Steamed White Sugar Cake (Bak Tong Gou) 蒸白糖糕

A Traditional Chinese Sweet Snack: Steamed White Sugar Cake (Bak Tong Gou) 蒸白糖糕

Steamed White Sugar Cake is a classic in Chinese bakeries. It is a traditional Chinese snack that is white in colour, sweet and light as it is steamed. Freshly Steamed White Sugar Cake is deliciously soft and moist. The cake is not too sweet, slightly chewy and is wonderfully spongy from the honeycomb-like appearance on the inside of the cake. Making it is like renewing childhood memories as it is a favourite childhood cake for many people.

Deliciously Soft and Sweet Steamed Cake with A Honeycomb Texture

The recipe for Steamed White Sugar Cake is super easy. Making this cake is very straight forward with just a few ingredients namely rice flour, instant yeast, sugar and water.  Start by dissolving instant yeast with warm water and leave to proof till foamy. Meanwhile, mix together rice flour and water. Use room temperature or cool water and a whisk to mix until there are no lumps in the batter. Next, add hot sugar syrup into the rice flour mixture and continue mixing till well combined.

Set aside to cool to lukewarm before adding the foamy instant yeast. Cover and leave in a warm enviroment until big bubbles appear on the surface of batter. When the yeast has fermented, the cake is ready to be steamed. Steam over high heat for 30 minutes and remove. And we are done! Using Pandan leaves adds an additional soft and sweet aroma to this simple steamed rice cake too.

A Favourite Kuih That Is So Easy To Make

What is so unique about Steamed White Sugar Cake is that it is such a simple cake but it is just so delicious. This cake is sweet but not overly sweet since the recipe requires fermentation with yeast. After steaming, it has very nice fluffy big bubbles inside the cake. Certainly a very pretty sight indeed.

As always, Enjoy!

Steamed White Sugar Cake (Bak Tong Gou) 蒸白糖糕

Steamed White Sugar Cake (Bak Tong Gou) 蒸白糖糕

Recipe by Huang Kitchen, Angie Liew

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Steamed White Sugar Cake, or commonly known as Bak Tong Gou (白糖糕) is a nostalgic classic in Chinese bakeries. A traditional chinese snack, these Steamed White Sugar Cakes are deliciously soft and moist. Best known for its wonderfully spongy honeycomb-like texture. Its so easy to recreate this traditional kuih at home.

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Prep Time20 minutes mins

Cook Time30 minutes mins

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Servings: 8 people

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Ingredients

 

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Ingredient A:

• ▢ 1 tsp instant yeast
• ▢ 1 tbsp water, lukewarm

Ingredient B:

• ▢ 300 grams rice flour, sifted
• ▢ 280 grams water, room temperature

Ingredient C:

• ▢ 200 grams sugar
• ▢ 340 grams water, room temperature
• ▢ 3 pieces pandan leaves, knotted

Ingredient:

• ▢ ½ tsp cooking oil

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Instructions

 

Proof the Yeast:

• 
  Start by dissolving 1 teaspoon instant yeast in 1 tbsp lukewarm water.
• 
  Set aside the mixture for 10 minutes or until the mixture turns foamy.

Make the Cake Batter:

• 
  Have ready rice flour and water.
• 
  Place sifted rice flour into a medium size bowl and add in water. Whisk and combine till you get a thick and smooth batter. Then set aside.
• 
  Next, have ready sugar, water and knotted pandan leaves.
• 
  In a saucepan, heat up the sugar with water and pandan leaves until sugar dissolves.
• 
  Then slowly pour the hot sugar syrup into the rice flour mixture, stirring it constantly to prevent lumps forming.
• 
  Leave aside the rice flour mixture to cool until warm. (about 30 C)
• 
  When cooled, add in the foamy instant yeast mixture and stir well to combine everything together.
• 
  Then cover with plastic wrap and leave to proof in a warm environment for 2 hours.
• 
  Or until large bubbles form on the surface.
• 
  When ready, add in 1/2 tsp of cooking oil. Stir the batter again, mixing well. And we are ready to steam the cake.

Steam the rice cake:

• 
  Prepare steamer by bringing the water in the steamer to a rapid boil.
• 
  Brush a 10 inch round cake pan with cooking oil.
• 
  Pour the ready batter into the oiled cake pan.
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  Rest 20 minutes until small bubbles appear.
• 
  Place in steamer and steam for 30 minutes on high heat.
• 
  Remove the cake pan from steamer and let cool on the counter before cutting the cake.

Serve the rice cake:

• 
  Once it is cool enough to handle, gently run a spatula along the edges to loosen the cake from the sides of the pan. Then remove the rice cake from pan.
• 
  Simply cut the white rice cake into slices and served as snacks.

Enjoy!

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Recipe Video

Notes

To make this rice cake, the yeast used must be fresh and active so that the cake can rise and have the honeycomb spongy texture.  After adding lukewarm water to the yeast, it should have bubbles, turn foamy after 5 to 10 minutes. 

Pour the hot syrup into the rice flour mixture very slowly and stir continuously to prevent lumps. This will ensure a smooth batter.

If you do not see large bubbles on the surface of batter after proofing for 2 hours, let it continue to proof for another 30 minutes.

Make sure to stir the mixture well before pouring the rice flour batter into the cake pan.

Avoid over steaming the cake batter as this will make the rice cake dry. The texture should be soft and moist.

You can adjust the amount of sugar if you like it sweeter or less sweet. 

Cut the steamed rice cake only when it is completely cooled, about 1 to 2 hours.

Course: Dessert, Snacks

Cuisine: Asian, Chinese, Malaysian

Keyword: kuih, steamed