Steamed White Sugar Cake (Bak Tong Gou) 蒸白糖糕
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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Servings: 8 people
Ingredients
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Instructions
Proof the Yeast:
Make the Cake Batter:
Steam the rice cake:
Serve the rice cake:
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.