, imu, hangi, lovo, mumu, motu and um.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
More from Samoa
Palusami (Baked Coconut Taro Parcels)Taro leaves wrapped around rich coconut cream and onion, baked until silky, the crown of the umu feast.
Koko AlaisaSamoan cocoa rice: short-grain rice simmered with rich local cocoa, coconut, and sugar into a warm, chocolatey porridge.
Sapasui (Samoan Chop Suey)Slippery glass noodles tossed with pork, soy, and ginger, the potluck and Sunday lunch Samoa borrowed and made its own.
Browse all Samoa recipes →
Good to know
You’ll need: Oven, Mould or tin.
Storing it: Keep chilled and covered, and enjoy within 2 to 3 days.
Make it a Samoa meal
Palusami (Baked Coconut Taro Parcels)Dinner
Koko SamoaDrink
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Frequently asked questions
What is Fa'ausi?
Warm squares of grated-taro cake folded through a dark, salty-sweet coconut caramel, a Samoan Sunday favorite.
Where does Fa'ausi come from?
Fa'ausi is a Samoan dish from Upolu, Samoa.
Can Fa'ausi be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Fa'ausi 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 Fa'ausi 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 Fa'ausi take to make?
About 60 minutes total (15 minutes prep, 45 minutes cooking), serving 6.
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