Tongcheng Steamer-Cooked Cake 通城甑蒸糕
Tongcheng Steamer-Cooked Cake is featured among the local specialties of Hubei.
Tongcheng Steamer-Cooked Cake (通城甑蒸糕) is a small steamed rice cake from Tongcheng County (通城县) in Xianning (咸宁), Hubei. It is made from non-glutinous and glutinous rice with brown sugar and sesame, and takes its name from the zeng (甑), the steaming vessel it is cooked in.
How it is made
The Tongcheng county government gives the proportions for ten jin of rice: seven jin of non-glutinous rice to three of glutinous rice. The two are soaked together for ten hours and ground into a rice slurry, which is wrapped, pressed dry and then rubbed by hand into granules.
The steamer is a small perforated tube of bamboo or wood, about 10 cm tall and 4 cm across, with a plunger fitted inside. Water is brought to the boil in a kettle, the little steamer is set on the kettle's mouth and sealed there with a wet cloth, and the rice granules, brown sugar and sesame go into the tube. The county says the cake is done in about a minute.
Flavour and texture
The county's culture and tourism bureau describes the cake as sweet and fragrant, with a flavour of its own, and as a snack for all ages.
Where it comes from
At Xianning's Cultural Heritage Day food display in June 2013, the Xianning Daily found crowds at the Tongcheng stall, where maker Wu Xichi (吴细池) said his family had been making the cakes for more than 80 years.
Sources & reading
Written from the linked sources and fact-checked against them on 2026-09-24. Recipes and servings vary between kitchens.