It’s Philippine Independence Day and felt like marking it with some native sweets for merienda or an afternoon snack along with my cup of coffee. Kakanin as they’re called come in various iterations but almost always made of sticky or glutinous rice. There were the likes of kutsinta (steamed rice cake, jelly-like in consistency topped with a sliver of cheese), sapin-sapin (layered sticky rice cake in multicolor hues and flavored with ube or langka), puto (steamed and fluffy rice cake with cheese or salted egg on top), bibingka (baked rice cake with coconut), & tikoy (dense sticky rice cake with filling).