Once again, it has been proven that big things come in small packages. The popular bibingka—a yellow, round, soft rice cake topped with butter and grated coconut—which can be enjoyed any time and day, especially during the Christmas season, can now be savored in miniature at Betsy’s Cake Center, a stone’s throw away from the Municipal Hall of Malabon.

Called the bibingkita because of its small size (and small price at only Php25, or roughly $0.50), it is one of the few native rice cakes that owner Betsy Serna has developed at her bakeshop, aside from putong puti, corn puto and ube puto.

Serna has been well known for her cakes since 1962. A constant innovator, she decided to create the bibingkita only last January.

“I was inspired by the fluffy, soft mamon. I’m proud of this kasi kahit lumamig na, malambot pa rin (even when cold, it stays soft),” Serna says proudly.

Her secret is a blend of galapong and flour, which makes the bibingka soft like a mamon, yet with that rich rice cake flavor. She adds kesong puti and salted egg, with a sprinkling of grated queso de bola on top, and bakes it in the over rather than over hot coals.

Instead of serving it on a banana leaf, she uses a paper muffin cup, which makes the bibingkita look more like a muffin or cupcake than a traditional bibingka. Indeed, thanks to Betsy Serna’s inventiveness, the bibingkita is truly the princess of rice cakes enthroned at the pride of Malabon—Betsy’s Cake Center.